Crazy Quilt Halloween Door Pillow

I've stitched the seams on my little crazy quilt Halloween door pillow and now it's ready for beads.  Lots of beads!

I plan to finish up on the computer now and have a little stitching time before I go into town for groceries.

I've been keeping myself quite busy lately!  I'm getting ready to teach 3 upcoming Crazy Quilt classes, I'm working on things for the boutique and getting ready for our trip to Galena Illinois over Labor Day weekend.  I can't tell ya'll how much I'm looking forward to that!  Scott and I haven't been able to go to Galena since last Labor Day!

Speaking of the Boutique, I've added a few more new items.  Pretty little Victorian angel ornaments!

These are also available at Etsy!

Marie Antoinette Quilt Block 3

I mentioned in my post earlier today, that I wasn't feeling great for a few days so I was taking it easy.  I did some small projects and started on Block #3 of my Marie Antoinette Quilt.  This is the block before I did any stitching on it:

And this is what it looks like at the moment:

I was in my Cedar Chest over the weekend and found some pieces of vintage jewelry that belonged to my grandmothers.  I decided that I could enjoy having them more if they were on this quilt rather than hidden away in my Cedar Chest so I added the blue floral piece to the left of Marie.  That one belonged to my paternal grandmother.  The snowflake looking brooch belonged to my maternal grandmother.  I'm going to add some silk ribbon roses on either side of that piece.

I have a few other pieces of my grandmothers jewelry that I'll be adding to the other blocks.  Might as well enjoy them!

And these are the recent ornaments that mom and I made.  Mom made the Santas and I made the angels:

Speaking of my mom, her gallbladder surgery is scheduled for December 14th.  The surgeon was trying to hold off until after the holidays but mom has been in so much pain these last few months, they just can't hold out any longer.

And in other news, my Simba kitty seems to be doing much better.  After some research, my vet diagnosed him with Colitis and that was putting the strain on the kidneys.  He's now on special food for Intestinal health and a 3 month regimen of Prednesone.

He's still using my floor from time to time, just for good measure I guess, but 98 % of the time, he's using the litter box.  And, he's looking like he's bulking up a bit.  Not so frail and thin now.  Kathi picked him up to maul him yesterday and she said he feels a little heavier.  He was a 15 pound cat all his life and dropped down to 8 pounds.  He was so tiny but hopefully, is on his way to feeling better.  He actually pounced Lucy the other day so that's a good sign!

A New YouTube Video

Hello Ladies!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  By Friday, I was feeling very burned out.  I know now to pay attention to the warning signs so I've been stitching and taking it easy.  I'll have an update on Block 3 of my Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt soon.  In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy seeing my newest YouTube commercial.  Enjoy!

Glitter Houses Are Here!

Just a quick little update for this evening everyone.  I managed to list all of our Glitter Houses in the shop today:

And here's my latest video:

Busy Day!

Whew!  Never thought I'd get to just sit and blog today.  I went grocery shopping, stopped at the Dollar Tree, went to the Post Office, came home, put everything away.  Cooked up some Italian Sausage for low carb mini pizza's (I'll show you how soon), shredded a Zucchini, made a double batch of Zucchini muffins, a double batch of Banana Chocolate Chip muffins, decorated them, did laundry, did dishes, added a bunch of new stuff to the shop.....are you worn out yet?  LOL!!!  There are days when my ADD just keeps my butt moving right along.  Much better than when the depression has me dragging myself from project to project!

Anyway, thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my little Kitty & Me commercial.  It's not Spielberg by any means but it was fun.  I think I'll do an Autumn themed commercial over the weekend. 

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my latest Give Away Drawing.  All names are in a basket and waiting for the winner to be picked by Bubba.  If you didn't see my post on the Drawing, click here.

Ok, so on to some pictures!  These are the latest additions to Kitty & Me Designs.  First, I've been making Glittered Bottlebrush trees like crazy!  I just love them!!

I have a few more at mom's that I'm working on.  I hope to finish them up tomorrow.

These are mom's latest creastions:

And here are Kathi's newest additions to our Autumn collection:

Like I said, very busy here!

I'm finishing up on a crazy quilt project and I'll have photos of that to share with you soon.  I pulled out the first block on my Marie Antoinette quilt so I'll be starting on that in the not too distant future as well.

For my newbie crazy quilters, I'm going to show you how to do your piecing on a muslin foundation.  I just need a little time to get that written up and be sure that I have photos to include. 

Finally for today, be sure to stop by tomorrow to meet my next Guest Blogger.  She's a lovely lady who makes that most gorgeous things! 

Kitty & Me News Brief

Today is the 1st of October.  Where did September go?  And for that matter, where did the Summer go?  Whew!  It was a very hot and humid Summer and I confess, I'm enjoying the cooler weather.  Flea Market season is winding down and I'm looking forward to having more time to use my great junk treasures that I've collected.

I usually host a Guest Blogger on the 1st of the month but my guest for today has taken quite ill so I will reschedule her when she's feeling better.

For today, I thought I would just share our latest Kitty & Me Designs news.

First, we have a new packaging & shipping manager.  My dad is now taking over that end of Kitty & Me.  Running an online shop properly can be quite time consuming.  I spend so much time listing things, taking photos, uploading photos here, there and everywhere, packaging, shipping, promoting and so on, that it's getting a little hard for me to get my things made.  So dad is now our new Shipping Manager!  That should free up a little bit of my time.  All orders will be shipped within 2 business days as usual.

And speaking of new items, here are some of the latest:

I have loads of gorgeous Christmas things to list and will do so as I can.  I have a 2 new Crazy Quilt frame pieces and my plan is to add them to the shop later today.  I'm currently working on 2 customs orders and will share photos of those soon as well.

So let's see, what else is new here.  Well, I joined Handmade Spark.  Here's the link to my site.   I joined them because it helps with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  It helps bring my items to the top when keywords are Googled.  Yeah, I can't believe how complicated this has become.  But I have to face facts.  My shop is my income.  And the only person who can make it work is me.  You get out of things what you put into them so I've done my research and I'm taking the steps I need to take to make my shop successful.  It can be loads of fun but I won't beat around the bush here.  Waking up to no sales every day is not fun.  Anyone who wants to sell online has to be willing to do the work.  You can't just list your items in your shop and expect people to find you.  The shop owner has to take the necessary steps to be found.  So that's what I'm doing.

I've also started to invest a bit in some advertising.  My sidebar ad at Craftcult starts tomorrow:

 

I think this came out nice.  The ad will link directly to my Etsy shop.

Oh, before I forget, I'm almost at 300 followers!  Yeah!!!  You know what that means, don't you?  As soon as I hit 300, we can have our drawing for my Sewing Art Quilt:

I'm so excited to see who wins this!  And I'll let you in on another secret....as soon as we have a winner for this quilt, I'll have another drawing for another prize!  

News on Mom - Mom is doing very well!  I've been able to wash her hair for her twice and yesterday, we went down to our craft area and worked on some projects.  Yes, mom was glue gunning!!!!  She hates the brace that she has to wear but told me that crafting helped her to feel better.  Yes, creativity is a powerful healer!

Mom has been so taken by all of your sweet comments and well wishes.  She'll put together a new blog post next week sometime.

I guess that's my news for today!  Happy October 1st everyone!  Have a great day!