Saturday, June 23, 2012

Crazy Quilt Day 18

I know it is traditional to have a spider/spiderweb on a crazy quilt, as they were believed to bring good luck to the quilter.  Personally, I feel I have more than enough of them on my October block.  They simply did not seem fitting for the February block I am working on, so I have no intention of adding them.  Perhaps Mr. Spider disagreed.  Perhaps he wanted to protest.  Okay, maybe not; but, I sat down last night to work on my next seam and no more than inserted the needle into the fabric before I spied him.  He was larger than a silver dollar and nearly on my knee.  I'm not sure if he crept out from the crevice between two sections of our couch, or if he had been there for a while.  I do know I screamed.  Loud. I jumped up so fast my husband began laughing from the other room.  And that quick little fellow scurried over the back of the couch and disappeared.  On the bright side, our sofa is very well vacuumed.  My hubby even flipped the sections upside down and I cleaned every crevice in the wood and fabric underneath them  (though there was not much there, so we're not sure where my creepy visitor was living.  Just as I gave up hope of ever finding the not-so-little guy (and my peace of mind), Monkey nearly stepped on him because he blended in so well with the wood floors in the hallway.  Then my knight in shining armor (my husband) picked the big guy up by the legs and set him loose outside to feast on garden pests.

Quite some time after all the excitement, I actually did manage to make some progress on the February block.  I made my first loop-stitch seam using 2 strands of DMC white cotton floss beneath the "Be Mine" fabric.  I also added a button.  (This was not my first button of choice, but it looks MUCH better than the first one did.)

Loop stitch
Next, I used a new floss - it is another EdMar floss, but this one is LOLA (not Iris) 093.  I bought it because I liked the variegated pinks and blues.  I had no idea it would be so elastic.  My fears that the elasticity might make it difficult to work with were completely unfounded.  I liked it so much, I hope to begin growing a stash of other colors.  Using a single strand, I made 4 butterflies.  Four lazy daisy stitches constructed the bodies and straight stitches topped with colonial knots made the antennae.

Lazy Daisy, Straight Stitch and Colonial Knot Butterflies












As you can see, February is almost finished.  I hope you all have a great day!

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