Kitty & Me News Brief

Today is the 1st of October.  Where did September go?  And for that matter, where did the Summer go?  Whew!  It was a very hot and humid Summer and I confess, I'm enjoying the cooler weather.  Flea Market season is winding down and I'm looking forward to having more time to use my great junk treasures that I've collected.

I usually host a Guest Blogger on the 1st of the month but my guest for today has taken quite ill so I will reschedule her when she's feeling better.

For today, I thought I would just share our latest Kitty & Me Designs news.

First, we have a new packaging & shipping manager.  My dad is now taking over that end of Kitty & Me.  Running an online shop properly can be quite time consuming.  I spend so much time listing things, taking photos, uploading photos here, there and everywhere, packaging, shipping, promoting and so on, that it's getting a little hard for me to get my things made.  So dad is now our new Shipping Manager!  That should free up a little bit of my time.  All orders will be shipped within 2 business days as usual.

And speaking of new items, here are some of the latest:

I have loads of gorgeous Christmas things to list and will do so as I can.  I have a 2 new Crazy Quilt frame pieces and my plan is to add them to the shop later today.  I'm currently working on 2 customs orders and will share photos of those soon as well.

So let's see, what else is new here.  Well, I joined Handmade Spark.  Here's the link to my site.   I joined them because it helps with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  It helps bring my items to the top when keywords are Googled.  Yeah, I can't believe how complicated this has become.  But I have to face facts.  My shop is my income.  And the only person who can make it work is me.  You get out of things what you put into them so I've done my research and I'm taking the steps I need to take to make my shop successful.  It can be loads of fun but I won't beat around the bush here.  Waking up to no sales every day is not fun.  Anyone who wants to sell online has to be willing to do the work.  You can't just list your items in your shop and expect people to find you.  The shop owner has to take the necessary steps to be found.  So that's what I'm doing.

I've also started to invest a bit in some advertising.  My sidebar ad at Craftcult starts tomorrow:

 

I think this came out nice.  The ad will link directly to my Etsy shop.

Oh, before I forget, I'm almost at 300 followers!  Yeah!!!  You know what that means, don't you?  As soon as I hit 300, we can have our drawing for my Sewing Art Quilt:

I'm so excited to see who wins this!  And I'll let you in on another secret....as soon as we have a winner for this quilt, I'll have another drawing for another prize!  

News on Mom - Mom is doing very well!  I've been able to wash her hair for her twice and yesterday, we went down to our craft area and worked on some projects.  Yes, mom was glue gunning!!!!  She hates the brace that she has to wear but told me that crafting helped her to feel better.  Yes, creativity is a powerful healer!

Mom has been so taken by all of your sweet comments and well wishes.  She'll put together a new blog post next week sometime.

I guess that's my news for today!  Happy October 1st everyone!  Have a great day!

Vintage Floral Hats

I hit the jackpot on Vintage Floral Hats yesterday at the Elkhorn, WI flea market.  I found 4 of them.  Actually, I found more but ya'll know what I do with these so I refuse to pay more than $4 or $5 for each.  Yes, I cut them up for the flowers:

I try to save everything I can from these.  The netting, the ribbons, the fabric as well as the flowers.  I kind of hate to cut them up because they're so pretty but this is a great way to get vintage millinery flowers for crazy quilting, art quilts and mixed media projects.

If you would like to see how to take them apart, click here.

In other news, mom is doing well and thanks you all for your kind wishes and comments!  She's just thrilled that you all accepted her and enjoy her blog posts so much.  She's looking forward to writing Part 2 of her Creatively Coping With Bi-Polar article.  We'll get that article up as soon as she can sit comfortably with my laptop.

And speaking of creatively coping, my article on coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome will be available soon.  I plan to work on that this week along with my next Crazy Quilting For Newbies article.

Today is a sewing day for me.  My treadle machine is just screaming at me!  I have 2 custom orders to piece up and I want to start putting together the blocks for my Winter project.  The theme?  It's a secret!!!!

Before I head out for now, I'll leave you with Kathi's newest pair of earrings:

These are so elegant for Halloween but they don't scream "Halloween".  And Kathi's insists on keeping her pieces very affordable!  They're available for purchase in my shop.

Tutorial - How To Clean A Non-Washable Quilt

Crazy quilts, art quilts, antique & vintage quilts....many are not washable or dry cleanable.  So how do you clean them?  It's easier than you think.

All you need is a vacume cleaner and a piece of plastic canvas:

I lay my quilts out on a towel on the floor.  For the most part, decorative quilts are just a bit dusty.  Using your vacume cleaner hose and a piece of plastic canvas will remove any surface dust and hopefully, any dust mites that have made their home on your quilt:

The plastic canvas will hold your quilt & embellishments in place, allowing the dust and dirt particles to be vacumed away through the holes.  I do both the front and the back of the quilt this way.

Just vacume through the plastic canvas.  Vacume with one hand and hold the plastic down with the other.  Move your plastic as you need to until you've cleaned the entire quilt.

