Cross Stitch Patterns by designer Pamela Kellogg of Kitty And Me Designs

The Blog Of Cross Stitch Designer Pamela Kellogg
Kitty And Me Designs

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Kitty And Me Designs

Celebrating 35 years of Needlework!!!!

Saturday, June 30, 2007

New Brief

I have a few updates for you today. First, I finished this motif on Maxine's quilt:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment

The flower centers are beads that I found on sale at WalMart yesterday. I have some butterflies that I found too but I thought I'd wait on adding those until I had everything else done.

I couldn't decide on what to do next. I have a bunch of neat ideas but I just couldn't pick one so instead of starting a new motif on this quilt, I put it to the side and picked up my B/C Awareness purse project:

Breast Cancer Awareness Purse

I didn't quite get the whole piece in the picture but you can see what I worked on yesterday.

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who either left comments here for me or who emailed me to tell me what a Biscornu is. Thank you! I had no idea. If you haven't checked the comments, a Biscornu is a pincushion. An 8 sided pincushion I believe. I still have a few links to look at but have enjoyed what I've seen so far! They seem simple enough to make and am thinking that a CQ one would be very interesting. Although, with everything I sew onto my CQ's I doubt there would be any room left to put pins!

A quick final note for today, I have some of my mom's x stitch stuff listed over at Ebay and they are all ending this afternoon. If anyone is interested, you can search by my username: kitty-and-me .

I still have more of her de-stash to list so if I have some free time this afternoon, I'll list a few more things for her.

Friday, June 29, 2007

More On Maxine's Quilt

I worked on this for a good couple of hours yesterday. I didn't get as much done as I thought I would but progress is progress! The first thing I did was to help this poor little pansy:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment

The moment I saw this quilt, I thought this pansy was pathetic and the silk behind it was shattered. I wasn't able to determine if the pansy was appliqued in pieces directly to the quilt or if it was made ahead of time and then sewn on. To deal with this issue, I sewed the pansy down through all the layers to make sure it was stable and then I hand-painted the leaves (from my Sunday flea market trip) and sewed those on as close to the pansy as I could. Then I added the beads & sequins.

Speaking of beads & sequins, I read in my Penny McMorris book that antique CQ's from the UK were loaded with beads & sequins! That gives me some peace of mind! Beads are one thing but I was a bit uncomfortable adding sequins to this antique quilt. Now, my mind is at ease!

Ok, next, I had a small deteriorated patch to deal with. It was only about 1 1/2 inches X 2 inches and it didn't seem worth the effort to replace it. To manage that issue, I sewed a crocheted piece from my collection over it. This piece has a straight edge so again, my intention is to make it look like a basket filled with flowers. I hand-painted these little flower appliqués (more flea market finds) and I'll be sewing them on today.

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment 2

As you can see, I also wove some metallic gold ribbon through the edge of the crocheted piece.

So that's my stitching for yesterday. Doesn't seem like much but if you do beading, you know that it takes some time to sew them on!

I have an easy afternoon ahead of me. I'll be working on this and just doing a load of laundry. That's my lot in life you know! Ha, ha, ha! Anyway, I should have some more to share with you tomorrow.

In the meantime, can someone tell me what a Biscornu is? I've read about this on several x stitch boards but I never heard of it before. Someone, please clue me in!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Gifts

Did you ever walk down to get your mail only to find that it wasn't worth your energy? Well yesterday was not one of those days!

I received two goodies packages yesterday. The first package I opened was from Janet. Janet is one of my online friends and a long time fan of my cross stitch designs. Actually, I think Janet has been with me almost as long as I been designing!

Here are the wonderful gifts that Janet sent to me:

Gift 2

A gorgeous little tape measure, some heart and flower charms, some B/C Ribbon pins and a Bedazzler for embellishing my crazy quilts! I was actually looking at those the last time I was in Michaels. They have so many pretty little rhinestone studs now and I was thinking that it would be fun to have one for my quilts!

Thank so much Janet for thinking of me! I love everything!

