Crazy Quilt Cats

So it's no secret that I absolutely adore cats!  And cats are a favorite theme of mine when it comes to Crazy Quilting.  I have some finishes to share today and yes, they are all cat themed!

First is my Victorian Crazy Quilt Cat Pillow:

Next, I have a couple of new Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls to share:

These 2 cats are for gifts.  I try to alternate between things for my store and gifts.  Anyway, those are my finishes for this week!  I'm off to sit with my little ones and stitch for the rest of the day.  It's cloudy and dreary today and perfect for watching TV and stitching!

New Crazy Quilt Project

I spent some time with my sewing machine this morning and did the finishing on a few projects so I expect to have some photos of completed things to share tomorrow.

I also started on a new crazy quilt block.  I'm not sure what I'll do with this but I pieced the block awhile back and have been wanting to stitch it:

Here's a closeup of the silk ribbon embroidery on the hat:

And a closeup of this border worked with Sharon B's templates:

I also wanted to mention that we're offering Elegant Cross Stitch Sentiments For Crazy Quilting at a special sale price:

For a limited time, it's available for $24.95!

Sharon B's Stencils

I wanted to share with you a new tool for Crazy Quilting.  In case you've never been to Sharon B's blog, Pintangle, Sharon is a master crazy quilter who lives in Australia.  She's been stitching and teaching for many, many years and has recently released a wonderful set of stencils for marking crazy quilts:

I'm not going to post a ton of Sharon's photos here.  Just this one.  I'll let you hop over and check out Sharon B's Stencils for yourself. 

I just received mine on Friday and have already used them to create several borders:

I'm currently working on small projects so I haven't been able to experiment too much yet.  But I will be!  These stencils are awesome! 

In other news, here are a couple of new photos of my baby kitties:

I tried to get a new photo of Cotton but he still has that eye infection and I think the flash hurts his eyes.  Cotton and Wrigley are best friends, as you can see in this photo!

Crazy Quilt Class Maria's Lesson 6

I have another beautiful block to share with you today.  This block is by Maria and it's Lesson 6 of my Crazy Quilt Class:

Maria did a beautiful job!  Her strawberry is worked with French knots & beads and the top of the strawberry is worked in stumpwork!  Gorgeous!  Maria crocheted her strawberry flowers and check out those gorgeous buttons in the bottom left-hand corner!  A lovely addition!  All of the elements are here including a beautiful spider web and spider.  This block is stunning Maria!  Thank you for sharing with my readers!

Another Students Crazy Quilt Block Lesson 6

I have another students block to share with you today.  This is Kathy's Lesson 6 block:

Isn't this a pretty block?  Kathy used a photo image of strawberries and then enhanced them with some embroidery and silk ribbon work.  And then some strawberry buttons.  Which I think I've seen at Hobby Lobby.  I love the border with the detached chain flowers inside a circle.  Very original!  And check out the spider!  Ooooh, a very scary spider!  Love it!

Beautiful work Kathy!  Thank you for sending this to me to share with my readers!

Another photo that I thought I'd share today is my Crazy Quilt Cat Pillow.  Well, the stitched piece anyway.  I still have to sew it into a pillow.  The stitching is complete now:

I love this block!  I can't wait to sew it together!

I'll leave you today with a cute photo of my babies:

I got lucky and happened to see them both laying on the chair together.   On top of my stuff.  Which cats always seem to have a tendency to do!  But it looks like Wrigley and Cotton are going to be best friends!  Can you believe how much Wrigley has grown?  He was only 3 pounds when we adopted him!  Cotton is only 3 pounds now.  And I don't laugh but I measured Wrigley's tail again and that grew too!  It's over 14 inches long.  I've never had a cat with such a long tail before!

Student Block Lesson 6

The first student block of Lesson 6 has arrived in my inbox!  And it is a beauty!  This is Karin's Strawberry Fields block:

All elements are included!  Karin's appliqued strawberry is just lovely and it stands out perfectly on the white lace!  There are strawberry flowers here, free hand embroidered vines and check out that gorgeous spider web!!!  Not to mention the incredible spider!  And some lovely beadwork!

I am seeing some amazing results from my students!  The blocks are so well balanced, the techniques are perfectly executed and the creativity is shining through!  I so much look forward to receiving photos from each lesson.  Karin, this is beautiful.  You did good girl!

And speaking of crazy quilting, here are two of my finishes.  A couple of my Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls:

These two cats are gifts but I just sewed up a whole pile of them so there will be more!  And speaking of my cat dolls, it's come to my attention that some stitchers are trying to duplicate my cat doll pattern from my photos.  From now on, I will not post the works in progress of my cat dolls.  Only the finished cats.

I'd like to ask that if anyone becomes aware of someone trying to duplicate my cat dolls, please let me know.  This pattern is my own original and it is NOT for sale and although I've been asked several times, I will not make the pattern available.  These cats are my signature.  I make them for special gifts and they are my signature item in my Etsy shop.  They are exclusively available from me and I really want to keep it that way.  Please read about the history of my Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls here.

And then, speaking of cats, here's a new photo of my little Cotton ball:

Cotton of course was in motion!  But I think he likes Pinterest!  I took him to the vet this morning for a little check up.  He has an eye infection so I have to give him an antibiotic and an eye gel twice a day.  Scott's going to have to help me with that one!  But other than that, he's in good shape!  And I think he's going to my little Mama's boy.  Nightmare was my Mama's boy and I miss that.  Lucy is more bonded with Scott.  I can't quite tell yet who Wrigley is more bonded with.  Probably me because I'm here all the time but it's a little hard to tell at this point.

Hanging Hearts

I have loads of things to share today!  But first, I'll start with an update on my Crazy Quilt Cat Pillow.  This isn't quite finished yet.  It still needs a few more do-dads:

I expect to finish it up either tonight or tomorrow.

In other news, I have some new pictures of baby Cotton:

I bought him a collar yesterday but Scott isn't thrilled with it.  It's pink!

And it has cupcakes on it!  Scott told me that boy kitties don't wear pink collars.  MEN!  I told him that Cotton couldn't care less what color his collar was.  I liked it because it was pink and had the cupcakes on it and it looks good with his white fur!

Wrigley's collar is the same but is yellow with little bumblebees on it.  I tried to get some new pictures of baby Wrigley but he couldn't sit still.  He's getting big!  I'll get some more as soon as I can.  Lucy wouldn't sit still either.  She's doing better but she still isn't happy.  At least Wrigley plays with Cotton and isn't trying to get Lucy to play anymore.

Finally for today, I have some pretty Cottage style Hanging Hearts that mom made:

Well that's my news for today.  I'm taking my little Cotton ball to the vet tomorrow for a little check up and to get his paperwork in order.  He's so cute and sweet!  And boy, can he run through the house!

A Little Cotton Ball

I'll share an update with you tomorrow of my Crazy Quilt Cat Pillow.  I've been working on it but have another little distraction going on!

I've mentioned several times that I've been wanting to adopt a little white kitten.  Yesterday, I looked at Animal House Shelter's website (that's where we adopted Wrigley) and lo and behold, they had just brought a little white kitten to the shelter from the foster home.

Now I had liked the name Cupid for a little white kitten but Scott was not at all thrilled with that name.  We had been talking about it for the last few weeks and came up with the name Cotton.  Ironically, when the shelter posted his photo, the description read, "sweet as Cotton Candy and soft as a Cotton Ball"!

Scott and I were kind of blown away by that and immediately hopped in our truck and drove to Huntley.

So we adopted this beautiful little 3 month old baby yesterday:

This is the shelters photo.  I haven't gotten any really good pictures of him yet because he's always in motion!  But here a two that will give you an idea of how little he is:

He looks more like he's 8 weeks old rather than 3 months.  But he's sweet and he's beautiful!

Lucy was not doing well in accepting Wrigley.  She was pounding him every chance she got.  And she was snapping at me which she has never done in the 14 years she's been with me.  Scott and I thought that if Wrigley had another baby to play with, that Lucy would get a break from his high energy level!

There's some growling and hissing going on between Cotton and Wrigley but I don't think it will last long.  They're only 2 months apart in age.

I'll try to get better photos to share but for now, we a new little baby for Wrigley to play with.  For right now, he's curled up on the computer tower, sound asleep!

Crazy Quilt Cat Pillow

I'm in the process of finishing up a few projects but I also started a new project.  I'm always in various stages of doing things.  It's just how I work!  Anyway, here is my Crazy Quilt Cat Pillow.  I just started on this yesterday:

And here's a closeup of the seam treatment across the bottom left:

The flowers are a woven rose worked with 1 strand of Watercolours by The Caron Collection.  Then I added french knots around the outside in 7MM silk ribbon that I hand dyed.  I'm sure I'll be adding beads to this but I usually do all my stitching first.  I just thought this was kind of cool looking and thought you'd enjoy seeing it too.  Click on the photo to see a larger image!

Crazy Quilt Color and Composition Classes Lesson 7

Lesson 7 of my Crazy Quilting Color and Composition Class is now available!

 

Lesson 7 - Proud As A Peacock

Lesson 7 covers:

• Transferring a design
• Mastering the Feather Stitch
• Long and Short Stitch
• Couching
• Peacock Tail in Fancy Yarn

Lesson 7 is now available at Magcloud!

Glittered Reindeer Ornaments

Ya'll know mom and I love our glitter!  Mom started on a few Christmas ornaments.  Yes, I know it seams early but we have to work a few months in advance so here are mom's Glittered Reindeer Ornaments:

Tomorrow, I expect to have a few little ornaments that I made along with a cat doll that I started stitching on yesterday and am almost finished with.

Pink Cellphone Pouch

I mentioned the other day that my aunt asked me if I would make a pink crazy quilt cellphone pouch for her neighbor.  Of course, you never have to ask me twice to make something in pink!  Ya'll know it's my favorite color!  Anyway, I finished it up early this morning.  I mean very early!  Thanks to some very rude people who were shooting off fireworks at 2:00 a.m. this morning!

Anyway, here's the stitched piece:

The cameo is carved Mother Of Pearl.  It's really pretty!  I did a lot of ribbon roses on here with my hand dyed silk ribbon.  The flowers on the bottom left are just shank buttons with French Knots worked in 7MM silk ribbon going around the buttons.

I have several birthdays coming up so I'm working on a few gifts.  When I have a couple of them done, I'll sew this up along with the others and I'll share another photo.

Pink Cellphone Pouch

My aunt asked me if I would make a pink crazy quilt cellphone pouch for her neighbor.  I sewed it up over the weekend and starting stitching on it yesterday.  This is what I have so far:

I'm sure I'll have this finished up tomorrow. 

In the meantime, I have a couple of new pictures of my Lucy:

Isn't she a beauty?  She's still mad at me for taking Nightmare from her and giving her the little "monster".  Wrigley is actually a really good kitten but Lucy doesn't see it that way.

Embroidered Snowman Pillow

I had a lot of computer work to do today so I'm running a little late on my blog post!  I have some finishes to share today.  First, one of my cat dolls:

This is the one I stitched up the other day.

Next, one of my Teddy Bear dolls:

I don't think I shared the progress photos of this one. 

Anyway, I finished my Embroidered Snowman Pillow too:

I really love the snowman!  I almost hate to part with him!

Also, if you're rather new to my blog, you might enjoy reading about Kitty And Me Designs on Etsy! 

Finally, I talk about Jason a lot.  He's my assistant and my editor and he helps me so much!  Aren't computers and cellphones great?  He lives in Arizona and I'm in Illinois.  Anyway, I thought you'd like to see a photo of Jason.  Posted with his permission of course!

Jason manages the Kitty & Me Facebook page and he writes the Kitty & Me newsletters.  He also puts my Crazy Quilt books together and my online Crazy Quilt Class Booklets!  I just can't do everything!  Thanks so much Jason.  I can't tell you how much you help me!

Crazy Quilting Class Lesson 7 Sneak Peek!

I'm kind of excited about Lesson 7 of my online Crazy Quilt Class.  I thought for today, I would share a sneak peek of the project:

Lesson 7 is called, "Proud As A Peacock".  Jason is working on the booklet now and will upload it when it's ready.  I'll let you know as soon as it's available.

In other news, I just sewed some projects together and just have to stuff them so I expect to have some finishes to share tomorrow. 

For now, I'll take a little bit of time for myself and look around online.

Handmade Gifts

With Christmas and a few birthday's coming up, I thought I'd start stitching a few gifts.  I've never been one to wait until the last minute.  This is one of my signature Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls:

These little cats make awesome gifts for any cat lover and everyone in my family and Scott's family loves cats!  So I have more of these to do.  I'll be spending the rest of the afternoon stitching once I finish up here.

For now, I hope you're not tired of baby kitty photos!  Here's 3 more pictures of little Wrigley:

Isn't he a cutie?  And what a good little cat he is.  And does he have a long tail!  Scott and I measured his tail over the weekend.  It's 12 1/2 inches long!  Lucy's tail is only about 9 inches long!  Holy cow!