Monday, January 13, 2014

A Very {Vintage} Crazy Quilt Block


About 10 days before Christmas, I decided to start a new project.  It seemed a little crazy to start something new so close to Christmas but this project had been on my mind for about 2 weeks and I just couldn't let it go!  I knew what pattern I was going to use, so I started picking fabrics.  As you can see in the picture above, it looked like a mess but what a fun mess!


I decided to plan the project around my favorite picture of my 4 children at Christmas time.  This picture was taken about 7 years ago and I still have it in a frame in my bedroom.  The pattern I drew up was a difficult one, but I really wanted this to look as vintage as possible.  I felt that the extra time it would take to piece it would be totally worth it.  Pictured above is after a few days of piecing.


Here is more progress after a couple more days.  Remember it was Christmas time, so I worked it in around other Christmas stuff I was doing!


A few more days later with more progress, you can see my faithful sidekick right at my side as usual!


Finally about a week later, it was pieced!  Time consuming, but so worth it as I felt it had the vintage feel that I was going for.


What I usually do next is pick out all of my thread and silk ribbon that I am going to use.  The things I pick intially are not always what I end up using, but a girl always has to have options!


Then I pick out my laces and trims that I may use, with the same philosophy...options!


I usually put all of my stuff for a project in one box, so I can just grab it and go.


This old blanket binding looked interesting and was the right color so it may have a use, we'll see!


Then, on to my favorite part, stitching!


I just love that herringbone stitch I did around the fan shape in the upper left hand corner.  I used ribbon floss and I love the shine it gives to the stitich.


Here is a closer look at the top right hand corner.  That green piece of tatting is going to become a wreath.  Well I have more done than this, but I'll save that for another day!

Talk to you soon and thanks for stopping by,



Friday, January 3, 2014

Gratitude


I have always been fascinated with the way Victorians would express their emotion's for one another through flower's.  There were many books for the Victorians to use as a reference to help them with their choices.  Many times the different books didn't agree on the meanings of the different flowers.   One would only hope that both the giver and the receiver were using the same book or there could be huge misunderstandings!

The block pictured above is a page out of my Secret Language of Flower's book I recently finished.  It is a Camellia and it's meaning is: Gratitude.


 For this year I have chosen to focus on expressing gratitude....

So thank you for stopping by and I'll talk to you soon!