The next package that I opened was a gift from my husband. I was in here checking my email last week and he was here chatting with me. An email came up from Ebay saying that the Crazy Quilt book by Penny McMorris was listed. As you know, I've been wanting that book for a long time but being a bit frugal (cheap) to pay the secondary market price, I was hoping to find it at flea market or estate sale.

Anyway, he told me to bid on it and I told him what they go for and that I didn't want to pay that much and he said to go ahead and bid on it because he was paying for it. Wow!

So here it is, my very own copy, a gift from my dear husband:

Gifts 1

The same seller also had a copy of the out-of-print Crazy Quilt Stitches book by Dorothy Bonds so I bought that one for myself. I know you're probably laughing at that because you know, I tend to use the same 5 stitches over and over on my quilts. Not to worry, that will be changing!

So rather than stitching last night, I read my CQ book. How facinating! I must say, I knew it was loaded with treasures and it most certainly is! I could look at the pictures of the quilts all day long and never get anything else done. There is so much to see!

I'll admit though, I was a bit disturbed (more like grossed out) by the quilt with the real taxidermifed chipmunks on it. Personally, I prefer to see my wildlife running around and playing in my backyard. I mean honestly! Those Victorians had some really weird and rather morbid tendencies!

These lovely gifts were the highlight of my day yesterday! For now, I'm off to finish up my Bucilla project and then I'll be working on Maxine's quilt this afternoon. This evening, I'll do some more stitching my B/C Awareness purse so I should have some nice photos for you tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Breast Cancer Awareness Purse Update

As promised, I have an update for you on my Breast Cancer Charity Purse:

Breast Cancer Awareness Purse

Many of my readers have told me that they don't care for the color pink but I must tell you, it's one of my favorite colors!

Anyway, I'm still working on the seams and having a great time doing it!

The lace with the velvet ribbon in the center is a vintage piece. It was in a bag of old lace that I bought in Dubuque Iowa the very first time that Scott and I went to Galena. This charity purse has been in the back of my mind for awhile so I was saving that trim specifically for this project.

The lace to the right of the pink ribbon was a gift to me from Susan N. It's another piece that I've been saving for something special.

I haven't decided yet on what to do to the left of the vintage trim so later today, I'll probably start on some beading.

I guess that's all I have for today. I need to get going on my design-work for the day. The sooner I get that done, the sooner I can stitch on this!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

News From Kitty & Me

As Sharon would say, grab a cuppa and settle back while I share some updates and news.

First, I met with Maxine yesterday and we re-evaluated what to do with her quilt. She loves what I've done so far. Since she wants to hang it in her shop and make it available for purchase, we have to consider her investment and be sure that it will be profitable for her.

My suggestion to her was that I add a few more large "points of interest" here & there to balance it out and then scatter a few more small floral motifs here & there. She agreed that my idea sounded great so that's what I'll be doing.

I can probably complete it in another week if I focus the majority of my attention on it. This coming week however, I have a huge pattern job to do for Bucilla so I will put Maxine's quilt on hold until the following week when I can really focus on it and get it completed for her.

When I finish this quilt for her, she another one that just needs some repairs. Wait until you see that one! It's absolutely beautiful! And it won't take me too long to repair it as the damage isn't too extensive.

In the meantime, I decided to start a purse project that I can work on in the evenings. You know I need to stitch or I just don't feel good! Anyway, I pulled this block from my drawer of ready to stitch projects:

Breast Cancer Awareness Purse

As you can see, it will be a Breast Cancer Awareness purse. The pink ribbon is one of my own cross stitch designs. I'd like to say a special thank you to Kim, my dear friend and model stitcher who kindly took the time to stitch this up for me.

When I complete this project, I'll be listing it in my Etsy shop and donating a portion of the proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. I'll be starting on this project later today.

If anyone is interested in the charted Breast Cancer Ribbon design, you can find it in my Etsy shop.

