In The Confetti Zone

Well, did I tell you I was back into stitching big time?  I actually have a finish!  I spent part of yesterday evening and this afternoon completing "Love", and most of that completion involved the stitching of the dreaded confetti stitches.  Admittedly, those little confetti stitches are very cute on the design, but it's just the positioning of them that gets to us stitchers.  After doing a few, I got into the zone and I was enjoying it a little!  I "love" this finish!

I'm thinking of making it into a small pillow and displaying it at Valentine's Day.

In my last post, I talked about meeting up with my fellow Sisters In Stitches for a very pleasant Stitch Day.  I forgot to show you what Pat, a member of our group, gave to each of us.  We all received a beautiful handmade scissor fob.  Each one was different.  Mine has a little cat charm on the end because, as you know, three cats live in our house. 

Isn't it pretty?  I also like the way she packaged them for us, in a little bag with our names on a created-for-us tag.  Makes you feel special when you get a gift like this, doesn't it? 

I'm also embarking on something in the stitch world that I've never done before - a mystery sampler.  I just ordered Little House Needleworks' "Song Of The Seasons Sampler".  My biggest fear about doing these is that I won't like the finished product, but I'm a big fan of LHN so it will most likely be lovely.  So I'm taking the plunge.  I ordered it from Stitch And Frog, which is a great place to order stitchy stuff from. 

Thank you for all of your kind comments on my blog.  I appreciate every one of them.  And welcome to my new followers!

Jump Start

So there I was all ready to be a prolific blogger, stitcher and crafter.  Then it hit me -- the Ugly Monster Virus.  No ordinary cold, it slammed me flat on my back like nothing I'd experienced in a long, long time.  The only thing I could do for the first couple of days was watch TV, and the more mindless the better.  Monster Virus actually let me read by the third day, but stitching was out of the question due to my achy and stuffy head. 

Luckily I was better by the time we were supposed to leave for our beach vacation.  Ahhhh, what a good thing some ocean air is when you're recovering from the crud.  It took care of that cough quickly and I was able to enjoy some lovely time with my family at the beach.

But still no stitching until yesterday when Sisters In Stitches gathered for our monthly stitchfest and gabfest.  Wow, that quickly cured my stitching slump caused by being sick and then beach-brain.  What a great jump start back into stitching!  Because of the beach-brain, though, I forgot my camera, so photos will have to wait for next time.

I did get quite a bit done on "Love" by New York Dreamer.  And once again I'm stitching on black fabric, which I like a lot because of the color contrast on it.  Pretty pattern, isn't it?

Thank you to my followers for not abandoning me during my stitching and blogging slump!  I appreciate your loyalty!

The Case Of The Missing Blogger

That would be me, star of this Nancy Drew-sounding blog post.  Where have I been?  Here!  Just doing what I always do.  Except for the fact that I haven't been doing much in the way of stitching and crafting lately.  I have been organizing the craft room though.  It's on ongoing project and I'm very happy with the results.  I'll post pictures of the awesome neatness of it all when I'm done.

Mark and I did go away for Mother's Day last weekend.  We went to the Brasstown Valley Resort in Young Harris, GA for brunch and then stayed there on Sunday night.  What a nice place, all nestled in the mountains.  We also went to the top of Brasstown Bald, which, (depending on who you talk to) is the highest mountain in Georgia.  Then a little visit to the Crane Creek Vineyard was in order.  All in all, a pleasant little trip.

Even though I haven't devoted much time to stitching, I still accomplished a little.  Or maybe a lot, because it's a finish!

Let's celebrate!  "Red, White and Bloom" is finished!  Now, to frame it or make it into a little pillow?  What do you think?

The funny thing is that I only have one project going now.  Time for a new start or two, right?

It's the end of the school year and many parents are contemplating what to get for their kids' teachers.  Sheila used her powers of craftiness to create these beautiful necklaces.

Wow, what teacher wouldn't be delighted to receive one of these? 

So that's it for now.  Coming up in future blog posts, and staying with the Nancy Drew theme:  The Craft Room Caper and The Case Of The Sneaky Stitch Starter.  OK, those probably won't be the titles of my posts, but they give you the idea of what's to come here at CraftyCat.

Artsy Fun On A Friday Night

Sheila's friend Nancy was in town last week, and we thought it would be fun to get together and do something.  We all have an interest in artsy things, with both Sheila and Nancy being pretty talented at drawing.  So it was decided that we should visit Just For Giggles, located in Milton, GA.  You might have a place like this around you.  You might remember that Sheila and I painted flags there last year. 

Friday night was a choose your own painting night, so we got to pick out whatever we wanted.  The instructor started out by drawing a light outline of key parts of the painting on our canvases and then instructed us on the technique and colors to use.  She would then walk around and let you know how you were doing and give suggestions.  Here's the result:

I'm very happy with the way my golden trees turned out, and Sheila's and Nancy's florals are so pretty!  The place was packed and there was even a group of guys there for a bachelor party!  Who knew?  They were all doing a painting of R2D2 and all I could think of was whether the bride of the groom to be was going to let him hang that in a prominent place in their home.  Pretty funny.

