Disappointment

Key To My Heart1
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

Apparently, Ebay is not the place for these. Neither my Red Hat quilt, nor my peacock quilt got so much as a single bid.

Oh well, I think instead of relisting them at Ebay, I'll just put my quilts in my Etsy shop. Did I mention how disappointed I am?

I've gone ahead and posted this quilt in my shop and then tomorrow I'll list another one.

Not much stitching to share at the moment. At least nothing that I can share. Am working on a magazine project. As I mentioned earlier this week, the new Zweigart magazine will be featuring one of my crazyquilts. It's almost complete and then I'll get back to the Strawberry Fields quilt as well as the Basket Kitten doorknockers.

Basket Kitten 1 Complete

Basket Kitten 1 Complete
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I finished this last night. Now to sew it together so it's ready for next weekend. I'll do that sometime this week.

I'm off to stitch on the Strawberry block for a bit. I spent some time yesterday organizing my trims and laces. That was fun! Found a few things I forgot about! Maybe I can use some on the Strawberry block which I think I will title, "Strawberry Fields".

At Home With Needlework - a new magazine

I'm pleased to announce that Zweigart has just released a new needlework magazine!



At Home With Needlework, The Premier Issue features 11 of my charted design projects including the cover design, along with many other designs ranging in difficulty from easy to advanced.



The back cover features an advertisement for my Cats & Kittens afghan designs! This is on newstands and in bookstores now.

Watch upcoming issues for one of my crazy quilt projects!

Quilts On Ebay!

Ok, I finally have 2 of my quilts listed on Ebay. That only took forever! It's been awhile since I listed things there.

Anyway, here are the links:

The Moonlit Peacock

The Red Hat

Please let me know how they look. I have a terrible time writing descriptions!

Basket Kitten Day 2

Basket Kitten 2
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I had a few hours yesterday to work on this little kitty design. Don't know why the scanner mutes the colors so much. It's brighter than it looks here. Anyway, I'll be adding more beads to this later. Hope to find room for a few buttons too!

Rick Rack Crochet

Rick Rack Crochet
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

Last year, I shared a few pieces of Rick Rack Crochet that I had acquired via my flea market trips. I was at another flea market this past weekend and found some more! These are by far, the prettiest ones I've found yet! I think they were meant for edgings on pillowcases but were never used.

Blog Visits

I thought my cross stitch followers would enjoy a visit to Chloe's Place. Linda has shared a sampler dated 1842. It's a must see! This sampler was worked by an 8 year old! The motifs and stitching are exquisite.

Also, if you know anything about lace, pay a visit to Patra's Place. Gina is trying to find some information on a lace form know in Australia as "Dickel Lace". If you know anything about this lace form, please let Gina know!

For an absolutely stunning art quilt, check out Works In Progress! Allison's "Needs Weeding" quilt is breathtaking!

Last but not least, hop over to Camilla's Place. Julia's "Aunt Maggies Tulips" quilt won a prize at a quilt show!

I'll be back a bit later to post some updates on my work. In the meantime, enjoy!

Love Tokens

You may remember these from a few weeks back. They're completely complete now! I've titled the series "Love Tokens":













Click on any photo to go to my Flickr album and see a larger version. I'm off to stitch on "Basket Kitten" #1.

New Projects

I started on this block the other day:



The strawberry is appliqued using the freezer paper technique. After opening the back to pull the freezer paper out, I stuffed in a bit of poly fiberfill and then whip stitched the back closed.

The design is adapted from one of my vintage embroidery patterns. I plan to "paint" the strawberry, basically give it some shading and then add beads for the seeds but I'll wait until I'm almost done before doing that part.

I have to put this project down for a short time though, to do this project:



The first in a series of 3 "Basket Kittens" designs, I need to have this ready by June 3rd as it's already spoken for. I thought I'd better get it started but I forgot to scan it beforehand. Anyway, this is another 5 inch block and will be made into a doorknocker.

I'd like to thank Allison from "Works In Progress" for her suggestions on where to offer my work. I agree with her completely, that crazy quilting just isn't quite seen as an artform yet. So how do we crazy quilters bring this thought into awareness? I have some ideas and even a exciting opportunity thanks to my cross stitch background but I think we still need to comtemplate this question a bit more.

For the time being, I'll stick with my original plan and make my quilts available at Ebay and then my smaller things available in my Etsy shop. When I have some free time, I'll set up a gallery of my work at my website and offer to do commissioned pieces. Yes, I think that would be fun! And yes, I have been rolling the idea around in my head for awhile about teaching. That will take some planning though. Despite my charted design background, I've never had the desire to teach until now. Teaching the art of crazyquilting sounds very enjoyable!

And speaking of my charted design work, I'd better get to it! More later as I have lots of things to share!

