Cold Night

Well, in the middle of the night, on the weekend, when it's 11 degrees outside, my furnace decides to go out!  I've been up since 12:30.  Freezing!  LOL!  It's 6:30 now and fixed at the tune of $700.00 but it's warming up in here now and I'm not longer shivering.

I tried stitching but I was shivering so much from being cold that I couldn't get the thread in the needle!  Anyway, I'm almost done with my little purple cat doll:

I think I'll add some silk ribbon flowers to this while I sit here and warm up!

Another Cat Doll

I finished up my St Patricks Day Cat Doll yesterday:

I hope to get this little guy sewn up over the weekend so I can mail him.  I'll share another photo when he's done.

I started one more cat doll as gift for another friend.  This one is purple:

I did another blackwork fill in design at the top using Kreinik metallic #4 braid:

I absolutely love this technique however, although pulling the waste canvas out dry, from small areas like my seam treatments is quite easy to do, larger fill in areas is not so easy.  With crazy quilts, because of the fancy fabrics and fancy threads, I can't wet the waste canvas to get it out more easily. 

Since one thing usually leads to another, I'm going to start looking for some kind of doable alternative.  Because this is fun and this is cool looking!

Green Cat Doll

I'm only doing 1 Cat Doll for St. Patricks Day this year.  This one will be a gift for a friend who loves my Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls:

I'm still experimenting with Blackwork style fill-in patterns and waste canvas.  Here's a closeup photo:

Blackwork embroidery is a beautiful way to show off the sparkle of Kreinik metallic threads.  Here, I used a #4 Braid.

This fill-work came from me wanting to put more embroidery on my crazy quilts but also wanting to use lots of lace and trims.  I truly feel that variety is the spice of life when it comes to crazy quilting.

St Patricks Day Tussy Mussys

I didn't get any stitching time in yesterday.  I did do some sewing though.  I pieced a couple of cellphone pouches, a purse and a change purse.  Now I have a nice little pile of things all ready to stitch on!

Since I don't have stitching to show at the moment, I thought today would be a good day to share photos of my mom's latest Tussy Mussy's for St. Patrick's Day:

I also added 2 new pretty pairs of Kathi's earrings to the shop:

I'm going to do a little stitching now before I have to go into town.  Stop by tomorrow to see what I'm working on!

Spring Lady Purse Stitching Completed

I finished up my Spring Lady Purse yesterday morning:

I really feel that layering is the key to interesting and beautiful crazy quilts.  Lace layered over fabrics, trim layered over lace, embroidery layered over seams and then beads, sequins and other embellishments layered on top.  That is truly the key.

Here are photos of my seam embroidery:

Last night I crocheted some fuzzy trim for the bottom using funky yarn and some spangles:

As soon as I have time to assemble this, I'll share a final photo.