BC Awareness Ribbon

All proceeds from the charted design will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

If you've been following my blog all week, you know that I've been listing some of my previously discontinued charted designs in my Etsy shop. I've also listed several of the designs that are currently on my main website. They are there for a limited time only. Once they are gone, I will be discontinuing all past designs permanently. I strongly suggest that if there's something you want, to order it now. Again, all designs currently on my main website and in my Etsy shop will be permanently discontinued.

I've decided to drop my main website down to one page only. Since I blog everyday, there's no point in maintaining a regular website. We will eliminate all pages including my complimentary designs. If you're still wanting The Millennium Cats patterns, download them now! What will be there are links to my blog, my Etsy shop and my Flickr site. The web address and my email address will remain the same.

On a final note, my mom has been de-stashing her sewing room again and has asked me if I would sell some of her cross stitch and quilting things for her. Rather than clutter up my Etsy shop with everything, I decided to list her stuff on Ebay:

Sampler And Antique Needlework Magazine

I'll be working on doing that this afternoon. What I don't get listed today, I'll do throughout the week when I have time. If you're interested in seeing what I have, you can search by my username "kitty-and-me" .

Ok, I guess that's the news for now. I doubt I'll have time to post an update on my B/C purse tomorrow. We're going to a flea market in the morning and then to my sister's house in the afternoon for my niece's birthday. I'll have an update for you on Monday and hopefully, will have some cool flea market finds to share with you!

Friday, June 22, 2007

Patterns Now Available

These patterns are now available in my Etsy shop:

Garden Jewels

Smokey Joe

Summers End

And yes, I do accept PayPal.

Flag Boy Cellphone Pouch

I took a break from Maxine's quilt and decided to stitch up a little patriotic cellphone pouch. Here's what it looked like before I started:

Flag Boy Cellphone Pouch

My husband worked late last night so I had plenty of stitching time and actually completed it:

Flag Boy Cellphone Pouch Complete

I'll get this sewn up next week sometime and add it to my Etsy shop.

I'll be seeing Maxine later today so I should have a update for you tomorrow on what we're going to do with her quilt.

Are you finding the progress on that quilt interesting or boring? I'm assuming that you prefer to see my original creations. I would love to hear your thoughts.

I'll admit, I'm a bit all over the map these days with so many projects going on. I never got any flowers planted in my yard this year. Thank goodness for my perennials! At least I have some flowers.

I still have to paint the steps, the interior front door and do some stenciling in my living room. And I want to order my valances for the windows. That will be awhile yet as I have x stitch work to do too. Other than my room here being a bit messy, my house is clean so I am a happy camper!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Announcement

I have had quite a few requests lately, to re-publish several of my previously discontinued counted cross stitch designs. I'm pleased to announce that these designs are now available in my Etsy shop.

Victoria

If you're a cross stitcher, please check my shop to see what I have available.

If you're not a cross stitcher but would like to have one of these designs stitched for you, stitching services are available. Please email me to inquire.

Highlights

Again, I worked on Maxine's quilt most of the day yesterday. I did quite a bit to it but I thought I would share with you just a couple of highlights today.

First, I did this flower bunch motif using some crocheted flowers and vintage mother of pearl buttons:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment

My next highlight is this crocheted piece which I used as a basket and filled with flowers:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment 2

This was a little crocheted purse that came in a bag of flea market finds. I'm assuming that it was supposed to be lined with fabric and then ribbons used for handles/closure. Anyway, I sewed it to the quilt and then made some Yo-Yo flowers, added some silk leaves and then the vintage millinery forgetmenot flowers.

I'll be seeing Maxine tomorrow to re-evaluate this project. In the meantime, I need a bit of a break so I'll start a new little cellphone pouch later. Tomorrow, I'll have photos for you.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Embellishing Maxine's Quilt

I spent almost all day yesterday working on Maxine's quilt. I spoke with her on the phone yesterday afternoon and I'll be meeting with her on Friday. We're going to re-evaluate this project a bit. I'll let you know over the weekend where this will be going.

In the meantime, here are the things I did yesterday. First, I had a lot of trouble with the velvet pansies that I made. I've made them before and they always worked out great but for some reason, they didn't this time.

