Laren's Blackwork Shirt

Laren at The Needle's Excellency, has made a lot of progress on her blackwork shirt. She's reached the point of contruction and it's going to together beautifully! Be sure to read the historical background of this project here.

Christmas Block Day 1

Christmas Block Day 1
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I finally started this block. I actually did the outline of the poinsettia on Monday, using the tissue paper technique, but I did it in metallic gold and it didn't show up against the gold crushed velvet in the scan so I didn't post it yesterday. I started the satin stitching last night.

I also added the piece of antique lace which I bought at a flea market this past Summer. That was an ecru color which looked rather muddy with this block but I really liked the way the piece looked so I pulled out my dyes and I gave it that aged yellow cast which seems to work well with the fabrics on this block.

I think I forgot to mention the fabrics for this block. The center piece is a crushed velvet, the metallic gold is some type of a foil fabric and the other 3 fabrics are cotton with gold metallics and glitter.

I have some chores to do (do they ever end?) and then I'll be working on this later today so I should have an update for you tomorrow.

Doing Some More Cleaning!

Sometimes I just get a bee in my bonnet and once I get going, I just can't stop! I've been doing some more cleaning. Moved all the furniture in my living room yesterday and vacuumed everything, even the corners! I just can't wait to rip that carpet out and replace it with hardwood floors! It's the only room we haven't put hardwood in yet. I really can't find enough negative words to describe how I feel about carpeting.

I started washing the windows in my kitchen on Friday but I can't reach the garden window without the ladder which I can't lift to get out of the garage so I'm at the mercy of my husband! I'm hoping he'll do it for me. I'm getting ready to go wash the windows in my car and Scott's car now. If he gets me an extention cord, I can vacuum the floors in the cars too!

Hopefully, I'll time to stitch later, while the Chicago White Sox win their trip to the World Series!

Christmas Block

Christmas Block
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

One of the girls at my cross stitch chat board asked me what my next Crazy Quilt project will be. Well, as I mentioned yesterday, I sewed up 4 new blocks. So the first to be stitched will be this Christmas themed square. I'm thinking of a white poinsettia in the center. I don't know if I'll start on this today or not but it will be my next CQ project.

As you can see at the bottom right, I somehow backed myself into a corner. So I top stitched the green. Crazy Quilting is very forgiving. I'm sure I'll find a great way to hide that!

Kitty In Teapot

KittyInTeapot
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

When I finished my All That Jazz block, I started stitching up this cute little Vogart kitty. I finished this last night and will eventually sew it into a doorknocker.

I usually sew up doorknockers when I have 3 or 4 of them do. I promised one of my readers that I'll take pictures and write up directions for finishing doorknockers and post it here. So stay tuned for that.

I've finished my design work for the week so today, I'll be pulling out my stash and sewing up several crazy quilt blocks. I have some neat ideas for new ones!