Moday

It is Monday morning, while I am feeling a shade better, I am home with two sick children. Well, one isn't missing school, his school has a day off for teacher's work day, but they are both sick, so am missing work...again. Was getting some nice sleep time until the neighbor's son, kindergarten age, decided to have his own concert. I had a few words with him at the door, at least the kids are getting some sleep.

Anyway, the weather here is just plain nasty. So windy, and this part of the country does not handle wind well, so I just stayed in as much as possible. Hubby, who is feeling better now (since he is the one that started all this crud) did the cooking yesterday and was sweet enough to leave me to my own devices so to speak. I thought I would post my Crazy quilt block progress.

I think this is about all I am going to do to it. This block is for the STS (season to season) Spring swap. It is a combination swap round robin actually. I am so looking forward to this. I make a block, reflective of what spring is to me. Then I embellish approximately half of it, send it to the hostess, she sends our blocks to our partners, we then finish the other half of the block we receive, then send it back. I know I have posted about this before, just doing a recap in case some one is seeing this for the first time. At any rate, this is what I did to mine.
This is a bit closer view. My camera seems to blur on things when I try to get a close up. The top set of flowers is a purchased applique that I just fell in love with when I saw it, had no idea what I would do with it, but now I do. Then, I did a feather stitch as a vine, then added two shades of purple SRE flowers along it. The dragon fly was another one of those appliques I fell in love with, several came in the package. The three is free form embroidery. I stitched the trunk and branches in using a brown with a red tone. Supposed to be a redwood. Okay, give me a break, I am new at this. The needles are made by using fun fur which I crocheted a length of chain stitch and then cut it and couched it in place. It looks much cooler in person. It probably isn't really half of the block, but I will send a little note with it explaining that I can do more when I get it back. I just wanted to be sure and leave a decent amount of seams and patches to work on.

Today, I am going to do a little work on Karen's Green block. Everything in green. I had a couple of things in mind, eyelash yarn would have been great, can't find any in just green. So, having to improvise on things a bit. I am going to head out to JoAnn's today to see if I can find some green beads. Not sure if they even make what I am looking for, but will give it my best shot. At any rate, had to boast about my creative impulse here.

I know that most of you have probably already thought of this, so is nothing new, but I am pretty proud of myself for thinking of it on my own. This is a crocheted butterfly, actually the top part of a bookmark (that story is on my other blog) but it happens to work great. I was looking at the green crochet thread I had, a sick kind of pea green, and after making the bookmarks knew I would not get the results I was looking for. While looking through my absurd number of plastic boxes full of this and that for what I may need to make for the next 50 years (have had the boxes going for 20 already) a spool of silk ribbon fell out, bright green. It hit me, wondered if I could crochet with it. Well, there you go. Here it is. It is so cute and comes really close to just what I had in mind.

Finished My First ATC

Yesterday I worked all evening and only got two little Crazy Quilt ATC cards finished for trade. I hope that they will be acceptable.

This is my first efforts at this type of project. I think they turned out okay for a beginner. My little camera for some reason will not take good close up shots. Am pretty sure there is some setting I might could change, but have no clue what it would be. Now that the other computer is set up with a printer/scanner, I may try to scan them and see if I can get the little stitch detailing to show up any better.

Now, I guess I can see if anyone wants to trade with me. May need to work on my embroidery stitching a little more. I know I tried the bullion stitch on the bottom one. Do not like that stitch at all. But, there are a ton of them I can try on future projects. Speaking of which, learning stitches that is, ordered some new books and am looking forward to their arrival.

On another thread of thought, so to speak, one of my crazy quilt groups had a fairy tale round robin exchange. I had initially signed up for the swap, made my beginning blocks, created my story to pass around with it and all. Remember, I said that when I dive in, I really dive in. At any rate, had planned on being in 4 groups. Had it all planned how the four blocks would go together to make one wall hanging. Wrote up a story that the blocks represented and then divided that story so that only the part of the story that involved that block would be sent with it. Alas, that was the same time I was hired and started back to school so I ended up seeing really quick there would be no time for such things so asked to be dropped from the round robins. I was going through my box of projects and found two of my beginning blocks.


