My First Round Robin Post #4

I was eager to work on Hazel's block the first moment I saw its picture.  And the work Mardeen did on the block was absolutely gorgeous.  Every time I looked at it, I admired another detail I had missed.

Hazel's block after Mardeen's work.

There were SO many ideas in my mind for this block.  I expected it to be an easy one to embellish.  It began that way, but then I struggled and felt more like a novice than I have felt to date.

Many of my ideas were so involved, I feared they would overpower the frog prince, so I decided to try to keep it a bit more simple.  I planned to cross-stitch a frog on the small gray triangle, add a flower border and a dragonfly to the light green triangle, and add a silk ribbon butterfly to the red above the frog.

I made the frog using the Baby Afghan Safari cross-stitch pattern I used to make my oldest son's baby blanket.  I added a pale yellow butterfly (similar to the shade of fabric to the right of the frog) to fill up the gray section.

Next, I used DMC 895 (a dark green similar to the fabric above the gray section) to make stems and leaves and DMC 4077 (a variegated yellow pulling colors from the frog) to make the yellow flowers.  Yellow glass seed beads (size 11/0) added a pretty sparkle.  

The read patch looked challenging to me.  I wanted to embellish the seam between it and the blue block below, without pulling the eye away from the frog's crown.  So, I used DMC 666 (the closest red I could find) to make a chain-stitch along the seam.  The silk ribbon butterfly followed a pattern for an Australian Beak Butterfly from The Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible: The Essential Illustrated Reference to Designs and Techniques.

At this point, I requested advice from a friend.

Next, I added the dragonfly to the green block.  Then, I panicked. Both butterflies and the dragonfly were flying in the same direction.  I also feared there was too much yellow.  In addition, I hoped to add an orange dragonfly, but I feared it would stand out too much with all of the softer colors.  So, I conspired with my friend, Crystal.  (I love her work, you can see why at Crystal's Crafty Adventures.)  I shared a few photos, my concerns, my ideas, and requested her opinion.

I loved Crystal's idea of combining yellow and orange; so, I made a couple of butterflies using one strand of yellow and one strand of orange floss, in addition to adding the orange dragonfly.  Then, I found a shade of green similar to that of the fabric to stitch in the flight patterns for each insect.

On the red block, I wanted to add some blue and add something to the seam; however, I really did not want to compete with the frog's crown.  So, I ended up making a few small blue and green flowers.  Next, I added a smaller, white butterfly.  In red, I stitched in the flight patterns.

I hope Hazel likes the additions to her block.  I mail it on tomorrow and look forward to seeing how Shannon and Crystal bring the rest of the block to life.

Hugs,
Renee

Warrior Dash 2012

The final obstacle on the course.

In a few of the goals I have posted, I mentioned training for the Warrior Dash.  The Oregon Warrior Dash was held last weekend, September 8th and 9th.  It is a 5K run (3.1 miles) with several obstacles along the way.  It looked challenging and I heard it was fun; so, I decided to give it a try.  I ran with 3 of my favorite people, and had a blast!

Let me just say, I am not an athlete.  In school, I was always thrilled to have a friend chosen as a team captain in PE, because it meant I would not be one of the last 3 students chosen.  I saw a t-shirt at an Under Armour outlet store that read, "I don't jog, I run."  Well, I am the opposite.  I don't run, I jog - if you want to call it that!

We heard the course had a lot of hills.  I guess I was picturing something like the Portland Shamrock Run (in previous years, they changed the course this year), running up Broadway - a slow steep slope.  Um, nope.  This was a course of fine, loose dirt and steep, steep hills.

Jogging up one hill, someone behind me commented to their friend, "Remind me why we are doing this."  The same thought was running through my mind, but I was not about voice it out loud.  Shortly after, we reached the 0.5 mile sign.  (Sad, right?!)

The first obstacle was crossing "logs" in water.  Large plastic squares were roped together to form our "logs."  We carefully stepped down the muddy bank of the water.  Our third step in, we realized the mud beneath us was uneven.  It dropped more than a foot in depth.  Strangers behind me, grabbed my shirt to catch their balance.  Some apologized, others just raced forward.  Pulling yourself up onto the log and crossing over was not tricky in itself.  The hard part was having so many people trying to cross at once, as it made the logs roll backwards.  Some kind souls held the ropes from the other side, to hold it steady for those crossing.  My sister-in-law was almost over the second log when a team counted to three and all tried to climb on at once.  She felt the log begin to roll back.  Not wanting to climb up again, she dove forward and went under water, face first.  It was awesome.  We all had muddy streaks drying upon our faces as we trudged forward.

I will be honest, I am horribly afraid of heights.  On our way to the race, I remembered trips my sister and I made to the playground about six blocks from our home when we were children.  I would climb up the big dome bars, and then freeze, terrified I would fall, until some kind dad climbed up and walked me through the steps of reaching the ground below.  "Put your foot here, now grab on here..."  Well, you get the idea.  So, I was nervous about the tall obstacles.

