Stitched, Beaded, Embellished! Enjoy!

Questions And Answers

I've been sitting here, with my printer running for quite awhile now so to keep myself from falling asleep, or going insane, I've been bouncing around all over the place reading blogs, looking at photos, Facebooking, Tweeting and anything else I can find to do to keep myself busy!

It occurred to me to ask if anyone has any questions for me?  You can ask me anything you want.  If anyone has questions about needlework, crazy quilting, crafts, how to keep your cat out of your craft supplies (LOL), even depression or anxiety, please feel free to ask!  How about baking questions?  or ADD questions?  Ya'll know I'm an expert on that one!  Anything at all!

I would like to have some more interaction with my readers here.  I have quite a few followers and not too many comments so I'm trying to encourage ya'll to talk to me.  Honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm writing to the monitor but I know there's great people out there who like what I do and what I have to say so please everyone, ask me questions!  It'll be fun!  When I have a few questions come in, I'll do one blog post and answer them all!  That should be interesting!!!

Feel free to download this pretty Fractal Art Wallpaper image for your desktop!  That's another thing I was doing while the printer was running, playing with my graphic software!  You're also welcome to post this on your blog to share with your readers!  Please leave my web address on there and link back to my blog or my website.

I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone!

Tutorial - How To Make Button Clusters

Now that you've all seen my Crazy Button Quilt:

I thought I would share a tutorial on how to create Button Clusters.

Button Clusters are not only for Crazy Quilting.  They can be added to fabric bracelets, art quilts, art dolls, really anything that buttons can be sewn onto!

Step 1:  Gather some buttons!

I store my buttons in old mason jars.  They're separated by color and the jars look so pretty on a shelf in my craft storage room!

Step 2:  Determine where you want your button cluster on your piece.  In this case, I want my buttons to cascade down from the dark green patch on this Cat Doll:

Step 3:  Choose some buttons:

I like to start with a few larger buttons and buttons that are "interesting" to look at.  They will be the "focal point" buttons.

Step 4:  After choosing those "focal point" buttons, sew them down with bead thread or dental floss.  I use dental floss to attach all of my beads, buttons, charms and vintage jewelry pieces.

Once those focal point buttons are attached, start adding smaller buttons.  Overlap the buttons and be sure to use a variety of color shades.  If all the buttons are dark pink, it'll just look like a dark pink blob.  By varying the shades of pink, the buttons look more like a little flower garden.

 Step 5:  Once the buttons are attached, I like to add seed beads to cover up the threads in buttons:

3, 4 or 5 seed beads in the center of each button will add sparkle, dimension, interest and it'll cover up the thread holding the buttons on.

For the flower petals on the big purple 4 hole button, I picked up 12 seed beads for each hole and brought the thread back down in the same hole.  I added a large pink bead to the center.

Step 6:  Once you have all the buttons attached and the seed beads in the center, you can add a few little do-dads here and there like leaf charms, crystals, large beads and so on.

There's no rules here!  Just a few basics to add interest to your stitching!

You can see more of my Crazy Quilt pieces at my Boutique!

And be sure to check out my other tutorials!

The Crazy Button Quilt

25 6-inch Crazy Quilt blocks featuring the embroidery from my E-Book Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments and my vast collection of new and vintage sewing buttons.  Enjoy!

If you would like to post this video on your blog, website or Facebook page, please feel free to do so.  Please include a link back here to my Kitty & Me Designs blog or a link to my Kitty & Me Designs Boutique.

Sunday Treasures from the Flea Market

Sunday was such a beautiful day here in Northern Illinois!  Sunny and warm. The perfect day for a flea market!

Scott and I picked mom up and drove out to Grayslake Fair Grounds in Lake County for the monthly Flea Market & Antique Show.  Wow!  The theme for this show was "vintage" which is right up my alley!

Mom & I found all sorts of neat little goodies!  These are the "treasures" that I found:

These old hats are covered with vintage millinery flowers!  I love to pick them up and take the flowers off for my crazy quilts and other crafts.  I sat here last night while watching Dancing With The Stars and took them apart.  The cranberry colored hat was commercially made but the pink one and the lavender one were handmade.  You can tell the difference with how the flowers are attached.  With commercial hats, the flowers are glued on.  With handmade hats, the flowers are hand sewn on.  The lavender hat took quite awhile to take apart.  But it was so worth it as all of the little flowers are velvet!

My next treasures are these beautiful vintage lace collars:

 

I don't see pink vintage collars too often.  I only paid $2.00 for each of these!  I love old lace and will cut these up for my crazy quilts.

I also found a couple of beautiful vintage hankies with gorgeous lace on them:

It a little challenging to get a decent photo of these but the lace is gorgeous!  I like these because the lace is on all 4 corners so I get a lot for my money.  I paid only $2 each for these!

My next treasures are some lace pieces:

 

Again, it was a little hard to get a good photo of these but the laces are gorgeous!  And a little goes a long way with crazy quilting!

Finally, I found a couple pieces of pretty vintage jewelry:

To use the rose earrings, I will cut the clips off the back with wire cutters and then glue a pre-threaded button to the back with E6000 Jewelry Glue. Then they can easily be sewn onto my project.

So those are my treasures from this past weekend!  I love Flea Market season!  I love the thrill of the hunt!

Be sure to see my article on How To Take Apart An Old Hat!  You can find them at flea markets and antique shops for just a few dollars and you'll get loads of vintage millinery flowers off them!