B & CQ JPs 2013

 

This will be the journal for my work that I'll be submitting to the 2013 Crazy Quilt Journal Project and Beading Journal Project. It will be my first year crazy quilting and although I have been doing similar work for a while, I would like to learn more about this style of quilting and embroidery. I've been beading for years but not integrated into quilting, so this should be a great learning curve and lots of fun... once I figure out a design!

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                                                                      Jan 13th  

Some good news at last... I've decided WHAT I'm going to do, laughs, but not exactly HOW yet! I've decided on a butterfly after alot of considerations... last year I did my zodiac reference hanging, so this year I fancy something less educational, more fun and irregular. I shall sketch it out this eveing and see what I come up with... I'm envisioning stained glass type crazy quilt sections with beadwork to complete... we shall see. 

Watch this space!

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January 29th

So. With the end of the month looming what have I got done? Well, quite a bit really. I've completed the design, drawn out a template ready to go. I've started gathering fabrics, lace and beads... and I am still waiting on a piece of fabric I ordered a week ago so that I can ice-dye it for the background- sloppy management, hardly next day despatch, as stated!

Here we go, the design

and the scale... the book is A4! Hmmm, it's gonna be large... now, come on that fabric! Guess I can start quilting in the meantime, there are only 11 sections because I'm counting the whole assembly as a months block.

The large wings have 4 blocks each, the long wings have 2, the body and background will be extra. I'm planning on doing the blocks, then appliqueing the black outline over it all so it looks like stained glass.


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February 4th

Saturday was spent putting fabrics together for the first segment, but as this will be a sort of symmetrical design I decided to work Jan and Feb at the same time.

However, in my haste I chose the wrong segment to trace so I've messed up the design already. Never mind, isn't that called "development"? ha hum!

Here are the bare blocks

 

Is it just me or do they look like bird heads with beaks? I thought so, so I added mirrors to the eye sections.

I haven't done very much in the way of "proper" crazy quilting so this is a bit of a learning exercise. I'm hoping as I go along my repertoire of stitch combination improves... I usually try and stitch the same way that I doodle/zentangle... which isn't very easy.

I was surprised that I got both done in 2 days, but here they are...

 These circles are roughly 9" round, with a long length of @ 12" to give you an idea of size. The tacking is the projected line for the applique overlay that I'll be adding last, which is why I've only beaded within the line.

Here is where they will sit in the whole design

 I'm going to have to join 2 A0 pieces of paper to get the design on completely, which I'll have to do to make the black outline applique at the end. Hopefully once it's finished it will look like a stained glass window. 

At last the fabric I've been waiting for  has arrived... being more than a week late! So I can now get the background dyed, although I'm definately going to have to use ice now because all the snow is long gone. Fun and games, think I'll do a few test pieces first...

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 March 1st

I was a bit impatient this month! I've done my block already, and having messed up the colour for the first blocks I had to make this months orange and yellow instead, but no matter, the sequence as a whole still works. So here it is

At this rate I might even do April's early... or start on the body as that's an extra block... hmmm, decisions, decisions...

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                                   April 23rd

April's colour theme is yellow, I finished it a few days back but have been too busy to post. 
Here is the whole block

And a close-up... I've added a little green to make the way for the next block... green. That will be the main left wing complete. Then to to the right main wing as I've already completed the red block for that.

Here is a rough idea of how it looks as a whole, remember it will all be overlaid with black so it looks like a stained glass window in the end...

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