Maroon13 Three blocks ~ In the Works!

 

The blocks so far!

Maroon13 Block Three ~ in the early stages

Most of the blocks I piece, have seven patches, simply because I don't have time or the patience to piece a block with an assortment of small pieces.  These blocks start out as nine-inch squares. The little rayon motif was dyed with RibbonSmyth Rainbow Dyes. Wet the rayon piece,  lay onto a foam "paper" plate and dab on dye using diluted dyes of Gold, Olivine, Pansy and Victorian Rose. Use a brush to paint the motif, but I've painted motifs with cotton swabs, with the motif in a glass ashtray in a hotel room! Microwave the painted motif to heat-fix or let the motif dry and iron, on the back of the motif to heat-fix. I keep a small plastic bag with dyed motifs. The motif is tacked, laying over a seam and overlapping onto a piece of gold Scalamandre velvet. My memory is challenged daily, but I know exactly where I acquired my most favorite fabrics!



Maroon13 Velvet Butterfly detail

 

Here's a photo of the velvet butterf ly showing the shading of the stamp pad ink, and a small button collage using gathered lime Mokuba ribbon, a bit of a gathered lace from a lingerie collar, leaf sequin, old Czech glass beads, diamond-shaped gold vintage rose montees and a couple of RibbonSmyth silk ribbon lazy daisies.



Maroon13 Block Two of Twelve

A great exercise ~ fill up a plastic bag with embellishments and ribbons, tuck into your suitcase, and create with only the items in the bag. Difficult to do, because you are reminded of something, you left in the studio, that you wished you had.  The focus of this block was the velvet butterfly. The butterfly is made from white silk velvet and then embossed with 100 year-old German dies.  Using metallic stamp pad inks, different sections of the butterfly were "inked" in shades of broze, gold and pewter.   I tacked the butterfly to the fabric ground and then outlined with two rows of beads. In the bottom left corner is a small shabby "rose" created with a strip of Sari silk. Two silk ribbon Feather Stitches were added to create movement in the block.



Maroon13 Block One Use of Sequins

I will always be a fan of Sequins! Growing up, I remember seeing sequins on Christmas stockings. But it took an appreciation of Couture embroidery, to become enchanted with sequins! I was studying at the House of Lesage, in Paris, and our class project used copius amounts of sequins.  And when searching "Lesage" on Google, found images from this blog included.

 

 Without a doubt, a few sequins always add a bit of "dazzle" to a crazy quilt. The motif in the top left corner is made with an old brass button, anchored with a gold metal ball and surrounded with lime green vintage sequins. In-between each sequin, is a small ab bronze glass bead with two holes. This bead has a name, which I don't know, but the bead is most often used in creating "bugs".



Maroon13 Block One of Twelve Completed

I added brown leaf garland, and for the moment, this block is finished. The garland adds movement to the block. Each leaf was anchored with metallic seed beads.



Twelve New Silk Doupioni Selections

Working with silk doupioni for crazy quilting and mixed media collage, is my favorite choice of fabric. We have twelve new colors, affordably priced on our site at http://ribbonsmyth.com/doupionisilk.aspx

and we have more new colors on the way.

New Silk ribbon combo packs, new open stock colors of silk ribbon in 4mm and 7mm. We are gathering supplies for fall creating!

Thank you for checking them out!



Maroon13 Close-up of Block One

A bit more detail, no doubt "fuzzy", of the Couture beaded embroidery piece.



Maroon13 Crazy Quilt Wall-hanging Block One

Block One is almost completely embellished! The focus is a beautiful couture piece of  brown  beaded embroidery. When I was teaching in La Bourboule, there was a lady selling beaded embroidery pieces at the Casino, where our classes were held. She had acquired the embroidery pieces from a Paris couture house. And many Euros later, I came home with a small bag of assorted sequin-encrusted pieces in a variety of colors.  Each block will incorporate Krienik metallic threads. I added some vintage lime green sequins to the seams.  My embroidery is far from perfect! My only focus, is to finish with something "pleasing to the eye" that gave joy  while creating.



New Pieced Maroon Crazy Quilt Blocks and Jackson

 

Whew! It's great to actually see five pieced blocks and Jack had to "jump" into the photo.

 It has taken forever to get them pieced. Seven more blocks to go.  I have a stack of fabrics on top of the dining room table, and cut a piece, stitch it down to a piece of baby flannel and grab another piece.  There is a fusible ironed to each piece of velvet before it is pieced to other patches. After the block is pieced, a fusible is ironed onto the back. I hope to have a wall-hanging with 12 flat blocks!    The photo does not capture the lime and celery brocades in each block.