Peek A Who?? Blog Hop Begins Today!

The Peek a Who? Blog Hop begins today.

Marian at Seams To Be Sew is hosting this Halloween blog hop.

You may find today's schedule and the free pattern of the day HERE at Seams To Be Sew.

You may find the full schedule HERE.

I will share what I made on Wednesday.

Wishing you all a spook-tacular week!

Renee

QS Red Hearts Update - September 2018

1,269 stitches were added to QS Red Hearts in September, completing Page 5. Six of nine pages are now complete. I love this artwork by Ching-Chou Kuik and it is beautifully charted by Heaven and Earth Designs.

This is how she looked at the end of August.

And this is how she looked at the end of September.

The project is 89.07% complete. (It was 86.37% in August.)

Pages 1-4: 100%
Page 5: 100% (It was 95.67%)
Page 6: 70.34% (It was 69.17%)
Page 7: 100%
Page 8: 41.24% (It was 23.31%)
Page 9: 7.03% (It was 2.4%)

October 19th - 21st is International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW). Last month 1,151 stitches were added during IHSW. We have a busy weekend planned, but I hope to make some progress. 

Wishing you all a great weekend!
Renee

IHSW originated at Random Ramblings. The goal is to set aside as much time as possible to stitch the 3rd full weekend of the month. There is an IHSW Facebook Group you may find here, if you would like to participate. 

TAST Week 14

Week 14: Buttonhole Wheel
During Week 14 of TAST, the Buttonhole Wheel was shared as Stitch 13 in this post at Pintangle.com. (There has been one break week.)

I used one of Sharon B.'s Stitcher's Templates and marked the foundation side of my crazy quilt block to help keep my buttonhole wheels evenly spaced.

My stitches were worked with a single strand of DMC #605 size 8 perle cotton. As you can see, I still need practice keeping these stitches even...

Black seed beads completed the seam.

TAST stands for Take a Stitch Tuesday. It is a personal challenge offered by Sharon B. at Pintangle.com to learn or work a new stitch each week.

Please note: I am not affiliated with Sharon B.'s templates. I did receive a set for an honest review, and I truly love working with them. My full review of the templates was published in the Summer 2016 Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine. (I am not affiliated with the magazine either.)

CQJP 2018 April Block

The 4th block for my Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2018 is finished! 

Once again, the fabrics were colored and heat set with Crayola crayons. (That process is explained here.) You may click on any photo for a larger view.

The first seam was rather simple with cross stitches that I spaced evenly using waste canvas. 

Next, I added seed beads.

The second seam used one of my favorite combinations - buttonhole stitches, detached chain stitches, and beads.

One of the templates I received from Sharon B. helped me evenly space these stitches. (I am not affiliated with the templates. They were received in return for an honest review. I love using them! My full review is shared in the Summer 2016 Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine. I am not affiliated with the magazine.)

For the first motif, I poked holes in the sketch of my block and created a dotted outline of the heart on the wrong side of my fabric with light pencil marks.

The flight path was created with a strand of purple embroidery floss and a running stitch. The butterfly was added with detached chain stitches, straight stitches and 2 French knots on the antennae. 

For the second motif, I created another dot-to-dot guide. This time, I was not confident I could line it up properly on the back side of the block, so I marked the front fabric (which always makes me nervous.) 

I still wonder if I should have used a computer font and printed out the words, rather than relying on my own handwriting for this section... The words were embroidered with size 12 black perle cotton and a stem stitch.

The last motif was created with green and purple size 8 perle cotton. Two straight stitches and 3 detached chain stitches created stems and leaves. Two sets of fly stitches created heart-shaped flowers.

Rather than individually stitching beads around the heart-shape on this block, I strung beads on a strand of floss and then couched that floss down between each bead. It was fun to try something new.

This block turned out very close to the sketch I made during the planning stage.

Four of my CQJP 2018 blocks are now complete.

Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2018 (CQJP 2018) is a personal challenge to complete a crazy quilt block each month that measures at least 8 x 8 inches. You may learn more about it here. You may see the work others have created this year on the CQJP 2018 blog here or shared on the Facebook page here. Sign ups for CQJP usually open in November.

Thank you for visiting!
Renee


Related Posts:
Embellished CQJP 2018 January Block - here
Embellished CQJP 2018 February Block - here
Embellished CQJP 2018 March Block - here

My CQJP 2018 progress may be followed on this Pinterest board.

Sneak peeks of my progress are shared on my Instagram account. 

October 2018

Happy October!

September Accomplishments:
1. I began a project for the Peek a Who? Blog Hop and it will be finished in time.

2. My April CQJP 2018 block was pieced and embellished. I will share photos soon, but you may find a few work-in-progress photos on my Instagram account, here.

3. I pieced my May CQJP 2018 block.

4. Over 1,200 stitches were added to QS Red Hearts. I will share photos later this month.

5. Over 250 stitches were added to Fractal White Tiger. You may find my update on the 2018 Stitcher's Group blog, here.


October Goals:
1. Complete and share my Peek a Who? Blog Hop project. The blog hop is hosted by Marian at Seams to Be Sew and will be from October 22nd - October 26th.

2. Complete a block for the Spring 2019 Crazy Quilt Quarterly magazine.

3. See if I can make a Halloween fabric postcard in time to join the Halloween crazy quilt postcard swap just announced to the Crazy Quilt International Facebook Group.

4. Make progress with QS Red Hearts.

Wishing you all a fantastic month!
Renee