January One Monthly Goal (of Many)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pansies. 

I collect lots of pansy ephemera, hankies, candle holders, etc. 

(I think those hankies need a good soaking in Oxyclean. They have been hidden away in a wooden hanky box for too long.) 

Long ago I made a border around the wall in the bedroom with old postcards oriented vertically. (Looks like I need to get broom out and take down that dust along the ceiling I didn't notice until I took this picture.)  The curtains are faded now and I need to make new ones but they are made of pansy fabric. 

Like I said...I LOVE LOVE LOVE pansies. 

I can't wait for them to come up in the pots on the deck in the spring.  They reseed themselves from year to year. 

Anyway...I've strayed from the subject at hand which is what I'm going to declare for my OMG (One Monthly Goal) at Elm Street Quilts.   I 'm all about goals - little goals, big goals, short term goals, long term goals, daily goals, monthly goals, yearly goals, challenging goals, easy goals, quilty goals, gardening goals, self-improvement goals, genealogy goals, de-cluttering goals...

 I've recently finished my goal to make forty-one 12 inch Bird in the Air blocks using pansy themed fabrics. 

Now my January One Monthly Goal will be to get a top made with these blocks set on point.  Will I be able to accomplish that goal by month end? 

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts. 

The Closest Thing to Spring Around Here Are the Pansies and Roses on My Fabrics

I made more 6 inch blocks for my pansy quilt which has been a UFO for a while.  Looks like the last time I made any blocks was May 2013. 

I love pansies and plant plenty of them each year in pots on my deck.

I'm going to keep making these blocks ( I think the block name is Prairie Flower) until all my pansy fabric is used up.  I've been collecting pansy fabrics for years so I have a lot more blocks to go. 

Eventually I hope to make a queen-sized quilt for the bed to go with the wall border I made of vintage postcards...and to go with the pansy curtains...and the pansy lamp shades...and the pansy wall hangings...and the pansy pillowcases...and the pansy candle holders.      I think the only thing in the bedroom that isn't pansy themed is my husband and the quilts on the bed. 

I also made more 12 inch Rosebud blocks

I hope to make these blocks until I use up all my rose themed fabrics. 

I love roses too. I grow several varieties of old-fashioned roses out in the flower gardens. Unfortunately the deer and rabbits sure like to eat the rose canes during the winter so I lose a few roses every year due to their damage. Pesky varmits! Rascally rabbits!  

That's it for my "Design Wall" today. Other blog land design walls can be found at Patchwork Times today. 

So...this is as close as it gets to spring around here in eastern Iowa. It snowed again Saturday night and the temperature was 13 degrees F when I left for work this morning. I see no daffodils or tulips sprouting and no signs of crocus - the first flowers that blooms around here in the Spring.  And I need to wear garden clogs to walk around the rest of the wet and muddy property.   I usually plant my potatoes around Good Friday...but might not make it this year.  

Sophie, of Block Lotto, suggested we blog about Spring this month.   And so I have. 

One of My Favorite Flowers...

...is the pansy.   I've made more blocks for my one day queen-sized quilt.   Hmmmm...I think I need more dark purple and a place for the eyes to rest.   Busy, busy, busy. 

I won a sharp crochet hook some time ago from a giveaway on Amy's Sew Incredibly Crazy blog and along with some variegated purple/green crochet cotton, a vintage pillowcase stamp I inherited and a book on edgings from the thrift store...

...I decided to make some pillowcases to go with the someday pansy quilt.  The sharp crochet hook easily went through the pillowcase dots I marked every 1/4 inch to make the foundation stitches and then I changed to a size 6 crochet hook to finish the edging.  I wish I had taken a better photo of the edging. It must have flipped up during the photo shoot. Embroidery is stitched with 3 strands of DMC embroidery thread. 

Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts.   She has some links to hand quilting inspiration this week that I'm going to review when I get the chance. Heaven knows I need help with my hand quilting and I don't know anyone personally that can teach me. 

The Color Purple

 It's Scrap Happy Saturday and the color for the Feb. Rainbow Scrap Challenge is purple. I think I've about used up all my purple scraps in just one week and in 9 - six inch blocks. I'll be using them for a children's quilt for Wrap-a-Smile or Wrap-Them-in-Love. I'll probably mix them with red scrap blocks so used the traditional red center in the wonky log cabin blocks.

