Crazy Quilt Challenge quilts at guild meeting.....

Last night was the reveal of the Crazy Quilt challenge at our guild.  Eleven of us took the challenge and completed a quilt.  Be sure to click on the photos to see them larger and see more details!  There was a popular vote for the top two favorites. (the hearts you see on the corners of the quilts are not part of the quilt. That is where the voting was done.)

My personal favorite was the beautiful old-fashioned looking quilt by Janella Baumgart with each block telling part of the story of her life.  I think I took close-up photos of every block.  I just loved it!

Jennifer H did a batik quilt and only has the first two square embellished, but they were so fabulous...with promise of an outstanding quilt when finished....that she won the top vote!  I can't wait to see it done.

I won the second most votes with my Christmas Crazy quilt.  By the way, Alexandria, if you read this....did you see your little snowflake near the center???  I was so happy to include it on my quilt.  It fit in perfectly!

Linda B's quilt was a work of art.  She crocheted things and did some wonderful flowers and used vintage items from her family.

I don't know who made this one, but it had vintage hankies and an apron pocket and was just lovely.

This was another one that was very personalized for the person who made it with lots of cute little buttons and charms and things and a nice selection of fabrics including some that showed she was a seamstress/quilter.

This "Star Spangled" effort was very patriotic and each flag is different!  Not a lot of stitching, but a gorgeous quilt.

Another Christmas themed quilt with nice add ons.

A fairy tale theme......lovely, colorful blocks.

Pink and purple with machine embroidered seams, I think....very pretty.

Black and White and Pink......nicely done and very eye catching!

It was a fun challenge and I think we all had fun doing it.  I would make another one in a heartbeat....but not right away :-)

Finished at last!........

I finally finished my crazy quilt......just in time for our guild challenge on June 1st!  It is so heavy, that it is sitting on my swing in this photo without help :-)  Not the best photo, but I'm just glad it is done!

Crazy Quilt II......

I've added a bunch more to my crazy quilt. I've been trying to learn some new stitches. There is a wonderful blog by Sharon B. about crazy quilting and photos of each block of one of her beautiful crazy quilts called, "I Dropped the Button Box.... found here. She also has a wonderful stitch dictionary where you can learn how to do any kind of crazy stitch. I get a lot of inspiration from looking at her button crazy quilt! This was a new stitch called Wheatear. I did the first one too spaced out, but then got the hang of it. What fun! For the most part I tend to use the same 4-5 stitches to make all the different designs. It is just in how you combine them. I use a lot of feather stitch, lazy daisy, and buttonhole. Also chain, straight stitches, and French knots.
Some pale blue ribbon roses.

There needed to be more in this area, so I added these pink flowers and little blue knots. I love how the blue looks on the black. It still needs more on the black, so I will do something along the gold trim that sticks downward.

I wanted a cat on my quilt and found this cute cat button. I thought he needed a sunflower to sit under. Worked some black buttons and stitches on the red/black fabric. That row of green stitches was another new stitch I tried, but I forgot the name.

This white fuzzy fabric made me think of snowmen since this is a Christmas quilt. So a simple outline seemed the easiest way to make one. Added some more seam stitches to the area.

I have a book showing how to make different birds with ribbon, so I tried a Cardinal. I didn't like how the book did it, so I sort of made up my own. I don't have enough sizes of ribbon to do a lot of different birds well. I also added that line of flowers on the light green fabric.

A row of button and pearl flowers among the buttonhole wheels.
For me the fun of crazy stitching is sitting there and deciding what to add where. I usually do one type of stitch and then come back and add something else.

I liked the blue knots on the black of the other block, so I added some to my heart and also the little red knots around it.

Two of the blocks are nearly done, but two of them still need a lot of stitching and ideas! I love sewing old lace and buttons on crazy quilts. I hope to do a lot more crazy quilts after this one is done!

Crazy about crazy quilts or "It's driving me crazy"?.....

I love crazy quilts! This year our guild issued the yearly challenge and I was thrilled to know it was to make a crazy quilt. It has to be 36" square when finished and have a theme.

Mine has a Christmas theme because I had tons of Christmas fabrics left from making Crazy quilt stockings for my sister's family. When finished mine will consist of 4 large squares and a black border. I'll save further details until I get closer to being done.....in case my ideas don't work out! I hate constructing the blocks themselves, but love doing the fancy stitches. This is one of my four blocks. None of these are done yet and even stitches you see might not be done yet. Every time I look at it, I decide to add things or change things.
A pink flower done with gathered ribbon and some fancy stitches in between.

