Crazy Quilting

Since 27 June I've been following Kathy Shaw's Basic Crazy Quilting Class (this is now closed, but they come around about once a month, so it's worth looking out for in September). I declared my piece completed yesterday.

Crazy is the word for me, not only for the style of quilting; I'd never seen a crazy quilt in reality, only photos. Now, of course I've seen lots more photos as participants post each completed task on a special Blogger site accessible only to class members.

And I've seen one piece in reality,

my own!

There were so many embroidery techniques I used here for the first time.

Firstly the seams are decorated by sewing a line of basic stitching, like the herringbone on the seam bottom right in the photo above, after marking the exact spot for the stitches using a template. This ensures that you don't run out of space towards the end, and that the row of stitches fits. I'd never used a template for embroidery stitches before, but found it a real asset. After that the basic stitches are further decorated with other groups of stitches, beads, and sequins.

Secondly, what I found to be the most challenging, dauting and exciting new technique was silk ribbon embroidery.

These two silk ribbon irises were an absolute first for me, and in my view they turned out just fine!

They were followed by a group of silk ribbon woven roses, and bellow them gathered roses (the small dark purple dots)

 And more roses on a vine made using fly stitch.

They show up better in the following photo, together with a small butterfly, also in silk ribbon.

All these roses use different techniques, so there was a lot to learn in a very short time. That keeps you on your toes!

And then I added some more embellishments to fill the large gaps:

cross stitch butterfly

spider with web

lone flower made from jewellery spacer and beads.

I have learnt so much in the last month and a half, and all so expertly described in small enough steps to make nothing really difficult, and yet challenging. I can recommend this course to anyone wanting to extend their sewing experience. My thanks to Kathy for the expert tuition.


Happy sewing.

Marly.