My First Crazy Quilt Block Completed!

Although I haven't decided what my CQ block is going to turn into, I couldn't wait to share it. It is my monthly challenge for September also, and since this is the last day of the month, I wanted to show you what I had been doing. As you recall, this is how it started...

After many hours and some ripping out and re-doing I got to this point.

Here is the completed block, mistakes and all, but I'm still pleased with it. The color is way off on the photo. It is done in very soft colors. Some sections I could easily convince myself to rip out and redo, but then I would never finish it, so it is what it is. I know I am all over the place with the colors on the photos. The sections that appear gray/blue above are kind of a soft, grayed teal. The first photo is probably the closest in color overall and the close-ups shown toward the bottom aren't too far from accurate. Of course, then there is the issue of how they appear on your monitor. OK, that subject is dropped. TMI!

The white piece of lace shown below seemed to abruptly end, so I added a couple of stitches so it appeared to taper off more. I would like to have done the butterflies a little more delicately, but after ripping them out once and redoing them I decided to move on. Otherwise I would never finish since they were the first embellishment I added.

I am really happy with my dragonfly. It's wings are made of leaves from a piece of lace and the rhinestone body was salvaged from an old dress I had purchased.

I'm pretty pleased with my little spider too. It is made from pearls retrieved from an old necklace. The legs are made of bugle beads. I stitched two of them together and close together so they are dimensional.

The white flower is an added piece. I have added a lot of beads to my stitching because I love the sparkle and finished look they give.

I added a lot of stitching over the shiny white fabric. It was the only area I used this fabric and it needed toned down just a bit in my opinion.

The cream colored patch near the center looked pretty plain and uninteresting to me, so I embroidered diamonds over it and added little pearl seed beads where the threads intersection. I then did little pearly loops along one edge.

I love the look of ribbon embroidery, so I added some floral clusters using silk ribbons.

This final photo was taken in the sunlight and shows the dimension. Another floral cluster is shown on the lower portion of the photo. In the center of the white flower is a really fun silver dimensional button that really shines although that is hard to see here. You can maybe see it a little better in the photo below this one.




AND...

I came home from work today to find a package. I WON Marie's giveaway at http://spunbyme.blogspot.com/! A box full of lace is like the perfect thing! Thanks Marie. There are some beautiful pieces that I can't wait to use!