Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP 2014) - March Quilt Square

Each month this year, I am making a 12 inch by 12 inch crazy quilt square for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project. The purpose of the project is to promote the art of crazy quilting and expand each participant’s individual artistic creativity and technical knowledge.

My goal this year is to simply learn how to do the actual sewing of a crazy quilt block. The first month the pieces seemed to come together in a satisfactory way. During February, no matter how hard I tried, there were pieces that did not come together well.

This month, I thought I would try something different. I cut a variety of fabrics into different size rectangles and sewed them together. Then, from one corner to the opposite one (e.g., upper left to lower right), I cut the sewn piece in half. I did this for a few different pieces and then managed to stitch them together in a way that they laid flat.

I used a variety of different pieces of lace, embroidery floss, buttons, sequins, and beads to embellish the block.

Although I've seen other beautifully embroidered squares done by other participants, for the first few months I have not dedicated enough time to taking my embroidery to that level. And, in all honesty, I don't think I have the creative or embroidery skills to do that.

So, if I'm able to sew squares that lay flat, I'm happy. I've learned a new skill and will have something functional (a quilt) at the end of the year.

What I'm also pleased with is that I am able to finally use the pieces of trim, buttons, sequins, and beads that I've had on my craft shelves for a while now. During the past month I've been working on the 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge and am getting rid of items that no longer serve any purpose or that I do not plan to use anytime soon.

The CQJP has been a great way to use up what I have on hand without having to purchase new items from the craft store. I like that I'll have a tactile quilt at the completion of this challenge.

Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP 2014) - February Quilt Square

This is the second month that I'm participating in the Crazy Quilt Journal Project. The project aims to promote the art of crazy quilting and expand the participant’s individual artistic creativity and technical knowledge.

The entire quilt block for February.

My goal is simply to learn how to do individual crazy quilt squares. I'm not following any patterns, so last month I lucked out and the pieces seemed to work together and lay flat. This month...I wasn't so lucky.

This is one section that didn't lay flat.

Just did some simple stitching over it,

and will hope for the best when I sew everything together.

There were several parts of this month's quilt square that I just could not get to line up properly and lay flat after sewing them. It is what it is...I can't stress out about something so insignificant in the greater scheme of life.

I'm using a variety of trims I have on hand.

To this red one, I added two different colors of beads.

At any rate, I'm continuing to use only the trim and embroidery floss that I have on hand. I want this quilt to be something that uses up what I have rather than a project for which I have to go out and purchase supplies. It's that "make do with what you have" mentality that I grew up with and still guides my life today.

This section shows a variety of trims, 

buttons, and embroidery stitches.

One of the things I'm learning is that these quilt squares take a lot of time to create. They aren't something that can be completed in a morning or afternoon. Starting next month I would like to do the machine sewing of the block during the first week of March, and then do all the hand-stitching for the next couple of weeks. In this way, I won't feel rushed, and can perhaps add even more tactile elements to the crazy quilt square.

Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP 2014) - January Quilt Block

The Crazy Quilt Journal Project is about promoting the art of crazy quilting and expanding each participant’s individual artistic creativity and technical knowledge. Quilt blocks are any shape and can even be a finished item that meets the size requirement.

The goal is to construct and complete a crazy quilt block each month (January through December) in 2014 that measures at least equivalent to a 6-inch square block. For my quilt squares, I am doing an 11 3/4" square (this includes the seam allowances).

My finished crazy quilt block for January 2014.

As I did for January, I plan on creating the quilt squares from a wide variety of different all-cotton fabrics.

The start of attaching pieces of fabric to one another.

I have quite a bit of fabric on hand, so I'm using only what I have and not purchasing any new fabric.

After all the different pieces were machine-sewn together,

I ironed the fabric so everything would lay flat.

By using what I have in bins in my home office, it will free up some space by the end of the year.

After ironing the fabric, I put down the white 11 3/4" square piece of fabric

to use as a pattern to make all the quilt blocks the same size.

As I'm going through the bins, I'll donate whatever fabric I don't care for any longer or don't plan to use in the next year or so.

When I was done trimming the machine-sewn fabric,

it was close to the same size as the white fabric.

Now it was ready to be embellished.

I'm going to embellish each of the quilt squares with trims, buttons, and other items that can be sewn onto the quilt square.

Another view of the completed quilt block.

Another goal of the Crazy Quilt Journal Project is that the blocks should challenge the participant's individual skills. I'm definitely at the start of crazy quilting. This is my first crazy quilt...and the first block I've done.

There are different types of trims used.

All are attached to the fabric using cotton embroidery floss.

Some of the trim has beads and sequins added to it.

Participants are encouraged to set individual goals so that the work does not get overwhelming, and discouraging. Keeping this in mind, I've set some personal goals in 2014:

=> Create 12 different quilt blocks using Pinterest for inspiration, but doing my own designs.
=> Incorporate at least 10 different embellishments per quilt square.
=> Use a combination of embroidery stitches I learned through Take a Stitch Tuesday in 2012 as well as my own stitches that complement the embellishments.
=> Combine the quilt squares at the end of 2014 to create a functional item (e.g., lap quilt, bed quilt).

I like this trim with the circles since a sequin and bead 

fit perfectly in the center.

I took a look at a pin on Pinterest that I found that I liked. There was a Block of the Month for August  and two different patterns - Pattern 1 and Pattern 2.

The plain blue fabric needed to have some textural elements on it 

as did the polka-dot trim. 

I also looked for examples of stitches that would be good to use with a crazy quilt. One pin led to nothing...just an image of the different stitches. Another pin linked to Crazy Kwilter Too on Flickr. Although I didn't use the examples of stitches for this block, I would like to in the future.

To submit photographs to the challenge, they need to be of high quality and not "reduced" before sending. Participants email photographs for posting on the CQJP2014 Block to cqjpchallenge@yahoo.com .

Participants who complete the challenge will have their finished photographs also added to the permanent CQJP Blog for the year the challenge was completed (e.g., CQJP2014, CQJP2013).