Crazy Mountain Girl

2010-10-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

pics

2010-10-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Pics

2010-10-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

Pics

2010-10-25T13:14:00.001-07:00

quilt blocks

2010-09-17T20:57:00.001-07:00

Here are pictures of up-close scanned pics of the blocks I made for the quilt. Hope it's sufficient. I also included an immage of the Sulky threads I used. Kim

I'm back

2009-12-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-08-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-03T16:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-18T18:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-11T13:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-26T14:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-21T18:26:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

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!!

The Patriot's Heart

2008-09-21T15:59:00.001-07:00

The Patriot's Heart. All red white and blue. Nothing but red white and blue were my rules for the quilt. I'm still in the process of finishing this wall hanging. The top, coverlet part, is done, all the hearts are made from a template.

You can make your own template, too. Whatever size you want. I make my templates from a Cheerioes box. You can make one too. Then use the template for all the base fabrics. I started this quilt in 2003. The majority was finished last year . But I just need to bind it and get a sleeve on the back to hang it up.

My DH is in the service, so I'm pretty patriotic. So this goes out to all the mommys, daddys, sons and daughters serving our country. Thank you.

Steps to making your own heart blocks. Or just make one for an accent pillow for your bed. Or for a wedding gift:

Step 1. Cut out your template from a cereal box

Step 2. Cut out 15 hearts on some muslin for your base fabric using your template. Trace around the template with a pen, pencil. or whatever you feel like using.

Step 3. Choose your theme and the fabrics to match. Fun themes are patriotic, white on white, spring flowers, birds, cats, family (each heart can represent a different person in your family, that's fun. Add dates and names. Ooooo makes a nice heirloom), NRA and guns for your man, ...........oh..........whatever you love. Your state or Country of origin, be it California, Florida, Michigan, or Australia!! Holidays. Goodness. The themes are endless.

Step 4. Yay!!! Now get all 15 hearts all filled up with fancy fabrics sewn together in the CQ form.

Step 5. Embroider the seams and embellish the heart shaped blocks with beads, fancy lace, buttons, and trims. Embroider motifs to fit your theme.

Step 6. Pin and blanket stitch the hearts onto another piece of fabric using a contrasting and strong thread. I used black tatting thread to blanket (or some call it button hole) stitch the hearts onto a piece of fabric.

Step 7. Choose the smallest block, crop it, and use that block to crop all the other blocks.

Step 8. Machine stitch them all together any way you want. Mine was done three across and five up and down.

Step 9. Using a disappearing ink quilters pen, mark swirls on the blocks in between the hearts. Hand quilt it to another big piece of muslin like an old sheet. No batting necessary. If you don't want to hand quilt it, quilt it any way you want. Machine. Straight lines using a ruler. Whatever strikes your fancy. It's your quilt, after all.

Step 10. Sash it, back it with another sheet, tie the center blocks.

Step 11. Hand quilt the sashing.

Step 12. Bind it. Then put a tube of fabric on the back top for hanging.

DONE!!

Wow!! Now you know why it took me four ye years to make. Yikes!!

My beautiful home

2008-09-07T19:46:00.001-07:00

This is my lovely mountain community here in Southern CA. We actually have four seasons , and we got 5 feet of snow in the period of two days last year. School was closed. Guess I'm buying a snow blower this year.

Valley temperatures hover near the 100s in the summer while here in the mountains it rarely gets above 85 degrees.

Also here's a picture of my really cool home nestled in the trees. We have about 7 really huge trees on our property. In the valley, where we used to live, we had zero. The air is much cleaner up here, too.

The top photo is the view out our loft, my bedroom window!! Can you imagine looking at this every day!! I'm so lucky. I live where people wish to vacation. Lucky Lucky me. And thanks to my Dear Husband, who works his rear off to afford to live here. I'm a lucky girl. The crazy mountain girl.

Getting old, I guess

2008-09-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness!! You think I'd be able to go for a mere 1/2 hour jog. Y know!! I mean, I gave myself shin splints. SHIN SPLINTS!! On only a 1/2 hour jog. Now, take it, I hadn't done that kind of jogging for 7 years, an last time it was on straight city streets. I guess a 5 degree slope is major on the joints and shins, at that. But, HELLO!! I thought I could do it. I was having fun, too. Bopping along to up-beat music.

