My Crazy Quilt Purse Is DONE!

What is it they say?  "A little rain never hurt anyone!"  Well, that's true as far as I'm concerned as a little rain today allowed me extra time to finish my crazy quilt purse.

If you've been following along with the posts on my Linda's Blog you know that I've been taking my very first online class with Pat Winter on Artful Gathering. The class is called Crazy Quilting 101 and I have LOVED every minute of the class. Pat is such a fantastic teacher. I only wish I had taken one of her classes years ago.

My head is filled with all sorts of ideas for crazy quilting creations that I can make and, maybe, give as Xmas presents this year. Who knows! My head is spinning.

What I do know is that I LOVE crazy quilting and may have found a new passion.

Does that mean I'm giving up of dolls, Victorian fashions, silk florals, history and everything else I LOVE. Of course not! It just means I'm going to find a way to combine everything I love. That means I may be creating crazy quilting things related to Victorian dolls or florals.  Maybe a little genealogy? You never know.

I ended up lining and finishing my purse with some addition iron-on interfacing being added  to the lining material as well.  So, both the lining pieces and the front and back pieces ended up with iron-on interfacing on them.  The front actually ended up with two iron-on interface pieces.

I'm also thinking that I'm going to sew two large snaps to the inside top of my purse to hold the top closed. That way no one can just reach in and steal my belongings. Not that I'd put anything in it worthy of stealing! Well, Chapstick maybe!

I'm really pleased with the way my purse came out. Definitely looks Victorian which is certainly right up my alley. I may just have to keep my beautiful blue purse. I'm such a bad sister!

Silk Ribbon Embroidery and Final Beading On My Crazy Quilt 101 Purse Is Done

It's pouring cats and dogs and I'm sitting here finishing the last silk ribbon embroidery flower and final beading detail on my Crazy Quilting 101 Artful Gathering 2012 class purse.

So far I'm very pleased with the way my purse is coming out. The next step is to add the lining, the cording around the side and top edges and the strap. As mentioned in a previous Linda's Blog post I'm going to add the lining and finish the purse a little differently than Pat's instructions called for.

Once the lining is done my purse will be finished. I'll be sure to take a picture so you can see the final results.

I've thoroughly enjoyed taking Pat's course. If you love crazy quilting and want to learn from a terrific teacher then you'll want to take one of Pat Winter's crazy quilting classes. She has definitely created a crazy quilting monster in me. Just don't tell hubby this! LOL LOL

Some Stitching and Beading Work On My Crazy Quilting Purse

I just LOVE really productive days. Don't you?

Yesterday was one such day for me.  The morning was close to 100 degrees and the afternoon brought thunderstorms so I was able to catch up on several things, including my Crazy Quilting 101 Artful Gathering 2012 class purse.

I'm probably right on schedule but wanted to get more done yesterday as some of the other students in the class seem to be ahead of me. And, you should see their creations. They are absolutely beautiful.

In fact, Pat Winter is going to be publishing pictures of the students finished purses in the Fall edition of her Crazy Quilt Gatherings Magazine so be on the lookout when that issue comes out. I, of course, will be purchasing that issue not only because I'll be in it, but because I've been purchasing Pat's magazine since it first came out. I absolutely LOVE each issue and still find myself thumbing through issue after issue and viewing the gorgeous crazy quilting eye candy.

So, yesterday was a very productive day. I added green herringbone stitch and shiny white beads to the top right hand seam. I also added a beaded dragonfly to the top right hand corner as well as a tiny blue beaded spider just below that and just above the blue/teal embroidered flower. Can you see it?

I added wide gold herringbone stitch and blue sequins with shiny white beads to the lower right hand corner just below the decorative blue/gold lace trim.

I used the Cretan stitch with gold beads to secure the left hand side of the blue/gold lace trim.

In the blue/black/gold piece at the very bottom of my purse I stitched a lazy daisy type flower with a combination of cream and blue thread and added gold and blue sequins with white beads as well as a combination of white, blue and gold beads inside the petals.

