Crazy Quilting For Newbies - Resources

Today, I thought I would talk about where to find supplies. 

Fabrics:  Walmart, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn Fabric Stores, Hancock Fabrics - all have a nice selection of fabrics to choose from.  Keep in mind, with crazy quilting, you don't need to buy yardage!  1/8 yard pieces will go a long way!

Satins, Silk, Brocade, Velvet & Velveteen are traditional fabrics for CQ.  I also use cotton prints and anything else I like. Look for things with texture and things that are reflective or shiny or sparkly.  Variety is the spice of life when it comes to Crazy Quilting.

I find all sorts of fun things at Flea Markets and Antique Shops.  Vintage damask napkins are nice to cut up for CQ work.  Vintage handkerchiefs, vintage embroidered linens and old lace are all easy to find at Flea Markets and usually quite affordable.  And there's always Ebay if you don't have access to antique shops and flea markets.

An excellent and affordable source for fabrics is through my friend Karen South.  Karen lives in Louisville, Kentucky and she has the most wonderful fabric store available to her.  I've been there!  Karen offers Fabric Packs that are perfect for crazy quilting.  Here is the link:  Karen's Fabric Packs.  She hasn't updated her site in awhile but you can email her for more information.

Lace & Trims:  I for one, cannot walk away from a pile of old lace at a Flea Market.  I love it all and have way more than I will ever use but I don't care.  Old lace is wonderful on crazy quilts.  Of course, there are plenty of beautiful new laces available too and I have some of those too.

You can of course find old lace at Antique shops and Flea Markets and there's always Ebay and Etsy.  Another source that offers tons of beautiful laces and trims is Flights Of Fancy.  Here, you can find all sorts of beautiful treasures for your CQ work.

Carolyn at Evening Star Designs offers fabrics, lace & trims, threads and other embellishments and CQ kits.

Maureen at Maureen's Vintage Acquisitions offers a huge and wonderful selection of Crazy Quilt supplies including antique Cigarette Silks.

And here's another link for beautiful fabrics, trims and embellishments.  Crazy Quilt Silks, Fibers & Embellishments.

Beads - You can find beads at all the usual places like craft stores and Etsy but one of my favorite sources is Fire Mountain Gems.  When you go to their site, be prepared to drool!  LOL!!!

Sequins - I have purchased the majority of my sequins from Cartwrights Sequins & Beads.  They offer a huge variety of sequins, they ship incredibly fast and they are very affordable!

Silk Ribbon - I hand dye and hand paint my own silk ribbon but many stitchers would rather not mess with dyes.  A source for beautiful hand dyed silk ribbon is my dear friend Pat Winter.  Be sure to visit her blog and then you can email her for information on her hand dyed ribbons.  Pat also has an Etsy shop that you will enjoy visiting.  She offers little embellishment kits that would be perfect for a newbie crazy quilter.

Buttons - What can I say about buttons?  You can find them everywhere!  All the usual places like craft stores, antique shops, Ebay & Etsy.  You don't need a ton of fancy buttons to get started but if you would like a few beautiful and unusual handpainted buttons, you will enjoy visiting Gerry's Etsy shop. 

So, that's a good list of places for you to start with.  It's not a complete list of resources but it definitely gives you a lot of good options for supplies.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment here or you can send me an email.

Italian Soup Recipe

I thought I would start sharing a few of my quick & healthy meal recipes with you.  I always say I can't cook but the truth is, I can.  I would just rather stitch than cook!

I have some really nice things that I make.  All are healthy and easy.  And let's face it, pre-packaged things are so full of chemicals & salt these days that we really have no choice but to cook from scratch if want to feel good.

This is my Italian Soup Recipe:

2 pounds Ground Sirloin
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 medium Onion finely chopped
3 cloves Garlic minced
2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
1 - 28 oz. can Crushed Tomatos
1 - 8 oz package frozen chopped spinach
1 - 6 oz package finely shredded Parmesan cheese
4 - 14 oz cans Low Sodium Chicken Broth

Heat olive oil in soup pot.  Saute onion and garlic.  Add ground sirloin and brown.  Add chicken broth, crushed tomatos and spinach.  Add Italian seasoning.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Add Parmesan cheese.  Enjoy with a piece of Garlic Bread!

This recipe is low fat, low salt and low carb!  And it's excellent so give it a try and let me know what you think!

This And That And More

I haven't been feeling well for the past few days.  More Zoloft withdrawals.  But I do feel a bit more on the planet.  Not sure I'm liking reality these days but I certainly have my diversions.

Bubba cleaned and resealed our deck over the weekend.  It looks so nice!  This coming weekend, we're going to dig all the perennials out of the garden.  Come Spring, I want to put together a container garden with herbs and annuals.  Should be easier for me to take care of and I just love herbs.  They smell so good!  The weather this coming weekend looks like it will be about 75 degrees and sunny.  Perfect for getting that job done.  Scott will dig and I will haul it out back.

Mom is doing pretty well.  She's having some withdrawals from cutting back on the pain medication.  It's aggravating her BiPolar but other than that, she's healing well.  She only has to wear the brace for 8 more days.  I've been able to do her hair for her and will do it again tomorrow.  I'll see if she's up to writing.  If she is, I'll take the laptop over so she can write a blog post.  Mom really enjoys doing that.

Kathi and I went to a Fiber show on Saturday.  It was on a farm in Delavan Wisconsin.  Wonderful and so fun!  We saw how they shear the sheep!!!  Too cool!  I picked up a few things.  I really love needle felting.  It gives me something more to stitch on!  Will share my latest needle felting project later.  I just have to do the finishing on it.

I added a few more things to shop over the weekend.  A couple of mom's Christmas Tussy Mussy's:

And I added 2 more of my framed Crazy Quilt pieces:

I'm finishing up on a custom order today and I'm looking forward to starting on my Marie Antoinette quilt.  The seasonal affective disorder is already setting in.  But it really is pretty outside.  I do love October!

I made a big pot of Italian soup yesterday.  I want to share the recipe with you since it's easy and healthy.  I'll try to get that posted later today.

For now, I need to stitch.

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.