Contest Block & Charity block

I can finally post a piccie of my contest block for CQforNewbies yahoo group. The votes are in and my block won best pieced.
The contest went like this. We had 20mins to throw together two baggies. They got sent to Lesa -swap Mother- and she sent everyone two baggies back. We had to piece one block using only the contents of the two baggies , plus two extras from our stash. I used threads, and a few beads ( in the blue bead trail). The butterfly and blue fabbies were in one baggie, and the gold and red in another. I don't know if Lesa had matched the baggies at all, but she did a great job. The gold was the same as the flower in the butterfly fabric, and I used the red fabric and pearl #8 cotton in that colour to tie it all together. I have to say, I think I did a rather good job with this block. There seems to be (those dreaded) paths that lead the eye around the block. I'm pleased with the bead trails that cut through the seam treatments. And I even managed to use the white bugle beads and flower. I struggled with those, oh, how I struggled. I have a HUGE aversion to white. Avoid it big time, but once I started putting those suckers on there, I couldn't stop! I didn't document the embellishing of this block, which I should have. I have learnt lessons from this block.
1 . don't discount ANYTHING for the embellishment of CQ blocks
2. white can be OK in CQ blocks
3. It feels great to win !!!
There is only one thing I would change, and I might if I can, and that is to turn the fan around so that the curve of the fan is pieced against the butterfly fabric. I might even embellish a little more. I think I will use this as the centre of my blue block wallhanging. I don't know if I will ever finish these, as they were my first attempts at CQ, but they are also a record of how much I have learnt in the short time I have been doing this (about a year).
Thanks all you CQ Newbies that voted for my block. There was some stiff competition.

PATHFINDERS BLOCK
This is a block that is being made along with 11 others from the Chains of Hearts group. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what this lady does, but she is blind, and she does something with dogs, guide dogs I assume, anywho, the blocks are going to her to be put together and used for fundraising, an auction or raffle. I really should know more. I will make that my mission for tomorrow ( too bust today, meeting tonight, reports to write). I have stepped well out of my comfort zone with this block, As some of you might notice , there is COLOUR in this block, lots of different colour. This is going to be a challenge. Prehaps I will embellish it completely with white. Just joking Rosemary.... I will photo the progress of this block.
On that note, how do you store your photos. Seeing as I have recently lost access to Picasa ( and my photos) I decided to start a yahoo group for myself, just to store photos. has anyone else done this?? Do you have any other ideas?? I figured even if my puter goes kabluey, at least my photos are still out there in the ether somewhere. What about Flickr I here you say, well I only put the finished product on flickr, and don't really want to put all the kid/family/playcentre stuff there, so I thought this might work.

Finally, I am thinking about joining a ' CQ oriental bag' swap. Any links to great oriental eye candy would be appreciated.

8 comments:

Maureen said...

Oh aren't you a clever girl! Congrats Jo.........you've come a long way!
The pathfinder block will be another great one too.
AND what about a pic of your postcard??

Cat said...

The butterfly block is gorgeous! It's so rich looking and just holds the attention with so much to look at!
Hard to believe you've only been at this a year! Beautiful beautiful.

Maddie Can Fly said...

Hey Jo -- Lesa here. No I did not do any matching of the baggies - just dealt them all out like playing cards. But isn't it neat how yours matched up so well? Congrats again on winning!

Micki said...

Congratulations on your beautiful block.

Bhavani Harikrishnan said...

Hi Jo
That's a beautiful block you have there. Congrats on winning.
Good health and cheer to you and your family
Bhavani

Linda said...

*Chloe pokes her head up above the parpet, hears about the win and grins from ear to ear*

Congrats!!! But you did deserve it.

*Disappears in a cloud of smoke*

Julia said...

Congratulation Jo!
The butterfly block is gorgeous..

Elizabet said...

Lovely contest block. Am really glad you've decided to join the oriental swap. Was really hoping you would.