We reached the wall and I reminded myself it was mind over matter.  There were knotted ropes hanging over a wall of wood.  Small strips of wood were interspersed along the wall - our footholds - or toeholds?  They seemed way too narrow for my slippery, muddy shoes.  I took a look, gulped, and grabbed the rope next to my son (Monkey - my 15-year-old ran was within our group.)  The second knot in the rope was too high for me to reach.  I stepped back down, looked at the other ropes and moved over to use the one Monkey had climbed.  I could reach that knot.  My descent attracted the attention of a volunteer.  He approached and told me to use my legs, not my arms.  I commented, "And pretend I'm not afraid of heights!"  He told me it was a 3-foot wall.  I replied, "Built on another 3-foot wall."  (In reality, I imagine it was at least 8-feet tall.)  For me, the creepy part was feeling my body swing back away from the wall as I pushed up to the next knot in the rope.  I have no upper body strength, so I did not want to lose what little bit of footing I had.  The rope ended at the top, and the board along the top was too wide to feel I could really get a good hold of it. I took a deep breath and prepared to swing one leg up and over, praying I would not lose my grip.  Imagine my surprise, as the volunteer's head popped up on the backside of the wall.  He had climbed up to guide me down.  He instructed me to swing my leg over, find the wooden rung below, get my balance and bring my other foot down.  Mind you, I knew those were the next steps to take, but my inner-child grinned.  I climbed down the ladder of wooden rungs on the other side and met my group with a grin.  "It was just like being on the playground again!" I laughed.

We went on to pull ourselves over barricades, to crawl and sometimes roll under barbed wire.  I walked up the hills, and jogged down them.  We went through tires, and a web of elastic.  Just before we reached the cargo nets, I heard my husband yell my name.  He and Mutt (my 12-year-old, he chose the nickname because he does not like me to use my nickname for him in public) had been waiting for us for over an hour.  That would be my fault.  I kept encouraging my wonderful group of warriors to go on ahead, but they patiently waited for me at each obstacle.  At one point, I seriously wanted to sing the song "Just Put One Foot in Front of the Other" from the Christmas classic, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."  I was just too winded to pull it off. *grins*

Descending the cargo net.

According to my husband, who can judge heights far better than I, the cargo net wall was at least 25 feet tall.  After making it over the rope wall, this would be cake. I had to chuckle as I got to the top.  The young man next to me reached the top and asked, "Now what do I do?"  He probably was not expecting an actual answer, but I repeated my helpful volunteer's directions from the rope wall.

The end was the most fun.  We went through a mud pit.  I found myself wishing I had a pit of mud like that to play in when I was a kid.  It would have been a HOOT!  As it was, I somehow managed to make my way through the thick muck without losing a shoe.

After the mud pit and the mud slide.  (Anyone want a hug?)

Then, I went down a mud slide.  Umm... next year, I will remember to see where the ruts lead from my beginning point.  Had I noticed the diagonal path left by the person in front of me, I would have moved.  Instead, I found myself yelling a warning to the young man to my left that I was heading his way.  At the bottom, I apologized for landing on his cape.  Oops!

With a big gulp, and mental, "I can do this!" I ran and leaped across the two rows of flames to reach the finish line.

The muddy pond we were able to rinse of in never looked so inviting.  Although, I must admit, I hesitated after a guy in the middle of the pond yelled, "If anyone plans to pee in the water, do it over here!  I'm freezing!"  Everyone laughed, as we cleaned ourselves in the filthy water.

It looks like I have a year to work on my endurance and practice running up some steep hills so the course is a little easier in 2013!

Hugs,
Renee

Crazy Quilt Days 32 and 33

Oh, Dear Blog, I have missed you so!  It has been a busy, busy couple of months trying to cram projects and activities into the end of our summer break and prepare my boys for another year of school.

My goal has been to complete my 1st crazy quilt within one year.  Thankfully, I was ahead of schedule when I began the January block, as I am now falling behind.  I should be working on my 4th block right now...  This one has been a bit challenging for me.  (And finding time to stitch has been tricky!)

I have decided to keep "January" as scarves.  I just need to add the little fringes to each end, and perhaps add a snowflake in the middle of the A's to cross them.

And, as you can see, I finally finished the snowman!  I may have liked him better without the buttons, but I let my family vote and I was overruled.  I was worried that I would have a hard time fitting in his face with the hat; but that was not too difficult.  Although, I did have a challenge with his French knots.  The mouth was overpowering his eyes.  I pulled everything out twice.  In the end, I used two strands of black (DMC 310) for his eyes, and one strand for his mouth.  This kept the mouth from overpowering his face.  The mittens look a bit large; but, I figure, mittens hanging off of sticks on a real snowman would look big too.  I am not sure how much I like his hat, but that is my family's favorite part.  (Last May, I purchased the buttons at Acorns and Threads in Portland (on Scholl's Ferry Road).  Unfortunately, I did not make notes of the names so I could share them here.)

The next challenge - the part I would do differently - was the house in the lower-right corner.  I cut out 4 separate pieces.  In the future, I would make it two.  Prior to stitching the pieces in place, all of the corners actually met up.  This week, I get to see if I can add a decent looking window and door to the house.  I will also attempt a little path from the door to an edge of the block.  I still need to decide if I want a leafless tree to the left of the house or an evergreen.  We shall see!

