Cross Stitch Patterns by designer Pamela Kellogg of Kitty And Me Designs

The Blog Of Cross Stitch Designer Pamela Kellogg
Kitty And Me Designs

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Kitty And Me Designs

Celebrating 35 years of Needlework!!!!

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Another Valentine Cat Doll

My last cat doll for this Valentine's Day:

I just finished this up this morning.  I have to run for groceries and then I'll pull backing fabrics for my cat dolls and get them ready to sew up.  I don't think I can get them stuffed until I get to JoAnn's tomorrow for polyester fiberfill. 

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Stitching Valentines

The week between Christmas and New Year's is always busy for me.  My cousin has some time off of work so I get enjoy an extra day with her.  Scott and I like to go our antique malls where I always find a few little goodies to use on my crazy quilts for the upcoming year.  Then there's my annual trip to the big Super JoAnn's on New Years Eve.  We have a small JoAnn's here in McHenry but the Queen Mother of JoAnn's stores is in Algonquin.  Lot's of traffic between here and there so I always ask Scott to take me there for a nice shopping spree on New Year's Eve.  Talk about living the high life huh?  LOL!!!!

On New Years Day, I do my end of year paperwork and then mom and dad come over.  We order Chinese and mom and I sit and make our plans for our Etsy products for the upcoming 6 months.

I'm still stitching up Valentines.  I love Valentine's Day and I love making things for Valentine's Day.  Here's one of my projects that I finished up this past week:

I'll probably spend all day on Wednesday sewing my Valentine's together.  Then I'll have to stuff them all and get them ready to list at Etsy next weekend.  Not sure I can get everything done by next weekend but I'm willing to give it the old collage try!

In other news, Lesson One of my Color And Composition Classes will be released first thing Tuesday morning, January 1st.  Be sure to stop by here that morning if you're planning on taking my classes.  I'll post a direct link over to Magcloud where you can order either the digital version or a hard copy.

I guess that's my news for today everyone.  Hope you all had a nice Christmas and hope you're having a great weekend!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas To All!

Just wanted to take a moment to wish each of my sweet blog readers, a very Merry Christmas! 

If by any chance you eat too much Chocolate, just tell yourself it's a food group!  That's what I do!!!  LOL!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Christmas Cat Tales

I didn't get much stitching done since yesterday so I thought I'd share another one of my cat tales with you!

I've posted photos of my Hoosier cabinet before but I never shared the story of how my cats have always loved to get inside of it:

This was the first piece of antique furniture that Scott and I bought after we bought our house.  This poor Hoosier was covered in about 6 coats of paint!  It took us 3 months to strip all the old paint off of it and restore it to it's original condition.

Everything is original except for one hinge.  One was missing so we had to buy a reproduction.  It has the bread drawer, the flour bin/sifter, the original porcelain top and the working tambour door.  The only thing missing is the original bread board.

If you've never seen one of these wonderful old kitchen cabinets, you wouldn't believe how much storage space there is in one of them!  I store my crocheted doilies and decorative towels in the drawers and in the big cabinet underneath, I keep my vintage tablecloths and tablerunners.

My cats have always loved this cabinet.  My little Simba used to sit by that big door and fiddle with the latch until he got it open!  I still miss seeing him sitting there.  My Garfield used to love to crawl inside too.  He always made a mess.  He pushed everything out to make room for his big orange butt!  Still miss him too.

Nightmare doesn't bother to pull anything out.  He just crawls in, pushes things around a little bit and makes himself right at home:

If you've never had a cat, they can be quite amusing!

While I had the camera out, I took a few more photos to share with you, just for fun.  You may have noticed the towels on my Hoosier cabinet:

These are towels are vintage, probably from the 1950's.  I bought them at an antique mall a few years back for $10.00.  I'm assuming they were a set of 2 towels available as a kit.  There are little rhinestones in the stars and there's metallic gold thread in the words.

I saw a very similar set with angels at a flea market not long ago but the seller wanted $40.00 for the set.  I know my prices for vintage linens and refused to pay that much for them.  But the style was identical to these so they were probably by the same manufacturer.

These stitching on these towels is absolute perfection:


Next on the tour of my dining room, is my vintage Christmas tablecloth on my kitchen table which you really can't see but it's another one of our antique refinishes:

I paid $40.00 for this oak table complete with 2 leaves (sp?) which make it into a nice big oval table and with 4 lion's feet on the bottom:

My mother hates the lions feet!  She said that in the old days, everything had lions feet on it.  I love the lions feet!

