Crazy Patch Embroidery

 Recently I saw some crazy patch embroidery some one was doing and thought it might be nice to revisit that craft. I learned how to embroider when I was about 14 in 4-H. My first quilt was embroidered squares. 

I found this book on my shelf that I bought about 4 years ago. Turns out that the author was a newbie and created her own base seams for her Stunning Stitches. The book has 480 embroidered seam designs. Now I see on Amazon that she has another 350 in a new book. 

I do not intend to pretend that I will make all those, but I plan to make at least 24 seams. Goodness knows, I have enough floss, silk ribbon, beads and other bits and pieces that can be used. 

I learned a bit about silk ribbon embroidery a lot of years ago. I was so excited, I bought ALL the tiny kits (15) that were on a ridiculous close out sale years ago back in the '90s. I had forgotten about them until I was rummaging through boxes looking for some elusive thing that I am always misplacing.

In 2010 I signed up for a Baltimore class. I collected a lot of supplies. Our instructor used to own a quilt shop in Alabama and when her husband took a job in Toronto, she had no time for a sale so just loaded everything up and brought it with her. She gave away a lot of door prizes at her classes. 

I  had just started teaching the Dear Jane class at the Farm and thought I might move on to teaching dimensional applique. So, I bought lots of fancy ribbon with wires in them. Will I even remember how to do any of that? 

Did I mention that I was working on a master's degree at the time? I was. I did finish that. 

And I bought books. I was going to do this one day. 

Kits were started and neatly (hardly) shoved into bags and later project boxes.

All of this survived the great purge of 2021. 

I took a silk ribbon class around 1996. At least that is the date on the receipt in the bag.

I have taught a lot of girls to start stitching. I led girls clubs and 4-H 20-30 years ago. The stitches were worked onto a scrap of cloth and we created a little picture. 

I am teaching the little girls to do various kinds of stitching.

I took a workshop in crazy patch back in 2010, but had too much going on to focus on the creativity that it required.  

We were told to trace the pattern onto the back of a piece of muslin or other scrap cloth. Then we did a sew and flip method of foundation piecing. The new book has us securing the block into a stretcher frame. So I did. Yesterday.

My OMG goal was to sort through, organize and make a plan. Since I have this block already started, my plan for now is to add a few more rows of stitching. And while I do this, I will ponder what I could do next. Stay tuned. Because, if I start a new block, I will have to rummage through boxes and boxes of fabrics choosing the right ones. And the yard of muslin I bought in Shipshewana has gone awol. 

Blessings,

Chris