Back To Blogging!

I'm back. I know, I know. How do I explain an almost three year absence from blogging? Not going to make excuses. It seems that blogging has somewhat fallen out of favor with some crafters. I say some because when I look at my list of blogs I'm following, I see many that have been blogging for a long time and still are keeping this mode of communication alive. So I'm jumping back in with a tiny splash.

I've updated the look of my blog (that took a while because I haven't done any layout fixes in a long time and Blogger has changed some of their methods), and am now ready to get back into blogging regularly. Oh and I know that my Cat of the Month already says "July" but it will be July soon, and I couldn't find my June cat. I'll get better.

Since I last posted, a lot has changed in my life. I'm now retired. Hopefully this time it will stick. We've come out of the pandemic, thank goodness. That was getting really old. We lost our little cat, Moxie and then adopted two more cats because we didn't like being cat-less.

Rigby and Casper

Rigby is three years old, and Casper is a year and a half. They're both very good cats with personalities like no other cat we've ever had. We adopted both of them from the Feral Cat Program of Georgia. 

One thing that hasn't changed for me is stitching and crafting. As some of you may know, I have a Flosstube channel. Now I know that not everyone likes Flosstube and that's fine with me. I get it. I still enjoy reading stitching blogs as well as watching Flosstube videos. Here's the link to my Flosstube channel, CraftyCat Stitcher:  https://www.youtube.com/@craftycatstitcher6658/featured .

So as far as the stitching goes, it's still my favorite hobby and I devote lots of time to it. I still consider myself the slowest stitcher in the world. Ha ha. But that doesn't put a damper on my enjoyment of cross stitch! I also continue to collect new charts because there are soooo many beautiful ones out there. Do you agree?

Sewing and crafting are also favorites of mine. I consider finishing a cross stitch project in a non-framed way pretty crafty. And I enjoy it. My latest sewing project is this lovely flag.

 

It took only an afternoon to make this, and what took the most time was sewing the buttons on. I was very happy that I had all of the materials in my craft room for this. Would you like to make one? You can find the instructions for this on the Instagram page @teamegner. It's in her DIY section on her profile page. The one shown in the instructions is quilted and is lovely. However, I'm not a quilter and just wanted this to be an easy project for me so I opted to skip that part. 

So this is my comeback to blogging. I hope you enjoyed what you saw here. My goal is to share all of my stitching with you, along with anything else crafty that I do. If you're reading this, please leave a comment so I'll know I'm reaching fellow stitchers. Please consider subscribing as well. I do appreciate it.

I'll see you soon. Happy stitching.

Cathy

Resolution Review Time & A Neater Craft Room

Back in January, I made some resolution-type goals to follow in the crafting area of my life.  The year isn't quite half over, but I think it's a good time to review those goals and see how successful I am.

The first one was to finish some WIPs, and I haven't done that as of yet.  I have worked on some of them though and am happy with that bit of success. 

I also planned to stitch a Christmas ornament every month, but thought it would be better to amend that to every other month.  Two have been stitched so far, and I have kitted up the third!  Yay!  Success!  Going along with this goal was to try out different ornament-finishing techniques.  I haven't gotten to this yet.

Another resolution that has not been successful as of yet is learning to do some different crochet stitches.  BUT I did find a cool Facebook page called "Starting Chain" which has videos of different stitches.  Nice clear instructions and totally doable.  Gives me some inspiration and confidence to succeed at this one!

And what about the Pinterest project goal?  Am I the queen of that or what?!  I have managed to create a Pinterest-inspired each month of this year so far!  Look for more of these posts.

I have also been extremely successful with the craft room cleaning resolution!  It is now completely organized.  I went through stuff and did a purge of unneeded supplies.  Yes, I still have the box of pine cones.  Don't laugh.  I labeled boxes and containers and put items in their rightful places.  Now I know where everything is.

The closet.  Now I know what's in there!

Why didn't I do this sooner?

More awesome organization in the armoire.

Makes me want to go in there and create something!

An old bookcase is perfect for display and organizing materials.

The spool holder.  I just got a second one installed today.

Added a little "pretty" in the way of a colorful window valance.

So I'd say that the resolution to get organized was a complete success.  Now I just have to keep it that way.  Or somewhat that way.   I am finding that I do find things quicker, which makes crafting more pleasant and fun.  If I only have an hour to work on something, I'd rather spend that hour working on something than searching for something I need. 