I used a green chevron stitch with green beads along the left hand side seam just to the left of the white butterfly.

Later today or tomorrow I'm hoping to add some of the silk ribbon embroidery flowers around the picture. Then I may be done with my embroidery embellishments. We'll see. 

The First Day of My 1st Online Class - CQ101 With Pat Winter at Artful Gathering

Several months ago I decided to take my 1st online class and decided to take one of the Artful Gathering classes that were being offered in Session One and/or Session Two. My problem was there were so many wonderful classes to choose from that choosing just one was going to be difficult. I finally decided to take Pat Winter's Crazy Quilting CQ101 class. I'll be making that adorable crazy quilt purse you see in the picture above.

So, I've been anxiously awaiting June 6th, which is when the Session One classes were to begin. Along the way I've been receiving emails from Artful Gathering regarding how taking classes with this Ning group will work and how to maneuver around my Ning page. I'd didn't have any problem with any of this as I've been a member of several Ning groups for years.

I was really anxious this morning to start on my purse but I had foolishly scheduled a hairdresser appointment and wasn't able to begin right away. When I got home I followed the steps outlined in the class initialization memo and proceeded to see what was involved.

I clicked through all the links in Pat's welcome page and quickly discovered how easy it would be to start and stop the video's for my time-frame during the next 6 weeks. Pat had also included a bunch of printable vintage freebies and some instructions for different silk ribbon embroidery (SRE) styles as well as how-to's for different stitches we will be using. Thank you very much for those Pat. They are well appreciated.

I made it through the introduction which is the first of twenty video's for this class and ran out of time for today. Hopefully, I'll have more time tomorrow.

I keep looking at all the material, all the lace, all the ribbons, and all the beads in my kit. There's a lot there. Hopefully, my purse will come out really, really good. We'll find out. Tomorrow I start with Video 2.

So far all I can say is, "WOW!" There was a LOT OF WORK involved in creating and organizing this Artful Gathering event for C. Zinnia Galliher and a lot of work for each of the instructors in putting their video's together. My hats off to all of you for a job well done.

Inspired Creations By D - Moms Joy Fabric Wall Art E-Pattern

Of all my sister's wonderful wall art quilts I have to say that Moms Joy, shown above, is my favorite. Second to that is her Dads Tiger.

Of course, it's not hard to see why they would be my favorites.  Moms Joy was created in remembrance of our mother and Dads Tiger was created in remembrance of our Dad.

I think they both would be very proud of my sister's beautiful wall art quilts and very pleased with the designs she created for both of them.

Copyright © 2013 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Designed By Debbie Bohringer

How Can Small Business Artists and Crafters Not LOVE Pinterest?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have fallen in LOVE with Pinterest.com and have been in love with it for several months now.  If you haven't heard about the Pinterest.com phenomenon by now you certainly will be.  It is by far the most wonderful way to organize everything and anything about "you."

What moves you, what you like, what you're keeping tabs on, things you saw online that you want to remember, things you want to try in the future, places you've been, what you consider "beautiful", your creations, your interests, foods you like, websites you like, blogs you like, your dreams, future plans for a wedding, dream home, your decorating style, must haves, things you'd like to make, inspirations, DIY projects to try, tips for everything and anything, tutorials to try, your bucket list, beautiful pictures, beautiful colors, things for your kids, nature at its finest, beautiful animals, decorations for the holidays, and your favorites - whether they are artists, crafters, movies, pictures, collections, music, recipes, favorite hobbies, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Your boards and your page give your followers and the world a pictorial glimpse into the essence of "you."

But, it's also become a great tool for small business artists and crafters online.  In fact, in my opinion,  it's become a "must" for artists and crafters.  A "must" not just because it is one of the easiest ways to promote your creations online and drive traffic to your website or blog, but one of the best ways today for artists and crafters to promote each other.  In fact, it could easily be called the best link exchange ever.