I see where I started to do a little embellishment on one of the blocks, even more impressive is that I actually remember what I was planning for those parts of it.
I was using a book for inspiration and stitch directions for the embellishment treatments, the book has disappeared, wrote more about that on my other blog, have ordered a replacement for it, will be able to go back to work on this project when the book arrives. These "sea" blocks will be in the UFO box for a while any way, have plenty of other things to work on until then that take priority. Who knows, maybe some type of ocean or sea theme round robin will be started. I will be ready.

One of the groups is holding a "Food Fight" where we make a completed block representing our favorite dish, include the recipe and send it to the host who will then swap them out. This sounds like so much fun. Now to decide on a favorite dish. I have all these scraps of fabric with chili peppers and my mouth is watering at some of my favorite Tex Mex recipes. Must be the Texan in me. It really bites though that due to being sick nothing, I mean nothing, has any taste to it. Except that god awful cough medicine. Oh well, will be sure and post photos as that project develops.

Home Sick Again - More Sewing

I hate being sick for several reasons, but two really major ones. One, I hate feeling bad. So bad that I just can't do much of anything. The second reason is that being home and doing some crafting makes me really not want to be working. But, on payday, that is really nice to have my own check coming in.

So, with that being said, I got some more basic sewing done. These are hearts that I plan to embellish for trades.

I belong to a couple of different groups that trade these hearts, so am hoping to get back in to that. It is a lot of fun and you just trade one on one when ever you have some made up. Great thing about that is that you don't have to worry about time deadlines. Make them up as you have time, then post them as available. They have been great for me to learn new stitches or techniques on. There is an online magazine for crazy quilting, I can't find the link just now, but was looking at it this morning and it has the most awesome pineapple motif in it.

I have also finished a couple of more ATC projects. Will be working on embellishing them as well so can start trading them.

These are also the perfect size for practicing on. I am still very new at all of this, especially with the ATC projects, so will have to do a little more looking around to get more ideas on them, but it is a start.

Been Sewing

I was home sick today spending most of it in bed. Had to get up and do some thing, so I gathered the essentials and did a little sewing. I have my mug of cola, skittles, and my mountain trail mix. Along with the remote control for the TV and the cordless phone of course. Which was handy as I had a really nice conversation with Gerry (Sewing South Paw) about the block. I tried to put a link to her blog where her name is, but for some reason it just isn't working tonight. My computer is doing some really weird things though, no telling what is going to happen next with it.

So, with my essentials in place I set about making some "nakkid" blocks. The first is for a "Spring Season to Season" swap with Gerry on CQ For Newbies group. I will embellish the block, approximately half of it, and send it to our sweet hostess Gerry. She will then partner us up, send us the partner's block for us to finish embellishments on, then it will be sent back home. Our block represents spring to us. Since leaving the wind and dirt storms of spring in West Texas I have developed a true fondness for spring when all the flowers come out in bloom through the hills and mountains near by. We will drive through them often to take day trips either to the beach or up to the mountains. I found a left over embroidered car block, used it for my focus. I will be adding all kinds of flowers an such. Of course, the saying April showers bring May flowers stuck with me so in the top corner I have a rainbow with rain. Corny I know. May end up regretting that as the "rain drops" keep falling off everywhere. Seems the fabric tends to shed a bit. Oh well, live and learn I say. I like the beginning look and it is my block.

I also found some western fabric of cowboys, which I have a thing for, so made a couple of blocks up to keep for myself with that. Like I said, there is just something about a true cowboy. Don't they look tempting? Yes, it has been an almost life long infatuation. I come from a long line of ranchers, my dad and uncle were horsemen, I grew up with horses. I didn't miss a single episode of "Big Valley" even watched "F Troop" and my favorite movies are westerns. Dances With Wolves, Lonesome Dove, Open Range, The Searchers, and so many more. Too many to sit here and name. Guess that is why the romance novels I write mainly take place in the olden days of cowboys, ranches, mountain men, you get the idea. Back to the point, these blocks will be for me and I look forward to learning new techniques on them. I also have enough of the fabrics to make several more, so will probably have a throw by the time it is finished.

Man, it really bites to be sick. Very hard to type accurately when you keep coughing your lung up. I am off to a warm bath and then bed. Just wanted to post about my little bit of sewing.

