Final Seasonal Square and CQ WISP

SUMMER - the final square in the CQ4Newbies Season To Season share squares. This is the "nekkid" version and I have to embellish half before swapping. Some of the stitchers may think bright hot colors but my thoughts turned to the June bride and roses. I've used mostly silks with two cotton prints. The pink in the lower right hand corner is a piece of hand dyed vintage petticoat with moire underneath to emphasize where lace may be woven in the eyelet spaces. I did use a piece of counted cross-stitch on ecru ribband for one seam .... roses of course. Will try to do some seam stitching this week.

I think its time to share some of my stitching samples that I'm doing for my journal using Carole Samples Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches as I plan to use some of them on a cq wallhanging to be. The stitches were worked with #20 Anchor Cordonnet crochet thread on 18ct Aida and the fabric measures 4 x 6 inches.

I love working with big bold chintzes and they are really not that hard to stitch through. About three or four years ago a box of these beautiful fabrics came my way ..... many of them English chintzes selling up to $60 per yd. FREE fabrics ..... a case of being in the right place at the right time. But I digress ..... big prints call for big size squares. I can definately use an embroidery hoop here.

They are 18" squares and will be set in a traditional nine patch pattern. In other words a pieced square will be in each corner and one in the middle with alternating solid squares. These squares were pieced before I found online cq groups and so the embellishments are not worked in the proper order ..... seams first.... but then there are really no rules for cq and I'm just doing my own thing. This first square has a piece of my paternal grandmother's white crochet and a piece of my pink tatting. I'm mostly using #3 DMC perle cotton for seam treatments. Since beginning the stitching I've learned you should begin in the center and work out in doing the seams. Here again the "NO RULES" rule applies and I will probably continue "just doing my thing" LOL In the beige rectangle I've used EdMar Brazillian Embroidery threads in a free form design.

The white crocheted pansy in the middle here is another of my paternal grandmother's pieces. Some work on some seams but lots to do on this square.

For the tulip band here I used an iron-on transfer and some of the seams have been stitched using multiple strands of DMC floss. When I complete these squares I anticipate seeing great improvement in my seam treatments as well as anything else I choose to add to them.

As you can see, more than half of this square is one piece of fabric and I'm using my threads to highlight portions of the design. It is such a beautiful piece of fabric I just couldn't cut it up!

Although it really doesn't show up well on some parts I took a very old crocheted collar and just swirled it around and sewed it down. The collar had a break at one edge so I used a button flower to hide the break. The blue tulle button flower was received in a motif swap several years ago when I first found crazy quilting on quiltropolis. It was through the swaps there that I was introduced to ChainsOfHearts the first Yahoo group I joined and then I joined another group and from there I started exploring and have found the most wonderful and encouraging groups of crazy stitchers and embroiderers. There is so much to learn and the eye candy is mind boggling. Can't wait to see what I do next!