The spool holder:  If someone had asked me a couple of months ago how many spools of thread I had, I would have guessed 25 or so.  This spool holder holds 60 - count 'em 60! - spools of thread.  And I have overflow.  Hence the installation of a second one.  Thank goodness for Joann's coupons!

I knew I wanted a bright and colorful valance and went back to fabricguru.com and found this happy fabric.  It was quick to sew and I enlisted the help of Mark to install the curtain rod just today!  I think I'm done sewing window treatments for a while.

Thanks for putting up with this wordy and extremely picture-heavy post.  I hope that you liked the little virtual tour of my craft room.  Visit again soon for some more crafty fun.

Tiny Tassel Tutorial

When I was planning my February Pinterest-inspired project, one of my goals was to use things I already had in my craft room.  As it turned out, I had everything on hand except for a tassel.  The tassel was an important component for this project, as it's used for the closure.  I started thinking about it, and figured that I could probably make one myself.  So I did, using some weird silk floss I had.  And it turned out pretty well!  Then I made another sewing companion and created another cute tassel, this time using some cotton 6-strand floss.

These tassels can be used for closures, for zipper bag pulls or for an added touch when finishing a stitched Christmas ornament.  So why buy one when you can easily make one, right?

Here's all you have to do:

First, find some floss.  This is a great use for that miscellaneous floss that all of us stitchers seem to have.  What do you think of my Misc. Floss container?

Gather your supplies.  The size of the crochet hook doesn't matter because you're going to pull each stitch very tight as you chain.  Don't know how to make a crochet chain?  Click here for a video that shows you how.  Cut a piece of floss about 5 feet long to give you enough to work with.

I crocheted a cord about 6" long. 

IMPORTANT!  Don't cut anything yet!  Leave that tail as it is.  You'll need the tail to wrap and secure everything.

Look!  Now you can make a basic tassel. Yes, the above one is a bit wimpy looking, but you can use a lot more than 12 thread lengths in the tassel body. Also, try using different threads, like I did when I used the weird silk floss.  And how about using a combination of colors in a single tassel?  I made another one recently using Perle cotton.  Love it!

I hope these instructions will help you to create your own tassels that you can then use for a variety of projects!  Have fun!

Resolutions... Or Are They Merely Suggestions?

I'm not a big New Year's resolution-maker.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but a resolution is just a decision to do something, right?  If my memory serves me, then I've made resolutions in March and September.  And every other month of the year.  For some reason, though, the new year has me thinking up new ideas for stitching and crafting and they've kind of turned into Stitching and Crafting Resolutions.  Here are some of them:

**Finish some WIPs.  This is my #1 goal.  I only have about 5 WIPs.  Two of them are very small. 
                   Is this an attainable goal?  Yes!

**Stitch one Christmas ornament every month.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a dozen ornaments stitched by next Christmas?!  
                   Is this reasonably do-able?  I should probably change it to one every other month, and if I happen to stitch more, then Yay!

**Actually attempt some of the crafting ideas I've been saving on Pinterest.  I have a lot of craft-oriented pins -- what am I waiting for?  One per month?  
                   Is this a realistic goal?  Depends on the project.  

**Learn to crochet items that require something other than single crochet, and don't panic if the project is not rectangular or square.
                   Can it be done?  Of course.

**Attempt some new ornament finishing techniques.
                   Can I do this?  Yes.

**Organize the craft room.
                   Is this a realistic goal?  This one is an absolute necessity.  

That last one.  The craft room.  Lately I've misplaced several things, only to find them later in places that made no sense.  Sure, my craft room may look clean and relatively neat.  But stuffing items into boxes just to make the place look tidy is no solution.  I've got a great craft closet, but without some organization, I have no idea what's in those boxes until I open them and look.  So a lot of organizing  and some labeling is in order.  That will be a day of fun.  Ha ha.  I'm pretty sure that the end result will be worth it!

So what do you think of my list?  Am I going to stick to these resolutions?  I'm thinking of them more as suggestions for enriching my craftiness.   I like that -- "enriching my craftiness".  If I keep these in mind, I'll be likely to act on them and have fun in the process.  So let's see what happens in 2015.

Speaking of getting things done, here is my progress on the Summer Garden Pincushion.