Instead, my mom crocheted a few pansies for me:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment

I love these! They look so old-fashioned. I sewed them onto a large patch and added a few vintage velvet millinery flowers. The leaves are the ones that I bought in Galena on Monday. I sewed them on and then added a few sequins down the centers for sparkle.

Next, I did some Yo-Yo flowers. Ladies, if you enjoy working with Yo-Yo's, this is the way to go! I made 3 Yo-Yo's in less than 10 minutes using the Clover Yo-Yo Maker that I mentioned in yesterday's post:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment 2

This patch has a "ready to stitch" design printed on it. It's velveteen and was printed in white. Some of the design was under the patch above it so I stitched the leaves and then added the Yo-Yo flowers. I made these from Panne Velvet. Not easy to work with as it's stretchy but with the Yo-Yo maker, it was a piece of cake!

Using some of the Chenille thread that Sharon sent to me, I did some big Lazy Daisy stitches and then beaded inside of those.

This was an interesting piece. The design was painted onto this silk patch:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment 3

The paint however, was starting to crack so I followed what was there, stitching the stems & leaves and then added my signature bugle beads to the centers of the Lazy Daisy leaves. I then used some vintage velvet Forgetmenot flowers from Maxine's collection of things that she gave me to use on this quilt.

Last but not least, I added some silk flowers to this already couched on vine:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment 4

Again, I added some beads to the center of these.

I'll be working on this again most of the day today. What I think we're going to do is to balance it out a bit more, adding just a few more "points of interest" here and there and then adding a new back and binding. I'll explain more on that over the weekend.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Goodies From Galena

We had a lovely day yesterday. We drove to Galena, had lunch and did a bit of shopping. I found a few things that might work nicely on Maxine's quilt.

First, I found the silk flowers and leaves in the Rubber Stamp store:

Silk Flowers

They were on sale and I thought I could sew them onto the quilt and then embellish them with some beads.

Galena also has a fabric store called "Phat 1/4's". Cute name huh? Anyway, we looked in there and I found these Yo-Yo Makers:

Yo Yo Makers

In the past, when I've made Yo-Yo's, I've just used a saucer from my dishes for large Yo-Yo's and the lids from my Tupperware cups for small Yo-Yo's. I thought I'd give these a try and see how they work. Some velvet Yo-Yo's should work nicely on Maxine's quilt.

These are made by the Clover MFG Co. If you would like to visit their website, you can find it here. And this is the direct link to the Yo-Yo makers. It looks like they have several different sizes as well as heart shaped makers and flower shaped makers. Oooh, I would love to have those!

It was a busy weekend and I feel that I need some quiet time so I'll spend the majority of my day working on Maxine's quilt.

Stop by tomorrow to see my progress.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Maxine's Quilt

I've added a few things to Maxine's quilt now. I'm really happy to have the majority of the repairs out of the way! I'll admit, I'm still a bit overwhelmed with embellishing a quilt this large so I'm kind working here, there and everywhere at the same time. When I get an idea, I just do it. Basically, there's no rhyme or reason to how I'm working. I figure it'll come together eventually.

So here's what I have done so far. You may remember this painted flower that I stem stitched around last week:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment

I added a vintage button and some beads to that now. I'll be adding more things to this motif but I haven't decided on what yet.

Next, I found this little leaf on the quilt. It was just hanging around by itself doing nothing so I added a crocheted flower to it and then beaded that:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment 3

Last, I painted some small vintage tatted flowers, did some stem stitched stems & leaves and beaded those with some bugle beads. The flower centers are vintage mother of pearl buttons:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment 2

As I suspected in the beginning, this quilt was one that someone got bored with and lost interest in. While repairing it, I found some silk patches with outlines of flowers done in light pencil marks. Very interesting. They're a bit hard to see so I won't be stitching those. Instead, I'll be doing my own embroidered motifs on it. In some cases, I will be stitching them on fabric first and then adding them to the quilt. It'll probably be easier that way.

