Victorian Women Round Robin

Here are the blocks I pieced for the Victorian Women Round Robin at CQI. These are all women from my family tree and were all born and grew up in the Victorian era. Soon they will be mailed off to my stitching partners for their embellishment.

Playing with Shrinky Dinks

Today I picked my Granddaughter's up from school. On Fridays they get off early at 1:00 and I was trying to decide what to do with them. I finally decide against swimming because I didn't want to be exhausted for the rest of the evening (lol!). What we did do was play with a package of Shrinky Dinks I had purchased a while back at JoAnne's Fabric store. I'm on a Yahoo Group called Stitchmap and some of the girls had used them and enjoyed them. I certainly didn't expect how this turned out though! I took a sheet of Shrinky Dink and laid it on an old wood plaque my Aunt gifted me with. I traced the design and colored them in with colored pencils. The picture is 3"x4" and the Shrinky Dink is about 1' x 1.5" after baking for a minute. Isn't it cute! I recommend you sit at a table while doing this. I was on my knees and after a long while tracing I realized my feet and ankles had fallen asleep -- not a good feeling. What a cute embellishment for a crazy quilt! I am anxious to try more. My granddaughters drew some cute little charms that they put on a chain.

Snowball for Molly

Here is the snowball I made for Molly.

Be My Valentine RR

This is my work on Nicki Lee's block. (-;

Be My Valentine RR

This is my work on Alice's block. It was a lot of fun working on this block. (-;

Snowball for Hideko

Here is the snowball I made for Hideko.

Third CQJP Block

 
This is my third Crazy Quilted Journal Program (CQJP) block.  The picture is of my Great Grandmother's sister, Amalia "Molly" Wangerin (1886-1952).  I think she is beautiful, but her story is tragic.  At about 17 years of age, Molly became very ill and got a very high fever.  When she recovered from her illness, she was never the same again.  She had violent bouts.  As her parent's aged they could no longer care for Amalia and she was institutionalized.  I think about the loss her parents must have felt, first when Amalia's fever changed her forever and second, when they had to institutionalize her.  I also think about all of the things that Amalia missed out on in life.  That's why I put the various charms on the block.  There is a key charm to open her life to her.  There is high heeled shoes for the growing up experiences she missed out on, a bird for her freedom from mental illness, a ring with "love" imprinted on it for the love she was denied, and a wedding ring since she never married.  My youngest daughter is seventeen and I have many dreams for her future.  I hope and pray her dreams will be fulfilled.  (-;