Annies Crazy World

 
 
 
  • About

    This is Annie Whitsed's Crazy World a world where I stitch the joys and chaos of life into beautifull crazy quilts. email annie@loopylace.com
October 2005
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Little flowers all in a row October 31st, 2005

This weekend I worked on the left hand wall and have stitched little flowers all in a row…I have repeated some flowers from the other side and added some different ones.

little flowers all in a row

October 28th, 2005

I have started adding garden to the second side of my bag…The second wall isn’t going to have has many flowers covering it so I have used trimmed the bottom with some fluffy grass looking thread, I have added some bushes in the bottom corner to balance the ones on the other side and this afternoon I got the trunk for a Whisteria stitched, I used a piece of wire in one branch so that it sticks up above the wall to give the top of the Whisteria a little shape…I have also painted the path.

a painted path

Fabrics for All that Jazz Block October 27th, 2005

I have been pulling fabrics to make my block for the All That Jazz quilt. There is a lot more boxes I could look through but I think that I have enough to start. Most of them are from the OZ/USA swaps with the crazyquilt list.

fabrics for All that Jazz

How Much is Enough? October 25th, 2005

How Much is enough? How do you know when to stop? commonly asked crazy quilt questions that have no one answer as the answer for each project is different depending on such things as what funtion the project is for, how difficult the stitching (denium is tough and hard on the hands to stitch), how much time you have and the personal likes of the maker and who the project is for (some people like a no fuss look, for others the more detail the better).

I was asking myself this question last night when I was adding flowers to the garden…In the wee small hours of this morning I decided that enough was enough…the more detail I put on this side the more I have to put on the other side to Balance it and the denim is tough to sew and I am running out of time and…and I still have insects and birds and little creatures and Fairys to add…Yes there is enough flowers in the Garden.

enough flowers

Embellished Applique October 24th, 2005

Yesterday I was wandering how I could describe the techniques that I am using to make my bag..Although I am using crazy quilt embellishments and I will draw heavily on my crazy quilt stash before it is finished, it is Not Crazy quilting….I am am adding embroidered detail but not enough to call it an embroidery…Thus far it is more applique than anything else, applique was the first quilting technique that I learnt, I used to do detailed picture applique and this has reminded me of those works but with all the beads and charms that I will add what I am doing goes beyond applique…after thinking through all these elements I decided that I would call it “Embellished applique”…

While I was writing the above I had the camera batteries recharging so that I could show you the stitching progress….I got a little carried away with the rocks and they not only surround the pond, they also line the path. the rocks at the front are padded the ones at the back aren’t and a lot of the rocks are only partially pieced on so that they have little pockets/caves for me to slip things behind the rocks…I have also done a test paint on a scrape of denim and am thinking that I will paint the path on, I was going to applique pathing stones but I am feeling as if I want a change of texture and a painted path will do that…

Rock works

A Pond in the forground October 23rd, 2005

I found a small piece of fancy fabric that I think will make good water and have stitched on a pond shape in the forground of my garden and I have made a few rocks to go around the pond, I have stuffed the rocks with a little batting to make them 3 dimensional.

garden pond

learning how to stitch sequins October 21st, 2005

The First thing that I wrote onto my To Do List was Shoe Block for Lynne…being an appliqued shoe on a 6 inch Pink background and I knew that she would like a high heeled strappy shoe like the ones I wore with my Bridesmaids dress

shoe model To get a pattern I photographed my shoe, resized the image to fit the block and elongated the hight just a little to make it look even more elegant….I nearly took fright when I saw just how small the pieces were but I have appliqued tiny pieces in the past so decided to give it a go, it was fiddely but I am glad that I perservered, the image below is actual size.

The finished Shoe

I made tiny roules for the sole and straps and I used a piece of leather for the upper sole at the front …when I went looking for the string of red sequins I found the bag of sequins but there were no red ones in it, I am sure that I have some but had no idea where to even start looking and decided that it would be easier and quicker to buy some more but first I asked Sharon if she had any, she had loose red sequins and as I was thinking that it would still be easier to buy some that where already stitched together, she found some that where smaller, making them better scale for the size of the shoe, as well as being a better colour to match the fabric in the shoe which made it worth sewing the individual sequins onto a ribbon, having decided to use them Sharon had to teach me the backstitch to sew them on with…for the buckle I pinched a short length of my son’s silver wire and bent it into a buckle shape…I was only hoping to make something that looked like a buckle and I was delighted to find that though the spike that goes through the hole doestn’t move like a real buckle it does work so that the buckle can be done up and undone.

making buckle 1
buckle
buckle done up

I gave it to Lynne at tonights Canberra Crazy Quilters meeting, all the members of the group have made her a shoe for a significant birthday and now that she has mine she will be able to make them up into a quilt

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My Garden Grows October 17th, 2005

I embroidered some Colonial knot flowers onto the wall while it was a seperate piece and easier to work on, I probably should have done a few more because it is now harder to stitch but my desire to have it stitched in place got the better of me and I have stitched the wall to the Jeans, I left the top of the wall between the pocket and the fly open so that I have an extra little pocket…I like the way it looks and I have now started to add smaller beaded flowers to the forground of the Garden.

the garden grows

Back to My Bag October 15th, 2005

When I started my Bag I got very excited and had more ideas than I had space on the bag or time to stitch…and now having let several weeks slip by without touching it I have even less time…Time now for a reality check…..I picked it up last week and decided that the first thing to do was to get the background layer in place and I have stitched the first wall into place, I stitched the top of the pocket to the back of the wall before stitching the sides and bottom,so that The pocket is still functional.

stitching wall to pocket

I saved time by only stitching the bricks that will be visible to the second wall.

wall before flowers

And I have started covering it with plants and flowers cut from fabric and appliqued on.

background flowers

Aside a lack of time I had been having problems marrying my embellishments to the structure of the Jeans…the wall had to go up where it covers the pockets and because the fly in the centre interrupted my design I have postioned the wall so that the fly is partially covered and the gap for the gate so that it draws the eye away from the fly, my problem being that If I am covering the features of the Jeans I might as well not use Jeans to start with? but it was the love of Jeans that excited me about the bags of fun in the first place…Yesturday I had a light bulb moment that actually solved both problems…I won’t embellish the Back which will save time and by leaving the back looking like Jeans I can let the embellishments flow a little way around to the back taking the eye onto the Jeans and then the jeans will flow back into the embellishments as the loops of the Jeans and the button will say Jeans and the cloads under the loops flow down into my embellishment.

Chinese symble for love October 12th, 2005

I have been helping my sister make a commission for 2 Black Kimono style summer dressing gowns with the chinese symble for love appliqued on the back and a smaller size on the front.
Chinese Symble

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