Saturday, December 3, 2011

Inching forward

Crazy Quilt details 

I have been working on quilt projects most of this year little by little. I was lucky to have time and space to spread out and focus on my first real piecework quilt at the red house by the Chesapeake bay a few times this fall and completed it in record time. It came between the long term project that I began when I was twelve a yo-yo quilt which I finished in July. Then I had a crazy quilt I began in 1999 that I had to set into deep storage due to some physical disabilities which made embroidery and complex abstract piecework very painful. After my trip to Williamsburg and completing the Fairhaven Summer Quilt I decided it was time to try a new design of my own which is based on the fencing design I liked there. I also pulled out the crazy quilt pieces to take with me for a long weekend at the bay. Lucky I did because the sewing machine got jammed up and I didn't finish as much as I had hoped to do on the Williamsburg project. So I began working a little hand work again on the crazy quilt blocks. It is always fun but I know I have to go inch by inch not great leaps and bounds to prevent injury to my neck now. How ever it is a delight to work on it little goals come with great pride and reward each time I finish a line of embroidery it feels like a home run or a field goal! I also delight in the images I can make of the close work to share on flickr. and facebook. So I thought it would be fun to show some of them today. I recently bought some dark red velvet to do the edges and hopefully will be able to buy enough to use it as the backing for this elegant creation.

Lavender lacy medallions with yellow-green circular blanket stitches (center)



Added orange blanket stitch triangles on purple square and the lace medallions with lavender circular blanket stitch in the blue green check (center)

Yellow on the purple is a new stitch called Basque stitch

yellow green herringbone on purple plaid plus red french knots  was fun to do (lower left) 


All the crazy quilt blocks spread out on a double bed in Manassas last time I began work  looked pretty close to ready to assemble 

Wide view of the room where I worked on the crazy quilt in 2009-10 


2 comments:

'ham said...

Fred, your work is unbelievable and
so original. I look forward to seeing what you will come up with next.

Sujata Shah said...

Wow! that is quite a project you have going. I love all the stitches and colors are so delicious!
I also love your sketches. You have an amazing talent and I look forward to seeing more and get inspired.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and your wonderful comments. I could not reply to you since you are a no-reply blogger.