The Saga Continues

Hello from the insane asylum!  Just wanted to keep you updated on my non-progress on the crazy quilt.

This is what it looks like now:

This is my trusty seam ripper, almost down to the nub:

And this is me, with blood dripping seam ripper and all my hair standing on end with red eyes:

In other words, I'm having trouble getting the the stupid thing square with the borders on and the back straight.  I will be ripping again tonight.  I am determined to get the back on soon.  Yes, I know "soon" isn't exactly a deadline, but so many things (read "life") happens around my house that I have to take my moments to sew and rip where I can.  I have to take a picture of the monstrosity to enter in a February show.  The entry is due November 8th.  I don't think they will accept that top picture. 
Keep the quilt and me in your prayers! 

The Last Two Blocks

The last two blocks are finished!  Go, me!!!
Emily's:

The colors wouldn't come out right when I uploaded the picture.  The pink is actually a very pretty rosy pink, the check on the left is a light lilac, and the green at the top should be a nice sage.  Oh, well.  I'm a quilter, not a photographer.  I made the little lace lamb on my embroidery machine using this design from Embroidery Library.  I needle tatted the green and pink lace pieces and also made my own cording that I couched for the staff.  The '97' is made with French knots.

John Ross':

Ignore the basting stitches on the right corner, please.  Those will come out soon.
The crown of thorns was done by couching another cording that I made.  The couching stitches are meant to look like red thorns.  I also dyed the lace yellow. 

I have been working on adding the borders.  More on that later.  I am trying to come up with a name for the quilt so I can enter it in a show.  I was thinking 'Inspirations' and then Roxann threw in 'Desperation.'  So...Inspiration and Desperation?  Inspired Desperation?  Desperately Inspired?  Blood, Sweat, and Tears?  I Can't Believe You Wasted 14 Months of Your Life?  Suggestions?

Dia de los Muertos...in my style

Dia de los Muertos is literally "the Day of the Dead."  It is a Mexican holiday that ties into the Catholic All Saints Day and All Souls Day.  People celebrate their dearly departed loved ones by having parties, cleaning graves, and making altars for the deceased.  It is also a big business for those selling sugar skulls and dressed skeletons. 


Lisa's Bride:  A new addition to this year's Halloween yard display

While I do not celebrate this day, three of my bests (two friends, one cousin) collect and display all sorts of paraphernalia dedicated to the phenomenon.  So, in honor of my buds, I dusted off the embroidery machine and made lace skulls (the lace is where the 'my style' comes to play).  The design I used is from Embroidery Library. 

I was having the worst time with snarls and machine repairs and wasting thread, time, energy, and water soluble stabilizer until I finally tried changing the needle for a smaller one.  Problem solved.  I feel like an idiot because I wasted a lot of stabilizer and thread, and that stuff is not cheap.  Lesson learned, though. 

So, in honor of the special strange people in my life, I added the olive and pink skull to the crazy quilt.  I also finished the last of the corner blocks this weekend, but that is for a different post.  Last night I tried adding borders but realized that this thing is way too skewed and had to remove them.  I will need to do more squaring before I get to that point. 

Almost There!

I finally decided on the design for the corner blocks on the crazy quilt, and have even finished two of them!  All four will be 6" finished fan blocks.  Each will have a name of one of my children and their birth year, and the 4th has my husband and my name and the year we were married.  Each of these blocks will also have a religious symbol and none of the blocks will have a fabric that is on one of the others.  Enough rules?  Oh, there also has to be some chartreuse to match the other blocks. 
Here are the first two:

I really didn't mean for this block to seem quite so pink, even though green and pink are my favorite colors, but it sure came out that way.  The 90 and heart are done with a chain stitch.  I made the doves with my embroidery machine and appliqued them on. 

Each wedding ring is stem stitched with three rows.  Then I wrapped each with 18K gold thread.  It has a pretty sheen in person that I just couldn't capture in a photograph. 

 

Our oldest daughter loves purple and turquoise, so the background is turquoise and the 91 is purple.  To keep some of the quilt's signature green in it, I dyed the lace and also used a green velvet for the fan handle. 

 

She chose the "Jesus star" for her motif.  I finished it with needle punch and really like how it turned out. 

Block #3 is together, but I haven't started embroidering yet.  So much to do, so little time!  I really am determined to have the whole thing finished by Christmas at the latest.



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