100 details for 100 days Day 11

Todays crazy quilt embellishment detail is two rows of Herringbone worked close together. One side of the Herringbone is topped with three detached chain stitches worked in DMC pearl 5. The other side with oyster stitch which is part of the chain stitch family. This is possibly a new stitch for some people it looks complicated but it is not and once mastered can worked in all sorts of threads to create interesting effects. This detail is worked in DMC pearl 5 and topped with a small seed bead.

The other day Susan of Plays with needles mentioned that the details that are being posted daily are not always easy to faithfully follow because finding a similar braid, lace or even space on a block is difficult.

This is one of the reasons I was so surprised people wanted to follow along but it is also why crazy quilting can never be a copy or a step by step, follow along craft. People often ask me if I worry about people stealing my ideas I always answer no because direct copying is so difficult with crazy quilting – no matter what, people are forced to come up with their own creative solutions and the minute they do its not a copy!

As Allison Aller has been stitching along points out that these details are fine inspiration to use as jumping off points. That’s the wonderful thing about crazy quilting people are pushed into discovering their own self expression and that makes it fun. Even when details are charted as Pam Kellogg of Kitty & Me Designs has been providing, you will find that adaptations of one sort or another will inevitably happen. That is what makes crazy quilting so unique each block is different and each seam is different.

So with Crazy Quilting stitch alongs can happen but they will always generate different ideas and ways of embellishing and those ideas will feed others and so on. A stitch along such as this which actively encourages interpretation rather than copying will feed on itself and the more people who join in the more ideas are generated and each of those can be interpreted in a new way. Marty of Textiles in Time left a comment to say that her head was spinning with ideas and that is an ideal situation to be in.

On another note Sophie of Sophie junction left an interesting comment about how she is using the tagging feature at flickr. On her start page Sophie has subscribed to the 100detailsin100days

Yesterday I discovered the Google Gadget called “Flickr Nugget” and am now being served up with images from the photos tagged “100 details in 100 days” on my google home page … it makes my work day SO much more pleasant, thanks to you, Annie, Allison , Hideko Ishada and everyone who is creating and sharing their details.

This is one of the things you can do with RSS feeds. Many of the various start pages offer options to subscribe to things such as blogs. A tag, on Flickr (and elsewhere) has an RSS feed which means you can also subscribe to that tag. You can also subscribe to the tag in your blog reader such as bloglines. Each day the new stuff will appear on your start page or blog reader. It is just there waiting for you to enjoy over your morning coffee. None of this clicking from site to site, to see everything. Most people are only just figuring out how to use RSS and how it fits into their online life. Using the RSS feed associated with a tag, as part of a start page or in your blog reader is just one way of getting the technology to work for you. It is one of the reasons I like flickr above other photos hosting services. With flickr you have the ability to tag your photos which means people can subscribe to either all your photos or just the tag.

For anyone just swinging by this series of posts are listed under 100 details for 100 days in this blog. Over on Flickr it is associated with the Crazyquilting Group and photos are tagged 100detailsin100days