Anyway, that's my dining room:

The runner down the middle was made by mom as were the doilies.  The candle holders are vintage.  Found the set at an antique shop for $5.00.  I love bargains and I love the thrill of the hunt!  Oh and my pressed back chairs are all vintage too and unmatched which I love!  We paid between $15 and $20 for each of them.  Which goes to show, that nice things don't have to cost a lot of money.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my cat tale and my dining room tour!
 


Friday, December 21, 2012

Newtown, Connecticut

Mom, Kathi and I would like say that our thoughts and prayers are with the Newtown, Connecticut community today.

And Here's Lucy

Last night, I found my little Lucy laying under the Christmas tree:

I'm a bit surprised that Nightmare even allowed this!  He's quite the bully and thinks nothing of kicking Lucy out of the space he wants to lay in.  But I found her under the tree so I was able to get a picture.

We didn't get the 5 inches of snow yesterday that they were calling for.  Thank goodness!  We only got about 1/2 an inch and I'm okay with that!  And believe it or not, there's this big yellow, bright thing in the sky now!!!  It's been quite awhile since we've seen it that I barely recognized it!  Ha, ha, ha!!!  Ya'll know that I will take as much sun as I can get this time of year!

I finished up another one of my Valentine Cat Dolls this morning:

They never look like much until I sew them together but this is my traditional 6 inch cat doll.  I'm not sure why I went with all blue, white and silver on this one.  I think I just liked the way it looked.  What rock is it written on that all Valentines have to be pink and red?  LOL!

Have a great day everyone.  I'm heading over to mom's for awhile.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Cat Dolls for Valentines Day

Oh, what a cloudy, dreary, grey day!  We haven't had sun here in McHenry, Illinois for I don't know how long.  They're calling for snow later today.  Ya'll know how I feel about that!  But it is what it is and there's nothing I can do about it.

I've filled my bird feeders, fed my squirrels and ran to WalMart for Nightmare's prescription.  I have laundry going and when I finish up here on the computer, I plan to stitch the rest of the day.

I snapped a few pictures of my precious Nightmare this morning.  He loves to sleep under the Christmas tree:

Is he a beauty or what?  He seems to have pretty much recovered from the stroke he had 4 months ago but he's still a bit off.  Not too bad though.  Scott and I are taking him to the vet on Saturday for another blood test to see where things are with the kidney disease.  He eats well, in fact he's quite happy with the special kidney diet he's on.  I've had to get a little creative with snacks though.  He's kind of pathetic when he wants a kitty cookie which I can't give him due the fact that kitty cookies are all protein and it's the protein that's so hard on the kidney's.  He sits on the counter in the kitchen and stares at the cupboard door where I keep them.  Poor little thing!  Instead, don't laugh, but I make him pasta.  He loves pasta!  Just macaroni chopped up little and tossed with a bit of vegetable oil.  And he also loves the crust on white bread.  What we do for the ones we love huh?

I've been stitching up some Valentines for my Etsy shop.  My current projects are some of my little cat dolls:



I have 3 more sewn up and ready to stitch.  After that, maybe I'll make another purse.  Something pink perhaps?

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

How To Finish A Crazy Quilt Purse

I'm pleased to announce that my latest publication has been released:

Step by step instructions with loads of photos on how to finish a crazy quilt purse with a sewn-in lining and purchased handles.  Available along with my other publications at Magcloud.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Christmas Time

My presents are wrapped, my tree is up, my cookies are baked and I've been to the Post Office!  I can relax for a few days now:

Scott picked out a beautiful tree this year and it smells lovely!  I decorated it simply with handmade country style ornaments that mom and I made a few years back.  For garland, I just use red and gold beads.  I have to be careful with what I put on the tree because of my cats although this year, Nightmare and Lucy don't seem to have much interest in it.  Instead of my tree-skirt that mom made for me, I kept it simple.  Just an old quilted blanket from when I was little.  Mom gave it to me because I love mint green so much!  I must say, the tree makes me miss my Simba.  He used to love to lay under the tree.  He thought he was hiding but I knew better.

I've been stitching away the early morning hours on my Valentine hearts.  I've made 6 of these so far.  These are the last 3:



We've had a few flurries today and I have Christmas music playing on the radio although I think I'll turn it off again, make a cup of tea and see what they're selling on QVC.


