Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Our turkey is in the oven, the house is spotless and all I have left to do is set the table and make mashed potatos!

Thought I'd share with you today the Thanksgiving invitation that I sent out:



I used a victorian postcard, removed the "Happy Thanksgiving" text in my graphic software and then added my own text. I just love this pretty little turkey's face!

Also in today's news, the new issue of Zweigart's At Home With Needlework magazine is out:



This is a list of my designs which appear in this issue:

Partridge Joy
Season's Greetings
Let It Snow
Winter Watch
(the 3 afghans in the "history of Zweigart afghans" article)
Little Buddies Towel Borders
Welcome Winter Table Topper (cover design)

That's it for today's news! I have to go check on my turkey. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Crayon Tinted Bunny

I had some stitching time yesterday afternoon, just as I had predicted so I stitched up this little bunny design:



I had crayon tinted the flowers and then stitched the entire design with Sampler Threads from The Gentle Art. I added a few orange seed beads to the flower centers for sparkle. I still need to clip the threads a bit shorter on the back and then I can sew it into a doorknocker. Thought it would be a nice Spring item in my booth at the shop.

If you like this design and would like to have the pattern to stitch, you can find it on my Flickr site here. Then click on the set to the right titled, "Embroidery Motifs".

As for my chores today, all I have left to do is to wash the floor in the living room and do some laundry (always) and then I'll have time to stitch so maybe I'll have something cool to share tomorrow in case anyone else has time to relax a bit and hop around the blogs.

Girl With A Kitten Purse Complete!

I completed the stitching on this last night. Oh, what is it about crazyquilting that is so interesting to do and so interesting to look at? I have been doing one form of needlework or another since I was 8 years old. That's almost 40 years of stitching and I have never found any technique that I enjoy nearly as much as crazyquilting.



All that's left to do is the assembly which I won't be able to get to now until next week sometime. I have company coming for Thanksgiving this week so I have a bit more cleaning to do and I need to make my grocery list for shopping tomorrow.

I do need to have some stitching time later. I just don't feel good without a little stitching time each day. I decided to do a bit of outline embroidery so I do expect to have something to share with you tomorrow.

To those of you who wished me luck with my booth in the brick & mortar store, thank you so much. Quite honestly, I was terribly frustrated with my things sitting in a drawer up in the dresser in the guest room. They're so beautiful but photography, esp. mine, can't capture the dimension or the sparkle of all the beads and sequins that I use. At least this way, my quilts and purses can be seen in person which is what they need to be truly appreciated.

Well, I'm off to do some more chores. But I'd rather be stitching!

Girl With A Kitten Purse Update

I didn't have alot of time to work on this over the weekend. Some of you may remember that DH and I remodeled our Living Room in the Spring. We decided to put it on hold for the Summer (actually, he decided that and I went along with it) and now we're getting back to it. I spent the weekend painting the ceiling so we can hang the new ceiling fan. I did get to work on this for about 1 1/2 hours last night:



It's actually almost complete. It needs my little cat and maybe a few old buttons. I also have some new glass butterfly beads and I think one of those might work nicely on it.

Another thing I did this weekend, this is very exciting, at least for me! I rented a display case at an unique gift shop up in the next town, Richmond Illinois. This is a beautiful shop with fine antiques and collectibles and beautiful work done by unique local artists. It's rather ironic how this happened. I went to a few antique shops here in town on Friday looking for more old lace. I only found a little bit:



So I decide to go up to Richmond on Sat. to see if I could find a bit more. It's only 15 minutes down the road from me. Richmond has alot of nice little specialty shops and antique shops, reminds me alot of Galena Illinois but on a much smaller scale.

Anyway, I had one of my purses with me when I went into this shop and the owner commented on it. We started talking and she was so taken with my work that she invited me to either rent a space or bring a few things in on consignment. After talking to DH about it, we decided we would rent a space and see how things go.

So, I put a bunch of my items on the "inactive" list over at Etsy and spent a few hours yesterday afternoon setting up my display at the real brick & morter store!! It was a little last minute so I didn't have time to really set it up the way I want it but it's a good start and it's a busy store so I'm hoping my things do well there. I'll probably rotate items with the holidays and seasons. It's a lighted case and that really shows off the sparkle and dimension of my crazyquilts and it's a locked case which makes me feel much more comfortable about leaving my things there.

So if any of my readers live in northeastern Illinois or southeastern Wisconsin, and want to see my work in person, you can find them at:

Auntie Libby's Cottage
10331 N. Main St.
Richmond, Illinois 60071
Booth #20

Also, if you're interested in the vintage handpainted lace appliques, they're available over at my Etsy shop!

We Have A Winner!!!

Oh, so many of you guessed correctly!

I checked the times on both Thursdays post and Fridays post and the winner is, Julia who posted Friday morning at 9:57!

Yes, it's a frame for a special button:



My mother in law gave me that button a few years ago and I've been saving it for something special for myself. It has a high shank on it and I didn't want to flop around too much or get lost in all the other do-dads.

I went through my stash, looking for something that would help frame it or make it stand out. I found some of these little crocheted things:



My mom said that there popular to make back in the 40's and 50's. They're little plastic or bone rings and women used to crochet around them and use them for light pulls and curtain tie-backs. Ok.

Anyway, I must have gotten some in some bag of stuff that I bought from a flea market one time and it occured to me when I saw them that I could handpaint them and then bead around them. So that's what I did! And my idea worked as you can see. It makes the button stand up and stand out!

So Julia who posted at 9:57 am on Friday morning, please email me with your address and I'll mail out your button frame. You can find my email link on my main Kitty & Me Designs website:

And if anyone else would like one, I did a few extras and you can find them here.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to post their guesses! I had a great time reading them all. This was so much fun, I'm now thinking of something I can do for another contest!