Crazy Quilt - Barbara

Work on the crazy quilt honoring the women in my family had stalled for some time as I think I've mentioned more than once.  However, I forced myself to get back to work on it with moderate success.  Here is the way it looked in September 2017.

Once again I have taken up my needle and have gone to work.  I had decided to embroider Barbara's VW bus "B.B.".  She loved that bus because all 6 of her children were able to fit in it and groceries as well!  How to do it?  That was a problem I had to solve before I could go on with the task I had set for myself.  Eventually I realized I couldn't do the bus justice with embroidery thread alone so I made the shape on paper, traced it onto a firm base, and covered it all with pale green fabric (the appropriate color).  Then I stitched it to the block.

Once that problem was solved, I was faced with another - how to stitch that amorphous green blob so it looked like a VW bus?  That took time to figure out.  I felt my best bet was to use a gray thread, a needle, and back-stitch the important features.  It wasn't exciting, and it wasn't pretty so it took a while for me to force myself to get it done.  That section of this block is almost completely finished and includes the VW logo in silver thread.  All I have to do now is apply Swarovski crystals for the headlights.  That won't happen until the entire block is finished, and I'm not handling it any more.

The rest of the block has also received some attention and progress is now visible.  

The vine on the right-hand side of Barb's photo now has sequin and bead flowers, the lacy heart's flowers have iridescent French-knot centers (they're white, too so not visible in this picture), the gypsy girl has more edge treatment, and there's a silver rickrack flower started in the middle of the bottom edge in this photo.  A few other ribbons and lace have been added, too.  

The vast, uncharted desert at the base of the block (not visible here) remains untouched, but the weight has been lifted from my shoulders because I have figured out what to do and how to handle that design so both top and bottom appear unified.

Whew.  It's a good thing I really enjoy embroidery!