A Special Surprise...

It's definitely time to sit down and take a few minutes to post some of the happenings in my small world of stitching and creating. I'll begin by sharing a very special day with you. Last week I received an unexpected surprise in the mail from Leonie - a dear online friend. I opened the package with a great deal of excitement - I could not imagine what she would be sending me.

Inside was a fabulous book on roses...every species and color that you can imagine and many that I had never seen. Leonie said she had seen the book while shopping and thought about me and my love of roses. What a wonderful act of kindness and how special it made me feel! I will always cherish this wonderful book.

Of course, I had to sit down immediately and go through each page. Not only was I inspired by the beauty of each rose but also the glorious colors. I plan to set aside a day and attempt to recreate some with my dyes.

One rose stood out among the many contained in the book and over the weekend I attempted to recreate it in silk. Although it does not do justice to the absolute beauty of the rose, I was pleased with my first attempt. It's called a da Vince rose and has a four bud center. I've created the center with 34 individually cut petals using Hanah silk ribbon.

I've shown my book to everyone I've seen including my sister, Dorothy. She shared what her pastor had spoken about in one of her recent sermons. When unexpected acts of kindness occur in your life it's God's way of saying He loves you. Thank you, Leonie, for your thoughtfulness and for thinking about me in such a special way. You will never know the joy it has brought me.

Pictured here is the rose I created this weekend - I will always think of it as Leonie's rose. I look forward to working with the design and perfecting this beautiful rose in silk.

My New Crazy Quilt in Progress

I thought I would share a few photos of my new crazy quilt. I gave lots of consideration to the color scheme and decided that peach, olive green, with shades of ecru and gold would be perfect for me.

I also wanted to do everything by hand which included piecing the blocks. It took me about a week to piece all 12 blocks but I'm pleased with the results.

I also want to include hand-dyed lace, motifs, ribbons and thread on each block and I've completed a few. I've pictured some of these here. I love the peach color in the Ranger dyes and all my flowers have this color included. In addition I've used Ribbonsmyth and OzeCraft dyes.

I've been collecting vintage motifs, tatting, lace, etc. for years so I've pulled some of my favorite ones to include on this quilt.

In one picture you can see some dark peach silk thread that I've hand-dyed. This is a 6 ply thread that our local group purchased from Treenway Silks.

I had some old tatting and didn't like the color so I've over-dyed that piece. It took the dye beautifully so I plan to dye others that I have.

I keep trying to finish some projects I have promised before starting on my quilt embellishments. I hope to get started soon and will share the journey with all you you.

My favorite part is the silk ribbon embroidery and embellishments so I look forward to beginning.

Houston International Quilt Festival

'Dancing Lilies' by Caryl Schuetz, from the special exhibit "In Full Bloom V: Floral Quilts in Memory of Helen Pearce O'Bryant."

"Dancing Lilies" is one of the many beautiful quilts that will be on display at this year's Festival.

Each year I look forward to attending the Houston International Quilt Festival held in the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. Although it's months away, it's time to begin making your plans to attend.

The dates for this year's Festival is October 30 - November 2. Preview Night is October 29 and classes begin on October 27.

The classes offered this year look wonderful and appeal to every level from beginner to advanced quilter and mixed media enthusiast. Take a few minutes to view their website and see what is being offered.

This festival is reported to be the largest of its kind in the world. Everything is under one roof but the square footage is massive. You won't be able to see everything in one day. If you can attend this year I will guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Time Flies - It's Not Fair!

I can't believe an entire month has slipped by without any posting on my part. I will definitely try to do better in the future. This post will be a short one but I will share a few things I've been working on.

Last Saturday our local CQ group held a mini-retreat from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. The time flew by but what fun we had. Three of us worked on our little Victorian tuffet kit, one of Vic's wonderful creations. You can purchase the kit from her website: Ribbonsmyth.

I posted one that a friend had made several posts back. Pictured here is the one I made last Saturday. I used small spools for the feet and added matching thread. I also had an old piece of jewelry that I used for the faux closure.

I recently attended a Stampin' Up party with my sister Dorothy and had the pleasure of meeting some of her wonderful friends from work. As I was glancing through the catalog I have to admit that my mind was on crazy quilting and embellishing fabric and not cards. I was thrilled with all the ideas in that book and just had to have it.

Pictured here is one of the designs from the book that I recreated in fabric and silk ribbon embroidery. In case you don't recognize it; it's a wheelbarrow full of fargo roses! I would recommend one of these books as a great source of inspiration.

Once again I apologize for the lack of posts in the past month. I definitely plan to do better and hope you will not give up on me.

More Vintage CQ Photos

The last several weeks have been busy ones and I've been concentrating on getting my articles written for CQMagOnline. I've continued my Ideas and Inspiration challenge with favorite seam treatments and motif designs. I think you will get some great ideas so be sure and check the upcoming issue posted at the end of July.


I would love to continue the challenge through the end of 2008 and even into next year. In order to do that I need submissions from our readers. I welcome any ideas and input.