So, January is only a few steps away from completion: the scarves, the house area, and the addition of snowflake buttons to hide the section where the rickrack overlaps.  If I am lucky, it will be done by the end of the week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,
Renee

My First Round Robin Post #3

I finally received my second block from the CQI Novice Round Robin!  (It was delivered to the wrong address, but eventually made it my way.) 

Click photo for larger image.

This is Hazel's block and the lovely work already completed was done by Mardeen.  I love the way she highlighted the frog and added little beads to his back to add some texture.  Of course, the crown is simply awesome.  The cattails, butterfly, dragonfly and the lily pad with a flower all fit so well.  And I just love the seam treatments.

I have a few ideas rattling around in my head, but I need to figure out exactly what and where to embellish.  Mardeen  has set the bar pretty high.  My youngest admired her work with me and then told me he hoped I could do a good job and that I would not mess it up.  I had to laugh.  I was thinking the same thing.  *Grins* 

So, I guess we will have to stay tuned and see where my imagination takes this frog prince.

Thanks for visiting!
Renee

Crazy Quilted Glasses Case

The back of the case (the part I stitched first).

Front of the case - personalized with beads.

In my last post, I mentioned that I stumbled upon photos of some absolutely lovely crazy quilted glasses cases that inspired me to try to make a glasses case, myself.  I was actually looking up the beautiful work done on a "snowball" crazy quilted circle that a member of Crazy Quilting International made for another member, when I discovered her pretty cases.  If you are not familiar with the blog, Humming Needles, I encourage you to click on the link here and take a peek at some wonderful eye candy. 

I must admit, the glasses case I made is not nearly as romantic as the ones I found on Humming Needles.  However, I hoped it would be perfect for my sister - a huge Oregon State University fan. 

Like the last case I made, I mostly followed the instructions found at Skip to My Lou.  However, for the outside panels, I cut overly large rectangles of muslin.  Next, I drew lines for the edges.  (Next time, I will extend the seem allowance by at least an extra 1/8-inch for the crazy quilted panels.  Some of my stitching went over the seem lines, to extend off the page, so-to-speak.  When it was time to cut the panel, I had to be very careful not to cut the embroidery thread, so the stitching would not come loose.)  And, rather than using batting and quilting the case, I adhered interfacing to the back of the muslin after I completed the embellishments and cut the panels down to size.  (I may use a slightly different pattern next time.  The Velcro made turning the case right-side-out without snagging the embroidery quite tricky!)

Using scraps of Oregon State University fabric for the center of the front and back panels, I machine pieced my blocks.  I only used orange and black fabrics.  Before I began stitching, I basted around the seem lines, to mark my boundaries.  I only intended to use orange and black flosses; however, some of the tone-on-tone was just too difficult to see.  So, I added white, as well.

The most time-consuming part for me was the alternating orange and white chain stitch I used to cover the white borders in the OSU print and to frame the center panels.  It was really quite fun to use two colors of thread on the same needle; although it was a bit tricky keeping the correct color on top of the needle.  So, it was a very slow process, but worth the end result.

While working on this project, I saw a lovely tree a friend of mine added to her current crazy quilt block.  (Her trees are gorgeous!  I encourage you too see for yourself, at Crystal's Crafty Adventures.)  When I mentioned how much I liked her trees, Crystal directed me to a tree tutorial on the blog, Shawkl.  (Even if you do not crazy quilt, and have no need for the tutorial, it is worth a peek.  Scroll down to see Kathy's tree.  It is quite impressive!)  My first attempt was way too far to the left, and could only bow to the right.  My 15-year-old, Monkey, took a look at it and asked, "It's a Dr. Seuss tree, isn't it?"  As much as I love Dr. Seuss, it was not the look I was going for; so, I took it out and tried again.  I opted to leave my tree (no pun intended) as a silhouette (orange leaves would not show up and I feared white ones would look odd.) 

After seeing the work I did on Mardeen's block in our current CQI Novice Round Robin, my sister commented that she liked the purple flowers (the Winter Iris.)  So, I added one here - in orange and black, of course.  And, I had seen several blocks with benches in them recently, so I tried to make one too.  It's a bit lopsided, but I was simply thrilled my boys looked at it and knew what it was without asking!

Personalized - and I made my first bullion butterfly - without directions, even!

In late August, we attended the Aurora Colony Days celebration.  Imagine my delight when I stumbled upon a Yarn and Beads shop that sold some beads individually!  It will definitely be worth another trip in the future.  I picked up the letter beads to personalize the case while I was there; and I was so tickled, I have no doubt I provided my family with a few chuckles and shakes of the head with my exuberance.  (It truly is the little things in life...)

My sister opened her gift while I was on the phone with her; and she liked it, so I was happy.  It may be a simple glasses case, but it is also a small reminder that miles and miles may stretch between us, yet we are never far from each others thoughts.  Happy Birthday, Sis!

Thank you for visiting!
-Renee