No flower photos this time.  I'm not going outside any time soon.  Spring schming.  It's been cold and rainy here for the better part of the week, with today being absolutely ugly.  Several people have kindly reminded me of the drought we had a couple of years ago.  I know, I know.  Just give me a couple of sunny days in the 80's once in a while and I'll be happy. 

The first thing that Mark told me as I was waking up this morning was "It's 45 degrees and raining."  And I said, "Do you realize how close that is to snow?".  Come on, May, don't disappoint me.  You're my favorite month of the year!  Maybe some pretty flowery photos later this week?  I'm crossing my fingers.  Until next time.

Crafty Birthday To Me

Yes, the big day was yesterday and another year was bestowed on me.  Yippee!  I'm actually not too phased by the age number, but I'm sure that there will be a year when it will bother me greatly.  Until then, no big deal.

I'm lucky to be a member of a very small group on Facebook which celebrates birthdays with good wishes and gifts of floss.  In the age of e-cards and virtual birthday wishes, it's something special to get an actual card in the mail.  And even more fun when you find a skein of floss hiding in that card.  Here's what arrived in my mailbox throughout the month.

The perfect gift for a stitcher!

 I intended to stitch for a good part of the day, but got off track with a doctor appointment, errands, laundry, etc.  I did spend some time on my latest pendant and that is still a work in progress.

I did receive a wonderful gift from Stephanie, Matt's girlfriend.  Stephanie visited us before Christmas and I showed her how to crochet.  Now those of you who know me or have read my blog know that my crochet expertise is limited to single crochet and anything in the shape of a square or rectangle.  I recently learned how to crochet a cute little heart, but that was a project I did in February, so I was not able to impress Stephanie with this skill during her crochet lesson.  So I taught her the single crochet and I'm pleased to say that she ran with it.  So much so that she has learned new stitches and has far surpassed my crochet abilities!  And the result is this:

That's it for this post.  Blogger is acting really weird -- photos jumping all over the place and it's impossible to highlight words for a link.  So I'm leaving it at this and hopefully next time it'll be all back to normal.

I Really Do Stitch

I just haven't talked about stitching in a while.  And I should because I'm making great progress on "Red White and Bloom".  I'm running dangerously low on Weeks Dye Works "Moss", but I think I'll have just enough to complete the green sections.  I even counted how many Moss stitches I have left to estimate if I'd have enough.  Have you ever done that?  Or am I the only one?  Is that weird?

This is just a very happy and vibrant design and we're getting into the extra patriotic time of year.  It'll be nice to have this completed.

I've also been working on Prairie Schooler's "Tortoise And The Hare".  What a cute chart.  I love the colors -- greens, browns and a little pink. 

Well you don't see any pink yet, but trust me, it will get there. I'm stitching this one on 18 count over 1. 

So there you have it.  Proof that I actually spend some time with the fabric, thread and needle. 

Today is probably one of the first really beautiful days of this spring, pollen or no pollen.  Everything is starting to green up and there is a lot of color blooming.  In our back yard we have a Yorkshire Rose Cherry tree, which is at the peak of blooming right now.  Thank you to Linda at Cross'N My Stitches for helping me to identify this lovely tree.

Phlox is in full bloom.

Yorkshire Rose Cherry Tree

Enjoy your spring day and check back here often.  There will be a another giveaway coming up soon!   And welcome new followers!

Good News For The Sisters

Some of you are familiar with the story of my stitch group, Sisters In Stitches.  We all love to stitch, we get along extremely well, we love to talk and share stories.  But geographically, we're all over the map -- 82 miles at the farthest.  And in Atlanta traffic, that can mean some serious time on the road.  So our search for a relatively centralized location for our stitch days began, and finally we have found a place! Yay!  Renee found out that Cherokee County has some pretty nice meeting rooms that we can reserve for a day of stitching for a nominal price.  We had our first stitch day there on Saturday and we were all pleased.  And now we're booked through the rest of 2013.  Of course, I forgot my camera last Saturday, but will remember it next month for some stitch day photos.  I'd say that is a great find for the Sisters In Stitches!

In other crafty news, Sheila and I got together last week to once again to work with Ice Resin.   I posted about it the last time we worked with this product.  It's not a difficult project, but a little bit of a production because you have to make at least an ounce of it for it to mix well.  Believe me, a little of this stuff goes a long way, and you can't save it mixed for next time.  So it's nice to have a lot of jewelry pieces to pour into when you mix up a batch.  Here's what I came up with.

And once again, I am camera challenged, because I didn't get Sheila's creations in the photo.  My pendants turned out pretty well, and I'd like to make some more of these using different materials.  YouTube is a great source of ideas for these.  This is a fun, easy and not very expensive project for all of you who like to create jewelry!