Currently I am working on finishing five pair of flip flops I designed for Artemis/Hanah Silks. Normally I don't enjoy repeating a project but sometimes it's necessary when there are so many color choices available. I love working with this beautiful velvet and silk and always enjoy experimenting with new combinations. I'll share pictures of the designs at a later date.



I promised more pictures of Diana's beautiful vintage crazy quilt so I've included a number in this post. It is fascinating to look at the old quilts and imagine the hours that went into creating them.







I hope you have enjoyed browsing through the pictures of this beautiful quilt.

Fun Day at Crazy Quilt Bee

As I've mentioned many times, Tuesday is a day I really look forward to each week. Our CQ Bee meets every week from 10 am until 4 pm and this week we were so pleased to have friends from our recent Tomball retreat join us.

Show and Tell is a necessary part of any get together and I took lots of pictures to share. Jan, created this wonderful needle case tuffet. This is a beautiful creation of Victoria Adams Brown and can be purchased on her website: Ribbonsmyth.

After seeing Jan's up close and in person I'm going to definitely order one to make. These would make beautiful gifts as well. I've included four pictures so you can see inside and out.

With the lid open you can see the pin cushion and the sheets for your needles.

The edges are beautifully trimmed with the hand-dyed rococo ribbons that Vic sells. As I understand this is all included in the kit.

Everyone was totally impressed with Jan's beautiful creation and I definitely one to make one.


Donna, from the Tomball group, had emailed me prior to the meeting and asked me to bring a piece of fabric and she would show me how to fold this origami kimono. On the right is the results. Isn't that the cutest thing?

I've included the ruler so you will be able to note the size. I was 1/2" short on the width but it still is so pretty.

I've never done origami before and was fascinated with the results. I've used a piece of gold dupioni.

Diana had just purchased the most beautiful vintage crazy quilt and I took many pictures of it. What an absolute treasure she found! As you can see by the ribbon attached it dates back into the late 1800's.

The silk is shattered in some places but it is still a masterpiece!

I will continue to post different pictures I took. I think we are all inspired by the vintage crazy quilts and I know I get so many wonderful ideas for stitches.

Note the flowers on the right. They are done with short lengths of thread and stitched onto a tiny rectangular base. I wish all of you could see them in person.

Retreat Withdrawal

Our Wallis retreat was wonderful as usual! Premier Estates is the perfect place to sit and stitch. The peace and quiet of this small town along with the beauty of the house and grounds is so inspiring. Combined with the talent of all my Lake Jackson friends, one can't help being productive.

We were excited to have Melanie's sister, Wendy, join us...what a talented lady. She and Melanie do wonderful ribbon and fabric dyeing in addition to many forms of needle art including crazy quilting.

There was a beautiful gardenia bush blooming profusely. Wendy brought one in and asked me to make one with silk. I made some sketches while enjoying the wonderful fragrance of this flower. Monday I sat down and made my first attempt at recreating it. We talked about naming it The Premier Gardenia so here it is - just for Wendy!

I really don't like the burned edges since the gardenia is such a pure white. I'm going to continue experimenting and check other ways of doing the petals.

I promised pictures so I'm going to share a few of the projects I completed on retreat. I signed up for the pinkeeper swap on one of my yahoo groups, Silk Ribbon Heirlooms, so that was my first project. I altered one of the rose patterns I created for Artemis/Hanah silks and added it to the top.

Instead of using the regular CD I used a 3" mini CD. Two of the CDs are covered with green velvet and sandwiched together. You can slide pins between these two layers and it makes a great place to store pins.

I formed the center bud using a light rose velvet and filled it with emery...a little something extra to sharpen pins or place your needle. The rose is made with 1" wide Hanah silk satin in the Victorian Rose color. I absolutely love working with these beautiful ribbons and feel so fortunate to be able to design for them.

Another friend and I had seen several CQ bags for your clipping and such. I hesitate to call it a trash bag but that's exactly what it is. We talked about making one so I drew a pattern for a really simple box-style with a lid. I was experimenting to see if my pattern really worked so I used a floral fabric and lined it with dupioni.

It would be beautiful crazy pieced and embellished and I plan to do one for one of the upcoming issues of CQMagOnline. Pictured here is my first attempt. The green velvet on the inside lid is an emery pincushion. The weight of the emery keeps the box in place on the edge of the table. It's amazing how convenient it is and I find I'm using it every time I sit down to stitch.

In a previous post I showed you my large CD pincushion. It was an idea I got from the ladies at the Tomball retreat. Several of our group just had to have a small one when we discovered the mini CDs. Pictured here is my mini creation. Of course, all I need is another pincushion but that isn't really the point, is it? I'll have to substitute pincushion in that old saying: "He who dies with the most pincushions wins!" I may not have the most but I'm sure I'm running a close second.

By the way, isn't the box under the pincushion beautiful? Linda always brings door prizes and I was the lucky winner of this beautiful prize. She is always so generous and we always look forward to seeing what she has.