Purse contest - Emiko, 1st place

Emiko is the 1st place prize winner. Her soft colours and delicate and intricate stitching is what attracted votes to her entry.

Purse contest - Lynn S, 2nd place

Lynn took out 2nd place with her innovative and contemporary take on CQ...and she thought we wouldn't like it !!

Purse contest - Debbie R , 3rd place

Debbie's purse won 3rd place. She made the dragonfly wings herself. You can read more about Debbie's purse on her blog Needle Lil More Time 2 Sew.

Purse contest - Pat

Purse contest - Hideko

Purse contest - Peggy

Purse contest - Mary

Regin

Purse contest - Maire

Purse contest - Julia S

Purse contest - Jill

Purse contest - Connie

Halloween - Lori's block

Debbie's work. Love the moon.

Spirit of Friendship Dolls

Hideko's dolls

Summer Breeze - Jakkie's blocks

Jakkie's blocks


Jo's work.

On Wings of Beauty - Judy's block

Loris work

On Wings of Beauty - Cobi's block

Lori's work. Lori added the Humminbird and sun flowers, plus a couple of seam treatments.
remember to click the tags to see a blocks progress.

On Wings of Beauty - Lori's block

Angela's work

Carrolls work on Lori's block

Stop and think....

I’ve been doing some pondering and meandering along with my stitching of late…lots of reasons, but I thought I’d share a little bit with all of you. Crazy quilting come with a myriad of AWESOME skills to explore and learn. Then there are the contests, round robins, swaps, dolls, charity donations, raoks and ALL of this is on top of work, family and other responsibilities. The list just goes on and on and its realllllllly tough to decide NOT to join in the fun isn’t it? Where do we draw the line between pushing ourselves a bit and providing something special for someone and over do?

I stitch to relax. I stitch to create. I stitch to share. When I stitch, a bit of “ME” becomes a part of whatever I am working on. I cannot seem to bring myself to just stitch to stitch. I may be slow, but I try my best to always produce work that someone will enjoy to have.

I recently read an article in a blog by a fellow cqer (and blogged a bit on this same topic myself) that mentioned her disappointment in the quality of the workmanship on and in round robin blocks and the lack of fore thought that is sometimes involved decorating them. She, like I, joins in these events, to see fresh ideas and techniques. This isn’t about the skill level of the stitcher. We all start some where. This is about rushing to complete something so we glue on a piece of ribbon to liken a flower or plop a button down and call it “good”. I would like to think that this is mostly due to the fact that we get caught up in too many events and all of a sudden can’t keep up. Life inserts itself in slippery ways and this is one area that gets easily sabotaged. Our personal time.

Where am I headed with this? Well, I would like to suggest that we simply stop and consider BEFORE we sign up for something. Do we really have the time? Do we really need to participate? Can we create a product that we would be proud to give and happy to recieve? Will our work make someone else happy when they see it up close? I would like to suggest that we all do our best to create something done to the very BEST of our abilities, rather than thrown together. Make sure that the seams will hold up to travel and not fray, creating an embellishing nightmare. Make sure you do your best with your stitching and what you put on the block. Make sure that you follow guidelines in swaps, to the best of your ability. I am truly not trying to preach. I am trying to help us ALL avoid disappointments in these wonderful events that we get involved in.

Written by Leslie, (CQI moderator)

Seam treatment inspiration

CQI publishes a monthly newsletter in which we 'spotlight'a seam treatment each month. This month was Melissa's Strawberry seam treatment. You can find Melissa's original post here. From this...
...to this.

Tradewinds RR - Anabela's blocks

By Cheryl

by Emiko

by Hideko

by Jo
by Leslie

Summer Breeze - Melissa's blocks

Melissa's blocks.

Summer Breeze - Jo's blocks

Jo in NZ's blocks

Summer Breeze -Maire's blocks

Here are Maire's blocks, and her first block embellished by Melissa.

Summer Breeze - Leslie's blocks

Leslie' blocks for the current Do Your Block RR. In a DYB each member makes 6 blocks and each participant embellishes a whole block, then they all get mailed on to the next participant, and so on. The maker gets home 5 embellished blocks and does the last one herself.

On Wings of Beauty - Judy's block

Judy's block
Judy did some stitching on her block before sending it off.

On Wings of Beauty - Cobi's block

Cobi's block
Judy's work on Cobi's block

On Wings of Beauty - Carroll's block

Carrolls block
and Angelas work on her block.