Serendipity

 According to Webster's dictionary, serendipity is: luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for.  The kind of luck that only comes from above.  That is how two crazy quilter's, one from Kansas and another from Washington state came to write a book together.  A very happy accident, that really was no accident in the whole scheme of things.

In November of 2011, these two crazy quilter's happened to sit together at a lecture given by Carole Samples.  Both were moved, almost to tears by this lecture.  At that moment we realized that as different as we both were, we had so much in common.  We both had a deep love for crazy quilting, historical quilts and a special place in our hearts for Carole Samples and her work.  I couldn't sleep that night thinking about Carole's lecture!

The very next morning we vowed to write a book together.  Our journey was filled with the joy of creating beautiful things together.  It is our hope that you will feel the joy radiate off the pages of our book.  Then maybe you can take a little bit of that joy to create your own beautiful things.

Oh, and it is due for release May 2014, so excited!

For Allie's take on our book announcement, you may visit her here:

http://alliesinstitches.blogspot.com/2014/02/announcing-our-new-book-quiltingjust.html


Talk to you later,

Allie and Val

{Crazy} Quilt Heart

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!  Of the top two things I love to make, a heart is one of them.  This is a class I will be teaching for Prairie Quilt Guild in my home town next week.  If you are interested in taking this class you can go here:

  http://www.pqgks.com/programs.html

If you can't make it to the class, I have the heart portion of the project (not the borders!) written up as an online class.  For more info on the online class, you can go here:  


http://www.valeriebothell.com/catalog.php?view=productListPage&category=179

Thank you for stopping by and I'll talk to you later,

A Very {Vintage} Update

I haven't posted in a few weeks and so I thought I would give you an update on my vintage crazy quilt block that I am working on.  I changed a few things that I thought didn't look quite right.  I had a white lace butterfly in the upper right hand corner but it just stuck out like a sore thumb, so off it went!  I put a Christmas tree in it's place.

Here is a close up of the lower left hand corner.  The reindeer are still flying, but I have added some red poinsettias and some small Christmas trees to the mix.

Upper left hand corner close up...

Upper right hand corner close up...

Bottom right hand corner close up....

I am giving a lecture and a workshop in my hometown in the next week or so and that has keep me busy, so I don't have as much progress on this project as I would like, but I am getting there!  You may have noticed that I haven't appliqued the picture of my 4 boys on the center of this block yet.  I am waiting until I am a little closer to the finish line because I don't want to damage the print as I work.  I have another project that I made a few days ago that I will post in a few days so......

I'll to talk to you later and thanks for stopping by!

A Very {Vintage} Crazy Quilt Block

About 10 days before Christmas, I decided to start a new project.  It seemed a little crazy to start something new so close to Christmas but this project had been on my mind for about 2 weeks and I just couldn't let it go!  I knew what pattern I was going to use, so I started picking fabrics.  As you can see in the picture above, it looked like a mess but what a fun mess!

I decided to plan the project around my favorite picture of my 4 children at Christmas time.  This picture was taken about 7 years ago and I still have it in a frame in my bedroom.  The pattern I drew up was a difficult one, but I really wanted this to look as vintage as possible.  I felt that the extra time it would take to piece it would be totally worth it.  Pictured above is after a few days of piecing.

Here is more progress after a couple more days.  Remember it was Christmas time, so I worked it in around other Christmas stuff I was doing!

A few more days later with more progress, you can see my faithful sidekick right at my side as usual!

Finally about a week later, it was pieced!  Time consuming, but so worth it as I felt it had the vintage feel that I was going for.

What I usually do next is pick out all of my thread and silk ribbon that I am going to use.  The things I pick intially are not always what I end up using, but a girl always has to have options!

Then I pick out my laces and trims that I may use, with the same philosophy...options!

I usually put all of my stuff for a project in one box, so I can just grab it and go.

This old blanket binding looked interesting and was the right color so it may have a use, we'll see!

Then, on to my favorite part, stitching!

I just love that herringbone stitch I did around the fan shape in the upper left hand corner.  I used ribbon floss and I love the shine it gives to the stitich.

Here is a closer look at the top right hand corner.  That green piece of tatting is going to become a wreath.  Well I have more done than this, but I'll save that for another day!

Talk to you soon and thanks for stopping by,

Gratitude

I have always been fascinated with the way Victorians would express their emotion's for one another through flower's.  There were many books for the Victorians to use as a reference to help them with their choices.  Many times the different books didn't agree on the meanings of the different flowers.   One would only hope that both the giver and the receiver were using the same book or there could be huge misunderstandings!

The block pictured above is a page out of my Secret Language of Flower's book I recently finished.  It is a Camellia and it's meaning is: Gratitude.

 For this year I have chosen to focus on expressing gratitude....

So thank you for stopping by and I'll talk to you soon!

{Crazy} Quilt Wreath

 

Several years ago(I mean several!) I taught a silk ribbon class where we made a silk ribbon wreath for Christmas.  I hand dyed all the ribbons for them and we had a great time!

I then started to finish my silk ribbon wreath....and well, like some projects, it ended up in a drawer.  I found this little beauty the other day when I was getting all of my crazy quilt Christmas decorations out.  I realized why it ended up in a drawer.  It just wasn't very eye catching, it did nothing for me!  So, I decided to do something about that!
 

{Crazy} Quilt Christmas Wreath, Valerie Bothell, 2013

After working some crazy quilt magic this project makes this crazy quilter's heart sing!

Talk to you later,

A Wonderful Old Crazy Quilt

A few days ago, a friend of mine asked Dixie and I if we would help her do something with her great grandmother's crazy quilt.  We were happy to help and the reward was some really great eyecandy!  I just love the daisy's pictured above....

This looked like a waterlily to me...the chenille thread was just beautiful!

 A beautiful ribbonwork flower with chenille thread leaves.

And another one...

Sweet little embroidered bouquets....

A horseshoe embroidered with chenille...

I really loved this crane, but look at the condition of the silk....

Some really great embroidered initials!

And another sweet bouquet..

Love this chenille embroidered moon!

This crazy quilt had some really great embroidery on it, but the reality was that all of the silk on it was in very bad shape.  For about 3 years she had been thinking about cutting out some great pieces from the quilt and having them framed for her daughter's.  We cut out two spots and I can hardly wait to see how they look framed.  It was a little nerve racking to cut up such a special quilt but really we all felt it was the best way to preserve what was left of this treasure.

Talk to you later,