For example, I am a doll maker and doll pattern designer who loves dolls of every kind and creation, who loves doll pattern designs, who loves art dolls, teddy bears, cloth dolls, etc.  However, I also LOVE artists and crafters blogs, tutorials, patterns, projects, sewing, quilting, handmade goods, beautiful pictures, animals, etc.  As you can see my list go on and on and on.  Yours could, too.

Well, what Pinterest.com does is it allows me to organize my likes, desires, and inspirations into boards containing whatever I want to put there. Just by looking at my boards you get a feel for who I am and what I like. And, it helps to keep me organized. For someone in the "baby boomer generation" any help in this area is always welcome.

So, how does it help one small business artist or crafter? Well, if you look at my "Art Dolls Designers" board you will find that I have many, many pins. Each and every pin contains a picture of one of my favorite art doll artists creations along with a link to the page I found it on. Plus, I'm a firm believer in crediting artists and crafters with their creations so every one of my pins contains the artist or crafters name and is linked back to their website and/or blog, their Etsy page, etc.

When someone clicks through my board to the pin and clicks through to the original source they wind up on that artist or crafters website, blog, Etsy page, etc.  If they like my pin they can "like" it or re-pin it in which case the picture and all the links follow through to their board.  If someone sees their re-pin and likes it they, too, can either "like" it or re-pin it to there boards.  All of the descriptions, likes and re-pins for this particular picture are linked together on all the boards.

Talk about a beautiful way for all of us to help promote one another. It doesn't get much better or easier than this.  My motto has always been, "What Helps One of Us Helps All of Us!"  Pinterest.com is a fabulous way to do just  that.

If you'd like to follow my boards on Pinterest just click the red "Follow Me On Pinterest" button above.  If you'd like to see my page please CLICK HERE.

A Wonderful Doll Collection

If you follow my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog you know that I just LOVE the Victorian Era, love history, and love to do research. In doing all of that I ran across the Metropolitan Museum of Art website the other day and fell in love with their collections, the ability to see everything they have in their collections, and the ability to set-up my own "My Met" space to bookmark items at the MET that I love.

Well, while "Moseying At The MET!" last week I came across items from their French Doll Fashion Collection and fell in love with them.  Now all you have to know as to why I would fall in LOVE with them is they have to do with dolls and have to do with the fashions of the Victorian Era and periods before and after that.

They are in fact a collection of fashion dolls displaying French fashions from 1715 until 1906.  There seems to be 42 dolls int he collection and they give you a wonderful picture of the way French fashion has changed through the ages.  I would love to see this collection in person, but it isn't on display.

If you'd like to read more about this collection please CLICK HERE for my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog post entitled, "The French Doll Fashion Collection At The MET."

My Historical Fashion Periods Timeline

The other day I posted an article entitled "A Wonderful Moseying At The MET!" concerning my preliminary research on the historical fashion periods and what I had learned.  Since I tend to like everything nice and neat and totally organized I decided the best way for me to try and understand the different fashion periods was to create a time line that I could update, change, and add to from time to time.

So, I created an Historical Fashion Periods timeline that I've added to the sidebar of my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog

This timeline is really for me to help me understand what periods the fashions I like might fall into when I see different styles.  I am far from and will never claim to be any kind of an expert on historical fashion periods.  My timeline is being included in my sidebar as a personal reference tool for me. Something I can learn from, something I can update, something changeable if incorrect, and something I can update from time to time.

I'm hoping to do a little research into the different fashion periods, especially the periods before and after the Victorian Era and will post what I've found on my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog.

If you'd like to see what my timeline has so far just click on the link below and scroll down the right hand sidebar.

YIKES! That's A Lot of Family and Childhood Stories, Linda!

Time certainly flies when you're having fun - or so they say! Whoever they are?

