First breast cancer benefit block done!

I’ve completed one of the blocks for the breast cancer research raffle:




I keep feeling like it needs more on it, but every time I auditioned something on it, it didn’t look right. I think I ended up with too many ‘dots’- French knots and beads- sprinkled around, and anything more makes it too busy and scattered. And I find, looking at it on the monitor, that using the rainbow colored silk thread on the one seam was a mistake- I should have kept to more subdued colors like most of the rest of it is. Maybe I’ll see if I can tone it down with some fabric markers or the like.

Now, on to the peach colored one. This one might go a litter faster- I’ve caught a virus (and there is a storm coming in) so hopefully I won’t be working outside today. And hopefully I won’t just fall asleep!

I've been working outside a lot the last week, and have barely touched my needlework, but I've put the first embellishments on.


I love the look of ribbonwork- it adds so much dimension and fullness to a piece- but have never been good at it. This technique doesn't require pulling the ribbon through the fabric dozens of times, which is where I always run into trouble. Laying it on top of the fabric and couching it down, there is no risk of fraying.

I've taken this idea- and the design I've started with the outline stitch- from Marsha Michler's book The Magic of Crazy Quilting: A Complete Resource for Embellished Quilting

Naked CQ Blocks

Got a couple of crazy quilt blocks pieced for the annual raffle that's held at the Crazy Quilt conference in Omaha. Various people from around the world make blocks, send them to a central point, and then two women make them up into wall hangings, which are then raffled off at the conference, with the proceeds going to scholarships for the conference and to breast cancer research. You have a choice of making jewel toned blocks or monotone ones; this year, I've gone with a peach one and a purple one. Despite a love of the jewel toned blocks, I don't seem to be able to work with them nearly as well as with the monotones. Here are the naked blocks: