Happy Thanksgiving

With all that I have read and with all that I have experienced in my own life using The Secret, the power of gratitude stands above everything else. Rhonda Byrne - The Secret

I just wanted to take a breather here before my company comes to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and to say thanks for reading my blog! I hope you are all inspired by my stitching and my chatter about self-expression & the nature of reality.

Cat Dolls

I had an order for 8 custom Glitter Cards so I spent my weekend working on those. I also added a few new ones here. I love making them but I still have glitter from one end of my house to the other!





My next projects will be a couple of my little cat dolls for Christmas Gifts:



I hope to start on this later today. I have a ton of these cat dolls sewn up and I know I can't stitch all of them so I'll be putting some together with some vintage lace and packaging them up for my Etsy shop. That's on my list for tomorrow.

Finished Cellphone Pouches

Just a quick update for today. I finished up these cellphone pouches this afternoon:





I still have to add the snaps and the chains but other than that, they're finished.

Asian Inspired Cellphone Pouch

A quick update on my current project:



This is a custom order for an Asian themed cellphone pouch. I have the seams covered now so I'll start beading on it later today. The seams are all worked with my own charted borders. I have a floral spray pin for the center.

Tomorrow, I'll share a "Random Act Of Kindness" gift that I received and some glittered Artist's Trading Cards that I made last week. And of course, I'll have an update on this project.

I'm off now to help my husband clean up the leaves from our maple tree. I'd rather be stitching!

Ladybug Purse Completed

Well, I think I'm finally over that nasty chest cold I had! All that's left is a hacking cough which I can live without!

I finished up my Ladybug purse:



It may be a little while before I can get this sewn up. Suddenly, WalMart no longer carries purse handles and Michaels doesn't carry the type I like. So I'm going to have to get to JoAnn's for them and my JoAnn's is almost an hour from here. I plan to stock up on purse handles! I like the kind with the little hooks on the ends that can be slipped into tabs after the purse is finished.

In the meantime, I have an order for a custom cellphone pouch:



I'll start on this later today.

Ladybug Purse and more Glitter Cards

Ladies, this cold I have is getting on my nerves! I'm going to keep this one short again and just post the photos of my latest cards and an update on my Ladybug purse:













Made by me







Made by my mom

All cards can be found in my Etsy shop.

Finally for today, an update on my Ladybug purse:



I plan to do some sewing tomorrow. I have an order for a custom cellphone pouch. It's a Christmas gift so I want to get started on that asap. I also thought I would sew up a few crazyquilt blocks for my Etsy shop. I have plenty of blocks sewn to stitch on but I'm really feeling like running that treadle machine!

Ladybug Purse Update

Another quick little post for today ladies. I'm still dealing with this annoying chest cold!



Other than doing some laundry, I've spent most of today stitching on this. The seams are stitched and I've since started beading on it. I'll have another update for you tomorrow along with an "illuminating" message. I hope!

Book Review - "Crazy As A Bed-Quilt"

A friend of mine recently told me of a new crazy quilt book and of course, I had to have to it for my collection. It's called, "Quilting News Of Yesteryear" - "Crazy As A Bed-Quilt" by Sue Reich:



This charming little book contains over 200 newspaper articles on crazy-quilting dating from 1880 to 1945.

I'm about 1/2 through the book and am fascinated with the attitudes and perspectives of the times. Crazy quilting was quite the "craze" when the fad first took off. In this book, you'll learn about the obsession that crazy-quilting became. It was described as "making everyone crazy", not just the stitcher! Too funny!

Anyway, there are poems, stories, interviews, advertisments and more. A charming addition to your crazy quilt book collection.

My only disappointment is in the photographs. The photos are closeups of the stitches rather than full size quilts. The author explains the reason for this in the beginning of the book. Please don't let that discourage you from ordering however. It really is a fun journey through eyes of those who experienced the crazy fad! The book can be found at Amazon.com.

I did see some nice stitch combinations in the photographs and charted one out to try. I thought I would share it with you:



Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the larger version.

If you're new to my blog, my charted borders are worked with a product called "Waste Canvas". I use this to create perfectly sized and spaced stitches on my own crazy quilts. The directions for working with waste canvas are available in my own book along with 81 charted borders:



It is available in my Etsy shop.

Lime Green Ladybug Purse

Another quick post for today as I have company coming shortly. I started a new purse yesterday:



The ladybug is one of my designs. Kim stitched that up for me awhile back and then I worked it into the block.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Button Block #26 & More Glitter Cards

Just a quick update for today ladies. I have a chest cold and am feeling a bit under the weather.

I just finished up Button Block #26:



The big button with the painted flowers is not really a button at all but rather a pin that my mom gave me. It's from Avon and she's had it for years. The minute I saw it, I thought it would work perfectly on this block.

If you would like to see all of the Button Blocks I've done so far, click here.

I also made a few more Glitter Cards:





I wish you could see these in person. They are so sparkly! Well, you know how much I love glitter so I use a ton of it! Anyway, these are available in my Etsy shop.

I will be back on Saturday with my next project. It'll be a purse. It's lime green with a bright red lady bug!

Button Block #25 Completed!

Just a quick update for today:



I finished this one up yesterday morning.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!