Crazy Quilt Journal Challenge 2012/Bead Journal Project 2102 - January

Here it is:
Lots of acknowledgements required here. First of all, the colors chosen were from the Color Palette Challenge being made by Judy Laquidara over at Patchwork TImes, based on the color palettes developed by Vicki Welsh at Field Trips in Fiber. I chose my fabrics, all cotton, form my stash based on how that palette looked to me on my laptop --- of course, I found out two weeks later that some called what I thought was purple maroon or burgundy... oh well, it's my eyes, right?

I assembled the crazy quilt base using the Block #1 grid from Sharon B at PinTangle. I enlarged the pattern so it would result in a 6 x 6 block, as required by the CQJC, and transferred it to a piece of white craft felt which became the piecing foundation for my block.

Seam embellishments all came from my stash except a piece of pale blue lace (it looks white in the photo) which I found at Hobby Lobby (It appears I don't have a lot of lace in my stash!) and a length of lime green sparkly ribbon I acquired from my local stamping/scrapbooking shop.

Maybe participating in the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge influenced me but most of the embroidery stitches were based on the first three weeks of that challenge: Buttonhole stitch, Fly stitch, and Feather Stitch. I used a chain stitch to "connect" various areas of the piecing. Threads used were all DMC: 311 (dark blue), 550, 554 (two shades of purple) and 907 (lime green).

I then embellished the lace and some of the stitches with seed beads (Mill Hill 02031- clear lime green and 02069 opaque purple, and a generic white opaque luster bead) and couched a string of decorative crystal bead edging along the strip of lace.

It needed some balance so I stitched and beaded a "copy" of the motif in the light purple fabric over to the right in the dark purple fabric.

I did all the embellishment "in hand" --- I learned something from this block --- leave enough extra on the piece so I can use a hoop next time!