Cat Dolls

A while back, I talked about some little gifts that I made.  They were my little signature cat dolls.  All have arrived to their forever homes so I thought I'd share photos of them today:

In other news, I'm working on the flaps for some Crazy Quilt Clutch purses.  I'll have more photos of those soon!

It Was Spring Yesterday

But today, there's a very cold wind blowing.  It's sunny though so that helps!  I want to get back out in the yard and clean up some more but that wind is a bit cold for me.

I took Lucy to the vet this morning and her weight is holding at 7 pounds 2 ounces.  The special kidney diet is working.  She's sleeping now but she's been more talkative these past few weeks.  I ordered a special vitamin supplement for her for kidney health.  Our vet said it can't hurt so I'll start giving her that as soon as it arrives.  My sister has been giving it to her 19 year old cat who also has kidney disease and her numbers are already getting better after only a week or so.  Lucy's numbers are in the normal range now but this should help along with the special diet.

In other news, I finished up my little seascape cellphone pouch:

I made this for a dear friend who's birthday is April 6th.  I'll run to the Post Office tomorrow and mail it to her.

I've also been stitching on this little 6 X 6 inch door pillow block:

When I finish up on the computer I'll start adding my beads and sequins.

I added some more Color Combinations to my Pinterest Color Palette Board including a few of my own.  For Crazy Quilters who struggle with what colors to use, these palettes should help to narrow things down.  Choose a palette that you like, print it up and match your fabric colors to that.  It's a good starting point for anyone who is new to crazy quilting but feels overwhelmed by where to start.

Finally for today, I wanted to mention that I won't be making anymore of my Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls for my Etsy shop.  I'm going to make them just as gifts now.  So if anyone wants one of my little cats, there are still a few left in the shop.  Order while you can!

Isn't It Spring Yet?

It's been a long, cold, snowy Winter.  And I am so looking forward to not seeing any snow outside!  I know, I complain every year about the cold and the snow but it's really been a bad one this year.  I can't remember a Winter in my entire life that has been this cold for this long.  They're calling for 40 degrees over the weekend.  I do hope that it's the beginning of a warming trend.  The snow piles are so high here, it's hard to get out of driveways and parking lots!

My sister saw 7 Robins about 2 weeks ago in her yard but I've yet to see one.  But I keep my eyes open whenever I go now because one of these days, the Robins will be everywhere!  Of course with all the snow we've had this season, it'll be July before they can find any worms to eat!  LOL!!!!

I turned my computer on to blog yesterday and I had no DSL service.  I spent over an hour checking the filters on my phones and trying new phone lines to each phone and finally I realized it wasn't my DSL, it was that I didn't have a dial tone.   I then spent 1 1/2 hours on hold (on my cellphone) with the phone company only to have to go outside, in the cold with the snow melting off the roof and hitting me in the head, while I do a  test on their equipment!  I had no dial tone out there either so I had to call back again (another 1/2 hour on hold) to get a service guy out here.  Thankfully, it's fixed now.  But it's just crazy how much of my day was wasted when I could have been stitching!

Anyway, I finished up the stitching on one of my little cat dolls:

I have a few more of these to stitch on.  I'm doing a craft show in May and thought it would be nice to have a basket full of my cat dolls.  But I like to alternate small projects with larger projects so my next piece will be another purse:

I mounted this one on the frame this morning.  In a little while, I'll sit down with my stash and pull some lace and trim pieces for it.

And I'm thinking that sometime this week, I need a sewing day.  I need to piece some more projects to stitch on and I haven't put any miles on my treadle machine lately.  I so much love to sew on that machine.  I love my electric machine too but I use that one for finishing.  There's really nothing like sewing on an antique treadle!

And isn't it so beautiful to look at?  I just leave it open all the time because I love to look at it. 

New Items At Etsy

I've spent all weekend listing the newest items that mom and I have made for our Etsy shop.  It's a time consuming and tedious process but I can honestly say that I don't mind doing it.  I can only list a few items a day though.  These are mom's newest pretties:

It looks like Mom is into hearts these days!  And I'm into Cat Dolls.  These are my newest items:

All of the pretty things are available at Kitty and Me Designs on Etsy.

We Gather Together......

I finished up my pink cat dolls.  Well, I finished stitching them.  I'm going to try to sew them together after I get back from getting groceries tomorrow:

As always, these will be so much cuter when I get them sewn and stuffed.  The cats never look like much at this point.  But they ARE pink!  And I do love stitching in pink!

Is anyone else here in the US looking forward to Thanksgiving?  I love Thanksgiving!!!  And it used to be a bigger celebration than it is now.  These days, it kind of seems like we go from Halloween to Christmas and completely forget to take the time to be thankful for what have. 

