Crazy Quilting!

Well, I am stuck as far as my Celtic fair quilts go. I have batting that is the perfect shape for one of them, and backing for the other. I am going to have to wait until I can purchase them before I can continue on that.

While that is bad news (especially since I have a deadline with them), I also have some good news! I started working again on a back-burner project and am really enjoying it.

My great-grandma was quite a seamstress and had a lot of fun buying fabric, and more fabric, and more fabric...you get the picture. Well, when she had to stop sewing, she gave me boxes and boxes of fabric and partially finished quilts (and other projects) and quilting books. What riches! One of the things she passed on was a bag of velvets she had planned on making a crazy quilt with.

The only problem is that I am not a crazy quilt sort of quilter. So, I found a pattern that I loved that is called "Mixed Up but Not Crazy". (See some of the squares above?) Being ambitious, I decided that it would be an entirely hand made quilt, but being cautiously ambitions, it is only a small wall hanging quilt. ; ) I am hoping to be able to get some nice ribbons for it in the fair next summer (hopefully no one will enter a magnificent queen-sized hand-sewn quilt this year!) I even have a spot all planned for it to hang, pending my husband's approval.

I have some of the pieces put together, and some that are still in the process. I am doing crazy quilt embroidery on ten of the blocks I got one block all embroidered this morning. I was pleased with my accomplishment, but felt a little low on creative juices, so I googled crazy quilt embroidery. Wow! I am excited, inspired, and a bit overwhelmed. I am so excited that I am going to share links to a few of my favorites.

This one relies heavily on silk ribbon embroidery (oh, how I want to get my fingers into that; it is so beautiful!)

This one is more of a tutorial. I love her creative use of beads, different threads, and tread colors in addition to stitch patterns to make her embroidery come alive.

And this one is perhaps my favorite of all as it uses shades of ivory and white to make a serene and subdued, yet dramatic statement.