 Maybe If I work super fast (never) I will have some purple scraps left over from my Pansy Patch blocks - 4 down and 234? to go.  I have about 25 or so different pansy fabrics but will probably mix some butterfly fabrics in there too.  I've been meaning to do something with these pansy fabrics for years and now is the time to make a Queen-sized quilt for my bed. I'm sure my husband won't mind sleeping under pansies! (I have pansy curtains, pansy pillowcases, pansy crazy quilt wall hanging and vintage pansy postcards attached all along the top of the wall like a wallpaper border). I love pansies.

I first thought I would use the pansy fabric in 4 inch butterfly blocks with blue background to represent sky and assemble them together into a 8 inch block along with two posy/african violet blocks with green backgrounds to represent ground.  Not sure I like that idea now that I've tried it.

To see what others have done with purple scraps visit So Scrappy's blog and all the links for Scrap Happy Saturday. 

Does a Midnight Fantasy Really Have to Include Viagra?

Every time I make a post about this Midnight Fantasy RR I'm in I start to get spam messages about all sorts of male member enhancement drugs. The spammers must key off of "midnight fantasy" or some such. I'm here to tell you that not all Midnight Fantasies include drugs but who knows that the silky women here are thinking or what their men are lacking.

At any rate...this is the last of the blocks I need to stitch on in this RR.  Before this arrived Meg, Lorrie and Lynn had their way with the block and left little room for me. Only one seam was left and it was dinky. So, I had to add my stuff here and there.

I added a large pansy up in the corner to offset the large broderie perse flowers Meg had added (and I love). Below that I added some transparent ribbon pansies. It doesn't show well but the bluish ribbon is variegated and the leaves are greenish. Ribbon was 1/4 inch.

And these pansies are made of 5/8 inch ribbon - deep purple and yellow. The flower meaning for pansies is "thoughts" (pense) and again...who knows what those silky women are thinking but how about a pansy for their thoughts.  I added 3 of these to the block. 

This is the itty bitty seam the ladies left for me to embellish. I added a bush of one petaled kiko flower stitches. I love to add together DMC antique effects thread plus DMC. It really does give a sort of antique effect although this photo doesn't show it all that well. The variegated green stems are mixed with gold antique effects and the flowers are a rose colored DMC mixed with a darker rose colored antique effects thread.

I crammed a few more kiko flowers over in a small blank spot on the other side of the block. Flowers have five petals this time and reverse color scheme.

And finally, this side of the silky lady was empty so it only seamed appropriate that I add a few sweetheart roses since that appears to be what silky lady is sniffing while she experiences her midnight fantasy.

Stitching

I finally had time to work on some stitching on items that are not Christmas presents.  I finished a 4x6 block for Maureen in a RR on Kathy Shaw's list. Maureen made the block. I did the stitching. 

I added a little bit of everything - cast-on stitches, bullions, silk ribbon, spider web wheels, beads...

And this is a new stitch I'm trying - Ship-ladder stitch. Kerry Leslie presents new stitches every so often on the CQI Yahoo Group and a tutorial on her blog. I made the stitch going down one way then back up the other way, joined them in the middle with a few lazy daisy stitches. Boy, when you take a close up pic you can really see the flaws! 

Stitching Rainbows and Pansies

I just finished Misty's block for the "Anything Goes" RR. I picked this block because her silky had pansies on it and I just love pansies so I knew this was the one. I first surrounded her silky with various types of pansies - a crocheted one, silk ribbon ones and cast-on stitch ones. Then I surrounded it all with a rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue/indigo, violet. I rather enjoyed it all and will have to do something like this for myself now.

On Tone on Tone and Following Crazy Tips

This is my work on Ritva's Tone on Tone block. Her instructions stated we could use a little old pink, green and/or black if we wished but to keep it mostly white, cream and light brown. I crocheted 3 pansies - one of 6 strands of embroidery thread, one of size 10 crochet thread and one of size 15. Then added a few silk ribbon pansies and cast-on stitch pansies. Also added various types of roses, some kiko flower stitches, beads, lace and some butterflies done in outline stitch and DMC precious metal thread (can't remember color) which I found easy to handle as far as metallic threads go.

This block I already posted last week as my finished work on Janet's bird block. And then, I was contacted by Gerry K with some bits of advice on how to make the block just a little bit better. That was advice I readily accepted. It was to move the blue organdy flower from the middle of the block to the bunch of flowers at top right. And then to fill in that empty spot with some more raised leaf stitches. Well, the organdy flower got a little crumpled in the move since a few of my gathering stitches were cut in the move; however, I pieced it back together as best I could so it now looks more like the flowers in my garden - not all perfect (and I should have added a few weeds up there with the flowers, but that's another story for another day). And, below is the newly revised block.

