Hi crazy patch is my specialty and your are off to a good start. The best part is the embellishments. I can recommend several books for ideas, this is the place where more is better. Moosegirl

Moosegirl those are beautiful! I have a couple of books - Judith Baker Montano and a French one on silk ribbon. I've been the last few evenings working on only one of the 6" blocks so yes - more is MORE! :-D

Moose girl - just came back for a closer look - I was in a rush before as I had to get the kids off the bus! I downloaded your pics so I could have a REALLY good look; :-D

The first one is with ties right? I like the kind of simple craziness of it, if you know what I mean - that you embellished the seaams with the same stitch. I think the holiday one is beautiful! I like the 'crazy' stocking and all the lace. How are you going to join the blocks together? I've been thinking about this and wondering if it would be nice to put a really skinny sashing, like a 1/4" then quilt through that with a zigzag or herringbone. I know crazy quilts weren't quilted traditionally but I thought this might work if I use a really stable batting as my blocks are only 6" square? What do you think? Of course, I'm probably years away from THAT stage, the time it's taking to embellish one block! Fun though! I made a fish last night out of chain stitch - didn't plan to, it just evolved! :-D I love your dragonfly on the third one BTW - might have to copy! ;-)

wow i like them

Wow...those are gorgeous crazy blocks! The blue one with the ties is really cool...its crazy..but then again its symetrical. Hmmm...boggles this mind!

You've done a great job with those. Kathyrn...I know yours are coming along just great. All the crazy quilts were traditionally tied weren't they?? I don't know why you couldn't do a small sashing though..well, you can, afterall, its your quilt :wink:

I'm waiting K to see what you end up doing with your confusion blocks!! I love the embroidery in crazy quilts. I collect all the info I can on differant kind of stitches so I can use lots of differant ones when I do add the embroidery.

Are you going to do the embroidery on the machine or by hand? I have never added embellishments so I think that would be fun to do.

Great blocks...scrappy quilts are my favorite!

By hand - and I'm almost finished with the first block - a few evenings work for a 6" block! :shock: But I'm teaching myself silk ribbon embroidery from a book as I go along so hopefully the next one will go quicker! Fun though! :-D

If you like this kind of quilt technique, I use the books listed below as great investments and lots of variety. "Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitiches"by Carole Samples, "Motifs for Crazy Quilters" by J. Marsha Michler, " Crazy Quilt Stitches" by Dorothy Bond and "Quilt Savvy Embroidery Stitches" by Joan Waldman Moosegirl

Oh thanks Moosegirl - are you trying to empty my bank account? :lol: I'll look out for those - maybe put them on my Christmas list! :-D

Check some of the internet sites for discounted books.
half.com, ecampus.com, amazon.com etc
Moosegirl

Have never cared for crumb blocks and if I'm going to do them they're going to have to look good. Your blocks are the only ones I've seen that LOOK GOOD! Your idea of embellishing them is even better. Let the creative juices flow and do what you love! They'll come out great and they look GREAT so far!!! :D :thumbup: :thumbup:

Check out the Half Price Bookstore if you have one near you. I buy and sell books there all the time, one of my favorite places to visit here in Des Moines! They usually have a nice sewing/quilting/craft selection of books.

All the bookstores here only have French books dakotamaid - I live in France! :lol: I'm going to check Amazon though and my usual UK online supplier. ;-) :-D

Are you in Des Moines DakotaMaid? I live just above the Missouri border in SE Iowa. We're 3 hours from Des Moines.

Hi K! From reading yours and Rhonda's coversations about this, you have given me an idea.
I had purchased some 1/6 yards? of this metallic looking fabric that was quite stretchy. Originally thought I was going to make ornaments with it, and I still might, BUT...since i have a small plastic container full of satins, I have decided to use this method to make a tree skirt.
I have so many things to do, I am not sure it will get made for this year's use, but I am so excited now.
So many of the satins are solids, but they are beautiful.
The metallics I just bought are iridescent and gorgeous. I have quite a bit of the iron on Pellon, although I am not sure what iron setting to use...certainly not cotton on something man-made:shock: I'm sure it would melt.
I want to embellish mine to, that is why it will probably go into use, next year. Too little time, but I can do a block here and there and by next Christmas...ta da! and I will always associate it with you and Rhonda...you'll be attachments, lol :lol:

Great.

That sounds like a great idea Mousie! I'm sure K and Rhonda are pretty good attachments!

