The 2011 Lion's Stocking Swap

It is time to announce the annual Lion's Christmas Stocking Swap!  I am all excited about this years swap as I have picked a theme that I think everyone will enjoy.  This years theme is...................................Birds!

I remember the Christmas crafts that my mother did one year with the bird theme.  It just seemed to make the holiday so much more magical and sparkleing.  Sometimes I wish I could frame my memories of that time and hang them on the wall for everyone to see.  My mother does not have the time for crafts and needle work these days.  She works for the University of Texas and is busy with her duties as the High Priestess of the Ben Hera Temple.  I hope that she will find some time during her retirement to do some.  She is a very talented lady!

Now on to the guidelines!



Height: Stockings should be no taller then 11 inches high and no shorter than 8 inches high.

Width: Stockings should be no wider then 8 inches wide and no narrower then 4 and 1/2 inches wide.

Attention: Please, line the stockings in case your swap partner would like to use them for more than decorations!

You can send up to 4 stockings, stockings are to be hand embellished.(please no glue)

This swap will be a centralized swap. Stockings are to be mailed to me no later than October 15, 2011.  I will mail them back to you on November 1, 2011.  Sign up will be from now until September 1, 2011.  Please do not forget the return postage, Swapers from other countries can send a bribe goodie and I will pay your return postage.

You can email me privetly for my address at glynpg@yahoo.com.

Please, remember to swap onto others!

TTFN
The Lion

Let's Talk

Today I had one of the best phone calls that I have had in a long time.  One of the best friends that I will ever have (and I have never met her in person) gave me a solution to a couple of long standing projects that have been stagnating.  She completely took them off of my hands.  This is one of the biggest reliefs that I have had in a long time.  After our conversation I sat down and cried for ten minuets.  That is how big of a relief this is.

I have been having some problems in my life that have prevented me from doing what I would like to be doing.  Slowing me down so to speak.  This lady has been one of my biggest supporters and not judging.  I don't trust easy and it is easy to judge someone when you don't get to meet them face to face.  She has the same problem and it is amazing that we have become such good friends.  I wish that everyone could know her in the way I get to know her.  I have a feeling that if we do meet in person that we would create so much havoc that our husbands would divorce us.  I think that someone knew what they were doing by placeing us so far away from each other!

We in the stitching community know each other by our postings and emails and by pictures of our work.  Most of us get to know each other pretty well even though we live on the other side of the world from each other.  It is that communication thing even though it is through email.  We also have to remember that by not ever seeing a person face to face we can also damage that person through the email.

I remember one year I participated in a swap.  It was one of the best swaps that I had ever been in.  It was awesome and it almost did not finish.  One of the more respected members of the stitching community that we have on line put out on some of the Yahoo lists that this person was not trust worthy.  It was a mistaken identity so to speak.  It crushed this nice lady who live life through the Internet due to health issues.  Six of us stayed in the swap.  Due to health reasons she did not mail off the swap like she had wanted.  She had been in the hospital when the mail out date came around.  I did have to wait to receive my swap.  I did get it and I am still using stash from that swap.  Beautiful trims and lace.

After the swap this lady being crushed and her reputation ruined in the on-line stitching community she started losing passion for her Crazy Quilting.  She dropped off the lists.  We had become friends and I kept up with her through email.  She passed away last year.  I got to enjoy a friendship by just sticking it out with her and reaching out to her.  I think that I am richer for it.

During my time of having problems my friend has stuck by me often finding solutions to the immediate problems.  Others have not.  They have been quick to judge.  Sending terse emails.  Claiming that they are leaders.  But are judgements and terse emails what leaders do?

My question to you is:  Did you throw your nose in the air and judge?  Did you say things that were not very nice?  Is this what makes a leader?

WHAT MAKES A LEADER?

Did anyone ever think to contact me to ask what in the world is going on?  Do you care about others as a leader should or are you out for your own gain?  Your own fame and recognition?  Even if you are not a leader do you see something that is not right and judge or do you even think to reach out to see what is going on and ask if you can help?  Are you a doer and thinker or do you just want to follow gossip and judge others thinking that is your right?