I doubt I'll have time to post tomorrow. Scott's birthday is today and he has tomorrow off so we'll be driving up to Galena for a nice lunch and a little shopping.

I'll see ya on Tuesday!

Friday, June 15, 2007

Red Hat Lady Finished!

I so much enjoy making these little pouches! I did the finishing on this one yesterday:

Red Hat Pouch 1

I would like to have a sewing day next week for piecing a few new blocks, esp. cellphone pouches. I think I only 1 or 2 in the drawer that are ready to stitch.

Speaking of piecing blocks, Allison has posted a tutorial on her blog for crazy quilt foundation piecing. If you've been wanting to try this but have no clue where to start, Allison's instructions and photos will give you all the information you need.

My plan for later today is to continue on with the process of embellishing Maxine's quilt. Stop by tomorrow for an undate on that project.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Lots Of Stitching Time Yesterday

I completed the stitching on my Red Hat Lady pouch:

Red Hat Lady Cellphone Pouch

Don't you just love my little green spider?!!!!

After that, I worked on Maxine's quilt for a few hours and added this motif:

Antique Crazy Quilt Embellishment

I found a whole package of these at an antique shop in Peoria Illinois. I think they were taken off of curtains or a dust ruffle. There's something familiar about them. Maybe they remind me of something my mom or my grandma had years ago.

Anyway, I trimmed the excess fabric away from the outside and then I hand painted it, sewed it onto the quilt and then beaded it.

Looking at this quilt, I feel that I'll be able to do anything I want, just as I would my own pieces. The only thing that I need to do is to keep everything in the muted antique colors. Anything new that I use will have to be "aged" with fabric dye before I use it. In fact, I "aged" a few other things yesterday and hope to have time later to work on this some more.

In the meantime, I'll be sewing up the Red Hat Lady pouch and getting it ready for it's new owner. Stop by tomorrow to see the finished pouch.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Red Hat Lady & Velvet Pansies

Digging around in my stash, I found some white cotton velvet that mom had given me not too long ago. Well, you know what you can do with cotton velvet? You can dye it! And that's just what I did:

Velvet Pansies

They don't look like much now. I still have to Blanket Stitch around the outside and then add the do-dads to the centers. I'll work on those today. I want to make some leaves too.

I then worked on the Red Hat Lady pouch:

Red Hat Lady Cellphone Pouch

This is ready for some beads! I'll work it again later this afternoon. If I complete it today, I'll do the finishing tomorrow.

I must say, I love the way red and purple looks together!

Speaking Of Dragonflies......

Isn't this a gorgeous little creature?

Backyard Dragonfly

Scott took this photo yesterday evening when he got home from work. We were sitting on the front porch watching this guy bounce around in the garden.

We have many varieties of dragonflies here, but this one is one of my favorites.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Cellphone Pouches

Yesterday, my goal was to do the finishing on the Dragonfly Cellphone pouch as well as do the foundation piecing on the Red Hat Society Lady Cellphone pouch which is a custom order.

Here's the completed Dragonfly Pouch:

Dragonfly Cellphone Pouch 2

OK, so my hot pink cellphone doesn't quite work with the colors in this pouch! It's only there for size reference!

Here's the pieced Red Hat Lady pouch:

Red Hat Lady Cellphone Pouch

I'll begin the stitching & embellishing process on this later today.

On to Maxine's quilt, I'm happy to say that I now have all the deteriorated patches replaced as well as the stitching. Now, I can start the embellishing!

Because this quilt is quite large, I want to put some larger embellishments on it first. I'll start by making some velvet pansies. Do you know how hard it is to find velvet or velvet-like fabrics in anything other than black, red and green? Geez! In this day & age!

Anyway, I'll also be making some sunflowers using yellow sparkle organza and brown velvet for the centers. Ok, wish me luck on this one because at the moment, it's only an idea in my mind. I'm hoping I can execute it the way I see it!

