Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to take a moment and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

McHenry Historical Crazy Quilt Block #20

Another block for the Mchenry Historical Crazy Quilt - this is the Samantha Button house built in 1854 and located on Waukegan St. Again I couldn't find a historical photo so I grabbed a screenshot from Google earth and oldened it in Photoshop.

Samantha Button was the daughter of William McCollom one of the very earliest settlers to McHenry Illinois. She was born in 1830 and came to Mchenry with her family in 1834. The only building in town was a log cabin located on the present site of The Riverside Hotel.

Her family continued west and made their home on the west bank of the lake named for them, McCullom Lake.

Samantha died in 1934 at 103 years old. Until her death, she was the oldest living mother of a civil war soldier. Her son died of typhoid during the war and is buried in Woodlawn cemetary here in McHenry.

This quilt will be a record of the historical buildings in McHenry. I'm still in Gagetown (the Main Street area) so theres a ways to go yet!

This quilt is pieced and embroidered entirely by hand. All lace is vintage or antique. The only embellishments are some vintage Mother Of Pearl buttons used to make the spider bodies. Spiders and spiderwebs are a traditional motif on antique crazy quilts. The Victorians believed that spiders were good luck so there is a spider on every block of my quilt.

I will be using this quilt to benefit the McHenry Area Historical Society. Preserving Mchenry's history is very important to me.

Next block - I'll be taking a little buggy ride (LOL) over to Centerville (Green St.) and doing the Owen Bros. Mill. Built in 1840. And I do have a real photo of it!!

Here's a photo of all the blocks together so far:

There's at least another 20 blocks to go so this quilt will be quite large!!
 

Kitty And Me Coupon Code

Be sure to use Coupon Code:  STITCH1 to save $1.00 on anything in my Etsy store:

Current Stitch-Alongs

The Never Ending Sampler will continue right after the New Year with Panel 6.

In the meantime, there are several cross stitch stitch-alongs going on at:

Fans Of Kitty And Me Designs Facebook Group

The current stitch-along projects are:

Snowflake Reindeer

Amidst The Poinsettia

The Millennium Cats

All patterns are available in my Etsy store:

Kitty And Me Designs on Etsy

You can also play "Kitty And Me Designs BINGO" for a chance to win a free pattern!!

Please join the group and have fun with other Fans Of Kitty And Me Designs!

Cross Stitch Patterns New Releases

Keeping very busy these days!!

I've just released several new Cross Stitch Pattern Leaflets:

Snowflake Reindeer

Winter Snow

Crazy Valentine Ornaments 1

Crazy Valentine Ornaments 2

Ask for my patterns at your favorite needework retail store or find them here:

Kitty And Me Designs

Stitch Alongs - The Millennium Cats

There's a couple of Stitch-Alongs starting up on the Fans Of Kitty And Me Designs Facebook Group.

One of them is the ever popular The Millennium Cats!

If you're looking for a fun stitch-along, do hop over to Facebook and check it out!

The McHenry Historical Crazy Quilt Block 19

This not a great photo but I've complete block #19 of my McHenry Historical Crazy Quilt:

I finished it yesterday and it was rather cloudy and dreary so the colors are a bit off.

This is the Methodist church on Main and Center St. in McHenry, Illinois.  The original Methodist church was on Elm St. This is the 2nd church. It was built in 1859.

I couldn't locate a vintage photo of it so I grabbed a screenshot from Google Earth and "oldened" it in Photoshop.  It took me awhile to age the photo.  There are electric lines running through the photo so I took all those out.  Then I added a sepia filter to it and then faded it out a bit and then made it look slightly water-stained.  I think the results are pretty good!

The photos are printed on fabric sheets that I run through my inkjet printer.

This is a traditional Victorian style Crazy Quilt pieced and stitched entirely by hand. The purpose is to document the early history of McHenry Illinois.

When I assemble it, I will be doing it on the sewing machine.

I'm using traditional Victorian era style fabrics and colors. All lace is antique or vintage.

 

I've decided, now that I'm on the board of the McHenry Area Historical Society, to use this quilt for events to help the society.

Next block - The Samantha Buttons House.

Never Ending Sampler Update

Just a quick update:

If you're working on The Never Ending Sampler, we'll be starting on Panel 6 right after the New Year.  I don't know about anyone else, but I always need something to get through the month of January!

Panels 1 - 5 of The Never Ending Sampler are available in my Etsy shop:

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