In writing this post I am putting the past behind me and with the help of a friend am completing two long over due projects.  I am looking forward to the future and where my art will take me.

TTFN
The Lion

Do You Ever Think About Letters?

Do you ever think about letters in your embroidery??  How about just a monogram on your crazy quilt?  I know that I have many books that have been published by our favorite authors.  Like Judith Baker Montano and Marsha Michler.  There are many other authors that have great "alpha inspiration" but have you gone to a site or a blog that offers free vintage photos and other things and looked at their "alpha offerings" and just passed them up?  Have you ever looked at them really close and said this vintage alphabet would look great on my crazy quilt?  Can you see it embroidered with flowers and beads on your crazy patch?  I do.  I see these alphabets dressed up all kinds of ways.

I frequently spot really great vintage alphabets that come from other sites and are free for you to use for your inspiration.  One of my favorite spots is The Vintage Moth.  (http://www.thevintagemoth.blogspot.com/) Here is the alphabet I found this morning:

This french alphabet is so elegant and feminine.  It is easy to see this one dressed up with embroidery flowers and beads. 

If you are looking for alphabets you can practically find them every where in antique shops, you library.  It is very easy to find the alphabets on the web.  I found these real quick this morning:

This one is from http://www.frenchknots.com/ they have a beautiful site full of inspiration.

These amazing Victorian letters are from http://www.freevectorgallery.com/ .  Can you just imagine what you can do with this alphabet?

This alphabet I found at http://www.funphotoeditor.blogspot.com/ .  I really like this one it is very artistic and elegant.  I really can see all kinds of ways all of these alphabets can be embroidered on our crazy patch blocks.

Now I pose this question to you: How do you see these alphabets on your crazy patch block?
Just take a minuet and think about it.  How would you embroider and alphabet on your block?

This is the challenge I make to you: Take one of these alphabets and embroider a monogram on your crazy patch block.

How will you embroider it?  With floss?  With perle cotton/silk? With silk ribbon?  With a combination of all?  Will you embroider flowers with the letters?  How about beads?

What possibilities!  Please take up my challenge!  Let me see what you can come up with.  Please come back and post a link to you creation.  I would love to see it!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

TTFN
The Lion.

Let's Talk Stocking Swap

I have a new computer.  Yes, I broke down and got one while my PC is in the hospital for computer STD.  My darling son the apple of my eye decided to go on porn sites with my hub of the Crazy Quilting world.  So my poor computer is infected.  On the up swing of it all I decided that it was time to get my lap top that I had been thinking of getting.  Now I can carry everyone to work with me and "play" at lunch!  I am working on adding all of my printers and cameras onto this computer so that I can add up-to-date photos of all my work.  In the mean while................Let's talk about: The Lions Stocking Swap.

I promised myself that I would not take so long to announce it this year so that all my cyber friends from other countries can plan on being in on all the fun!  Now I am thinking on the theme this year.  HHHHUUUUuuuummmmmm............

The first year it was good old Santa Clause.  Last year it was Angels.  There are many, many more things that we think of when we think of Christmas.  What do you think of when you think Christmas?

I have been toying with several themes.  One of them is birds.  I remember one Christmas my mother made glass balls with birds on them.  She found paper Christmas napkins with birds on them.  She kind of rough tore the picture of the birds out and glued them to the Christmas balls.   Then she glued clear glitter on them and made them look frosty and snowy.  She also made center piece candles that way also.

AAAHHhhhh the memories!  Christmas is a magical time of the year.  I LOVE Christmas!

So what do you think??  Are there any suggestions on the theme this year?