Green Garden Round Robin

My first block in the Green Garden Round Robin arrived today. I am in the avocado group. If nothing else I will have learned to spell avocado correctly with out the use of spell check. As I said, Karen's beautiful block arrived today and tempting me to start adding all kinds of dressing to her. OH HOW I WANT TO START ALREADY. But, I am taking a few days to really think this out, before just jumping in there. We have a month to add our touches and send it to the next person, so have time to plan. I have an idea of what I want to do, but want to practice it on a bit on something to see how it will actually look. I will post before and after photos of course of each block I work on.

I am new to crazy quilting, having barely started my interest in it before starting a new job. I am going to use these swaps (especially the ATC and post cards) as a way of learning new techniques and stitches. I am so thrilled to be a member of group that is for newbies and with members that understand that some of us are just learning this beautiful craft. I have always been intrigued with the Victorian and pioneer eras in history. I am especially held captive by anything to do with the old west, pioneers that lived in a time where everything you had was produced at home, families lived close together, and God and family were first. I realize I have a romantic view of the past, in reality it was dirty, hungry, hard physical labor, type of life. But, I really think I should have lived back then. I would have made a great soiled dove.

I know, I am wondering off in a strange direction. I am tired and still sick, need to finish reading my emails, and then find something to get my mind off of what I want to work on. Just wanted to check in with a quick posting.

ATC - New For Me

Last night I was a little bored, so I pulled out some scraps and played around a bit. I felt like I hadn't sewn in years and some things were a bit rusty it seems. I have gotten the bug to make some ATC's for trading. If you are new like me, this stands for Artistic Trading Cards. I did a search on the internet, found millions of sites that were for rubber stamps or hand drawn art work. Not a lot working in fabric. These little cards are the same size as a business card. I did find some interesting sites for fabric post cards, which may be the next project, but will see how these go first. I want to do some crazy quilt ATC swaps, have already signed up for one group.

Okay, I know I will never be able to even come close to the beauties I found photos of, but I really had a lot of fun with what I started.
These are the very first attempts at making some ATC crazy quilt style cards. Just four of them for now, and just the basic card. I am thinking over what I am going to embroidery on them to embellish them. Not the greatest photos I know, but here are a couple of closer views.

Am anxious to dress them up, see what develops out of my strange little mind on to the fabric. And it can at times be a little, shall we say over the edge?

At any rate, the only down side to these little cards is the size. Makes it a challenge just sew up the base block. Prints that are not so large as to dwarf the entire block, small enough pieces that will actually show enough color to notice but not not take away from any focus fabric. I can see the same challenge with the embellishing. The balance and proportion will be key, don't want a chain stitch that takes up half the card, but want the stitch large enough to show up.

The positive sides is the size. Small enough to feel like you can scrap what doesn't work with out thoughts of wasting materials. Small enough to try out new techniques or stitches and still get the full effect as a result. Definitely a way to use up those scraps of fabric that are really too small to do anything with and my tightwad nature won't let me toss them. Yes, I predict there is going to be a pile of these babies knee deep before I am through. Well okay, ankle deep at any rate. I have to be careful, don't want to get so obsessed over them that I leave some on going projects unfinished.

Yes, I know, I hear it calling to me, but the baby blanket is yelling a little louder "please finish me up already" and I have a dress whose voice is even louder "IT'S BEEN ALMOST A YEAR, MAKE THE DARN BUTTONHOLES ALREADY SO YOU CAN WEAR US" right along with the shirt that is cut out "THESE PINS ARE GOING TO RUST INTO ME" and of course there are the combined voices of my blocks from various swaps that are constantly forming a choir to sing the songs of "Finish us too, we have waited so long".

No wonder I am going insane with all those voices constantly in my head.

That is all for now. The bath and bed are the voices being heard the clearest at the moment. Seems to be that a bath is the only way I can get warm since this blasted fog hit. I normally enjoy the fog, like I am being hidden away from the world. But that was when I didn't have to drive in it every morning to get to work. Now, it is cold, damp, and makes my bones weary and depressed. SO...off to warm in the bath tub, then to sleep, then to brighten my day with bright colors of everything I find made in to ATC and hearts for trading. Hope some one will want to trade when they are completed. Maybe even some post cards as well. Of course that will be after I finish the quilt, the dress, well that is the plan anyway.