But then I took a spill on the stairs the day after, and landed right on my butt and layed there deciding weather I should move again. Something had jarred in my hip joint that shouldn't have. And so, I've been in my bed letting people do stuff for me all week. I was pretty pathetic. And in the worst pain ever. So painful, I was dizzy and felt like I was gunna puke my brains out. I painfully hobbled to the toilet a couple of times. Alleve became my friend. And Tylenol PM in the evenings became my buddy. And the chiropractor. Yay for thoughtful chiropractors. I'd still be in bed if it weren't for him.

I'm back to recovery. And I won't give up. I'll start jogging.............hmmmmm..............next year!! LOL. For now I'll just do the walking thing. And try not to fall on the stairs. After all, I'm not getting any younger. I'm old. 35. Old. Arthritic. Old. I'm old. I feel really really old.

Long time no talk

2008-08-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Wow!! Sorry it's been a long time since I last posted. Been busy. Now I have two in school. I get to clean the house more and I actually went for a jog yesterday. I wanted to do more, but I'm realizing that as you get older, and you body says, "STOP!!" ya better listen, or you'll be sorry. I'm glad I listened, becaue I had to take some asprin so I could sleep last ight as my legs were scraming at me. I didn't think I was doing THAT much, but while plugging along, my body said, "Ok, that's enough." So I walked back to my car and went home. Today, my back kills, but, al least, my legs don't hurt any more. It's good to listen to your body. Especially if you haven't rone for a real jog in 6 years. LOL

So for us old folks, just take it easy. If you havn't gone for a jog in over 6 years, wake up in the morning and say, "Hey, what a good day for a jog", just remember to listen to your body if it says stop. But don't let your body run yor life. There's another side to your body communication, too.

I have a ilttle moto that I keep telling myself: "I will put my body into subjection." If you're over weigh, quit feeding your face, and get out and get some activity. And when your body says, "I'm hungry and tired." Well, too bad. The body is not the boss. You are. So tell the body that you are in charge, and not even a pang in the stomach or lethergy in your joints is gunna stop you. Say, "Body, I don't cre if you're tired or hungry, you're getting oatmeal and blueberries with soy milk, and then you are going for a brisk walk. So there!!" Hungry!!Pah!! Tired!!! Ha!! You're not in charge!! I am. You WILL eat right and you WILL get some fun exercise and do good things today. Quit being a scared lazy butt!! Just do it.

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be happy with it. And my body will not rule me. I will rule it. Kindly. The body is not in charge. Just like God. He is in charge. He is nice to us. He takes care of us. We do not boss Him around. He kindly tells us how it's going to be. Hear ye, if you have ears: "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that's what he's gunna reep." Just as God's in charge of this world. We need to be in charge of our bodies. Dont' decieve yourself. If you sow choolate, cake, and a big huge stake, and then not exercise for a week, you're not gunna feel real good. And it's your fault.

BE THE BOSS!!

Rousched Silk Flowers Tutorial cont.

2008-07-31T17:54:00.000-07:00

Step 7: Oh look!! Now just open your flower keeping the raw edges on the bottom. Isn't it cute?? But we're not done yet. We've gotta tack it on a block somewhere. Here, I have a girls Christmas stocking I'm working on. I like to put five or six couching stitches on to keep the flower in it's place. Just put it anywhere you want. You can make it part of a seam treatment on a crazy quilt. You can make it the major motif in the center of a patch, or even the center of a sane quilt. You can use it for more framing on the corner of sash work. Goodness!! The possibilities are endless.

Step 8: And now that I have a beading needle in hand, I just start doing cute little beaded rounds in the center of the flowers. Or you could change needles and do a bunch of french knots in the center. Or even a straight stitch to mimic stamen. How fun is this??
It's your flower. Your creation. Your art. What do you want to see here? I'd love to see some of these cute little buds and flowers on your own work. Feel free to e-mail me pictures.

Step 9: Now make more. Yes!! And put them anywhere you want on your block. As you can see. I've scattered these flowers on both a purple seam and most of a patch. Then I added leaves. And the leaves aren't even green. They're metalic gold. Who says you have to make your leaves green, anyways?? Ya know. It's your art. Do what the fabric and embellishments ask for. And you could dangle charms, broaches, and old pearl necklaces in there if you want. It's a good day to create.