To remove any stubborn pet hair, a small piece of masking tape or blue painters tape will working nicely.  Be careful not to pull on your stitches or embellishments.  I use making tape sparingly but it does work to get the cat hair off.

Please visit our Cottage Boutique!

Update On Mom

Mom is doing well.  Still in pain but doing well.  Kathi & I spent yesterday afternoon with mom.  When I left, she was watching QVC and looking through some of my Somerset Studio magazines.



The surgery went well.  2 vertebrae were removed and a metal plate was put in to relieve a pinched nerve.  Mom has to wear a neck brace for 3 months.  Still trying to figure out how to wash mom's hair for her.  She can't bend over and she can't take the brace off.  The brace goes up the back of her head.  I'm open to suggestions!

I'd like to thank everyone for your sweet emails.  Your kind wishes mean so much to Mom & me!  Thank you!

Crazy Quilting For Newbies - Reference Material

I've been asked by several of my followers to write some articles on how to get started with Crazy Quilting.  I guess it can be overwhelming when you think about the process of creating a crazy quilt block. 

Just thinking about techniques, gathering supplies and choosing colors is enough to drive even a sane person crazy!  I of course, would not be one of those sane people!  LOL!!!!  There really is a lot to choose from when it comes to this beautiful art form.

I decided to break it down into manageable sections to keep us all from being overwhelmed.  I'll start with reference materials.

There are gobs and gobs of books on sane quilting.  How-to's, patterns, computer software and so on.  But when it comes to crazy quilting, the reference material is limited.  There just isn't the demand for it.  The following books are my recommendations for newbie crazy quilters:

The Crazy Quilt Handbook by Judith Montano

This, in my opinion, is the Queen Mother of Crazy Quilt reference books!

Running a close 2nd, The Magic Of Crazy quilting by J. Marsha Michler

If you have these 2 books, you've got everything you need from piecing, stitches, embellishing, SRE and color theory.

This is another book by Judith Montano that I highly recommend, Elegant Stitches:

Being that I am in no way a minimalist when it comes to my creative endeavors, another must have by Judith Montano is her Floral Stitches

This book covers the how to's of recreating in thread & ribbon, every flower you can think of!

For seam treatments, I have several recommendations..  For my seam treatments, I use a combination of techniques.  The first is a book by Carol Samples called Treasury Of Crazy Quilt Stitches:

Carol teaches how to create an unlimited variety of stitches and stitch variations.  I think you can see by the cover that this one will not disappoint!

Carol also offers a set of marking templates called, Dream A Seam Templates. I have these templates, I use these templates and I love them!  Unfortunately, I've spent the past 15 minutes searching for an online purchasing source but so far, I've had no luck.  I will send an email or two out and see if I can locate an online shop that carries them.  I'll update this post as soon as I find one.

The other technique I use to create my seam embroidery is my own technique devised in my days of designing charted counted cross stitch patterns.  It uses Waste Canvas aka Tear Away to create perfectly sized & spaced stitches.  I wrote a book on the technique called, Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments:



A complete guide to working Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments with Waste Canvas. Create perfectly spaced and sized stitches every time!

This book covers the how-to's of working with waste canvas on crazy quilt seams, what size threads to use, how to calculate, helpful hints and more.

Included are 72 charted border designs and 9 Bonus Feather Stitch designs.

This is an E-Book and is available as a  PDF file.  It will be sent your email address which I have to do manually.  The book is $17.00 US.  Payment via PayPal can be sent to my email address.

So those are the books that I recommend to start with.  And if you're into history, like me, here are few good ones:

Crazy Quilts - History, Techniques, Embroidery Motifs by Cindy Brick

This is a must have book for CQ history.  Well researched, well written and loads of photos!  Worth every penny!

And this, is the Holy Grail of Crazy Quilt history books, Crazy Quilts by Penny McMorris:

This book is long out of print so be fore-warned, if you want it, prepare to pay for it.  I bought my copy on Ebay for $50.00.  To me it was worth it as I collect every book on CQ that I can find but if you need to watch your money, like most of us do these days, the book by Cindy Brick is just as good if not better.

Finally, this little book is just cute & fun!  Quilting News Of Yesteryear: Crazy As A Bed Quilt

This book contains over 200 newspaper articles dating from 1880 to 1945.  All referring to crazy quilts.  It's just a sweet little book to have and can be rather amusing to read.

There are also a few good online sources for crazy quilting reference material.  First, is Sharon Boggon's Pin Tangle blog.  Sharon offers stitches diagrams and motif ideas with loads of links and photos.  Sharon updates her blog almost daily so I suggest bookmarking her site and visiting regularly.

Another good online source for Crazy Quilting is CQMagOnline.  This is an online magazine written for crazy quilters by crazy quilters.  It's published quarterly and well worth the time to visit.  Be sure to read the archives.  Of course, you'll be reading for hours and hours but the eye candy and tutorials are well worth the time.

So that's the list of reference material that I recommend.  I hope you find this post helpful.  In my next article on Crazy Quilting For Newbies, I'll discuss supplies.  What to purchase and where to find it.