That's right, ALL of the embroidery is finished!  I worked on it at Stitch Day last Saturday and finished it up yesterday.  Now to assemble the pincushion.  You can find all of the instructions for this project at the Fiberluscious blog. 

Now I'm off to get dinner into the crockpot and then enjoy the rest of this gray, typical January day working on some stitching. 

Grow Your Blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog, CraftyCat.  Last year I participated in the Grow Your Blog party hosted by Vicki at 2 Bags Full and had a wonderful time.  So I am happily joining in the fun again.

My favorite craft is cross stitch, but that's not all I feature on this blog.  You'll also find posts about jewelry making, beading, sewing, crocheting and other crafty endeavors.  On occasion, you'll see a recipe, photos of what's growing in my yard, and maybe photos of cats.  Yes, they do appear here from time to time.

I try to make this a fun place to visit, and don't take myself too seriously.  I'll happily admit to my shortcomings, like my limited crochet abilities.  But my goal each time I begin any kind of craft project is to create something beautiful.

During last year's Grow Your Blog event, I found so many great blogs.  Along with gaining inspiration, ideas, and helpful crafty information from them, I've just had fun reading many of these blogs.  It is my hope that you will have the same experience when you visit CraftyCat.

As part of the Grow Your Blog party, I am having two prize drawings! Yay!  To enter the drawings, all you have to do is make a comment on THIS post.  That's it.  And remember that if you win, I'll have to get in touch with you, so make sure that I can find an e-mail address for you.  The prizes are:

#1: A very cool beaded (by me!) needle case.  

#2: Better Homes & Gardens "Cross-Stitch Christmas"(128 page book)

Pretty awesome, right?  So just leave a comment.  I'll draw two names at noon (EST) on February 15th.  One will win the needle case and one will win the cross stitch book.  I'll post the names of the winners right here in a blog post in addition to sending them e-mails.  Good luck!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!  I hope you enjoyed your visit and will come back often!

What Brightens My Day

Don't you just love getting cool stuff in the mail?  My mailbox contained a few goodies this week.  I found the cutest little wooden sewing acorn on Ebay.  I'd seen these before and always liked them, plus I love acorns, so I clicked the "buy it now" button and it was mine!  Since Mark is crafty with the wood lathe, I'm going to challenge him to make one of these!  And in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy using this sweet little acorn.

During the Grow Your Blog party, many bloggers were holding giveaways in connection with the event.  In an unheard of turn of events, I WON!  You see, I usually don't win anything.  But this time I was lucky enough to win this cute little corsage from Christine at The Alchymyst's Study!

You know how I love receiving handmade things.  I'm a big fan of craftiness, whether it's mine or someone else's.  And it's so pretty and springy.  Thank you Christine!

Speaking of giveaways, Meggie from Cross Stitch Cottage is having a very cool giveaway to celebrate reaching the 100-follower mark on her blog.  Check it out -- I'm sure that you'll agree that it's a very generous prize!

I'm making very good progress on my second stitched quilt square, even with the return of the dreaded trigger thumb.  Ugh.  Off to the doctor I went for another shot in the thumb, and was informed that this would be the last one.  Next time it will be surgery.  Nooooo!  But so far it seems to be doing better and it doesn't hamper my stitching much.

I found this little freebie butterfly chart online.  Cute, right?  No color key, so I had to choose the colors myself, sticking to the colors on the chart.  Or thereabouts.  I have a little more border to go, and then I'll move on to square #3.

More good news for my stitch group, Sisters In Stitches!  We have our retreat all planned and the location reserved.  I'll make sure that I let you know how it goes and take plenty of photos.  Also, we have a new location for our monthly Stitch Days!  Things seem to be going well for the Sisters In Stitches!

Mark and I went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast today and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something I never thought I'd see again!  A blast from the past!  A treat from childhood!  Bonomo Turkish Taffy!  I didn't know they made this stuff anymore.  I remember getting it from the store, walking out, and then slamming it on the ground.  This would crack it up into a lot of little pieces, thus preventing us from biting right into the bar and possibly incurring tremendous dental bills.  I haven't tried it yet, and am hoping it's just as delicious as I remember.  Yes, I know that the picture is sideways.  It's the right way in my photo album, so I think it's a Blogger thing.

