Annies Crazy World

 
 
 
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    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
January 2009
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My Band Sampler 136 – Stitch Explorer – Detail 839 Pink it Is January 18th, 2009

Stitch Explorer Chicken Scratch a

Sharon’s 2009 stitch challenge is Stitch Explorer.

The January embroidery style is Chicken Scratch, a technique traditionally done on gingham…I went looking through my fabric stash and could find 1/2 inch, 1/8th inch and 1/16th inch gingham but not a scape of 1/4 inch could I find. I thought about making do with one of them but before I explore any stitch I like to do a sample of the traditional/basic stitch so when visiting a friend on Saturday night we searched through her fabric stash for some and had just about given up when we found a small scrape of 1/4 inch pink gingham, so Pink it is.

I stitched the gingham onto my sampler and worked this first sample with a white silk thread, thank you Primrose Designs for the Chicken scratch instructions.

I have added a Stitch Explorer Category for those that would like to follow just the stitch explorer posts.

Blankets of Love January 17th, 2009

Today My Quilting friendship group got together for a sewing day to make Blankets of Love…Blankets of Love are small quilts made to comfort the family’s of still born babies, a 24 inch square quilt to wrap the baby and a matching 6 inch square quilt for the parents to keep.

Jenny and I made this pair starting with a wonderful fish fabric and then raiding Jenny’s fabric stash for what would go with it.

Blankets of Love

Box Top – Detail 838 – Top of the Cream Oval January 15th, 2009

Detail of lace and beadsLast night I said “At this stage the cream oval looks a bit wonky but lace will smooth out the top edge” and that is just what happened tonight when I stitched the lace on around the top of the cream oval.

I added beads to the lace for a little sparkle.

lace with beads

Box top – progress join number 3 January 14th, 2009

The back of the joins on box topI cut the base fabric for my box top into 5 odd shaped pieces and tonight I have stitched the third join, I have photographed the back because it shows where the joins are more clearly than the front does.

At this stage the cream oval looks a bit wonky but lace will smooth out the top edge and I have a crazy quilted heart that will overlap onto the cream in the bottom left corner that will cover the irregularity of the piecing in that area

Joining blocks for my box top

On My Box Top – Detail 837 January 13th, 2009

Beaded Detached Chain Stitch

Last night I did a beaded detached chain stitch on my sampler, tonight I have done the same stitch on my box top.

My Band Sampler 135 – Detail 836 January 12th, 2009

Beaded Detached Chain Stitch

When I was visiting Sharon last week she had a copy of Nancy Eha’s new book Bead Creative like crazy (available from beadcreative), I only had a quick glance through it and the stitch that caught my eye was this Beaded Detached Chain Stitch…I had to guess at how many beads to use and after guessing 9 I wanted to try different numbers so I did a central feature with 7 beads on the smaller rings and 12 beads on the larger one.

My Band Sampler 134 – Detail 835 January 11th, 2009

2009

Castle Garden Update January 10th, 2009

Castle gardenAnother beautiful, not to hot, not to cool day perfect for working in the garden and this morning we finished cementing the path and started washing bricks to build a garden wall around the edges.

A seam on my Box top – Detail 834 January 9th, 2009

Double knot stitch

Double knot stitch Done with 8 strands (so that it would be thick to make big knots) of Madeira Silk.

Castle Update January 8th, 2009

After a few steamy hot days we have had a cool change, perfect for working outdoors and my nephew came over to help me…Originally the garden was joined to the castle wall but I have had a change of plan, firstly I thought that a buttress would be cute, then I decided to put a moat between the garden and the castle wall with the buttress as one end and then thinking that it would be nice to have a seat beside the moat, thinking small scale secret fairy garden…

…so over the last few months I have broken out a portion of the garden wall to make a path in and excavated the area, I had wanted to be able to walk down into the area but sometimes sense prevails and a lake in the area after a thunder storm suggested that I should build the level up so that water will drain out of the area…umm that meant larger amounts of concrete than I am able to mix which has stalled progress for some time…then in comes my nephew asking if I had any jobs that he could earn some extra pocket money, he is strong enough to mix the cement by the wheel barrow full which he did while I spread and smoothed it.

After a few hours I was exhausted but I am thrilled with how much we got done and he is coming back tomorrow morning to finish the path.

Castle garden