Round Robin Progress

I have finally finished my work on two blocks for Kathy Shaw. Kathy was so
kind to allow me to hold them longer so that I could get others work out of the
way before I completed hers. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of room on either
block for me to work with, so I did two motifs for her.

For the Butterflies and Dragonflies, I created a silver and goldwork butterfly
based on her own design.

I added several buttonhole butterflies in some of the
spaces and butterfly buttons beneath my motif. There was no more room really to
do any seams.

For the Lace and pearls one, again there were only smallish seams left and only
one place for a motif. So I added lace butterflies here and there and added
twilled ribbon and pearls onto of a lace motif in the corner. Two seams near the
basket of flowers.

I've also been working on some blocks for Southern Cross Crazies, my Xmas cracker swap block and our current round robin.

This is the Christmas cracker block, still to embellish, with silver, blue and white, and a silver beetle.

And this is my block for the RR, we get to choose our own theme, so I chose Christmas. in the silvers, white and blues.

And lastly the first part of my stocking for Lyn's Stocking swap.

Arlene

Look at my beautiful block

This is all mine.... are you jealous? This is my block from the CQ International round robin - Lace and Pearls was the theme.  I made the block, and lucky for me four very talented ladies got to work on it.  They certainly did a wonderful job. I love the colours, the lace, the pearls, the beads, the silk ribbon embroidery, the charms and especially my 'A', which gives me ownership of this wonderfully stunning block.  Do you think I'm a happy chappy, well yes of course, wouldn't you?

Here are some closeups of their work.  Thank you Kathy Shaw, Nicki Lee, Susan Locke and Rita Cruz.

Thank you, thank you, thank you ladies......
Arlene

Preparing to stitch an Round Robin Block

I've recently been asked why do I have thumb tacks in the photo of my crazy quilting. Well the answer is that they are holding my CQ block to a wooden frame.  so I thought I'd let you in on how I prepare a CQ Round Robin block to work on.

I have two size frames now, one for the 6 inch blocks and one for the 12 inch blocks.  Our cheap shop had a sale on these picture frames that I use for this purpose, so I now have a few of them, and can have a few blocks ready to work on at any one time.

First of all, I need to cut a big hole out of the canvas, I leave the canvas around the edge as it's white and helps to protect the fabric.

I then add calico strips to the outside of the block, to make it large enough to put over the frame. I usually use little gold plated safety pins, as they don't rust and good for the fabric.

My next step is to add this to the frame. I tack the corners in first, then the centres of each side, and then the centre of each of these. I don't pull too tight, as you can see from the safety pins, they might pull out.

This is Nicki-lees Lace and Pearls block, it's stunning, and so my next task is to work out what I'm going to do. So I get out my stash and decide what I want to put where.

Others might say, oh dear no, but this is how I do it, and it works for me, and I haven't heard any complaints about my work on any ones blocks, and I've now been doing Round robins for 4 years now, wow, where has the time gone..... I love the colours that Nicki has, the soft pastel colours are georgous. Rose pinks are a favourite colour of mine and I like to use on blocks, and so have a fair amount to play with. 

So I've got the big bow motif on the bottom, the rose pink braid which I'll add pearl beads to, and do a seam of chevron stitch below this.  Up the top on the left I'll add a meandering bow.  That will leave room for Kathy Shaw to work her magic on the areas that are left. She'll tone down that braid strip I've added by adding something else on the block to draw the eye  away from it. If I do it now, there won't be enough room for Kathy to work.

As I sew I cover the work that's been done before, so that my thread doesn't catch and pull the work. the blue butterfly was painful, he did get covered eventually, so I could work without my thread catching the feather all the time. (which it did a couple of times until I got fed up with it).

So with pieces pinned in place, I find matching thread and stitch them down.

In a couple of days I'll post the finished block. I hope this helps shed light on what I do to prepare a block for a round robin.

Arlene

Lace and Pearls Round Robin CQI - Susan's Block

The colours of this block are ones that I really like. Soft pastel colours and Susan had left plenty of room around the block so I was able to mount it properly to have the block tight and so making it easier to get stitches straight.

First of course is the full block:

Here is close up of my section, it was hard to stop stitching on this block, the colour are wonderful.

This close up is of the and dyed lace motif, with added beads and pearls (yes there are real pearls) and buttonhole butterfly.

This next photo is the silk ribbon woven roses, with added pearls, beads, and Fargo roses, chain leaves and colonial knots.  Woven roses are so easy and they look so nice when bunched together. The seam beside the rose cluster is off hand dyed lace, and blue trim, with real pearls and aqua beads. Last of all two buttonhole butterflies.

 

Last of all was the chevron, herringbone seam, with added square pearl beads, and little purple heart bead flowers. The center of the seam has aqua beads and the different stitches are stab stitched together at the center.

This block was a joy to stitch on, and was so hard to stop, I could of keep going and embellished the whole block, but thought I had best not.

Susan I hope you like my work.

Arlene