The Button Quilt - A Pictoral Guide To Button Clusters

I have a new book available:

The Button Quilt - A Pictoral Guide To Button Clusters

Buttons are an easy and inexpensive way to embellish crazy quilts! This is a pictorial guide to creating lovely button clusters! 25 close-up photos of the blocks on The Button Quilt will give you a lot of ideas and inspiration for your very own Button Quilt! A brief description of each block is included.

28 pages - $10.99 + shipping

 

Available at both Magcloud -  http://www.magcloud.com/user/kitty-and-me

 

And at Etsy - http://www.kittyandme.etsy.com/

 

 

Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine Autumn 2016 Is Now Available!

Good morning everyone!  The Autumn 2016 issue of Crazy Quilt Quarterly magazine is now available:

Special thanks go out to our cover artist, Gerry Krueger!

You can place your order here at Magcloud.

Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine

I needed to leave myself time to put the 2016 Crazy Quilt Calendar together so I'm working a bit early on the Autumn issue of Crazy Quilt Quarterly magazine.

I thought for today I would share the the Table Of Contents with you from the Summer issue:

I also thought I would share a project that I had to pull from the Summer issue because I couldn't squeeze anymore in:

I made this summer Seascape purse a few years back and it was perfect for the theme of the Summer issue but with so much wonderful content from contributors, I decided I'd share this here on my blog instead.

I was wondering if I could ask of you a favor.  The success of this magazine depends greatly on contributions from readers and getting the word out that the magazine is available.  If you're reading this, would you please consider posting about it on your blogs and Facebook pages?  Mary Anne Richardson, Cathy Kizerian, Kathy Shaw and I work very hard to pull this magazine together.  The more the news spreads about the magazine, the more successful it will become and that will make it better and better!  Here is the cover photo.  Just right click on it and save it to your hard drive then you can upload it to your blog post:

And this is the link to order it:  http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/905756

Just right click on the link, "copy link location" and paste it into your blog post.

Thank you to everyone who is willing to post about and help promote it!

Thank You Joan!

My very sweet friend Joan, came to keep me company yesterday.  Joan had taken a couple of Crazy Quilt classes here with me and she was here a 2 weeks ago, a week before I lost Simba.  She emailed me the other day and asked if I would like her to come and keep me company. 

Joan brought lunch and we just sat in my kitchen and stitched, looked at books and magazines and talked.  Joan has been stitching on a beautiful ocean art quilt (wish I had taken pictures) and I started on this little purple seascape crazy quilt piece:

I very much enjoy Joan's company and was a bit sad when it was time for her to leave.  Joan is so enthusiastic about art quilting and embroidery and like me, has an insatiable appetite for craft supplies and learning new techniques.

Joan, I can't even begin to thank you for your kindness and for listening.  I very much look forward to the next time you come to visit me.  Thank you so much and Big Hugs!

Marie Antoinette Quilt

I arranged the Marie Antoinette crazyquilt blocks in one image so you can see how the quilt will look when it's put together:

I have pink satin for the outside border and a pretty trim to hand sew on the seams.  Couldn't you just stare at this all day long and never get anything else done?  LOL!!!

Upate On Marie Antoinette Quilt Block #9

I went to Michael's on Monday with mom and I picked up some alphabet beads.  I wanted to spell out Marie's name on this final block.  Out of 2 packages of alphabet beads, there were only 2 "T's"!  Can you believe it?  I have something like 8 "X's" and only 2 "T's"!  I need 3.  So spelling out her name will have to wait until tomorrow when I go to WalMart.  In the meantime, this is the block at this point:

I will put this block on hold until tomorrow.  In the meantime, I'll have to find some other things to do.

Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt Block #8

Being that today is the first full day of Spring, I thought I'd better get a move on with my Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt!

After running into town this morning and doing some paperwork, I took several hours for myself and started stitching.  This is the block with the lace & trims:

And here it is with the seams embroidered:

Can you find the borders that are from my Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatment book?

Adventures In Art Quilting

Yesterday, I wrote about my attempt to shrink Wool Roving for a cool foundation to stitch on.  I did not succeed at shrinking anything!  But I did come up with a cool background for stitching. 

I finished adding beads and sequins to my little "Guarding The Nest" Art Quilt:

I'll put this on a little branch either later today or over the weekend and post another photo when it's complete.

I did try another little wool background.  This time I boiled it but again, nothing happened.  It's ok though, because I have another interesting, textured foundation to stitch on.  Will post that soon.  First, I have a custom order for a Crazy Quilt cat doll so I want to get that stitched up and ready for my customer.

In the meantime, I also made 2 Pink Heart Brooches:

These are little hearts that I needle felted and then embellished with Silk Ribbon Embroidery, old lace, beads & sequins.  The hearts are exactly the same but by using different embellishments, they are each unique!  These are available to purchase in our Handmade Boutique!

Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt Block #6

I apologize for not photographing the block before I stitched it.  I usually like to post my works in progress updates as I work on them.  I haven't been feeling too great for the past few days so I just stitched.  Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt Block #6 is complete:

The little watch was a pendant watch that belonged to my grandmother.  I've been trying to use her jewelry pieces on this quilt so I can see and enjoy them rather than store them in my cedar chest.

So this block is done and that leaves me 3 more blocks to go.