Stop by tomorrow for another update on my current projects.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Buttons

Well, my Flea Market finds yesterday were quite minimal! The market was huge but I just didn't find anything all that exciting. In fact, I only spent $5.00!

I found some pretty little vintage buttons and some little appliqués, all from the same dealer:

Buttons 1

Usually, I find some nice lace and other odds & ends but not this time. Very disappointing! And I haven't seen a vintage iron-on transfer in months! Actually, I haven't seen any since last Summer! What's up with that? Now, it's not like I don't have any. Actually, I have a huge rubbermaid container filled with vintage transfers. I can barely lift it to get it off the shelf but it's one of my obsessions! I love them and I won't apologize for it!

Back to the buttons, it occurred to me that my plastic button collection would be more accessible if I separated them by color. At the moment, I store them in this huge 5 pound antique coffee jar:

Buttons 2

They look really great in the jar but I when I want to use some, I have to dump them all out into a big cake pan just so I can find what I want! So what to do? I have a bunch of old blue mason jars that I could use. Yes, I love old stuff! Methinks I'll contemplate this a bit more!

For today, I'll be sewing up the Dragonfly Cellphone pouch. I'll also do the foundation piecing for my custom order, a Red Hat Lady cellphone pouch.

I worked on Maxine's quilt for a few hours yesterday. I have 3 more patches to replace the stitching on and then I can start embellishing it. Yes, I found 2 more deteriorated patches the other day so I replaced them. I'll have another update on that project for you soon.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

A Gift From Gina

I don't know what it is about opening my mailbox and seeing a surprise package in there from one of my online friends. It's just so exciting to know that someone thought of me!

Yesterday, I received a package from Gina. Oooh, there's really something neat about about a package arriving all the way from Australia! Probably because I know that Australia is so far away! (No, I don't get out much!)

Anyway, Gina sent me a goody pack filled with gorgeous laces and buttons:

Stash

Are these amazing or what? Such lovely things to embellish crazy quilts with. I just can't wait to work them into new projects. Gina, thank you so very much for your gift! I love everything!

BTW - did you know that you can take the binding off of gathered lace? I just use a seam ripper or my embroidery scissors and clip the stitches. Once the binding is off, you can press it with your iron and you then have flat lace!

My mom also gave me a goody bag with all sorts of new fabrics and trims but the battery in my camera was about to run out so I'll save that photo for another day.

For now, I'm thrilled to tell you that my design work is complete! I did 28 designs in 3 days! They were mini designs but that's still a lot of work and I really pushed myself to get them done. I'm certainly happy for having the work but my true love is the hands-on stitching so now I'll be getting back to working on Maxine's quilt, my antique quilt and several other projects.

Coming later this week will be the completed Dragonfly Cellphone Pouch. That one is spoken for so I plan to get that assembled and ready to ship to it's new owner.

Also this week, I have a custom order for a Red Hat Society Lady Cellphone Pouch so I'll be piecing that block and stitching on that.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for a new complimentary charted design. It's a pretty little design, perfect for a small gift or as a focal point on a crazy quilt!

Friday, June 08, 2007

New Leaflet Design

Just released by Imaginating, Inc. is my "Words Of Wisdom I" leaflet:

Imaginating Leaflet

Check with your local needlework shop for availability. There are several more designs coming soon in this series.

Again, I worked late last night so I don't have any stitching to share. If all goes well today, I'll have my design projects done and should be able to get back to stitching tomorrow. Be sure to stop by over the weekend. I have new stash goodies to share and a new complimentary charted design for you.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Vintage Embroidery Patterns

If you're into collecting vintage embroidery patterns like am, you might enjoy visiting The Vintage Cat. Special thanks to Birthe for sending me this link.

On the stitching front, I worked on my computer late yesterday and just didn't have the energy to stitch after that. I may be working late again today so we'll see how things go. I really want to put x stitch designing on the back burner for a bit and focus on stitching but the work keeps coming so I do it.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

A New Custom Purse

As ya'll know, I have this thing for purses! I don't know where it came from. I just love one-of-a-kind purses and handbags.