Green Garden Round Robin

I was able to finally sit down and do a little sewing. Here's the jest of the project. I belong to a Yahoo group called CQ For Newbies which is a group for crazy quilters. It is a great place for beginners to learn, there are members with all levels of abilities and are really great about sharing what they knew, helping to teach each other, and really encourage each other. The group is doing a Green Garden Round Robin. Each member makes a plain block, called a nakkid block. We send it to the next person on the list, the block then makes it way through the group as each member adds some embellishment to it. My block will then arrive back home all dressed up and so pretty. Here is the one I made.

Oh yeah, did I mention we are only using green? All green fabrics, green threads, green beads, green trims, a "Green Garden" of fun. My group, by the way, is the green avocados. I am so excited to be involved in this RR and can't wait to get started on it. Now to get it in the mail.

I had purchased several fat quarters of green fabric just to use in this project. Decided later that together they didn't have enough dazzle, so went out and bought some small pieces of some specialty fabrics. I loved the green satin with the bamboo on it, had to use it as the center of the block, but some how it ended up a very small piece. Fact is, it has been so long since I did any crazy quilt blocks, had forgotten how to really start them. I didn't do it quite right, but it turned out in the end I think as I really like my block. At any rate, now I have quite a bit of greens left over, so am thinking I may need to make up some new hearts with a lot of green in them. One of the fabrics is a really nice green with glitter. I have a good portion of it left over and am thinking it would make a really nice couple of evening gowns for DD's 11 1/2 inch fashion doll (Can't say Barbie...oops) to wear to some party.

My post is short today, need to get some laundry going and get to work on a baby quilt. Will post photos of the Green Garden blocks, not sure when, as some of the ladies may not want to see their block until it arrives back home. Maybe I can crop out the portion I work on. I will also post any hearts or other Crazy Quilt projects I work on as well.

It's Back!

Good or bad, Needle Me Crazy is back. I will be posting about my adventures, or misadventures, in the world of Crazy Quilting. This is a fairly new hobby for me so still have a lot to learn. There are some wonderful blogs with some very talented and beautiful work out there devoted to Crazy Quilting. I hope to post links to a few of them as I have time. I had just found this particular craft medium late in 2006. Did the same thing I do with every craft I dive in to. Bought $$ worth of beads, thread, special trims, muslin to use for foundation, then $$ for how to books to get me started. Even bought a whole big collection of silk ribbons from an online source as the choices availability in this area is next to nothing. That however had a two fold purpose, I needed the silk ribbons for use in some quilt blocks I am making as well. They are appliqued with silk ribbon embellishments. More about those another day.



Today I was home sick. Some kind of stomach crud. At any rate, starting feeling a little better after lunch, so in between trips to the bathroom, finally finished cleaning my sewing area up and organizing it all. It is always a lot of work to clean up, especially when everything has gone pretty much untouched for close to a year, but it is always a bonus to find all the things you had forgotten about. I will post a few more photos later in the week, but this is a few things I found today.

The pink, green and yellow stripes of color is actually one ribbon. It came on a gift, just couldn't get rid of it, just know it will become the perfect treatment for some future project. I bought a rolling storage cart for my beads, trims and flosses. It looks a lot like luggage, the handle extends and you can roll it around. But I love it. Almost everything fits in to it and will be great to use for taking along the works in progress.

I also found some Crazy Quilt hearts that I had exchanged with some members on one of my Yahoo groups that I thought were lost forever. I will take some photos of them to post, with my new camera, later on. I just love them all and need to get some more made to trade once again. Speaking of trades, I have joined in a round robin and am so excited to be doing something once again. It is on a Crazy Quilt group through Yahoo. It is all about GREEN. I will make a block using the Crazy Quilt technique, using all green fabric, only green fabric. That is the base, otherwise known as a naked block. Then, I will send it to the next name on the list. She will add treatments or embellishments, only using green, to it and send it to the next name. I do the same with the block that comes to me. When my original naked block gets back to me, it will be all dressed up and looking so beautiful. Of course, I will be posting photos of the blocks I work on as they come through. The group I am in is called Avocados. It is called a Green Garden RR and some of the other groups are green tomatoes, green beans and green peas. Great way to get my daily veggies I'm thinking. Maybe next time I can be a cucumber, kale, celery or zucchini. Wouldn't an ivy or palm tree be nice as well? Okay, I am getting tired which makes me a little goofy.

My other blogs need to be updated as well, have been quite neglectful since going back to work after the holidays. Plus, my energy seems to be fading very fast so need to get ready for bed. The goal is to update this blog each week with my progress on various projects. So until then, have a great day.