TTFN
The Lion

My Time Away

No, it was not work this time that has taken me away from my art.  To begin with my mother was in an accident in Dallas.  She went to stop at a red light and the guy behind her did not.  She thought that she was okay but started feeling faint.  She was transported to the hospital where we found out she has an enlarged heart.  She is home now but she is on a heart monitor because her heart rate keeps dropping below 50 beats per minuet.  She is fighting the prescribed treatment.  She of course wants a quick fix that will never happen.  Mothers gotta love them!

One other big thing that happened is I lost my best friend of 15 years.  He was blind and old and I knew that the day would come........  My cocker spaniel Minnie Me left for heaven and I just have not been right since.  Every time I think that I am better I break down and cry again.  I know that I will be okay but in the mean time I am going to pick myself up and get back into the game again.

My plans are to get pictures taken of my blocks that I have done for The Lost Pines Crazy Quilt Group and get them posted.  I will finish up a swap project and get it out next weekend.  I have a couple of other blocks that I need to get embellished and put into the mail.  OH!  Lets not forget the Lions Stocking Swap!  I will be announcing that within the next month.  Also if you live in Texas and in the Bastrop area, I will be planning a weekend block party.  It is going to be a retreat of sorts.  I will be making plans for that.

Here is the next thing that I am going to be doing.  I will be writing a couple of posts for K.N.A.S.S. the StitchMap blog.  You ought to take a peak at it.  You just might want to join Map!

TTFN
The Lion

Flavor Stitches

In the month of January The Lost Pines Crazy Quilters worked with "Flavor Stitches".  I know that most of you are asking what are flavor stitches???  Flavor stitches by The Lions definition are stitches that can be used with other stitches to build your seams and add interest.  These stitches are: Fly Stitches, French Knot, Lazy Daisy and Straight Stitch.

These are the only stitches that are used on the block for this month.  The next two pictures are of the example block that I did for the LPCQG.

Using many different combinations of just the Fly Stitch, Straight Stitch, Lazy Daisy and French Knot you can create a very beautiful block.  In working on this block I also learned some things.  The biggest one is that as an "encruster" I can encrust with nothing but stitches.  As you can see from my picture there is nothing but stitches, as a friend of mine says, my fabric can't breath.

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Now here is where you learn what you are to use your composition books and map pencils for.  As you can see from my pictures I have a book not a composition book but a journal.  I have quite a few of these laying around the house that I use for notes on anything from crafts to designing a Crazy Quilt.  I pick up 4 or 5 at a time when I find them for a dollar a book.

I chose to use one of the nicer journals for the making my "Study of Stitches" book.  In this book I am taking the one stitch a month for the rest of the year and making notes on how to build my seams.  As you can see I have already started with the "Flavor Stitches".

As you can see from the pictures of the pages I mixed the colors to define the different stitches you will use for the seams.  Under the map color drawn "seam" you can see that I described the seam for future reference.

In the many books that we purchase there are the author's favorite seams that they use.  We might use them and we might not.  This is where this book of seams comes in handy.  This book is of the seams that YOU use or have used written down for future reference.  You might have a seam in it the you use only once but it is a seam that you have used.  You never know when you might use it again.

Feel free to explore all combinations of seam treatments.  Take notes on them.  Enjoy your crazy quilting!

TTFN

The Lion

Putting Together A Block

Let's talk about putting blocks together.  When I learned how to put together crazy patch blocks I was a young woman and my grandmother taught me.  To begin with she told me that they were very easy.  Which to find out they really are easy to put together.  She said start with a piece of fabric in the middle and go around and around until the block is filled.  A little vague right? I did figure out how to put them together a little better in my old age!  There are times that I put together a block just like she taught me.  Is it wrong?  I don't think so.  There are so many crazy quilts out there where the maker did not follow today's rules or even yesterdays rules, they just picked a piece of fabric and put it in the center of the block and just sewed around and around until the block is full.  Many antique crazy quilts follow a pattern that is not crazy patched, they are patched in some of the traditional quilt patterns of the day with some of the most wonderful stitching that has ever been seen.

