First Crazy Quilt Block Started

Well here is a look at the first block I made at yesterday's crazy quilt workshop held at the Crones' Cradle Conserve. I had a wonderful day, the other 10 women attending the group created some beautiful blocks and I am only sorry I forgot to pack my camera (and lunch) because it would have been nice to show off their blocks too.

Our instructor Celeste Viale was great, encouraging and shared her knowledge with the group, as well as her love of quilt making.  As the day wore on and stitching got under way I could feel the stress and tension of December melt away, this in part to the crazy quilt making and the idyllic setting at the Crones' Cradle.

The short walk through a wooded path to the building where the workshop was held had me smiling with each step, I was in my element surrounded by nature and the soft sounds of birdsong, and meowed greetings from a few cats helped ease the tension of driving through a early morning fog at times so dense my fingers aches from gripping the steering wheel so tight.

Fabrics, trims, buttons, threads and floss were plentiful and shared among the group, tips, ideas and many questions along with some laughter soon gave way to the silence of nearly a dozen women heads bent reverently stitching their crazy quilt block.  I'm not sure if I mentioned in an earlier post but the blocks were all pieced by hand.

During the course of the day the group gathered mentioned we were all looking forward to another crazy quilt workshop, our host Jeri, was ahead of the gang and had her calender at the ready and after awhile she and Celeste our instructor had set the date for May 23rd, which is great because there were two women on a waiting list for the next class.

Well this workshop was the first foray into my plan of making 2015 my year for creativity, if the rest of my year goes as well as this first class all I can say is it's going to be a great year. Now if I can just remember to grab my camera.

Here is a closer look at the block, the blue piece above the butterflies is my attempt at embroidering a spiderweb without drawing it on, its not completed yet, while stitching it I realized I would rather wait until all the block is completely pieced before I embroider.  I used solid fabrics to frame the butterfly piece and turned under the edges for an idea I had yesterday which will be reveal as I continue to work this first block, which is 16 x 16 inches, which is a nice size if you don't plan to make a quilt and just want to make a pillow or wall hanging.