Lace Motifs

The other day the online group the Southern Cross Crazies were talking about lace. We were talking about  best lace to use in crazy quilts especially when you want to dye the lace before you add it to your block. One of the ladies mentioned that she had a lot of lace motifs because she was thinking of selling crazy quilt supplies one day but eventually decided against the idea. When she said that she wanted to sell most of her stock I immediately let her know that I was interested.

Look at the wonderful supply of lace motifs that I received.

Lace Motifs

I know that I don't need so many lace motifs for myself but sometimes I have to make up kits for classes and this lace will be just what I need.

By the way, do you know what the best lace to use is? When I first started crazy quilting I thought the best lace was made from cotton but the best is actually rayon and it is called Venise Lace ( I am not sure why it's called Venise and not Venice) and when you dye the lace it has the most wonderful sheen, whereas cotton is more of a matte finish.

The lace is actually getting harder to source because I was told that the heavy machinery that has made it for years are starting to break down and people are not bothering to repair them. So when you see the wonderful heavy lace at Quilt Shows buy it while you can.

Bye for now,
Linda

Charmed Block 2

I signed up for a charm bracelet and matching block pattern with the girls from Quilted Crow and every two months I receive another pack. You can read my post about the first one here.

I have now received my second charm and it is a little Christmas tree. It's hard to believe that they can make such a tiny little block, it might be hard to see but it is made of fabric.

Christmas Tree Charm

What you might not know about me is that I hate UFO's (Unfinished Objects) and since 2002 I have determined to never have one. So when I received this second charm and block pattern I started to worry that I hadn't sewn the first block yet.

I needn't have worried because they are very easy to make and only 6" square. They are foundation pieced and I think that they only took me 15 minutes each to sew.

Here is the first block which is a log cabin.

Charmed-Log Cabin

Here is the second block which is the Christmas Tree and it goes with the charm that I showed you in the first picture.

Charmed- Christmas Tree

The blocks are foundation pieced and I have done a lot of foundation piecing in my time but instead of using the pattern that they sent me I printed it again on some Foundation papers that I had at home. I had two different types of Foundation papers and I don't know when or where I bought them. The log cabin was printed on Foundation papers from That Patchwork Place and it was fine but opaque paper. For the Christmas tree I used Foundation Paper by Zippy Designs and you can see through it.

See through foundation paper

I actually couldn't see the advantage in using the see through paper but it might have been more useful if the pattern was more complicated. What I didn't like was the way the paper curled after it had been ironed whereas the other paper stayed nice and flat.

I had to pin the edges back to photograph the block. I think that I will stick to the other paper in future.

Now I am up to date and that is a worry off my mind and I can get onto other things until the next block arrives.

Bye for now,
Linda

Bollywood Bling

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Waverley Art Quilters Challenge for the holidays. The theme was Bollywood and if you click on the Bollywood link you can read about it. After I had finished, I wondered if I needed to add a bit more bling. Everyone I showed it to agreed that some more bling was needed.

This is what my elephant looked like when I first finished.

Bollywood

He looks rather plain to me now because I have spent a lot of time adding more beads.

I decided that he was going to have beads around his eyes and ears.

Then I added beads to his trunk and the braids around his  legs.

Finally I added a few more beads around his saddle blanket.

It's hard to see in the photo but he really shimmers and shines in the light.

This is what the little quilt looks like now and I am so much happier with him.

Now I am late for this months challenge, I had better get a move on.

Bye for now,
Linda