Progress on my crazy quilt project "Hats". Undate #2

Work on my Hats, crazy quilt project is continuing.  I thought I would give you all a little update.

As I mentioned before I like to work in phases, so phase 1 was making the blocks (blog post June 26, 2025) and phase 2 was basic embroidery with various floss and threads (blog post Nov.12 2025).  Today I'm adding phase 3 which is fine stitching on the faces and hats.

Below are a few detailed photos.  Sorry for the quality of the photos, I see they got a bit fuzzy from zooming in so close.

Most if not all of the stitching on the hats and faces is done with a single strand of "fancy" or specialty sewing threads.  Technique for the stitches is a combination of straight stitch, back stitch and bullion stitches.

The bullion stitch was great for adding a 3-D fluffy effect for the feathers. 

 Beads and silk ribbon were also added.

I anticipate the "Hats" project will take me at least another year as I work on and off around other projects. I hope you will drop back in as the work progresses.

I thought you may be interested in seeing how I store my "fancy"  spool threads. These threads are, for the most part, shiny, silky polyester or rayon threads, metallic threads and SULKY threads. I love the look of all of these threads but many of them my machine doesn't like to work with.  Thus, I use them for hand work and special effects.  

I like to put my threads in small jewelry bags so the threads stay nice and neat.  The thread bags are hung by a color matching metal ring and hooked to a metal rack.  FYI, the metal rack is an old dog gate tipped sideways.  I love the way this works! So neat and I can see everything. 

I know this takes up more space, but I find I'm using all my stuff because I can see it.  And, because it has a home it gets put back for the next time.

Hope this gives you some new ideas and inspiration.

Have a great day!

MaryEllen

A winter storm and problem solving for an unfinished quilt.

The weather where I'm at this weekend is terrible and no travel is advised.  That means a sewing weekend for me for sure.  

I thought I'd show what I've been up to even though it's not finished.   First off  I'm calling this piece "In the Garden" as all the focus fabrics are kind of garden related. I first chose a block called Stain Glass from 100 Best Full-Sized Quilt Blocks by Dobbs, Shimo, Sinkler and Warehime.  I was looking for a block with a large center square for my focus garden fabrics to really shine.  Unfortunately I quickly realized that I wasn't going to have enough fabric in my stash to make those blocks.  I decided to just make the center square with only one border around it.  I will need to save Stain Glass for any other project.

I love this bird fabric!  The gray fabric was great with it but I didn't have enough.  No worries I had another fabric that was super close but it had a printed texture on it.  Solution, use the back as the front.  As you can see now it blends right in.

I had had just enough of this fabric to make three blocks but the fouth block was missing a corner.  I patched in the corner with a fussy cut piece of scrap from the leftovers.  I think it will pass just fine once all quilted.

This fabric was a leftover from another project.  The fabric wasn't really a garden theme but with proper fussy cutting I was able to find four squares that were flowers, birds, chairs, etc. that would fit with my theme.

This fabric was so cute.  I'm a big one for buying those scrap bags at quilt stores.  This fabric, and  few of the others, came from one of those scrap bags.

In the end I did run out of white fabric and the yellow fabric for the borders and I do need to pick up batting and backing.  

Will this quilt win any big awards---NO.  But it is a happy quilt that I can share with others.  I also cleaned out some of my stash. And, I had great fun working on something while home in a storm.

Once a flannel backing is added I think this quilt will be wonderful to snuggle with while dreaming of warmer days in the garden.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

MaryEllen

My crazy quilt photo album.

So I'm going to start off 2026 with a flashback to a piece I did quite a few years ago.  While doing my beginning of the year cleaning and reorganizing I came across this photo album and I realized I had never posted about it.  I hope you enjoy a few photos and maybe it will inspire you to use something you've made for a different purpose. 

I used a basic photo album from the craft store made for 12"X12" pages.

Unlike most of my crazy quilts which use lots of fancy fabrics this piece is made up of all cotton fabrics.  

However, I have added all my favorite beads, charms, trims, lace and embroidery work.

The one exception to all cotton fabrics is the inside back and front covers which are a dark velvet with a gold braid trim.

Now I just need to organize all the photos that go inside.  

The projects never end!

 Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

MaryEllen