Done in early December

I made an easy tied baby quilt for my niece.  I forgot to take a picture of it.  Oh well.

Then I finished a small stuffed "Christmas bird" for my mom.

I've also been working on my Tree of Life crazy quilt.  It is coming slowly, but I like what I am doing.

I am using the detached chain stitch inside the tree with a brown pearl cotton thread and then threading a sparkly undyed rayon thread underneath it.  I got the idea from this post here:

http://www.pintangle.com/journal/2011/11/3/crazy-quilt-detail-351.html

I am doing the chain stitch in a different way but that was my inspiration for the idea. Thanks, Sharon Boggin of www.pintangle

Now I just need to work like crazy to get this done before January 15th!

I wanted to share some websites/blogs that I go to on a regular basis.

http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/

http://www.pintangle.com/

http://downunderdale.blogspot.com/

http://mysweetprairie.blogspot.com/

http://www.needlenthread.com/

Take a look.  You will enjoy what you see!

I finally finished the outline of the tree on my latest crazy quilt project.  

Then I started some simple stitching in the sky area.

I also made a Christmas Stocking for my daughter-in-law.  

Now I am making an easy baby blanket for my niece's first baby.

It has been awhile since I last posted--almost a whole month.  Here are some things I have been working on:

First I had to make my son a Reformation costume for his school.  He wanted to be Moses, so this is what I did.  The blue fabric is from my mother's stash.  She can't sew anymore.  It was nice to use it.

This is an embroidery that I did for my great niece
for Christmas.

This is the back.  It is a very famous poem about trees:)

The last picture is the main crazy quilt project that I am slowly working on.  If I don't work faster I will not meet the deadline of mid January.

The tree is almost outlined!

Not much done in the way of sewing

I've been cleaning, cooking, etc. but not doing a whole lot of stitching.  One thing I did do was to make new front curtains.  You would think that I would have done this years ago.  At least it is done now.

From this

To This!

Here are some pictures of works in progress. Some are very slow works in progress.

This is a machine needle felted piece, which now needs a lot of hand embroidery.  I used mostly wool and silk fabrics and fibers.

Two pieces of silk fabric that I dyed using Adirondack color wash spray.

This is a crazy quilt block that I made when I took a class from Sharon B online.  I have never finished this.  You can find Sharon B online at www.pintangle.com.

This is a paper mock up of what I want to make as a crazy quilt.

            

                   This is the beginnings of the crazy quilt that I just finished sewing the other day.  I used lots of silks and fancy fabrics.  I even dyed some of my own velvets and silks.  This is for the Tree of Life crazy quilt contest at evening star designs: http://www.eveningstardesigns.citymax.com/Evening_Star_Designs_2011_Challenge_and_Contest.html

Why am I blogging?

I thought that I might actually try to do more embroidery, needle felting, crazy quilting, scrapbooking, and all those other things I have meant to do over the years.  Since I actually have time now, there is no excuse.  I also want to give God the glory in this endeavor--hence the name "Can the Leopard change her spots!"

I can't seem to change on my own--but with Christ's help I can do all things.  So let the doing begin!!