kerrykatiecakes

I often mention Crazy Quilting International (CQI) here with relation to round robins, swaps, and the annual retreat.  Cathy has just written a great article on the CQI blog explaining what the group is all about.  If you are interested, check it out!

First of all, the winner of last week's giveaway (thanks to Random.org) is Mosaic Magpie.  I  will have the kits out in the mail to you today, Debbie!  Enjoy! Sorry I am so late getting this posted!  I think that rather than only leave you with two days to comment and enter, I will leave this go until Friday the 13th of August.  I know that means I am missing a week but it has been wild here at the campground and doesn't look like things will calm down this week either. This week I am celebrating it being closer to the end of the camping season and closer to the time I get to go home!  lol - everyone looks at me funny when I say that I am looking forward to the end of summer when winters here are so long but I miss my home and family! Since there is still some summer left and I know everyone with children off school might be running out of ideas, this time I am giving away something full of ideas you can do with the little ones.  It is an is...

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the new issue of CQMagOnline , which is now up.  There is some great stuff in this issue!  Of course, I am partial to the article that Lynn wrote about AAQI and my little quilt I donated.  Another article that I am taking as a challenge is Julie Hocking's "Its All About Scale".  She has made a fantastic miniature crazy quilt.  I have been thinking about trying the same type of project since my friend Lorna has been sharing her passion for dollhouses and minatures with me.  I have gone as far as to dig out a kit for building a dollhouse from my stash.  Of course the doll house is just a means to an end!  I can't wait to start making all kinds of minature needlework to go in the house!  Looking at Julie's wonderful quilt and seeing the techniques she used is really inspiring me! It was also exciting to read what Leslie wrote in an article about the Making Memories quilts made by CQI members - this ...

I finished embellishing this block for Cathy in the Pansy DYB (Do Your Block) Round Robin at CQI.  I chose this block to work on because I loved the colour combinations.  The first thing I did on this block was the purple butterfly in the corner, the one from the tutorial the other day.  I had two gorgeous little pansy buttons/beads so I built a seam treatment to highlight them. I dyed  a piece of lace trim with Adirondack alcohol inks to go along the pansy patch at the bottom right hand corner and attached it with translucent purple seed beads. The pansy appliques in the bottom left hand corner and along the right hand side were cut from a gorgeous piece of pansy ribbon I have been hoarding and I used Steam a Seam to attach them and buttonhole stitched around with Balgers braid in a gold/silver mix.  The button cluster I built because I wanted to use of my glass Czech buttons, the green one, and the other buttons are shell and a vintage glass button....

Here is the butterfly tutorial as promised.  I keep making small changes in the way I make them so all I can say is that this is the way I made this one. First you will need some fabric with realistic butterflies repeating in the design.  As you can see, I have already used this fabric once before.  Cut out two identical butterflies from the fabric.  These are rough cut - you will need to cut them out closer following the outline of the butterfly, clipping in the corners.  Or you can wait until you have stitched them together first before trimming them and then you will not have to contend with problems with the fabric fraying. Here is where I detoured this time. Usually I would pin the two butterflies with right sides together, matching them up well, and then stitch around most of the edges, leaving a space for turning. Then I would turn it right side out and use a ladder stitch to close the hole. Turning the little wings can be pretty fiddly. In...

Congratulations to the winner of last week's giveaway!  The randon number generator chose #2 so the winner is Mamaccessories with this comment:                I have been following your blog for about 1 week and I love it! If you will send me your mailing information I will get this right out to you!  If you need a reminder, last week's giveaway items  were the current issue of A Needle Pulling Thread (a great Canadian needlework magazine), The Floral Elegance Any Year Diary, and the Blessings Journal.  This week I celebrated my birthday so will keep celebrating with another giveaway. For this week's giveaway, I dove into the stash and came up with a variety of complete kits of one kind or another. The first kit is this Winnie the Pooh cross stitch kit.  Everything is included - originally I was thinking it would look cute done up on a jean jacket using waste canvas.  Or mayb...

I am happy that I have got back to stitching after being stalled for so long.  This is one of Cathy's blocks in the Pansy DYB round robin at CQI.  DYB stands for Do Your Block - each person in the round robin makes up six blocks, each six inches square, and as they come around each of the other five round robin participants completely embellishes an entire block.  Usually when you get your blocks back there is an empty one left for you to work up but in this case we have decided to each do some work on the 6th block so that it is complete when it returns home to.  So, that is why this one is the "shared block".   Carolyn was the first to stitch on Cathy's blocks so she chose this one to be the shared block and added the purple beaded seam and the gorgeous dragonfly.  I added two seams - the herringbone/cretan stitch combination and the light mauve sheaf stitch one.  I also added this little butterfly motif to keep Carolyn's dragonfly company....