I was thinking about all the stories I've written about my family and my childhood. Stories about my ancestors, my grandparents, my mother and father, my brothers and sister, my mother-in-law, my step-children, my grandchildren, my sisters-in-law, my brother-in-law, my fur baby "Bud", the "dollies", and - of course - my dear husband.

I've probably written the most about "hubby" as he's involved in many, many of the "dollie" stories and at times is the reason for their "antics!" But, that story is for another day.

In any event, since 2004 my family category has risen to over 255 posts. That's a lot of stories.

YIKES!!

Either I've been very busy, I've got "Blogorrhea", I'm very old,  or I've got a very large family.

I'd have to say it's the latter. With a big extended family there's a lot of stories.

Sometimes my story is about a family member or about my childhood. Sometimes there's a reference within a post to a family member or my childhood. Suffice to say - it's a mixture of both. A little if this - a little of that!

So, I decided to create a family label on the sidebar of my Linda's Blog just to keep track of my stories.

Of course you have to keep in mind that these are "stories" and as such there may be a little exaggeration going on here or there. They are stories after all.




Graphic - courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

A Wonderful Moseying At The MET!

I spent last weekend fascinated by pictures of beautiful Victorian dresses on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.  I had wanted to add some more Victorian dresses to my Victorian Dress Fashions page on Pinterest and figured that a museum website might be a good place to start.  So, I decided to go to the biggest museum in the U.S. the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

I would have loved to have physically visited the Met and seen these dresses, but they aren't on display right now and New York city is not a hop skip and a jump away.  So, I let my fingers do the walking or keying and spent several delightful hours just moseying through all their virtual displays.  I have to tell you that the amount of donated material is just astonishing.  I couldn't believe how many incredible Victorian dresses they have.  Hundreds upon hundreds.  All I could do was drool over them and think about what an astonishing display it would be to actually see them all in person.  Ah, one can dream.

The nice thing about the Met website is you can see all their collections whether they are currently on display or not.  Everything is cataloged and available online. You can even set up a "My Met" page where you can store and categorize your own MET favorites - which, of course, I did.  Of course, seeing beautiful creations is the optimum.  However, visiting the MET online is a close second.

While I was out there I quickly gathered that there were many, many dresses that might look Victorian, but actually aren't from that period which, of course, led me to a little research.  If you're a follower of my Linda's Blog you know how much I LOVE history and love researching.  My researching led me to several reference websites, several fashion websites, several museum websites, and so on.  I was in research heaven  which for me is like the next best thing to sliced bread.

What I learned was there are many, many periods to fashion and if you were to have a historic lineage display of the fashions throughout the years you'd be able to easily see how a Victorian dress might differ from an Edwardian or a Romantic period dress - even how the Victorian crinoline was different from the Victorian bustle dress.

It was a wonderful eye opener for me and benefited me in two ways.  One, I got to exercise my brain by learning something new and two, I got a lot of research material for my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog.  My Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog is a personal, ad free blog all about the Victorian era, their history, their traditions, and my feeble attempt to create some Victorian dolls of my own.

With all this new knowledge I decided that I'd like to write a series on my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog about the different fashion periods and show you some of the astonishing Victorian dresses that you can see on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.  Not only do you get to see some of their Victorian dresses, but they provide you a little insight into the dress and a little history surrounding the fashion.  If you love Victorian dresses like I do you'll be in fashion heaven and be drooling over all the astonishing creations like I was.

I'll be sure to post over here from time to time to let you know what's going on over on my Victorian Dolls, Victorian Traditions, The Victorian Era and Me Blog or you could bookmark it and check in from time to time yourself.

LOVE Victorian Dresses

It's no secret that I LOVE Victorian dresses. So it should come as now surprise that I've got A "Victorian Fashions" board on my Pinterest page.  In fact there's quite a few boards over there that have to do with my love of the Victorian Era and Victorian Fashions.

In finding pins for my "Victorian Fashions" board I happened to stumble across the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has an astonishing collection of Victorian Fashions. It took me close to an hour to go through all the wonderful fashions and, of course, to pin most of them to my board. If you've been following my blog you know I haven't found any Victorian dress I haven't liked.