Motifs

There is a yahoo group for a Grand Motif Swap. Check it out if you want to swap some motifs. I participated in it a couple of years ago and got back some fantastic motifs for use on crazy quilts.  What follows are some of the items I have made so far for the swap.

Pennies

Ribbon Pansies

Crocheted Sunflowers and Fantasy Flowers

Crocheted Hearts and Baskets

Hey! I Won a Prize!!!

This booty is what I won for completing a CQ UFO (Crazy Quilt Unfinished Object) for Crazy Judyth's Challenge over on CQ for Newbies Yahoo Group. Thank you, C.J.! I never win anything.

This is my finished UFO. I have since added a tassel at the bottom. This adorable bellpull hangs on my bedroom wall now where I have pansy curtains, pansy postcards for a wallpaper border, pansy stuff...my bedroom is everything pansy except for my husband when he's in it.

And what follows are some closeups of the bellpull. I am glad C.J. challenged us to complete a UFO or I probably would still have blocks still buried on my bookshelf. I'm thankful to all who voted for my UFO since I was one of 3 prize winners. And I'm thankful to Judyth for such a wonderful prize.

Today Is Brought to You By the Letter P

P is for Pillowcases I'm making for Christmas. Fishing/outdoors ones for my daughter and husband who love fishing, mushrooming hunting, hiking and camping, a little monkey one for my little monkey grandson, aged 19 mo. ,  and butterflies for each of the granddaughters, aged 5.

P is also for Pansies and this block I just completed for Carolyn for the Pansies, Pansies, Pansies CQ RR. I tried a needleweaving pansy at top but it turned out so small. I guess next time I will try thicker thread since I could hardly see to weave properly. I don't see miniature well. I barely see large things right in front of me.

And this is the pansy block done by the whole RR group for Carolyn. Normally a sixth block returns home "naked"; however for this RR we decided to all stitch a bit on the sixth so all blocks will be full when they get home to the owner. I added the tatted butterflies and the smal pink trio of pansies.

I can't wait for my blocks to get home. I already have the bell pull hardware and some further embellishments I will cram onto the blocks when I get them back. I do so love pansies.

Am I Sane? Or Going Crazy?

Replacement block for Alice . The original I did for her (CQI RR Pansy RR) got lost in the mail. I tried to make it close to the original.

An Autumn block for Ritva (CQI Autumn RR). I tried a few new stitches like drizzle stitch and wheatear?

My first Dorset button. I followed a tutorial at CQ Magazine Online.

This is Rose Ann's block for the Encrusted RR. The RR doesn't actually start until Oct 1 but she mailed it to me early so I started stitching. Several other ladies will stitch on this same block.

Pansy button - I used a transfer on a button and sprayed it with something to preserve. I added some cast on stitch pansies around it. This is a detail shot from the same RR as above.

Heart detail from Rose Ann's Encrusted RR block. I outlined lace then added bullions and spider web roses, french knots, etc.

These are supposed to be morning glories made with cup stitch. And that is supposed to be a satin ribbon straight stitch hummingbird with his/her beak stuck in a flower. This is also detail from Rose Ann's block.

I just finished embroidering some napkins with celtic motifs for my dad and step mom for Christmas. I hope I can get around to adding some placemats to go with them. I have collected some celtic fabrics I really like. Dad loves all things Irish/Celtic. Fabric was on sale at 60 per cent off and is greener than it looks in this photo.

My stitching on Angies block for the White, Cream Silver (Sparkling Silver Group) RR on CQ For Newbies. Other ladies will be adding to the same block. The tatted motif was on the block when I received it so I can't claim it. This is a color study and we are limited to white, cream and silver only.

Angie's whole block after me.

Stripey Black on Black/Batik Quilt (previously a UFO) is now complete! I LOVE it. I'm not sure if I will keep it or put it in my future gifts pile. The blocks were part of a monthly swap at Blockbuddies Yahoo Group. It was a fun way to get a lot of different batiks and surprise mail each month!

All my siblings and dad/stepmom will start arriving from all parts of the U.S. (from CA to FL) for my nephew's wedding on Saturday. I can't wait.