When I was in grade school, (eons ago), we always sang We Gather Together.  That was back in the day when no one had a problem with religious songs being sung in public schools.  Anyway, I found a nice version of that song on YouTube so I'll leave you to listen to it:

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!

Stitching Halloween Cats

If you've been reading my blog for a few years, you know I have a tendency to be all over the map!  I just from one thing to another and go back and forth like crazy.  There is a method to my madness but you probably don't see it.  That's okay, if you're amused by me, I'm doing my job!

My Christmas ornaments are just about done.  I need to put the little do-dads on the bottom and then I can post photos.  I expect to do that over the weekend.

In the meantime, I've started on a few Halloween Cats.  This is the first.  I finished stitching him up this morning:

This little black cat doll is one of 3 that I'm doing for Bowl Fillers.  I'll be putting pumpkins with him and we'll have to see what else I come up with!

In other news, I just wrote the introduction and Copyright pages for my upcoming book and sent the files off to my assistant Jason:

We're getting real close on this!

Also on my list of upcoming projects is Lesson 6 of my Color and Composition Classes.  I have a cool theme picked out for this one so stay tuned.  I'll let you know when I have a release date for that.  I expect it to be around the end of May.

Finally for today, I went grocery shopping and decided that I'd better have a box of Purina Kitten Chow here.  Scott has vacation time next week.  We're not going anywhere.  I'm hoping to get him to work on my house.  Anything!  Maybe he can clean and reseal the driveway.  But we may look for a baby kitty.  We'll see.

Handmade St Patricks Day Decor

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been busy, busy, busy!  I have been stitching like crazy and made some pretty St Patricks Day decorations:

 This one is a model for my upcoming Crazy Quilt book:

All of these are at Etsy.

I also made this little St. Patrick's Day cat doll as a gift for a friend:

And I made 2 more door hangers for gifts but still have to sew them together.  Will post photos when I have them ready.

For now, I'm getting ready to stitch up the cover design for my next crazy quilt booklet!

Another Valentine Cat Doll

My last cat doll for this Valentine's Day:

I just finished this up this morning.  I have to run for groceries and then I'll pull backing fabrics for my cat dolls and get them ready to sew up.  I don't think I can get them stuffed until I get to JoAnn's tomorrow for polyester fiberfill. 

And Here's Lucy

Last night, I found my little Lucy laying under the Christmas tree:

I'm a bit surprised that Nightmare even allowed this!  He's quite the bully and thinks nothing of kicking Lucy out of the space he wants to lay in.  But I found her under the tree so I was able to get a picture.

We didn't get the 5 inches of snow yesterday that they were calling for.  Thank goodness!  We only got about 1/2 an inch and I'm okay with that!  And believe it or not, there's this big yellow, bright thing in the sky now!!!  It's been quite awhile since we've seen it that I barely recognized it!  Ha, ha, ha!!!  Ya'll know that I will take as much sun as I can get this time of year!

I finished up another one of my Valentine Cat Dolls this morning:

They never look like much until I sew them together but this is my traditional 6 inch cat doll.  I'm not sure why I went with all blue, white and silver on this one.  I think I just liked the way it looked.  What rock is it written on that all Valentines have to be pink and red?  LOL!

Have a great day everyone.  I'm heading over to mom's for awhile.

Cat Dolls for Valentines Day

Oh, what a cloudy, dreary, grey day!  We haven't had sun here in McHenry, Illinois for I don't know how long.  They're calling for snow later today.  Ya'll know how I feel about that!  But it is what it is and there's nothing I can do about it.

I've filled my bird feeders, fed my squirrels and ran to WalMart for Nightmare's prescription.  I have laundry going and when I finish up here on the computer, I plan to stitch the rest of the day.

I snapped a few pictures of my precious Nightmare this morning.  He loves to sleep under the Christmas tree:

Is he a beauty or what?  He seems to have pretty much recovered from the stroke he had 4 months ago but he's still a bit off.  Not too bad though.  Scott and I are taking him to the vet on Saturday for another blood test to see where things are with the kidney disease.  He eats well, in fact he's quite happy with the special kidney diet he's on.  I've had to get a little creative with snacks though.  He's kind of pathetic when he wants a kitty cookie which I can't give him due the fact that kitty cookies are all protein and it's the protein that's so hard on the kidney's.  He sits on the counter in the kitchen and stares at the cupboard door where I keep them.  Poor little thing!  Instead, don't laugh, but I make him pasta.  He loves pasta!  Just macaroni chopped up little and tossed with a bit of vegetable oil.  And he also loves the crust on white bread.  What we do for the ones we love huh?

I've been stitching up some Valentines for my Etsy shop.  My current projects are some of my little cat dolls:

I have 3 more sewn up and ready to stitch.  After that, maybe I'll make another purse.  Something pink perhaps?