  There are many ways to put crazy patch blocks together.  As many as there are teachers out there.  Even my rules and methods will differ from others.  Many teachers will get down to business with you and teach you right.  Others will tell you there are no rules.  Well there are a few rules that you will need to know in order to make your stitching easier.

So lets take a look at piecing a block.

First I figure out how big I want to make the block.  Lets say I want to make a quilt out of blocks 8x8inches.  I will measure out a square block on "backing fabric" that is 9x9 inches. (Backing fabric by The Lions definition is the base fabric that you will crazy piece on.)  After I cut it out I will take my ruler and measure an inch into the block and then draw my "guideing lines".  To the Lion guide lines are lines that are put on the block so that I can stitch a little further out so that when the blocks are stitched together there are no gaps on the block that are bare of stitches.  (When we get further along in the year you will see what I am talking about when I start putting this quilt together.)  As you can see from the picture below I have already done this with my backing fabric

Now here is where the putting together the block gets more interesting.  You need to find a small piece of fabric to put in the center of the block.  It should be anywhere between 2 to 3 inches in diameter.  Now lets talk about the center piece.  I usually start with one that is the shape and color and texture that "tickels my fancy".  This goes back to my grandmother and her put a piece of fabric in the middle and sew around and around.  Some times this piece has four sides sometimes it has five sides.

Lets now talk about sides and today's standards.  Today and maybe even in my grandmothers day the standards say start out with a middle piece that has five sides.  As you can see from all my pictures I sometimes start out with a four sided piece.  That is my bad habit from my grandmother.  Is it wrong?  I am not going to debate that but for all purposes in today's CQ you will need to start out with a five sided piece.  One day when we do have CQ standards and guidelines for show quality quilts they more than likely say that your middle piece needs to have five sides.  So DO NOT get into my bad habit in picking up a piece of fabric with four sides.  Start out right and choose one with five sides.


After it is in the center of the block that is where you find another piece of fabric and sew it on the edge of your center fabric.  You can see here in the picture what I am talking about.


As you follow the pictures you can get the idea on how you should just keep sewing around the center piece.  Just like my grandmother said just get a piece of fabric and put it in the middle and sew around and around until you fill up the fabric.  She was so very right in that description even with todays standards.

Now let me get you to put out the idea that you have to search through your fabric pile or you have to cut "just the right piece" of fabric.  You can find the fabric in the next color and texture that you want and sew it on the next edge.  You can find a larger piece of fabric to sew on the block.  I actually prefer to find a larger piece of fabric to sew on.  It helps to keep "gaps" out of the fabric.  As you can see from the picture below where I did sew a larger piece of fabric then I found another piece and stitched it onto the block over the top of it.

Now here is the trick every beginner needs to know.........take you scissors and cut off the excess fabric at the seam.  You can see what I did from my picture below.

As you can see from the picture below the excess fabric has been cut off and the pink piece of fabric is ready to be pressed into place.  The orange piece takes on a whole new shape after this process.

The excess fabric needs to be cut off.  If you are asking why, the reason is you have the backing fabric and the top fabric to go through when you start your embroidery.  If you leave excess fabric you will have that layer to go through also.  This makes it rough when pulling your needle and floss through the block.  It also makes it harder to get your stitches the way you want them.  Another reason is some fabrics you can see straight through.  Like that orange piece that I cut off, you could have seen that straight through the pink piece.

You just continue in that manner until you block is full.  Then you have a crazy patched block that looks like the picture below.

Turn over your block and with a rotary cutter cut off the excess fabric from around your base block.  As you can see from the picture below my guide lines.  After you cut the excess fabric off you want to stitch those guide lines.  You can do it by hand or by machine.  I stitch them by machine.

After it is all done you have a perfect block for stitching.  As you can see there really are just a few rules in piecing a block.  They are there to make things easier on you and your stitching.

For my next post you are going to find out what you are going to do with the composition book and colored pencils!

Please if you have any questions on the post just ask.  I will be happy to answer them.  You can either post them here on the blog or email me privately.

TTFN
The Lion