I will probably stitch something on the red between the beads. Haven't decided about the black yet. Two of my blocks are done in stripes rather than odd shaped pieces. I love how the beads turned out on that plum colored bit. That plum was once a dress that I loved.

A bit of flowers. No idea yet for that grey area. Ideas come to me little by little. Sometimes I just start something and then I get ideas of what to add to it. Crazy stitching is very much a "make it up as you go" sort of project.

I liked the pearls on the plum so much I did another row on this red satin.....and ran out before I got to the end!

A heart with ribbon roses. I love making ribbon roses and will probably add a lot more before I get done.....some on each of the four blocks.

A wreath.

I call this area "the mess". I changed stuff on that gold area twice already and am still not happy with how it looks, but probably will just hope no one pays much attention to it when the rest is done. I do like some of the other stitches I did on this block so far.

The Christmas Tree and my black and gold bead flowers on the red/black fabric.

Snowflakes and pearls. That is a large doily on the left. It was so pretty, I don't plan to do anything to it.....I don't think.

The Christmas Tree again.....with lots of gold and silver trim. It needs a star.

I worked last night on my spider web. I made one several weeks ago and ripped it back out several days later. I like this one better, but wish it was on a better color. My spider is very talented and put a little Christmas tree in her web. I hope to add the spider when I decide how to make her. Taking photos of satin fabrics is hard....too much shine and nothing lays flat at the moment while I am working on it. The colors don't look good in the photos either. Hopefully it will smooth out better when sewn together.

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I'm really having fun with this! I have until June to get it done for the challenge. If it takes me longer, I will just turn it in partially done.....I'm determined to do it the way I want it done. I'm expecting to do a lot of work in the border area, too.

Perks of being a President....

Last night our local quilt guild.....Raintree Quilter's Guild....celebrated their 25th anniversary! I've only been in the guild for 5 of those years, but it is a wonderful group of quilters who produce many beautiful things and share them with others as well as have fun. Anyone who serves a term as president of the guild is given a quilt top as a gift when they leave office! A pretty good incentive to serve! 12 of the past presidents brought their quilts in to display them for all the guests at our Anniversary party. The one above was made for the woman who was president the year that I joined. All of us donated 1 or more blocks which were then cut up to make this quilt. I tried to find the blocks I made but couldn't remember what they looked like! It's a beautiful batik quilt.
Sometimes the president requests that people make blocks that are more individual looking like this beautiful example.

Other times the president just chooses a pattern and colors.

I assume this president really loved red :-)

One of my favorites.....each spool and thimble has a name on it of the person who made it.

She was president twice and this quilt belongs to her also!

A nice classic design and beautifully quilted. The President has to do that herself :-)

Linda chose blocks from the "Dear Jane..." quilt book.

A very simple quilt and easy to put names on.

A much more difficult top! I wonder how many people worked on this one?

An interesting pattern.

Last year's president got this one. We seem to be moving more towards the "pick a pattern and a few people work on it". I think the more individualized quilts are prettier and everyone gets to share in the making.

Anyway.....it's a great reason to get involved in our guild and serve as president!

Batik Coffee Filter Fan quilt workshop....

Saturday I took a workshop to make coffee filter fan blocks for a quilt or runner or whatever. What fun! I enjoy these and what a great idea to use a coffee filter for doing round paper piecing. These are my blocks.....I love batik fabrics and always lean towards nature inspired patterns and colors. The fans are just laying on the background squares at this point to see how they look.
This is how the back of the fan looks with the paper attached.

At home, I added the triangle to the point of the fan and tried laying them out in a row. The pins are there because I haven't sewn down the curve yet. That can be done on your machine with an applique or zigzag stitch, or by hand. I will probably do mine by hand.

This is an example of the completed quilt top done by our teacher.

I love seeing what fabrics others choose, so below are other choices for this quilt from the class.

Obviously you don't have to use batiks and I love these fabrics!

Seasonal fabric .......Halloween!

Purples

Very scrappy

Bright fans on black background....should turn out very dramatic!

Blues.....feels like Hawaii :-)

Multi-color. She has a finished square at the right.....black dotted background, black/white triangle on the fan. I can't wait for everyone to bring their finished work to the guild for show-and-tell. Guess I had better get busy and finish mine!

Most of the class used large coffee filters.....9-10". I used 8" because that is what I had at home and my square will be smaller. I realize looking at these that I didn't change the size of my triangle at the bottom of the fan to suit my smaller size square....oops! Will have to decide whether to change it. Another reason to turn mine into a runner rather than a quilt!