I also found two Victorian fashion websites that sell fashions from the Victorian era. These included "Maggie May's Historic Clothing" and the "Antique and Vintage Clothing" website.

According to the "Maggie May's Historic Clothing website they sell "Custom and Ready-made garments for the museum, exhibit, and film industry since 1994 featuring historically documented fabrics drawn from museum collections across the United States and Europe!"

According to the "Antique and Vintage Clothing" website they sell "Original Antique and Vintage Clothing for Sale from the 1800's through Today!" What I really liked about the "Antique and Vintage Clothing" website is they had a ton (and I do mean ton) of close-up pictures for each dress. If you click on any of the images I have from their on my board you'll see what I mean.

I also have a few images from the Philadelphia Museum of Art from several of their "Costume and Textiles" collections.

I also found an Etsy shop "Christine Hall Designs" which sells beautifully custom made Victorian dresses.

I just love going to my board and looking at all the beautiful and historic creations. If Pinterest.com is all about the visual then, hopefully, you'll enjoy your visual visit to my board as much as I do.

There are a few dress that aren't technically "Victorian Era" which was during the reign of Queen Victoria and which ran from June 20, 1837 until January 22, 1901. They pre-date that, but were so beautiful I had to include them. They're more American Colonial than Victorian.

I'm going to continue to add to my "Victorian Fashions" Pinterest.com board so be sure to stop by every once in awhile to see what I've added.

Victorian Fashions

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 20, 1837 until her death on January 22, 1901. I for one am fascinated by Victorian Fashions and LOVE seeing them on display. Here's a few I'd LOVE to see.

If you love my Victorian Fashions board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

My Artful Gathering CQ101 Kit Arrived - YIPPEE!

I've been going back and forth trying to decide which Artful Gathering classes I want to take.  Should I take one - should I take two - maybe three?  If I take two or three which ones should they be?  There are just so many wonderful classes I'd like to take, but I can't take all of them.  I might want to, but I can't.

I know for sure that I'm taking Pat Winter's Crazy Quilting CQ101 class. I'll be making that adorable crazy quilt purse you see in the picture at the beginning of this blog post.  The class description is below:

Crazy Quilting 101

Pat Winter 

Pat takes crazy quilting above and beyond the styles of the past creating wearable art that will leave you crazy for more! Be warned, this is not your grandmother's method for creating wall-hangings and bedspreads, and it is addictive. Pat will guide you through the steps for making your own unique Crazy Quilt Swing Purse. A class for all levels, you'll start with a quick and easy piecing method, basic embroidery stitches and silk ribbon embroidery that anyone can master. Pat also discusses embellishments, placement, sources to find unique stash builders and much more. 

I'm so excited. I can hardly wait.

Well, last week Pat posted in her Pat Winter Gathering's blog that she would be selling some of the CQ101 class kits in her Etsy shop. I, of course, got all excited.  After years of trying to decide whether or not to take an online course I didn't want to miss out because the available kits had run out. So, I purchased one right away and to my delight it came yesterday.

Since blue is my favorite color I chose the navy blue kit which is shown in the picture below:

I haven't opened my kit yet. It just looks so pretty in the packaging. I don't want to spoil it as of yet. I can keep it this way and admire it until the class starts.

YIPPEE!!!!!! My first online class. I'm so excited.

My sister will be so jealous. No matter how much she begs me I won't be giving her my navy blue crazy quilt purse. I'm her big sister and I know that big sisters should be generous to their little sister's, but this is where I'm drawing the line. I've given her many, many things I've made over the years, but she can't have my navy blue crazy quilt purse. No! No! NO!

No matter how much she begs she won't be getting this! No! No! NO!

She'll just have to take Pat's class and make one of her own.

I'm so excited! Once again, I'm doing a happy dance in my jammies.