The Moonlit Peacock

The Moonlit Peacock
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

Finally, I can share The Moonlit Peacock quilt with you in it's entirety! I had to lay it on the floor for photographing due to my quilt rack not being up at the moment.

Most of you probably know by now that I'm making my quilts available for purchase. I mean, I only have so much wallspace so I can't keep everything and the joy for me is the journey (the creative process) rather then the destination (the completed project).

I had planned on making the quilts available at Ebay but I'm feeling some internal resistance to that at the moment. Not sure why. I also opened a store at Etsy for my smaller pieces but again, am feeling that it might not be the right place. Etsy is more craft oriented and in my personal opinion, crazy quilting, regardless of size, is an artform rather than a craft. So I've held off on listing my other things for the time being.

Another dilemma of mine is what to charge. Anyone who does any type of fancywork knows that the process does not go fast. It's very time consuming to embroidery, sew on lace and trim and add beads and buttons and other trinkets. Not to mention the ability to use color and composition to balance out a project. Of course, those who do not do fancywork, are not aware of this fact.

I don't believe in the "anything goes" attitude when it comes to crazy quilting. I do plan out my projects to a certain point in advance. I have a basic idea of what I want it look like before I start. And I like to work with a theme. Perhaps it's my way of taking the chaos of everyday life and making it into something that make sense and has balance. I won't apologize for seeing crazy quilting as something artistic rather than a craft. I see myself as an artist and I use a needle rather than a paintbrush.

So now I'm off to re-evalute where to offer my work. Perhaps my website would be the best place. Unfortunately, I need a bit of help with that as I'm not quite as HTML literate as I should be!

Key To My Heart Quilt

Key To My Heart
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I finally completed this quilt! Some of you may remember me working on this back at Christmas. I love the colors in this quilt and wanted to experiment with bringing the design "outside of the lines" so I added two more butterflies on the border lace.

Garden Girls Completely Complete!

My "Garden Girl" series is complete and I'm pleased to announce that they are now available in my new online Etsy shop!

Each is signed on the back and numbered according to the order in which I stitched them. And of course, each has my signature cat embroidered on it.







More photos of my finished work coming very soon!

Antique Crazy Quilts

If I find one more cool blog to read every day, I won't have time to work!
Amy at In The Fold
is sharing some antique crazy quilts that she has. Wow! Be sure to scroll all the way down to see everything!

Perforated Paper Embroidery

I just read an interesting article on Perforated Paper Embroidery over at Victoriana Magazine online.

I wasn't at all aware that Perforated Paper goes back to the 1800's so I found this quite facinating.
Yes, I've done cross stitch and beading on the paper as it's still available today but I don't care for doing it since it's an "in hand" project. I prefer to hold a hoop.

Still, if you have a moment, check it out. There are some lovely examples of Victorian pieces to see!

My Next Block

Strawberry Block
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

Can anyone guess the theme for this one? I should have time to work on this later today.

I've sewn up the Garden Girls, made one of the pansy pieces into a doorknocker and am sewing the other two pansy pieces into handbags.
Photos coming very soon!

Garden Girl 3 Complete

Garden Girl 3 Complete
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I finished this design last night so now the Garden Girl series is complete. I'll do the finishing today on my sewing machine for all 3 of them and if all goes well, I'll get the digi out tomorrow and have some pictures soon of my finished projects!

Garden Girl 3 Day 2

Garden Girl 3 Day 2
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I usually bead as I go along but this time, I covered all the seams first and then started beading.

I handpainted the lace beneath the girl. It's actually hem lace which is the perfect size for these small blocks. My mom gave me a whole shoebox full of hem lace in all different colors. Of course there was no purple so I made my own purple!

I expect to have some stitching time later today so hopefully, I'll have another update on this tomorrow.

Garden Girl 3

Garden Girl 3
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I've just started on this little block so hopefully, I'll have an update for you tomorrow.

Yes, I've gotten loads of stuff done today. Feels good to get caught up on things and still have time to stitch for fun!

Dryer Sheet Pansy Doorknocker

Dryer Sheet Pansy Doorknocker
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

Well, I didn't get this straight on the scanner, but it's enough for you to see what I'm doing.

The background fabric is black cotton and the lace is vintage. I picked it up at a flea market last Summer.

I did 3 of these (I'm saving one of the pansy sets for a crazy quilt).

The next step is to sew them into doorknockers. I won't get to that today. I'd still like to get the border lace on the Shamrock CQ and I'd like to start on Garden Girl #3.

Garden Girl 2 Complete

Garden Girl 2 Complete
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I finished this design yesterday so now I can move onto Garden Girl #3.

I can't believe that I didn't have more in the way of pink buttons. I have jars and jars of buttons but not alot of pink ones. The metallic buttons worked out well though and to balance them out, I added the silver tulip charm in the bottom left-hand corner.

