Want to see something purty?

A couple months ago I signed up for a RR on the CQI Forum.  I had always wanted to to step outside my typical blues & greens or pink & green colors so decided to go with a Pink & Black color pallet.  The theme of the RR was Roses.  I created my 12.5" block using dupioni silk, satins, brocades, velvet and and a pretty little silky and sent it on it's way wondering how it would be returned (always love a mystery).  Well.... no surprise to me I received my block back dressed out to the max with beads, buttons, silk ribbon, beautiful stitches and even a fabulous spider!   Thank you Ely, Rita, Gerry & Lorrie for creating such a beautiful block - I just LOVE it!

Catching up on some CQ RR's & more Dyed Pretties

For the last couple of weeks I've been playing roulette with my  CQ needles,  my dyes and lots of tiles/grout for my new walk-in shower.  Yea!  The shower is finally done and I'm happy to say that I actually enjoyed my first loooong hot shower in my own home in over a week! I'll post pictures of the before and after once the walls are painted.  I'm thinking maybe I'll give myself a break from this type of hard labor until next week.  Already have my paint picked out (warm coco) and have plans on making a one-of-a-kind shower curtain - wait until you see what I've dreamed up - I can't wait to get that project started!

After my days of tiling & grouting I relaxed by catching up on some of my RR's.  3 of them are already in the mail leaving me with about 4 more to do.  Once I've completed these RR's, I need to get caught up with the TAST and CQJP projects.   I've decided to combine both and actually have January's done.. but here it is March so I guess I need to get my mojo working overtime!  After that I think I am going to give my hands some much needed rest as they have seriously been hurting over the past week.  I know I should have elected to have the surgery in January but I just didn't have the time to have my hands tied up for weeks at a time.  Tough getting old.

A weeks worth of CQ -

SRE Spider & Cabbage Roses for Kathy S

Framed Hat Lady for Kathy S

6" Vintage Valentine for Connie

Roses for Rita

Butterfly & Roses for Ely

Cabbage Rose Frame for Ely

 

6" Under the Sea for Ruby

Not sure where I got the energy but I also dyed up about 200+ pieces of new lace.  Pictures have been taken, items packaged so all I need to do now is upload them into my shop..... when I catch my breath.  Please peek into my Etsy shop during the next week for lots of new Spring Time pretties!

Pretty Spring Time Trio

Gorgeous new Rose

Is this not the most beautiful heart you've ever seen!

Can you just picture the center cut out
so this could be used as a beautiful frame!

Another CQ RR Completed & Celebration Give-Away

Do you ever just take a minute, sit back in your chair and say "where has all the time gone?"  I find myself doing that more and more every day.  Seems like I was just updating my blog the other day and now I see that it has been a couple weeks!  I've always been told the older you get the more time zips by.  For the past two weeks I have been dyeing lace, cropping pictures. resizing pictures (which hasn't been easy with this new Windows 7 program) packaging lace all to get ready to load up Raviolee Dreams for the upcoming holidays.  WEW!  Good thing today is daylight savings...we all get an extra hour!

When last I wrote I had mentioned that I was coming up on my 600th Etsy Sale.  Well that day arrived so it's time to celebrate!!!  I'd like to celebrate by saying Thank you to all who have supported me by shopping at RavioLee Dreams.   Since 98% of my Sales have been my dyed laces, I thought what better way to celebrate than to make a gift of laces.  So my sweet friends, please stop by, leave a comment, tell your friends to come take a chance and on 11-11-11 I will award someone a Gift Certificate for $30 worth of custom dyed laces - you pick the colors!   Also included will be an extra  little surprise.

Now for some pretties:

I thought I would share some really pretty CQ blocks with you.  Recently a CQ RR I signed up for was completed and all of my 6 blocks came home... one still naked for me to complete.  This RR was called "Luscious Lace".  When I made my naked blocks to be embellished, I decided to incorporate little bird silkies and have the girls CQ around them.  Each block is 6x6 and will be used to make a Fabric Art Journal.

Made by Me, Nicki Lee

Made by Gayle

Made by Cathy L

Made by PegSue

Made by Lisa

Made by Arlene

 I just have to show you a close up of Arlene's Bug... OMG!  When I opened up my package of blocks I thought it was real!!!  This thing all but moves.  Didn't she do an incredible job

Arlene's Bug!!!!

 

A Little Bit of Craziness

Remember that song "Leaving on a jet plane"? Well in just about 4 hours I will be headed to the airport boarding a plane to North Carolina for the 5th Annual COF Quilting Retreat. COF (Circle of Friends) Retreat began in MN in 2007 when about 40 ladies from the HGTV Quilting Forum decided to get together for 4 days of fun. We have been doing it ever since. Golly, I'm not even sure I've recuperated from the CQ Adventure in CT !

