Upcoming Fan RR

Several years ago we had peacock as a guest for several weeks...  He had escaped from a nearby farm and the owner tried everything to entice it to come home... which it finally did.  But I enjoyed him immensely while he was with us.  Here he is by the door into the barn shop.  He was either here or by the slider on the house....admiring himself with his reflection....and what a strut... At night he roosted in the apple tree by the bedroom window.

I started a peacock block which had problems and went into the UFO basket... But I want to see if I can salvage it and combine it somehow with the fans from this upcoming RR.  You can see some thoughts on modifying it on Block Talk With Gerry.

I'm choosing traditional peacock colors to use in my RR fans.

Mini-tutorial - Modifying a patch

This a technique I use a LOT and seems like a silly tut but someone might find it useful...  On this new CQJP block I have a rather small green patch lower right... I wanted a fancy seam AND a daisy patch AND a bunny on this small patch and all three weren't going to fit so I decided to make the patch larger.

First I folded a wide piece of seam binding and stitched it to the top of the patch..

At this point I could have used braid or lace to hide the seam... The gimp was too bulky since I wanted to embroider over it so I chose to cover the joint with a simple ribbon.









This technique added over 3/4" to the patch and will give me enough room for all I want to do.  Nothing matches perfectly but it all blends in.










This is especially useful if you end up with small awkward corners or long skinny patches...Remember this works equally well for a patch that is too large and not in balance with the rest of the block..

The following is a repeat of a tutorial on block talk demonstrating some of the same elements.

I discussed this block a little when I did it. It was Jeanne's block in a "seams only" RR. I had three areas I wanted to change..

1. I wanted the orange patch to appear bigger and make the lavender patch beneath it a little more interesting shape. 

2. The teeny tiny corner patch upper right was just too small so I either had to make it appear larger or disappear.

3. The long narrow patch lower left just had to disappear..

First the orange patch.... I put a purple ribbon on top of  a very wide orange ribbon and stitched it at the very lower edge of the orange patch making the orange patch look larger... By putting it at a slight angle it changed the shape of the lilac patch below it.. You don't have to ALWAYS follow the seam//

I used the same treatment to solve two different problems (#2 & #3)... an extra large bold seam.... 

and it made #2 (tiny triangle) seem larger by again putting a purple ribbon on the very edge of the patch. and giving it a bold seam and a bold seam on #3 (long narrow strip) makes the narrow strip seem to disappear.

The bold seams are always an excellent way to draw OR focus attention where you like  on a block

One RR tune up finished

I am very happy with with this finished block... I was going for a delicate and lacy look..  There was so much  that was lovely on this block that I just couldn't let it languish in the drawer... With one exception I pretty much followed my original plan.

I dyed a lacy butterfly to echo the color of the lace on the seam and also added a light floral background similar to the work on the upper part of the block

Then I added some cream flowers to the upper right patch to add a little light to that corner... In the upper center I beaded two lace dragonflies and because that patch is framed on all sides by elaborate seams, I did little else.

The one change I did that I hadn't planned on was the seam (1.) by the butterfly.. for two reasons.  There was the lovely seam (3.) and I wanted some of that white somewhere else on the block. That seam (1.) had bright yellow and royal blue beads which weren't in harmony with the block as a whole. New seam is 2.

So all in all, just a few minor changes that made me at ease with this block. There was never an issue with the quality of the stitching.  It was more the color choices which has prompted me to write the series on color and RRs on Block Talk with Gerry. I have several pieces to back and bind so will do them all at once.
Here is the before and after..

A little tweeking on "Crazily Cream" RR

As I mentioned in a previous post I am tired of working on black and white.  While not ready to take on a larger project I pulled an old (2008) RR  that I wanted to make a few changes...  I remember this RR well because I was spending 3 months with a cast on a broken leg.

We had a horrendous storm and DH was trying to get the truck out and was stuck...  I was pushing him and when it took traction he lunged away and I fell on the ice....leaving me on the ice with a badly broken leg...I had to crawl to the house.  The road had drifted over by the time he returned and he had to walk in.  We needed to be plowed out to get me  to the hospital..  Now when there is a big snow everyone chides him with "Don't run over your wife again."  I did a lot of stitching that winter....

I love this block but it has been on the shelf all that time so I want to get the changes made  before I add a border and do the finishing.  Repeating myself..."When a RR block comes home it is yours  and you should not feel guilty making changes that you feel are needed..". Likewise when you work on someone's block and send it off... let it go and don't fret if changes are made when it gets home.

Just a few things on this block... upper right the plastic heart was a harsh white.  I just used a little paint to soften and antique it.  Lower left  the flower basket had a very dark brown yarn woven into it.  It was easy to remove... Now the harder part... the brown bead trail upper center... I had planned to just remove it but the trail had been marked in pencil on the fabric so I will have to cover it with a "cream" bead trail... Bead trails and sequin flowers were the CQ rage that winter.. I hope you look at this block closely as there are lots of ideas here... The diagonal seam across the center was done by Jo N. in NZ... This block is an excellent example of RR teamwork.

Working on returned blocks....Part 2 -My Guidelines

Judging from the emails I received this is a topic of interest so I will proceed.  (This is a repeated post from Block Talk)  On the left is  another block in the same Seams Only RR I showed yesterday and it is still just as it returned home... 

Sometimes it is what I (or you) have written in the booklet that is part of the problem...  In this case I specifically asked that seam thread colors match the colors in the block.... and they did just that but they just don't show up... my error.  So I have lots of room to improve on this block.

 And sometimes I've requested something that may be out of participant's comfort zone... I really try to avoid that now.  So do really give some thought to what you ask for....

But in any case I have developed certain guidelines for blocks that come home....

1. First I always wait a bit.. I pin the block up and look at it for some time ...  And occasionally it grows on me or I change an opinion...

2.  My first option is what can I add...?.  I think about this before I think about removing anything and sometimes I can solve problems that way... embellishing and modifying.

3.  Then if I do remove something I try to see if I can use it somewhere else on the same block...  If I can't, I save it (or parts) for use on another block in the future...  So a motif removed from one block may appear on another down the road... I have a bag  of such pieces I keep handy... Reusing them does make me feel better...

Now having said all that there are two exceptions.... I do not like plastic charms or "doodads".  I remove them and they are gone...

The other thing  that I especially dislike are the little machine-made roses sold in craft stores...   Beautiful handmade roses (either with thread or ribbon) are the hallmark of CQ.  Nestle's chocolate (I think) used to have a jingle...."Care enough to send the very best"...  Well when I see those machine-made roses I think "Someone cared so little they send the very worst."  So they are snipped off  and discarded with NO regrets!!!