I'm back

I've been gone for a while: health problems, husband returning from Iraq, taking care of kids, and finishing up projects for our towns craft fair. All those are over now. Except for snuggle-loving my DH and children, of course.

And I promise I'll start working on the Fairy block this next year. 2010. There are a lot of fanciful things that need to get done on her. I totally messed up her butt, so I think she's just gunna have to wear a green, leafy thong to cover up my mistakes. And she needs shiny stuff in her hair, and a lot more dark flowers with a whole bunch woodsy creatures. Might need to do research on fairies, now that I think about it.

I must go pull out my junk, now. Need to do some laundry, too. Maybe vaccume.

Kim

Sorry

Wow!! I've totally been out of hte loop here. Sorry. I think it might be two months since I last posted. I'm a very nauty girl for that.

DH was home from Iraq for two weeks in June, then we sent him back, then I got a tread mill because I'm so freakin' fat, and then we went to Colorado Springs for an Army thing. WOW!! That was crazy, since I made it a road trip with three little boys. HA HA!!

But I"ll have to post a blue, teal, green thing I started working on later. And I' still haven't put any new stuff on that fairy block. I have two items for a customer I need to finish up by August 15th, then I"ll be back. And I really need to post another challenge, don't I!!

WOW! Life!! It happens.

Challenge #4

Here is a wild flower (or maybe it's a weed - sure is a pretty one anyhow) I picked here in California. In Gorman California, actually. There are these little yellow daiseys, orange California poppies and the purple sage brush. Boy are those colors purely yummy next to each other in the spring. And all the green n the back ground, too. Nice!! And then there's this funny little lavendr fuzzy thing. I bet ya it's a weed, but I just wanted to throw it out to ya as a challenge. I thought the leaves were really interesting, too. If ya click on the picture you can see the leaves more closely. I guess you could straight stitch them. Or that tight feather stitch - I forget what it's called. Really fun for making leaves. The flower tuft could be french knotts with a whole bunch of stamen coming out. You coud coach a really cool yarn for the stem, or do my favorite - closely embroiderd stem stitches in a varigated color of green. Have fun!! Kim

Hallmark Heart Interpretation

Here is my interpretaton of that heart I found on that Hallmark card I received in the mail the other week. I drew the heart with a ball point pen, back stitched it in light green, whipped and weaved two times around with my favorite varigated fuzzy yarn. Then I coached some straight stitches with that same fuzzy yarn. Then dyed some 2mm silk ribbon, stab stitched the little flowers with it, and it's basically done. Except I may put a metalic green bead n the center of the flowers. tha'll be nice. This is my Tuscan block. Can ya tell? Duhh It's orange, olive green, dark teal, and chocolate brown. Those colors are so yummy togetheer. If you haven't warmed up to orange yet, maybe you can combine those colors and fall in love with it like I have.

Dragon Fly

Hi!! I just wanted to share with everyone, including my DH, serving in Iraq right now, the lovely pink opal dragon fly pendent he got me. It's set in 14k rose gold, with crystals and the lovely pink opal from Australia in the wings. Isn't Dh great for telling me to get myself something pretty? I just love this. I've worn it twice already. Even to school to teach kindegartners music. Ha Ha. The sun shining on it makes it aparckle so. Thank you, Steve, for pampering my heart. You're a good husband. And when you get home, it'll be your turn to do the dishes for a year. Ha Ha!!

Challenge #3

Greeting cards and writing paper have the cutest ideas, don't they? I got this greeting card in the mail, today from a friend I brought a meal for a few weeks ago. I just loved the colors and the shape of the heart. Try and make a motif out of this idea. What fun!!

I would first draw a heart on my patch with a pen, pencil, or if you're particular, a quilting pen. Then I'd do a back stitch on the pen marks (or stem stitch), weave something that looks leafy in and out of the back stitch and put some leaves on. I have a really cool fuzzy green yarn that would be perfect for weaving in and out of that back stitch. Then I'd add some cute SRE flowers with the stab stitch. Even silk ribbon as small as 2mm would be lovely for foget-me-nots. Little french knotts coming off some of the greenery would be nice too. Wouldnt that be cute?? Ya know what? I just might have to start myself a challenge block using all these ideas. What great fun that would be. Then at the end of hte year, I can share it with you. Now to put up some seam treatments. yah. We have two motifs. I think I should do some seam treatments. Yah. Happy Stitching!! Blessings and grace to you all!!

Bi-weekly challenge #2

Here is a bird motif I thought you'd like. It's origin is from India. This can be done in a stem stitch or chain stitch. The greenery could be SRE, too. You could also fill in the bird with a tight stem stitch to make it feathery or you could just keep the lines plain and simple. If filling in the bird to make it feathery, use a darker thread for the outlines. Happy stitching!!

Bi-weekly challenge #1

Do you like to be challenged?? I do. I like to do it better today than I did yesterday. Whatever it is, I like to do it better. I'm my own challenger. I compete against myself all the time. So, I peraonally believe, to get better at something, you should challenge yourself to do it the best you can.

So every other week I thought I'd throw out a design for you to practice. You can either make it into a motif in the center of a patch, or turn it into a stitchery for a seam treatment. Whatever strikes your fancy. I'd also like to see what you do with the disigns I throw out there, so please e-mail me at kssemail@frazmtn.com and share your pictures. This is the bi-weekly design challenge #1!! Have fun!! Happy stitching to you!! I got this design form the journal I write in. It's a little doo-dad I saw in the corner of the paper.

Fairy started

She doesn't have wings yet, but I'll get them on later. Her body is made of tafeta. Her hair is done in one strand of varigated silk thread, stem stitched. I still need to embroider a lot more vines and maybe sone fire flies. And her body needs more embroidered detail. Then I can't forget the SRE and beading. Or whatever else makes me happy to sew on there. Happy stitching.