A year ago, I was looking around at Etsy and found a shop with the most gorgeous knitted purses! I sent Louise a message and asked her if she would consider doing a custom purse for me. She was happy to!

Well, I was looking around at her blog a couple of weeks back and saw a new purse style that I absolutely loved and again, sent Louise a message asking her if she would do one for me in custom colors. Purples & Greens. Again, she was happy to create a custom purse for me:

[DSCN2603.JPG]

As you know, I like glittery things so I asked Louise to add some metallic yarns as well as some Pailettes. Isn't this gorgeous! It's so colorful and very funky! It's definitely me!

I thought you would enjoy seeing this. If you would like to see other purses by Louise, visit her Scarf It Up Etsy shop. If you would like to see more photos of my custom purse, you can find can find them here.

As for stitching, I now have all the deteriorated patches replaced on Maxine's quilt. I still have to replace the stitching on about 5 of them and then I'll be ready to move onto adding more embellishments.

This quilt is so large, that I'll have to go with some larger embellishments. Small things will get lost on it. Although I can do some small things, I need to create "moments" on this quilt. Things that will draw the eye in so it can then move around the quilt. The first step in my plan is to make some velvet pansies and some really cool sunflowers! I can also add some crocheted pieces which I can then do some SRE embroidery on. I'm also thinking of some velvet yo-yo's which I can use as flowers with buttons in the centers.

I have lots of ideas moving around in my head and I'm quite excited about getting on with the decorating part of it! One step at a time though, I'll finish the seams first!

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Dragonfly Pouch & Gift

I spent several hours yesterday organizing my lace stash. I have a chest of 4 drawers in here and it's filled with all sorts of lace, from crocheted pieces to venice lace appliques, flat lace in a variety of colors, new things and vintage things and even some very old antique pieces. These are my treasures but after working on several projects, the drawers get a little messy. So every now and then, I like to sit on the floor, take everything out, refold it and reorganize it. This also gives me a chance to see what I all have again and to really appreciate my abundance.

Once I completed that task, I worked on my Dragonfly Cellphone Pouch and I completed it:

Red And Gold Heart CQ

Isn't this pretty? It's quite different than many of my past designs!

As soon as I get a sewing day in, I'll assemble this one. I want to sew up some more cellphone pouch blocks too but in the meantime, I'll have to pull another project from my stack of already sewn ones.

I'd also like to share with you some new stash that I received. Several weeks ago, Sharon B. posted an example on her blog of stitching done with Chenille thread. This was right after I accepted the job of repairing and further embellishing Maxine's quilt. Her quilt has a lot of motifs on it worked with Chenille thread.

I emailed Sharon and asked her if she had a source for these threads and she said she would check into that for me.

Yesterday, I went to my mailbox and there was a package from Sharon:

Chenille Threads

Aren't these absolutely yummy?!!! I just can't wait to stitch with these. Can you see these couched on to make flowers? That's what I see.

Sharon, thank you so very much for sending me these gorgeous threads! I am so looking forward to playing with them!

On a final note for today, you must hop over to Allison's blog and see what she's doing with vintage floral hankies. Allison does the most amazing things with flowers so you absolutely have to see this!

Monday, June 04, 2007

Dragonfly Cellphone Pouch

After agonizing over the trim for my Mozart purse, and working on repairing the 2 antique crazy quilts that I have here, I decided it was time for some really fun stitching! I was feeling the need for some instant gratification! I pulled out this block:

Red And Gold Heart CQ

I like the colors but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I went through my little box of vintage jewelry pieces and found a pretty little green dragonfly pin. I think I bought that one at the flea market that we went to on Easter morning.

Anyway, I thought it looked really nice so once I had the focal point chosen, I started stitching:

Red And Gold Heart CQ 2

When I think of dragonflies, I often think of cattails. That's something I've never added to a CQ before and I thought it would be kind of cool looking and it is! I plan to add a few more to the other side of the solid red piece in the center but first I need to figure out where to put my cat.

