It's Snowing Here....

so I didn't try to go out today. I was going to run up to WalMart and then over to Mom's for awhile but decided it might be best to hang out at home. Scott called me a little while ago and said he would take me to WalMart in the truck when he gets home. What a great guy!

I put my cookie tray together to take over to Mom's for Christmas Eve, did a bit of cleaning (still have more to do) and then I stitched. I figured now is a good time to scan Block #4 so you can see it before I start adding the sparkle:



As you can see, this block has quite the combination of seam treatments on it. I was looking through my Judith Montano books the other day and decided to try a few of her techniques. The tufted flowers are from one of her books. They're not quite as fuzzy as I wanted them to be. I took a small nail brush and "scrubbed" them at bit. That seemed to fluff them up. It'll be fun to try these little flowers with different threads. Rayon threads might give me some nice results.

The Cretan stitch is one that has always eluded me. I've done it several times but until I started using waste canvas, I was never happy with how it came out. It was like my crazy mind just couldn't figure out how to do it. Well, once I started using waste canvas to do the Cretan stitch, I haven't had any more trouble with it. To learn more about my waste canvas technique, click here.

The blue SRE flower vine at the top was done with Carol Samples "Dream A Seam" templates. I think Carolyn at Evening Star Designs carries them. You might have to email her and ask. I bought my set from Carolyn a few years ago.

Well, that's where I'm at. Christmas Eve is two days away. I'm really looking forward to "junking" with my husband. Scott is going to take me to IHOP for Gingerbread pancakes (I have a slight weakness for Gingerbread) and then he's going to take me to the antique mall. Oh how I love my old junk!

I was thinking about a cross stitch design series for 2010. It occurred to me that a Biscornu Of The Month series might be fun. I may tinker around with that idea a little bit this afternoon. My Kitchenaid is screaming at me but I keep telling it that we're taking a little break at least until the weekend. Ha, ha, ha! Have a good afternoon & evening everyone! I'd better go clean something!

Chicken Vegetable Soup

As you know, I don't cook! My mom tells people that the only reason I have a kitchen is because it came with the house! Ha, ha, ha!!!

I do however, boil water and put stuff in it. Then I call it soup. I just made this huge pot of Chicken Vegetable Soup:



I haven't tasted it yet but boy, does my house smell good! I was going to make some bread in my Kitchenaid to go with it but I'm getting a little tired now so we'll have a few crackers with it.

I have a little GIVE AWAY if anyone wants it. It's the October/November 2009 issue of Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade magazine:



I'll gladly send it to the first person who leaves a comment on this post letting me know that they want it. USA residents only please as I will take care of the postage. It's a very nice magazine with loads of recipes and gobs of creative ideas. I'm a "magazine junkie" but I just can't keep them all. I'll talk about my magazine obsession another time.

For now, I'm off to have a bowl of soup and then to wrap my gifts. Happy Sunday!!!

And The Garden Continues To Grow

I just finished up on Block #3 of my Garden Quilt:



The pink leaf pin is vintage and the blue flowers beneath it are from a pair of vintage earrings. They had the clip back on them so I just broke it off and sewed it down.

How do you like my little frog? I have pretty little frogs and toads in my garden. I have snakes too but I won't be adding one of those to this quilt!

Here is Block #4 before I start stitching on it:



My mom always tells me that I have an incredible knack for crazy quilting. I just tell her it's because my head is crazy!

Have a great Saturday everyone. I'm off to the bank!

A Week Before Christmas

Every year, I seem to have one elusive gift to find. This year, the gift is a heavy flannel shirt. I went to Kohl's, WalMart and Target. No one had them. I kept thinking, geez louise! it is the middle of Winter! Finally, I tried the Sears store and there it was. The holy grail of flannel shirts! Ha, ha, ha! With the exception of wrapping my gifts, which Scott will help me do on Sunday, my work for this Christmas is done!

This morning, I put my cookie trays together for my neighbors, ran to the Post Office to mail my last Christmas package and stopped at the Dollar Tree for some pastel colored tissue paper. I would have looked around there longer but quite honestly, there was a little kid in there screaming her bloody lungs out and I just couldn't take it. You know, my mother never tolerated that from my sister and I. We were either good and quiet or mom hauled our butts out of the store and took us home. She didn't let us annoy anyone else.

Well, I don't want to bore anyone with my whining about the behavior of today's children. I thought I'd share with you my final goody of the Christmas season. Fudge!



Homemade Fudge with white chocolate icing and colored sprinkles! They look like they're right out of the Fannie May store! I included these in with my cookie trays for my neighbors and have enough left to take over to mom's on Christmas Eve.

So now, I'm pretty much free to do what I want to do. I started on stitching on Block #3 of my Garden Quilt:



If you want to see larger versions of any of my photos, please feel free to click on them. That will take you over to Flickr where you can see them enlarged. I post the small photos for my readers who like me, are still on dial-up.

Anyway, our little garden is growing quite quickly! It's certainly beginning to look like Spring. At least here at Kitty & Me it does. Outside is a grey, dreary, ugly mess! But Spring will come again and in the meantime, we have this quilt to tend to!

A Slight Change

I was looking at Block #2 yesterday afternoon and it was bothering me. I was feeling like the sequins on the Irises were covering up the pretty embroidery. After all, I bought the hankies because I liked the embroidery! When Scott got home from work, I asked his opinion and he said, "Girl, take them off!" So off they came:



Much better, don't you think? So now I'm ready to start on Block #3!

So many of my readers have emailed me to ask how I'm doing. I think it's starting to recede now. I can't say I'm out of the black hole yet but I think I'm starting to see a small ray of light. I'm still tired most of the time and I still take my shower or bath and go to bed between 6 & 7 pm. I'm just spent by then. I've slept better the last 2 nights as well. So, I'm getting there. Thank you everyone for asking!

Before I head off to stitch, I wanted to share the links to a few blogs that I think you might enjoy.
First is The Little Pink Studio. I'm quite intrigued and inspired by Cerri's romantic-vintage style. And it seems apparent to me that Cerri likes pink!

Next is Contemporary Embroidery. Mary Ann pointed me in the direction of this blog and I'm fascinated with Karen's creativity and the style of her work. She works mostly in white with only hints of other colors but the effects are stunning!

Finally, do check out Cathys Crazy By Design blog. Cathy's stitching & sewing is wonderful but she also shares photos of her vintage treasures! Lovely things to look at here!