I have alot of handsewing to do today but I hope to have time to start on #3 later.

Working.....

With so much to stitch, design and finish, why do I have to take time to eat and sleep?

I didn't get any stitching time in yesterday so I don't have an update for you on my Garden Girl block today. But I am off to work on it now.

I just sewed the borders on the Shamrock quilt so the next step on that is to hand-sew the border lace on.

And I came up with something really cool to do with those "dryer sheet" pansies that I made! Will have an update on that project soon!

Stay tuned!!!!

Garden Girl 2 Day 3

Garden Girl 2 Day 3
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

A little more embellishing on this block. I added my signature, covered two more seams and beaded the lace and trim on the bottom left-hand corner.

I'd like to add some buttons to this block but don't want to overpower the roses. I'll have to try some different buttons and see how it looks.

"All That Jazz" Fundraiser Quilts Now On Ebay

I just got word from Sharon at In A Minute Ago, that the "All That Jazz" quilts are now up for auction at Ebay. Be sure to visit Sharon's blog for a full account of everything regarding the "All That Jazz" project.

Here are the links to the quilts:

Quilt #1

Quilt #2

Quilt #3

All proceeds go to Baton Rouge Area Foundation / FoundationsForRecovery.org

To refresh your memory, here is my block which appears on Quilt #1:



To see how the quilts were assembled, visit Annie's Crazy World.

Garden Girl 2 Day 2

Garden Girl 2 Day 2
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

Geez, between Flickr and Blogspot, I've had one heck of a time trying to post today!

I wanted to share an update with you on my Garden Girl 2 block. As you can see, I did some ribbon embroidery. Quite challenging on the seam lines! The spider web roses aren't bad at all because they're woven but trying to pull the ribbon through all those layers to do the leaves was rather time consuming!

Speaking of ribbon embroidery, I've been asked to do several ribbon embroidery designs. The challenge there for me is that I usually freehand the stitching on my crazy quilts but this time, I actually have to draw out a pattern and then stitch it according to that pattern. Which I'm off to do now. Wish me luck!

Garden Girl 2

Garden Girl 2
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

This is the second in the Garden Girl series. I'll be starting on this block later today.

Garden Girl 1 Complete

I finished this piece last night. I always feel a bit sad when I finish one, I want to keep stitching! Thankfully, I've sewn up a couple so I can just move on to another one.



I've been asked about the pink flowers. The flowers are those little "forgetmenot sprays" that are used on favors for baby and wedding showers. In fact, I need to find some more. I ordered them years ago for craft projects and I've used quite a few of them now.



I just take them off the stems and attach them using several seed beads.

Complimentary Blackwork Design

EmbellishThisFreeProject
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

Judging by my Statcounter, I can see that some of you are looking for the complimentary blackwork design I did last Summer as a challenge project.

I thought I would post the design again to make it easier for my readers to find. Click on the photo and that will take you to my Flickr site where you can download a readable version.

Enjoy!

Garden Girl 1 Day 2

Garden Girl 1 Day 2
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I added alot to this block yesterday. The pink flowers are a bit brighter than I wanted but nothing else I had showed up on this block.

I still have some more stitching to do on this and will hopefully have time later today.

I'm off to visit my mom for a little while.

Garden Girl 1

Garden Girl 1
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

The first in a series of 3 Garden Girl designs, this block is 5 inches square. I started on this yesterday afternoon but forgot to scan it before stitching.

The white lace has sequins on it which gummed up my sewing machine needles pretty good but it's so sparkly! A little hard to stitch on too but the finished results will be worth it!

More later...

Teacup Bird Complete

Teacup Bird Complete
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I finished this little birdie yesterday afternoon. I think I'll make it into a pillow using some of my reproduction 40's fabrics.

I'm taking today off from my charted design work and I'm going to run my sewing machine! Plan to make some more small 5 inch block crazy quilt doorknockers.

I have most of my "finishing" done. All I have left to do is the finishing on is my Shamrock quilt. I'm hoping to start on that tomorrow.

Dryer Sheet Pansies

Dryer Sheet Pansies
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I completed these yesterday afternoon and I think they just look so cool! They're softer looking than what the scan shows. The scan makes them look a bit dark.

Anyway, I did some tatted rings for the centers, added a Czech glass bead in the center as well as the black lines and now they're ready to sew onto something. Will probably use one on a crazy quilt block and maybe make the others into doorknockers.

Update

Not much new to share today. Been working on the finishing of some projects. I really got behind on some things. I've also been working a little bit more on the dryer sheet pansies (I did 4 of them) and I'm still stitching on the little bird with the teacup. As soon as I have something complete, I'll share!

In the meantime, I've found a few more blogs that I just love and thought my readers too would like to check them out:

A Beautiful Craft

Primrose Designs

Norththreads