It's a dreary, rainy day here, the perfect day for stitching! I want to neaten up my lace drawers a little bit and then I'll sit and stitch. If I complete this today, I'll work a bit more on Maxine's quilt afterwards. I think I only have 2 more patches to replace and then I can start embellishing that one more.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Mozart Complete! Finally!!!

Well, I finally decided on a trim for the bottom of this purse and I'm happy to say, that it is now complete and I've already used it! So without further delay, here is the finished Mozart purse:

Mozart Crazy Quilt Purse

If you would like to see a larger photo, click on the image to go to my Flickr site.

I'll keep this short today. I still have some chores to do, laundry mostly - the "always & forever task"! and then I plan to stitch.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Mozart & More!

I spent most of the day yesterday working on Maxine's quilt. I think I only have 3 more patches to replace but I got a bit bored with doing that so I started reworking the seam stitches on some of the ones that I've already replaced.

I also noticed this velvet piece with a hand-painted flower:

Maxines Quilt 1

This needs more embellishing! So I started by stem-stitching around the flower:

Maxines Quilt 2

I'll be adding some beads to this and then perhaps some more embroidery.

I realized that I'm obsessing about this quilt and what to do with it. My peacock idea isn't going to work out the way I had planned. That beaded area, that I spent 5 hours repairing last week is in the center! Argggg.........

Scott suggested that I start working with what's already here and once I get into that, the rest will work it's way through on it's own.

I'm overwhelmed because of the size of this quilt. The largest whole cloth quilt I've ever done is my Lucky quilt which is 29 inches square. First I'll focus on the rest of the repairs.

My other project, that I'm obsessing over is my Mozart purse. Again, thank you to everyone who took the time to give me your opinions on the 2nd trim. Taking your comments into consideration, I decided to look through my stash and find something else.

I had 3 different trims that worked. One was a salmon colored trim with a velvet ribbon running through it. It worked, but my eye went straight to the trim rather than the design.

The 2nd trim was a light blue with silver threads in it. Again, it worked but it just wasn't right.

Finally, I pulled out this ruffled trim with the metallic gold threads in it and I like but it I'm still not sure this is what I will use.

Mozart With Fringe

Stop by tomorrow and see what I decide on.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Finishing Mozart

I apologize for not posting yesterday. I didn't really have anything to share with you. I have been working on Maxine's quilt, replacing damaged patches. At this point, it's just not all that exciting.

The real excitement will begin soon. I was thinking about it yesterday and decided to give a focal point. This quilt is really big and I feel that it needs something in the center to draw the eye in. So, what's my favorite crazy quilt theme? If you guessed a peacock, you're right!

I'm going to do a big peacock in the center. The body will be appliqued, probably with a blue lame fabric. I haven't a clue as to what to do for the tail yet but I'll figure that out when I get that far. Once I get that done, I think further embellishments will be easy. I still plan on adding some sunflowers and some velvet pansies to it. Stay tuned on that one as it will get more interesting very soon!

I've also found that I'm missing my original creations. I'm starting to need a bit of "instant gratification" so later today I'll put out one of my small pieced blocks and get that ready to stitch on. I'm going to have to alternate projects for a bit. I've never been one to have too many projects going at once. I guess it makes me feel overwhelmed, like I have too many loose ends and not completing anything. I'm thinking now, that it might be fun to have several "works in progress" like normal stitchers! Ha, ha, ha!!!

Anyway, my goal for tomorrow is get my Mozart purse assembled. Thank you to everyone who took the time to give me your opinions on the fringe. I think what I liked about the fringe was the color but it did seem a bit too heavy to me after seeing it on the computer.

When I was in WalMart yesterday, I found a different trim in the same old gold color and I bought a yard of that. I like Allison's suggestion of some beads (I love beads!) so now I'm going to ask your opinion one more more time. What do you think of this:

Mozart With Fringe

Does this look a little more balanced to you? Normally, I have no trouble with the finishing but what to put on the bottom has thrown me a bit on this one. Remember, I wanted this to be absolutely classic & elegant. So does this work?
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