Fairy sketch

Here's a sketch I'm going to follow for a woodsy fairy/fantesy wall hanging I'm bent on doing just for the heck of it. I love her cute butt. Wish I had a butt like that. LOL!! Her body will either be applequed with the tiniest of stitches or embroidered with small stitches, too. I'm thinking I'll find a really cool fleshy-pink fabric and appleque it for her body, and then use a blue silk thread to make her hair. I always thought blue hair would be really cool. I want blue hair, but maybe I'm too old for that. Anyhow, I just wanted to share my ideas. A lot of the fulliage will be SRE and appleque, and of course, you have tohave fire flies, bugs, bunnies, and all knds of woodsy creatures. This will be a fun art project.

Related to CQ but not CQ

Some of us like to dabble here and there with other forms of textiel art. Not just CQ. And sometimes our other dabbling helps us to grow in our CQ form of art, too. Some of us do art dolls or beaded jewelery and love to appleque or tat. My favorite is folding fabric and rousching. At least, for now it is!! LOL!! This, too, can be applied to CQ

I have two two wall hangings I"m wrokingon that migh tnot be considered CQ. One is using a whipped stitch on a curved line. It's fun to whip a blanket stitch, too. Makes it look striped and twisted. I also like to whip with yard as you can see on these curved seams that I've also beaded. Very fun. Just get that yarn through the eye of a blunt headed tapestry needle and whippaway. Whip away happy stitchers!! The lumpier the better, because then you produce some nice nooks to snuggle a bead down into. Very very fun.

Another picture I've posted is of some copper etching I sewed onto some fancy fabric embellished, and then put wors on it. This piece, though small, is rather heavy and I"ll be throwing on an even heavier beaded fringe on the bottom. It should hang nicely.

Antique style gotta-use-up-those-scraps CQ

Here are two blocks. One shows how you can use words as seam treatments. The other is of my a passage form one of my favorite Psalms in the Bible. From Ps. 16. Have fun using up your scraps and making your own inspirational CQ.

Favorite poem

And here's my favorite poem on this block. I left space to do seam treatments, 'cause eventually those basting threads will be yanked out. But I really wanted to get the poem on before I went and lost the poem again. Hate that!! Lose stuff all the time.

Antique style gotta-use-up-those-scraps CQ

I thought I'd share with you what I'm doing with that baggie of smaller scraps all of us CQers have accumulated. I've been doing CQ for over the 7 years, and that zip-loc babbie I was using to store this various scraps was bulging at the seams, so I decied to use them up as best I could without cutting too much of the fabric off. The result is this antique style CQ. It's not a stitch, flip, and cut method at all. I actually had to get out my box of pins to pin most of these raw edges under. After all, what I was trying to do, was use up as much of the scrap patch as possible withour cutting any of the fabric off. So you get this kind of antique looknig block. And you relly do have to baste those seams down, because some of these patches were held together with only pins. So I had to basted them. You got lots of scraps?? Hey, I've got four of these blocks going. YOu should try it too. There's no theme, shape or color to these blocks. Just using up scraps on an old bed sheet for my musslin. Oh, and old Proverbs, poems, and Psalms for the motifs. I even used words for the seem treatments. Yah. So, go for it!! I've even used a patch as small as 2 inches by 2 inches.

Roses

And here's a block I've made into a pillow: sashed twice, backed, and stuffed. But here's the embellished block, at least. As you can tell, I really enjoy doing floral sprays on seams. And I like the sprays to go down into some or the patches, too. Can you tell I love flowers? I tend to kill them in the garden, so they are forever stitched onto fabric. They can't shrivle up die there. And I have some dried roses in my Strongs Concordance. It's the biggest book I've got for pressing flowers. Of course, they're all brown now, but they wer the ones DH gave me when we were dating 12 years ago. Hello!! Am I really that old?? Don't laugh at me!! Most of you reading this may have been married for 50 years and I'm complaing about a mere 10. Poop on me!

Garage sale junk made pretty

This is the center block of my wall hanging of all my favorite junk I've collected from garage sales. Ya know, you can find the best stuff at garage sales. Especially along the bead and jewelery line. I got two strings of semi-precious stones for .50 once, because the lady said it was cheep glass. And I was thinking to myself, "No, Honey, this is my prize and your loss!!" Gitty, I handed ove my mere .50 and left with $40 worth of stones!! Yay for me!! Yay Yay Yay!!

It's great to bein 2009

Wow!! I have great expectations for this year. I have another 30 lbs to lose. I have a Christian CD to make and about four more songs to write, crazy quilting to get done, husband to greet back home form Iraq, children to love. Wow!! Isn't life glorious and grand?!!

Hey, I like to be busy. When I was a kid, I would always tell my mom, "Mom, I'm bored." And then she would tell me to go find something to do. Well, I've got ots to do now, Mom. What a great life!!

I have not the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. I am not afraid of anything!! I do not fear a single thing, because my hope is not in worldly wisdom of men, but in the power of God!! Yup, it is. People who trust in the Lord enjoy life and do their best at what they do and life is glorious and grand. No regrets. No doom and gloom. No fears for the future. My hope is on the ROCK, Jesus Christ.

So now, with all that inspirational jibber jabber, I've decided to post some more eye candy of my "junk", so I call it. My stitching that I really enjoy doing. Hope you enjoy it, too.

Maybe, one of these days, I'll download some songs I've written. That would be fun. Then maybe some of you real musicians can tell me how to fix some of these songs that are half done.

God bless and waht a great year!!