Love ya all. Happy stitching.

Rousched Silk Flowers Tutorial

2008-07-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Introduction: Here, I've decided to post a tutorial on my blog on how I make these rousched flowers. What is rousching? It's basically just gathered fabric for embellishing. In the Victorian era, it was very popular in clothes. Ruffles and lace and frills. Even men got into it.

You can make rousched flowers with bias cut silk ribbon or the cheaper way, with rousched silk fabric. This is a very inspirational way of embellishing. The possibilities are endless. It's a good day. And this is a day to be inspired to spread beauty around the world with art. There are nine simple steps to making these lovely flowers.

Step 1. Here are the supplies you'll need for the basic rousched flower: silk fabric cut on the bias or bias cut silk ribbon (the fabric is cheaper) thread or floss of the same color as the fabric, a beading needle, and beads (beads are optional). I prefer a beading needle, because it glides through the fabric nicely. AND I like to use beads at the end when the flower is all done.

The bigger you cut the fabric, the bigger your flowers will be. I usually cut my fabric to 1 inch X 3 1/2 inches or linger. Whatever. I'm not too picky about it, as you can tell. But they should be cut to what you see to your left. It's not an exact measurement.

Step 2. Fold the fabric in half long ways and make a running stitch along the raw edge. You should be going through two pieces of fabric. Easy!!

Step 3. Now just pull to gather your fabric. Look!! It's already coming into a circle!

Step 4. Now this part is a little tricky and hard to explain. We want to make a circle, so we need to sew the ends together. We don't want any raw edges showing on top. So, again, with just a simple running stitch, put the two edges together ("right on right", for those who sew), and pull the thread through without gathering. But you can pull the center of the flower to gather it nice and tight. Realize, you're going through four layers of fabric when sewing the two raw edges together. But it should be easy since the fabric is really thin. And a beading needle is also very pointy.

Step 5. Now go right back down that same running stitch so the the thread is now coming out of the bottom center of the flower.

Tomorrow I'll show you how to tack it onto a block and the endless possibilities of these cute little flower. Or big ones. Depending on what you want to accomplish.

Michael

2008-07-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Michael. He's the baby. And, even though he's turned 3, I have a tendency to baby him too much. After all, he's my last one. I try not to treat him like a baby, but I do. I've gotta stop that. Don't want to make him into a sissy. At least he's starting to talk now. "Gok" is a dog. "Keecak" is a kitty cat. Eventually he'll get all the words. And then I'll have to tell him to please be quiet so I can think. Ha!!

Me

2008-07-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

This is me before I lost 25 lbs. I'll have to get another picture taken. I think this one was taken almost two years ago. I really wasn't feeling good then, either.

And that reminds me that I really need to do some aerobics after I get done blogging here. Little Michael will join me. He's so cute. I've yet to post a pic of him. Of course, you can see him in the back ground of both Adam's an Alec's pictures. So cute.

I like to read, do Bible studies to get to know God more, Crazy Quilt, and I'll share some of that later, too. I'll even share what I've learned from God's Word. I love art, the Bible, my family, my dear husband, Steve, serving in Iraq right now. I'm very proud of him.

Well, supper awaits.

The Crazy Mountian Girl

Alec

2008-07-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

July 26, 3008

Here's Alec. He's got more energy in his little toe, than we all have put together. He loves to go go go, and do do do. He remembers everything. He'll do well in school starting Kindergarten next month. If we can keep his little butt in his chair. I'm proud of him already. He's so smart.
Alec likes to climb trees, be other places besides home, discover new places and new things, and visit friends. As I said, he likes to go go go. He'll be the first out of the house come graduation time. He'll probebly be a world traveler, because he just can't sit still. He always wants to be some place different than where he is. That's Alec for ya.

I'm a Blogger

2008-07-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

July 26, 2008

I've been wanting to start a blog for a long time. Now, look. You can check out pictures of my kids, my art, and read about what my husband is doing and about knowing Jesus Christ.

This is Adam, my oldest. He likes electronics and anything that has buttons. He likes to see how things work.

And there's the wood in the background. It gets cold even here in Southern California. It actually got below zero with the wind chill this past winter. Burrr.

Adam will be in first grade next month. I'm so proud of him, like most mothers.