If you're visiting my blog for the first time, I'm working on a Crazy Quilt with Marie Antoinette as the theme.  There will be 9 blocks all together, each of them are 9 inches square.

Here are the previous blocks:

 Block #5

Block #4

 Block # 3

 Block #2

 Block #1

Contest Drawing!!!

Hello everyone!  I have a really nice surprise for you all today!  I'm having a contest!  A drawing actually.  I made this sweet little sewing art quilt and thought about how nice it would be to offer it in a drawing for my blog readers:

Here's how it works!  There are 3 ways to win. 

***First, become a follower of my blog by clicking on the "Follow" button in my sidebar.  (If you are already a follower, you are automatically entered once.)

***Your name will be entered again if you mention my drawing on your blog.  Please leave a comment on this post so I know that you mentioned it!!!

***To receive a third entry in the drawing, post my blog button in your sidebar on your blog.  You can find to the left in my sidebar.  Again, please leave a comment here on this post so I know that you added it.


All entries will be put in a basket and when my blog reaches 300 followers, my husband will draw a name and I will post the winner's name here. 


So that's it everyone!  Good luck and please spread the word.  I had a lot of fun making this little quilt.  I used some vintage velvet berries from an old hat.  I hand-dyed the berries!  I ran all over the planet looking for a little sewing scissors charm.  I added some silk ribbon embroidery and wound thread on the tiny spools myself!!!

Good luck!

Friday Morning Ramblings

Good Morning everyone!  First, I would like to thank Cathy Kizerian for being my guest blogger yesterday!  It was really fun to share my friendship with her, here on my blog!  My next Guest Blogger will be posting on July 15th.  Please be sure to stop by then.

I would also like to thank everyone who left comments here and for Cathy on her blog.  I am only able to reply to comments if email addresses are public.  If you left a comment for me and did not receive a reply, it's only because I don't have your email address but please know that I so much appreciate your comments.  I love meeting new stitcher's and crafter's!!!  And special thanks to all of my new followers!  I hope that you will continue to visit me.

In other news, I'm also done with my Crazy Quilt Peacock purse!  I decided to write up a tutorial on how to do the peacock.  It will have an eyelash yarn tail and I was thinking that some of my crazy quilt readers might enjoy knowing how to do it!  I'll have that tutorial for you in a few days.  I will also have the final part of my Art Quilting 101 tutorial.  As usual, I try to do too much at once (ADHD) and sometimes, I fall a little behind on things.  All I left left to do is to add the hanger, take photos and post!!  Coming very soon!!!

And speaking of my Art Quilting 101 Tutorial, I would like to share a photo that Linda B sent to me:

This is an art quilt that Linda made for her daughter using my tutorial.  Linda, it's lovely and thank you so much for allowing me to share this photo with my readers!  If you would like to visit Linda's blog, please click here.

If anyone else is working on an art quilt using my tutorial, please feel free to email me a photo and I will gladly post your photo here along with a link to your blog or Flickr site.


Another photo that I would like to share with you is from Allie.  I absolutely fell in love with this photo yesterday when I visited Allison's blog:

This sweet little feathered angel got into Allie's greenhouse.  How wonderful that Allie was able to hold this precious little birdie after the rescue!!!

Many of my long time followers know that Robin's and Hummingbirds are my absolute favorites!  Everyone knows, that starting in February, I begin to watch for the Robin's to come back.  When I saw this photo, my heart melted.  What a special moment for Allie!!  Thank you so much Allison, for granting me permission to share your photo with my readers!  If you would like to visit Allie, here's the link to her blog.

My final photo for today is another photo of my Lucy!  She loves to sleep all curled up in the bathroom sink!

Isn't she just the cutest little thing?!!!!

Well, that's my chattering for today everyone!  Be sure to stop by tomorrow.  It's Pink Saturday!!!!

1929 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan

Well, my DSL internet issues are resolved!  The AT&T man put a "whole house" filter in my junction box and now, it's fast as the speed of light!  Wow!  So with that issue resolved, I thought you would enjoy seeing photos of Bubba's Model A:





There are a few more photos over on my Flickr site if you'd like to see them. 

Yes, we like all sorts of old things!  Bubba has been working on this car for years and it's been awhile since I posted some photos.  It runs now and most of it is painted now.  He's done such a great job and I can't wait until it's totally road worthy so we can take it to some local car shows! 

We plan to dress the part!  I have a poodle skirt to make but first want to add sequins to the poodle.  Bubba will wear his leather motorcycle jacket.  It will be so much fun!  But it'll be a little while yet.  Still a lot of tweaking to do.

In other news, I'm pleased to announce that I will be participating in Beverly's PINK SATURDAY!  I'm so excited about this!  I already have my pink things chosen!  I've been wanting to participate in Pink Saturday for awhile but had to get my internet issues taken care of first.  If you've never heard of Pink Saturday, please visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound to learn more about it.

For those of you who are interested in my Art Quilting 101 Tutorial, Part 2 will be available here tomorrow.  I hope you find it helpful.  If anyone has started an Art Quilt with the help of my tutorial, please leave a comment here.  If you have a blog, website or Flickr site, please post a link and I'll mention here on my blog.

Finally for today (and speaking of pink) check out these new pretties from Kathi:



They almost didn't make it into the shop!  Kathi brought them this morning when she came for coffee and I fell in love with them!  They are gorgeous!  I mean honestly, what's better than pink kitties?!!!