I keep checking back for a picture of the block that you are working on k!!! I am really TRYING to be patient... :roll: :lol: :lol:

:lol: I seem to be pretty attached to them, too...and to you, and to Amma, Ducky Cutie...on and on. Funny thing is, the more pieces of my heart I give away, it never gets smaller :mrgreen:

That's quite an honor little mousie!!That is a better reason to be remembered than other things I have done in my lifetime!! LOL

I expect pictures along the way!! Would love to see your pretty fabrics you are going to use! What kind of embellishnents? This is something I have never done much of so it is fascinating to me to see people do this.

I love crazy quilting blocks - these are awesome!!

Since I have never done anything like this before, it will be interesting to see what I come up with. hmmm....:roll:
I like this idea for these fabrics, bc it will only come out once a year...so no worries about fading...a little more delicate, so won't be used a lot, and I do love shiny!!! :mrgreen:

Yes, I think all mice love shiny things...!

K...how ya' comin' on these blocks??

Thank you, quiltincrzy, for the nice idea you had that gave me a great idea to use w/my satins, sequins, etc. I can't wait to get N2 now! lol. Those satins sure are waiting for us, quiltncrazy!! We can work them in one block at a time throughout 0-10.!!! :thumbup:

hey, since I'm a newbie at some of it, do you mind getting your brain picked sometimes? Maybe we could 'con-FAB-ulate' on our blocks and embellishings?:D

Sounds good to me!! OMG, there'd be so much embelllishing going on we wld hardly see the FAB-ulations!!! With both of our brains together, we'd bound to come up w/some kind of "ulation" hahaha!

:thumbup: :thumbup: :wink:

I wanna see! I wanna see!!! With all this talk of Fabulations now you started something!!! I might have to try this myself! Tho the next two are alread designed and they don't lend themselves to this. Maybe in Feb! Yeah I have alot of jewelry to decorate stuffed hearts with so that would be a good time to play with this for my DQ.I just love my Teatime DQ and moosegirl did a lot of embellishments on that one. I loved it! Hope I can do something half as good as hers.

QC I can't wait to see what you and n2scaplvr come up with!

C that sounds just the ticket! When I'm ironing the interfacing onto man mades I use a medium setting and just leave it for a couple of seconds, check if it's stuck, couple more seconds if necessary. Then leave it to cool completely before touching it.

OK - here's my first finished embellished block and the second one in progress. It's taking a long time because I have to keep looking through my embroidery books for inspiration - sometimes I've copied an idea exactly but mostly I use something as a springboard then make up the rest as I go along. The chain stitch fish for example, started being a vine, became vaguely fishy shaped so ended up - a fish! :-D

I've used beads and silk ribbon as well as couching down some other ribbons from my doodad box! :mrgreen: :lol:

Super start on your blocks, love them. I'm working on a piece for our local museum contest-topic is:All Faiths, the borders are all crazy patched and embellished- hope to be finished soon and I will post a photo. moosegirl

Oh, does any one need men's ties? I have lots and will trade for fabric or whatever. Moosegirl

Thanks moosegirl - can't wait to see your piece! :-D

OMG Kathryn, how beautiful! Are you going to put them together? They look finished all by themselves...

Well I'm not entirely sure yet! I've got 4 made in total to embellish they'll finish at 6" each so I'll probably make a few more at some stage; but knowing me, I'll probably get bored after I've done a few and put them away for a while. It'll probably end up as a wall hanging, at least 3 blocks by 3 I would hope. Can't really do much else with them because the beads and doodads wouldn't stand up to any wear and tear. It's fun to do though and perfect for long winter evenings in front of the tele! :-D

K You put a lot of time into those embellishments and embroidery. It looks really sumptious!! Really adds to the look! I don't have enough patience to do that much. I love you did with it!

Just to say all, I have seen these blocks and they are absolutely beautiful, the photos dont's do Kathryn's work justice - they are exquisite!

Thanks K! :-D

Kathyrn....I see you are working with the silk ribbon!!! Yippee!! Boy, you sure picked that up quickly, it looks so pretty! I love all the stitching and of course, the doodads...(so glad you got that drawer organized!! :wink: ) I'm mighty impressed!!

You have done a fantastic Job! I love the look of crazy quilts.

And I love the look of pineapple upside down cake! That is my most favourite cake in the whole world and I haven't made one for years! Have to remedy that... :mrgreen:

Thanks Patti BTW - my doodads are grateful to you too, they prefer being organised! Actually Elle was right - the silk ribbon isn't really that hard, if you can do regular embroidery, you can do silk ribbon. I've used classic stitches in it like French knots and lazy daisy. For leaves you just lay the ribbon along the fabric the length you want it to be then pierce your needle through the ribbon and the fabric and pull gently from the back. This makes a little leafy point. This is my kind of stuff - simple but effective! :-D