One more thing:  I want to say "Welcome" to all of my new followers.  It's always a pleasure to see my follower number tick up little by little.  And I love hearing comments from all of my followers.  OK, now I'm off to enjoy the coffee treat (complete with froth) that Mark has made for me.

All Kinds Of Craftiness, But No Stitching

This week stitching took a backseat to other crafty endeavors.  First of all, remember that lamp that Mark made for me?  A while back I was mildly complaining about how I couldn't find a cute lampshade for it.  I had bought one that was OK, but was definitely not in the cool category.  Then someone commented that I should decorate that boring shade.  Great idea.  So, some ribbon and double sided tape later, here it is!  Just a few lengths of different kinds of ribbon completely transformed it.  Well, pretty much.

I showed you Sheila's necklace in my last post, and finally got to see it in person yesterday.  How beautiful!  We bought the materials for our necklaces at the Intergalactic Bead Show, which we attended last month.  The instructions, however, had to be e-mailed to us by the designer, Tin Tin.  Kind of mysterious, right?  I took all of my beads and stuff over to Sheila's and we spent part of the day visiting and making lovely jewelry.  I actually completed mine in that time!  It's made of pearl beads in shades of green with some pink, clear seed beads and Swarovski crystals in clear and amethyst.  And it may look complicated to make, but it was so easy! 

I just had to show you this picture of Moxie who seems to have appropriated my new necklace for herself.  She thinks it's divine!  Note the paw, like she's Vanna White or someone.

I also finished something new:  designing a cross stitch pattern.  My friend Patty had her first grandchild and said that she wanted to stitch a birth sampler.  The nursery decor is done in Scotty dogs.  A very cute idea, but also impossible to find a sampler with the little doggies.  My solution was to design one for her.  I've finished it and will soon be sending it to her for her approval and any changes that she wants to make.  I will be posting a photo of it in a future blog, and hopefully after Patty stitches it!
 
Are you ready for some good Cosmo news?  No more insulin shots!  He had a fructosamine test yesterday and was in the normal range, so all we have to do is keep giving the kitties the low carb food.  He goes back for testing in 3 months.  That sounds pretty good to me!

So, all in all, not a bad week for craftiness and for Cosmo!

Christmas Finishes Before Thanksgiving!

I'm happy to say that I have a couple of finishes this week, just when we're getting into the hectic part of the holidays when I often feel like I'm a step behind.  My first finish is my fabric wreath!  When I saw this project online, I thought it would be kind of cute, but it turned out very pretty.  It will definitely brighten up a wall in our home over the Christmas holidays.  You can find the directions to make one of these wreaths here.  A couple of things though.  The straw wreaths were a little hard to find.  I finally ended up buying the last two 10" wreaths at Hobby Lobby.  It also calls for the use of a pinking rotary cutter, and as you may have read in my previous post, that just didn't work at all.  Never did find out what the deal with that was.  So if you already have pinking shears, you can save yourself some money and use those.  Just take a break while cutting out the fabric squares or your hand will fall off.  I didn't do the ribbon hanger because I'm going to hang the wreath on an existing nail and I didn't want that to show.  So I threaded a piece of fishing line into a large needle and poked it through the wreath in the back, knotted it into a loop, and now have a no-show hanger.  Oh, and use a thicker Phillips-head screwdriver to push in your fabric squares.

My second finish is my bellpull.  I stitched all three Christmas Box Ornaments by Country Garden Stitchery on one piece of fabric and found a nice bellpull hanger and there you have it.  It needs a good ironing around the edges, I know.  I was glad to be done with the metallic floss portion of the stitching, but it did make the finished product oh-so-pretty!

I wanted to show you another finish that I can't take credit for because it's Sheila's!  I believe this is from the 2010 issue of the JCS Ornament Issue.  I should know this, I realize.  But seeing as how this is her first ornament finish, I think it's pretty impressive.  So now when I want to do an ornament finish with the ribbon and beads, I'll know who to consult.  Very pretty, Sheila!

Also this week, I signed up for Daffycat's TUSAL.  That's "Totally Useless Stitch-a-long".  It just looked like fun.  You can find out more about it at Daffycat's blog on her November 15 post.  People probably think we stitchers are a little nuts for saving our floss ends, or orts, in pretty jars, but that's fine.  And there are currently 152 of us signed up for the TUSAL, so who's nuts?!

