CQJP 2012 - September block

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for your private emails and comments in the previous post about my Xmas tree skirt. After great deliberation I decided to add two more blocks to the skirt. When i have placed the 8 under the tree, they just got lost, so i needed to make the skirt much bigger than first planned.

As you can see the tree branches hide all that work.

So I added the two blank blocks (which I had made along with the others) but I still have to embellish. It brought the blocks out from under the tree, so now I need to embellish two more.  I am very excited about getting this far with skirt, but still a little anxious putting it together.  Each fan block will be appliqued onto the black satin fabric, then I need to embellish the outside of each block to blend it into the black background. After that it will have to be padded and sewn up.   Still a fair bit of work left to go.

So here is Septembers block.  My inspiration came from a postcard that Maureen G had done in a swap we did with Kathy Shaw last year. Maureen embroidered this lovely silk ribbon wreath as the main focal point on the postcard.

Here is my block with this idea in mind. (thank you Maureen).

And a close up of the wreath.

One more to go, and as it is going to be October, it might have to have something 'me' on it, (October is my birthday month).

Comments always greatly appreciated.

Arlene

Southern Cross Crazies - RR - Patti's block

I love working on cream, and Alison started with glorious colour choices to continue with.
Here is the block after Alison and I.

Alison's work is at the top where the little gold butterfly is. My work is the bottom half.

I've added a row of Gold chevron stitches, with green beads enhancing each top of the stitch. I added purple flowers and buds between each.  I whipped gold thread through the ridges of the check fabric and added purple beaded flowers with green centers.
Here is a close up of my work.

The purple flowers are a fan of blanket stitch with two rows of detached buttonhole around the top. The buds are two detached chain, one larger than the other.

Arlene

My new toy

One of the ladies from our Spinning and Weaving group had a spinning wheel up for sale, and I bought it. Now I just have to learn how to use it. I got it for a bargain price.....

Arlene

CQJP 2012 - update

Well since I've been out of action, stitching has been my therapy, and it's wonderful to be able to sit up and just stitch.

I was behind with my CQJP blocks, and now I'm up to date with them also.
 So here are my latest three blocks.

June:  These lovely 'noel' buttons I bought recently at the Proserpine Show and Tell.  I've added a gold work Santa sleigh, and a ruched ribbon.

July: I've used some gold braid my friends from India gave me, and some lovely satin reindeer ribbon.

 August: I got to make myself a beetle, he's pretty big, he's nearly 4 inches from top to tail.

Still deciding on how I'm going to put them all together, as I'm not a 'sane' quilter, I'm having troubles deciding, please read on and any suggestions greatly appreciated? Here are the blocks so far:

Then laid out in the way I had it in my mind, from my original idea.

I don't think I'll be making any more fans, although I do have two left, but I think I might have to make four inner sections,  I also think my 'Noel' block is out of place, it needs to have a white line edge, not the buttons, but then also the gold ribbon one with gold edge would also be out of place, maybe they complement each other? Oh dear, now I'm looking way to deep I think. Here is my original idea, all good when I started, but not so sure now, what do you think?

Arlene