How Time Flys!!!!

COF was WONDERFUL all that I hoped it would be and more. I had the honor of spending 5 days in the company of 69 VERY talented and creative women. It is a wonder the committee was able to find a room large enough to hold all of that talent. I met and made some wonderful friends.


Along with the COF Retreat activities the Mermaid group got together for a little bit to share our work so far. I have been working on Kathy's Mermaid block. I have a bit more to do, but I made progress this past weekend.

I couched slik roving to create seaweed/hair and added treasures from the Sea. I will be adding some stitching and beads before sending Kathy's block off to Carolyn

Carolyn was the first person to work on my block. She painted a beautiful tail on my mermaid. Kathi posted a photo of my block on her blog - Thank You.

I finished the last round of the HGTV CQ RR. I will be mailing the finished block off to MsBananas/Tammy, tomorrow. She should have it by the end of the week. I've done a little more work on my CQ Encrusted Class block. I hope to get back to it in the next few weeks.

Along with my Crazy Quilting projects, I am trying to finish my first Art Journal Quilt by the end of May. I have the idea, fabric pressed and ready to sew. I have some images etc. ready. I am trying to print on fabric using Golden's "Digital Grounds" product. I did try printing an image on fabric after treating it with "Digital Grounds". It worked, but I should have printed it on lighter colored fabric. I quickly rinsed the fabric, most of the ink washed out I have a plan to reprint the image. I will post photos as soon as I have something printed.

I read about Digital Grounds on Gail Schmidt's blog. She is offering a workshop on using Digital Grounds.

I should have some good stitching time in the next couple of weeks - the Red Wings and the Blackhawks are both still in the Stanley Cup playoffs - I have to say "GO WINGS"!!!!!

HGTV COF Retreat

It is finally time...I am off tomorrow a.m. for the HGTV Circle of Friends Retreat - 5 days of stitching, learning, fun, and meeting new friends.

I'll post photos when I return.

Happy Stitching

Making Progress...One Step Forward...Two Steps Back

How can that be progress? In 16 days I leave for my first ever Stitching/Quilting Retreat. On April 23rd I will be attending the HGTV COF Retreat in Manchester, NH. There are a few projects, challenges, and some pre retreat homework.

I have started my FQ Challenge, will finish it this weekend. Have ideas for my "What State You Are From" T-Shirt. I'll start assembling it this week. I have collected and bagged my FQs for Bingo. My retreat group project "Homework" is finished. I've started packing supplies for the classes I will be taking at the retreat.

Two Steps Backward....well I am making progress on my COF stuff, but have fallen way behind on the 6th Round of the HGTV CQ RR. Need to finish my stitching so I am ready to send Alex's block on to Ms Bananas on April 15th. Good thing my taxes are done!!!

Mermaid block, I've had for three weeks now. I have started stitching on Kathy's mermaid block. Lots of ideas just need some time to stitch.

Ok...getting away from this computer to do a little more stitching tonight.

Happy Stitching

Tried new stitches

Working on my CQ Encrusted Class I have tried some new stitches/motifs.

I don't mind stitching seam treatments "free hand", but I have a hard time getting the outlines to embroider motifs, flowers, butterflies, images, etc onto my fabric. I have tried using "Solvey", tracing/chalk paper, and iron on transfer pencil. "Solvey" has worked the best, but even using pernanent sharpie to draw on the "Solvey" I've had it bleed on to my project when put water on it to disolve it. Tracing/chalk paper the image brushes off before I finish stitching and the iron on transfer pencil didn't work at all.

I really wanted to try to embroider some of the flower motifs from Teach Yourself to Embroider book. So I tried a technique that Shawkl had mentioned, "tissue paper"!! Yes, it worked like a charm!!! I traced the image onto white tissue paper, actually leftover tissue paper from Christmas. Pinned it in place on my block and started stitching.

CQEncrusted Class block so far. I am going to start adding beads/buttons etc. next. I think it needs a little more stitching, but I need to add some beads/buttons to be sure, may be a few days before I get to it. I need to get going on my COF projects, I do have an idea for my FQ Challenge fabric.

Happy Stitching

Creative Slacker

Looking through all the blogs that I follow and clicking through to other blogs listed on their blogs...wow..lots of creativity. Looks like everyone is exploding with creativity and I'm just watching. So my question; When does everyone find the time to create all of this beauty?

Happy Friday, YEAH the weekend, my two days of the week to create.

CQ Lesson 2 Stitching

I have completed the basic seam stitching on one of my CQ Encrusted class blocks.

Lesson 3 arrived today, I have yet to read it.

I plan to add a few more stitches to this block and then on to my 2nd block and lesson 3 "Motifs".

Round 5 of the HGTV CQ Round Robin ends this week. I need to write in the journal and I'll be ready to send it on to the next person. Two more rounds and our CQ Beauties will be on their way home. I am very excited to see mine. Along the way we have only been allowed to see two small "sneak peeks" per round. Only seeing very small areas doesn't give a very good idea of what the whole block looks like.

I'll also be mailing my Mermaid block out this week. Again, need to write in the journal and package it up.

Off to put my Encrusted CQ lessons in a binder and get organized to read lesson 3.

Happy Stitching

CQ Encrusted block 2, lesson 2, and Mermaid Block

Continuing to make progress, I finished piecing my 2nd CQ Encrusted class block.

I'm calling this my "Sunshine" block, a little more yellow than I originally planned.

Lesson 2 was emailed to the class today, seam embellishments. I am ready to stitch!!

I also finished piecing my Mermaid block, need to do a little embellishing.