kerrykatiecakes

Only a little while longer and Sharon B's Take it a Step Further Challenge will be starting up! I am pretty excited about this one for a number of reasons. It promises to be a great opportunity to stretch and grow a bit, to play round with design, and to test the limits. I believe that sign-up is closed but even if you didn't get in on it (and I could be wrong about the sign-up), it would still be fun to play along and there should be lots and lots of eye candy to eat up as people post what they have done. Yum - I can't wait!!

Can you believe I actually made something between Christmas and New Years? I can't! This was the source of my little "sanity breaks" during the hectic moments of the holidays. My local guild has started making little six inch teacup themed blocks, mostly pieced since the guild is predominantly "sane" quilters. These are put together like a nine patch to make small wall hangings that are given to guild members when they move away and have to leave the group. So, of course, mine had to be cq . The centre motif is a cross stitch teacup full of lilacs. I added a spider web and spider in the corner for luck and a largish silver flower for sparkle. The seams are all pretty simple: herringbone, cretan and feather stitch. I played around with beads and jewelry findings added to give it some more sparkle. Just a small little project but I am happy to think it will end up on a friend's wall in a new home as part of a reminder of friendship from "the girls...

Well, I hope everyone reading this is getting more stitching time in than me over the holidays! lol It seems like it is all cooking and cleaning, visiting and eating. A very enjoyable way to spend time with family and friends, of course, but I am anxious now for things to get back to normal and get a bit of stitching in. It was a lovely Christmas - cooked a thirty pound turkey with 20 cups of sausage stuffing in it. I had always wanted to cook a really big turkey so this was my chance. Now I am getting ready for New Years Eve since husband and daughter have been inviting people over left and right to celebrate with us. After that things should settle back to normal. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying themselves immensely. Hope you got lots of lovely gifts and had way too much to eat! I received lots of presents including a nice sized stash of my favourite Body Shop soap, chocolates, a new journal, pretty trinkets and, the one I am most anxious to try - a p...

This little wall hanging was the gift I received from Irene at the High River & District Handicrafts Guild Christmas party gift exchange. This guild is mostly made up of "sane quilters" but you'll notice that from the trees and the snowflakes - I think embellishing is contagious ! When she gave it to me, Irene gave me her blessing to keep going on the embellishments if I would like to. Right now I think it looks perfect the way it is but maybe before I put it away after Christmas, might add a star as Irene suggested or...? lol I think the crazy quilter's motto should be: Too much is still not enough! If you take a close look at the snowman Irene made you will see it is made up of three yo- yo's of different sizes. To me the center on the top one looks like the snowman's mouth - I think he must be singing! So, just wanted to show this off and say a big "thank you!" to Irene. I love it!

Now, these are better pictures, right? From the files at CQI I have copied the original pictures from these two DYB blocks Jill completed. I am much happier with these pictures, because they are very clear and allow you to see all Jill's stitching and ingenuity. They don't quite do justice to the sparkle etc. but you can't have it all! lol The little purse was constructed very simply. Basically two 6" DYB blocks sewn together on three sides and a lining inside made the same way. I added two beaded fringes to the bottom of the bag and a metallic cord strap. It went together quickly and easily and it makes me happy to know the blocks are out of my stash and out having a happy life somewhere!

We had a little gift exchange at my local guild last Friday, as I mentioned before. I decided to construct a small cq purse or pouch and used two DYB round robin block for the front and back. These particular blocks were both made for me by Jill Phillips so they related to each other nicely. The lady who received the bag seemed thrilled. I wish I had managed to get better pictures but these were taken on the way to the party/gift exchange in front of the ice machine at the gas bar! lol

Today was the Christmas party at my local guild, The High River & District Handicrafts Guild. We had a gift exchange and the theme was "snowmen" this year. So, to stay in the theme of things I included this little Christmas card I painted with my gift. It was my first little experiment with watercolours and has me wanting to try some more! It was a great little bit of fun and is a very user friendly medium.

What a wonderful surprise was waiting for me in my mailbox - an ATC from Hideko in Japan! Isn't it lovely? Hideko has the most wonderful talents - her stitching always blows me away with it's beauty and delicacy! Even on a tiny piece like an ATC the details are just wonderful! Thank you so much, Hideko! I am thrilled with this wonderful gift! You are too kind!

I had so much fun last night stitching this little dragonfly for a block I am working on. I got to use my favourite things - sparkly threads, furry threads and shiny beads! lol I received a lot of Rainbow Gallery specialty threads recently and this was the first time I got them out to see what I could do with them. The tail of the dragonfly is made of four bugle beads - I would have used five but four of that colour was all my bead soup would yield. The eyes were two larger beads. His body was just done in satin stitch with Artic Rays Wispy Fringe and the wings were Frosty Rays simply couched down. The finishing touches were his legs in simple straight stitches of one strand of good old DMC. I really love this little guy and the threads were fun to experiment with. I can't wait to see what else I can do with the others!