Crazy quilting again

I have been late finishing my April block for the CQJP, I know, I know, shame on me. I started it too late, had an idea and as I started working on it, I didn't really like how it turned out, so now I am a bit stuck...

On the other hand, I finished the next one. It is a bit of cheating, really, because this was made for another purpose, but I think I will send it in anyway.

In the school where I teach, we have a very small class of year 9 students who are graduating. We are a new school and of course, not many kids would change school for their final year. So we have only 11 students - but they are a very special bunch. We love them all. That's why I was asked if we can make some textile project that they can leave behind, something to remind us of our first year-9 class.
I suggested a quilt and the kids liked the idea. I gave them each a piece of fabric and told them to do something with it - embroider, applique, whatever they want and they turned out great. However, as there is only 11 of them, I promised to make one myself, so we can put it together 3 x 4.

So this is my block for the 9Q class-quilt. I wanted to keep it simple, so as not to overpower their own work. But also wanted it to be beautiful. They like it. :)

And some details. I love the stick-figures. Didn't really plan them, just improvised as I was going.

Crazy Quilt challenge - March block

Here is my March block for the CQJP blog challenge. This is the one I like the most so far. I don't know how others do this, but I rarely have a real plan when I start. I just put pieces of fabric together and see where it leads me.
I think I have already written how I decided to use small pieces of embroidery (mostly cross stitch) that I have made and didn't finish or just used to try out things. In this case it is the little golden piece of linen with the white embroidery in the top left corner. I added a few more stitches to the unfinished piece.



Another thing I try to do on these pieces is to use some of the old textiles I managed to buy in different second-hand shops and flea-markets. Sweden is really a treasure-chest in this sense. Not long ago I found a little silk handkerchief for 5 krowns (about 50 eurocents). It had apparently been torn in the middle and someone tried to mend it very clumsily: folded the corners in the middle and added a patch of lace to hide the hole, also sewed the same lace all around. It was this lace that caught my attention, and it is the thing that runs down diagonally on this piece. A part of the silk handkerchief is also incorporated here. There was such a strong crease in the middle that I couldn't iron it out. So I decided to sew it down - that is the white line. Then I added some simple stem-stitch motifs, with different thicknesses. I also like the rick-rack that was a leftover piece in my stash.



This little round thing here is crocheted. I was trying out a tutorial for crocheted beads but I didn't like the look of it stuffed. I flattened it and it looked almost like a button. It was lying on my table for weeks, I didn't know what to do with it. Then the inspiration struck: I will embroider it. I used some white and some gold metallic thread.




Here you can see a piece of a golden ribbon I added as a border between two fabrics and a little spider-web flower.



I also love this green fabric, it is from some old clothes. I didn't iron it before adding it to the basic, I liked the wrinkled effect. I wanted to couch the ribbons but this was so slippery (and the golden one was too wide) that I decided to sew one stitch in the ribbon between the couching stitches. Then I added some bullion stitches.



All in all, I think this turned out more or less as my image of a crazy quilt - some interesting fabric and some simple embroidery - but not too much. I feel less is often more in these cases.
Sorry if I sound a bit too full of myself :) I am really happy about this little thing.

Crazy quilting, crochet and knitting

These are the things I have been working on recently.

First, I finished my February crazy quilt block for CQJP. It is all made of old clothes and leftover pieces. I love the little flower I cut out from an old piece of lace and apliqued it on.




Then, I have re-knitted my boyfriend's sweater that was supposed to be a Christmas gift :( Now the shoulders are ok but the sleeves are just a tiny bit short. I am not sure if I will have the energy to take it apart and redo it again. He might just hang it in his wardrobe and look at it sometimes. :(



And finally, tomorrow is our national holiday, and since I don't have any ribbon with the Hungarian national colours, I crocheted a kokárda to wear - it is a beautiful tradition for us.

Crazy quilt challenge february block and paper piecing

I have put together my February block for CQJP. I also started to put in some stitches but didn't get far yet.
This is what it looks like now:



I got a few comments on my January block, saying how it looked like old quilts, so I thought I would explain how I am doing them. I am not a quilter - though hope to be one sooner or later :) -, I haven't done much sewing either, so I don't have a huge stash of fabric. I do have some, though, that I have bought lately, mostly in second-hand shops and flea-markets, and also a pile of used clothes. These are the ones I am using.
I also got through my cross stitching things not long ago when I moved, and found a few small pieces that were practice pieces or unfinished smalls, and thought that crazy quilt blocks would be a good way to use them up. So I will try to add one to the blocks every month, if I have enough.
The piece in the Janauary block was to try out the celtic pattern I used for making 28 mini-bags as gifts when my class graduated. The one in this piece was just a funny experiment: once as I was drawing a cross stitch pattern, a computer-neird friend said: "Photoshop is still much better, you can use different layers in it." So, naturally, I sat down to show how I could use layers in cross stitch, using an organza ribbon.

I also would like to show my first paper-pieced pincushion. I used the English paper-piecing method, sewing by hand, then needle-turn appliqué. It is a bit wonky but I like it.



Somehow or other, as you may have noticed, I have made a heart :D :D Apparently, the Valentine-day craze has caught up with me. Who would have thought? :D :D

crazy quilt challenge - january block finished

I have finished my first block:

Crazy Quilt challenge - January

I have mentioned that I signed up for the Crazy Quilt block challenge here. This is my first block, still in progress, about 50% done, I think.
Originally I wanted all white fabric and white on white embroidery, but then couldn't resist some of those blues... and the rest just came. It is still not too colourful, though, and I like it this way. There was a week or two when I felt a bit stuck, didn't have any ideas on how to continue, but I did some more yesterday, and hope to continue with it at the weekend.

If you do crazy quilting, what is your method? I am really curious how others work on this. Do you make a plan before you start? Or do you let the piece "form itself"?

So here is my January block, as it looks today:

Crazy quilting

As we say in Hungarian: nagy fába vágtam a fejszémet. I am trying to cut down a really big tree. I joined the monthly crazy quilting challenge at http://www.cqjp2012.blogspot.com/ . This is going to be interesting and difficult, because I haven't done much crazy qulting, but what I have done, I really enjoyed. So I thought, as a preamble, I would post photos of my previous pieces. The first two are rather experiments, leading me to crazy qulting.











Well, I certainly hope I will make more and much better pieces than these. I have a great idea right now - but I am in a rush to finish my boyfriend's sweater I am knitting for Christmas - so it will have to wait.

So, from January, you can expect some posts with CQ. Wish me luck - and lots of time :).