Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!!  2011.......WOW!  Just thinking about 2011 and how fast 2010 went.  In the year 2010 I had many, many changes in my life.  When things started happening they happened really fast.  At the beginning of November I started thinking of the coming year and all the things I would like to do and where I would like to end up at the end of 2011.  Not only in professional life but in my stitching life as well.

I decided in both places that it is time to go back to basics.  To go back and work from the beginning.  My motto for the year is:  "To go forward sometimes we have to take two steps back."  In that with every thing that I am working on for the year as of  January one I am in the "two steps back" mode.

Now in moving forward with stitching I am concentrating on the just basic stitches and how to build on them.  There are two blogs that I find inspiration on.  One of them is Kathy's blog Shawkl.  She has the TDiTM.  That is short for Twelve Dozen Stitches in Twelve Months.  It is the most AWESOME inspiration that you can get for your stitching.  Here is the address to her blog:  http://www.shawkl.com/ .

Now the next blog Kerry Kati Cakes has not only great eye candy but the BAS, that is short for Build A Seam.  Kerry not only puts up a seam to build on but she has tutorials on how to make the stitch.  She will also show pictures on how she builds on it.  You can take her great inspiration and then go from there!  Here is the link to her blog: http://kerrykatiecakes2.blogspot.com/2010/12/ahh-moments.html .

Now I don't want to leave out the books that I look at for inspiration.  There are three of them that I will be working from this year.  The first one is Dorthy Bonds little brown book entitled "Crazy Quilt Stitches".  I have had this book for years.  This book is the best for a quick reference for a basic stitch.

The next book one that I absolutely treasure.  I carry this book everywhere!  Is the Carol Samples book "Treasury Of Crazy Quilt Stitches".  I have said this once before and I am writing it down for posterity right now.  You will have to pry this book out of my cold dead hands!  For those of you who do not have this book let me just say you HAVE to get one!

The third book that I am taking my inspiration on this year is a book from Judith Baker Montano.  It is entitled "Floral Stitches".  For those of you who have never owned a book from JBM I have to let you know that everyone of her books are full of inspiration and she goes into great detail on techniques and methods for any crazy quilt project you would like to tackle.  All of her books have a stitch dictionary in the back of them.  I own five of her books and they are main staples of my CQ library.  I do have to let you know that "Floral Stitches" is my favorite inspiration book for many of my floral stitches.  In this book she shows you how to take inspiration from the flowers around you.


I can't count how many times I have heard from beginning CQ'ers "I just don't know what stitch to use" or "how do I do this stitch", or "what stitch do I put here?"  Here are my plans for the year for The Lost Pines Crazy Quilt Group:  We are going back to basics.  We will take one stitch a month and explore it.  I am going to show everyone how to "build your own" stitch dictionary. With drawing the stitches you want to use to taking a picture of your work and posting it in your on stitch book.  This is some of the basics in which I speak.  If you have this type of basic book with which to reference you will have the best inspiration of all!  It is one that will never end.  You can have a book of inspiration that interests you.

I have also thought on what about my blog and the followers.  I know that some of you have expressed that you wish you could be here to attend the meeting of The LPCQG.  This year I am going to bring The LPCQG to my blog.  I think that the topic of going back to the basics is of interest of all.  So for my blog followers I am going to help you go back to basics also.  Now is when you will need to go and grab a paper and pen I am going to give you a list of items you will need to go back to basics and be the master of your own inspiration!

Here is your Back to Basics list:

spiral or composition notebook
crayons or colored pencils
10 8inch blocks crazy patched
needles and floss
camera
glue sticks

The colors of the blocks and floss I will leave up to you.  When the year comes to an end we will all have a beautiful basic crazy quilt to show off to all our friends!

See you in the next post.

TTFN
The Lion