I know I promised pictures of the Crazy Quilting Adventure and I will post some as soon as my new cable cord comes in. Seems "someone" lost it and now is unable to use the camera she used at the Retreat. As soon as I am able I will give you a complete rundown of the fabulous 4 day adventure. Let me just tell you - we had the time of our lives - a whole bunch of crazy ladies all together in one building - what a blast! Our host, Maureen Greeson, with her side kick Susan Elliott, did a fabulous job! Our teachers, Allie Aller, Betty Pillsbury and Sharon Boggins were absolutely incredible. More to come later.

Before I head out on another adventure I thought I would post a few things. First, I was surprised to learn last month that I actually won a Blog Give Away! Judy sent me my prize, one of her GORGEOUS CQ hearts, along with tons of pretties just for me. Thank you again Judy, I love everything!

Beautiful dyed laces, adorable little seahorse, fabulous fabrics and a pretty little face pin.

When not dyeing laces, I actually have been catching up on a lot of CQ RR's. I completed the final two blocks I have to work on for the Birds DYOB RR and will truly miss working on this theme. I really enjoyed working on the bird blocks and can't wait to get mine home.

This one is for Cathy L:

This one is for Cathy L:

Well I'm off to try and get a couple hours sleep. Good thing I'm all packed and ready to go ... hopefully I can sleep on the plane. Thearica - here I come with plenty of laces in tow !!

Fabulous Under the Sea CQ RR Blocks Received

Happy Snow Day! Can you believe this crazeeeee weather! I've for one have had my share of snow for the year.

Still working on revamping my little sewing studio but you know... every once in a while you need to take a break before you reach that "burn out" stage. I've got all the priming and painting done and now am working on figuring out which piece of furniture I can live without... just need to find a place to put all my STUFF! Do you ever wonder how much $ you've spent on your collections?

I figured that my FQs alone filled 6 of the wire baskets at 170 each, giving me a total of approx. 1020 FQs... divide that by 4 and you get 255 yards of fabric just in FQ's... whats worse is when you think on average a FQ is $2.50 - that's $2,550 just in 18x22 pieces of fabric! This doesn't even take into consideration all the yardage of cotton fabrics piled high nor the 14 boxes of crazy quilt fabric I've collected over the years. OH! And we won't even go into the tons of lace I've bought! Yikes! Can you see why I needed to take a break from it! I could have bought summer home in Maui for the $ I've spent. Shhhhhh please don't tell Rob on me LOL! If you think about it, us quilters could probably save the US economy!

So ~ since I've taken a break from my room I thought I would share with you a new set of RR Crazy Quilt blocks that were returned to me completed. This UTS (Under the Sea) RR was hosted by CQI. Each lady sent out a set of 5, 6" blocks to be CQ'd by the next person in line to receive them. I love all of the work done and will most likely try and make a little book out of all of them. Many thanks to Carolyn, Ritva, Beryl, Alice and Kerry.

A gorgeous treasure chest created (hand painted) and filled with jewels for me by Carolyn:



This is the block I embellished for Beryl:

This block with the cute little fishies swimming in the castle was created for me by Beryl:

Love the beautiful ocean floor and waves created for me by Alice:

This block I embellished for Alice:

What a gorgeous underwater scene created by Ritva

and finally... Kerry's beautiful silk ribbon seahorse.

WOW! What a collection! Thank you ladies - I love them all!

Crazy Quilt RR - Art Nouveau

With summer winding down, I think I will finally have time to get back to updating my blog on a regular basis. I know you've probably heard it a thousand times already but... where did the summer go? For that matter, where has the year gone? ....it seems to me like it was just the beginning of spring.

Over the summer I was in numerous Crazy Quilt RR's. In the next few days I will share some of my work as well as some of the beautiful blocks that I have received back from the ladies of CQI (Crazy Quilt International). I love this group - everyone is so creative and so giving of their time and talents. To all of you wonderful CQI ladies - thank you ! thank you!

Mid-summer I signed up for an Art Nouveau RR which involved swapping 6x6 naked CQ blocks . Each of the 5 ladies in the group sent along 5 naked blocks to be embellished. One by one we got to choose one block to complete and then pass the rest on to the next participant until all of the blocks were ready to be sent home to their owner. The fun part was deciding which beautiful block to work on for each lady. The following are the 5 blocks that I created. My signature I hoped to leave behind on each piece was some of my dyed laces .... I almost feel naked not adding a piece to a block.

Created for Carolyn:

Creat for Colleen:

Created for Alice:

Created for Darlene:

Created for Cathy L:

Featured below are the six Art Nouveau blocks I sent around to be embellished. 5 of the ladies each pick one block and embellish it leaving the sixth for me to complete.

My naked blocks:

Work by Colleen:

Work by Cathy L:

Work by Alice:

Work by Carolyn:

Work by Darlene:

Thank you ladies for making this a beautiful swap - loved every minute of it and can't wait to do another RR with you again.