Thursday, December 13, 2012

More Crazy Valentine Hearts

A quick update on my current stitching projects.  I finished up on this Valentine heart yesterday:

And then I started on this one this morning:

I don't have too much left on my list for today so I'll plan to spend most of the afternoon stitching.


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Crazy Quilt Valentines

I finished up my mint green and purple crazy quilt heart last night:

The little purple iris is from a vintage hankie.

This morning, I started on this pink heart:

I'm sure I'll have this one finished later today.  I have 3 more to stitch after this.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Crazy Quilt Color And Composition Lessons

Just a reminder that my Crazy Quilt Color And Composition Lessons start on January 1st, 2013. 

Here's the schedule so far:

Lesson 1 - January 1, 2013
Lesson 2 - January 21, 2013
Lesson 3 - February 14, 2013

In other news, I'm working on my 2013 Valentine projects:

I expect to finish this one up this afternoon.


Monday, December 10, 2012

I Know It's A Wee Bit Early

But when you make things to sell, you have to work a holiday in advance!

I mentioned yesterday that I'm going to take a break from finishing my book until after the holidays.  So I started on my Valentines.  This one is ready for sewing:

And this is my next one:

I think I sewed up 6 of these little hanging hearts so I'll be stitching on these for awhile.




Sunday, December 09, 2012

Another Book Model

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog but at this time of year, I guess we only have 2 hands and can only do so much.  I'm just about done with my Christmas shopping.  I have 2 more things to pick up and I can wrap next weekend.

I have been stitching and working on my upcoming book.  Here's another model:

I think I'll take a break from the book until after Christmas now.  I only have a few more patterns to do and few more models that I want to stitch so it won't take long to finish it once I get past the holidays.

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Another Model for my Next Book

I'm told that I accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.  I lean towards being a work-a-holic but what I do just doesn't seem like work to me.  It's a lot of fun to get new ideas and see them come to life and because I work strictly now with my passion, crazy quilting, I can go, go, go like the energizer bunny!

In case you missed it in past posts, I am working on a new book.  This piece is another model:

I'm thinking I will call it "Elegant Sentiments For Crazy Quilting".  The book will contain charted patterns for cross stitching sentiments such as Dream, Believe, Hope, Happy Christmas, Thanksgiving Blessings and so on.  I'm actually almost done with the patterns.  There will be about 60 of them.  But I'm still working on models and yes, there are some that I have not posted here.  So stay tuned for updates!

Monday, December 03, 2012

Crazy Quilt Foundation Piecing Tutorial

I thought for today, I'd do a quick tutorial on how to do Crazy Quilt Foundation Piecing.  This might be especially helpful for those of you who are planning on taking my Color and Composition Classes which will be starting on January 1st, 2013.

I use the Sew and Flip method of piecing for my crazy quilts so that is what I will be sharing here.

Step 1:
I use a medium weight muslin for the foundation.  Then, with a black permanent marker, I measure out my block.  In this case, the block is a 6 inch square.  I add an inch on all sides and draw that line as well.  There is a method to my madness!  The black marker will show through to the backside of the foundation.  Why do I do that?  You'll see shortly.

Step 2:


Choose your first piece of fabric and cut a 5 sided piece.  You'll be working off of this center piece.

Step 3:

Choose a 2nd piece of fabric and with the right side down, sew along one side of your center piece.
Flip it over and press.

You'll want your fabric pieces to be large enough to cover over that extra 1 inch allowance.

Step 4:

Choose another piece of fabric and repeat the process on another seam.

Step 5:

As you go along, be sure to cut away an excess fabric from beneath the pieces.  If you don't cut that excess away, you'll be stitching through multiple layers.  That will make stitching a chore rather than fun.

Step 6:

When you have your block all pieced, flip it over to backside.

Can you see the method to my madness?  The black marker shows through to the back!  Top stitch on the OUTSIDE line, all the way around the block.

Step 7


Step 8:  Flip your block to the back again and run a hand basting stitch along the INSIDE line.

The inside line is the sewing line so the basting stitch gives you a good idea of how far you can go with beads and other embellishments.  When you finish stitching your block, just pull the basting stitch out.

The reason for the excess fabric is because the stitching and embellishments can distort the shape of the block.  With the extra all the way around, you can get a good straight square when you trim your piece for finishing.

And that's all there is to it!









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