My serger continues to vex me.  I worked on it a little more this week and got it to where I thought the threading was absolutely correct.  Not so much.  It's still not making the chain when I turn the wheel.  Hmmmm.  I think I'm going to have to do what I've been avoiding all along -- unthread the thing completely and then start from scratch.  Someone online thought it would be a good idea to take your serger to a sewing machine repair place to have them thread it for you, but that would probably cost more than I paid for it to begin with!  But, just to let you know, the serger has not defeated me!  I am determined!

I just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  What a great time to think about what we have and how thankful we are for it.  Until next time.

A Crafty Gift For A Crafter

It doesn't matter what kinds of crafts we do, we crafters like to receive hand crafted gifts too.  Last Saturday at stitch day at The Stitch Store, one of our Chinese exchange gifts was a handmade tea cozy and bun warmer set.  It was beautifully made and the gift that got the most oohs and aahs.  I wish I had my camera with me.  Next time.  And I will add that ALL of the gifts were lovely and greatly appreciated!

Today Sheila and I went to J. Christopher's and enjoyed catching up over breakfast and yummy cappuccinos.  We hadn't gotten together in a while, and I knew that she was crocheting a scarf for me.  So today was the day I got my present!  It's beautiful and the colors are perfect!  I just love when someone crafts something for me.  Is it because I know the work that goes into it?  Maybe.  But it's especially nice to know that someone was making something with me in mind.  This pretty scarf kind of makes me want some cold weather so I can wear it!

We had a couple of hours to work on our fabric wreaths.  So far we love the result!  Just look!  We're both very happy with the fabric selection that we chose.  At the time, we weren't sure about what fabrics to select because we basically didn't know what we were doing, but I think we were successful.  The secret is to use a fatter screwdriver.  Looks pretty good so far, right?  I'm positive that it will look even better when it's finished and fluffed out.  Of course, I'll post a picture!  You know I will. 

I mentioned our stitch day on Saturday.  As usual, it was a good group -- lots of different personalities who seem to get along extremely well.  I'm quickly getting into the Christmas spirit and decided to start a second Christmasy project.  I started "Joy" by Little House Needleworks at our stitch day and got a lot done!  It's turning out a lot larger than your average ornament, so I'll probably finish it as a door hanger.  Maybe.  The other Christmas stitching project I'm working on is "Holiest of Nights" by Homespun Elegance.  Will I get them done by Christmas?  Possibly next Christmas, and that's fine with me.  It's just nice to work on something like these during the Christmas season.

It's always good to have a helper when you're doing a project, whether it be a craft project or just writing your blog.  Here's my latest "helper".  It's Ozzy, and he's being very productive sitting in our printer stand between Purdue Pete and Georgia Tech's Buzz.  Nice to know I have an assistant.

Hey, I'm up to 45 followers!!  It makes me happy to know that people are actually reading my blog.  I hope that you're all at least a little bit informed and entertained.  I also appreciate and enjoy the comments I'm getting too.  So thank you!

My goals for the upcoming week are:  Finishing the Christmas bellpull and starting a project which is going to be a gift so it's all hush-hush right now!

For The Cat Fashionista

I have a great appreciation for all kinds of things that people make by hand, whether it be cross-stitch, quilting, sewing, beading and jewelry making, woodworking or scrapbooking. The handmade items in this website, www.petoffice.co.jp/catprin/english/ , are no exception. I want that to be clear. But "The Tailor of a Cat Catprin" is saved in my bookmarked favorites mainly for one reason: my entertainment. The cats, or models, are adorable and look like they're patiently putting up with their owners' silliness because they are such good animal companions. But you know they're thinking, "OK, you got the picture. Now TAKE THIS OFF OF ME!"

I try to imagine what would happen if I were to try to put, say, the Anne of Green Gables headpiece on Moxie, or the Hat of Leopard on Cosmo. If I was even successful at putting these on their squirming and twisting heads, they'd spend the rest of the day trying to slap, bite or chew them off. So no, I won't be sending any yen to Japan.

But you have to appreciate the workmanship and the entrepreneurship here! I hope that they're successful in their venture and that there are felines all over Japan sporting Young Lady Blouses and Hats of Rabbits. And what's more, there is apparently some luck to be gained if you dress your cat up in one of these and then take his picture. Just something you might want to think about.

This is the only time I've ever put any kind of clothing on any of my cats. I think.