Gifties & Goodies

These are the goodies that my brother-in-law's girlfriend Catherine gave me last week. This woman is one of the most generous persons I've ever known. She is really One Of Us - who likes to craft and sew and stitch and paint and collect and buy and collect and buy. You understand. But now Catherine is moving on to different creative interests and has passed these goodies on to me. And many of them will be in the giveaway(s) I'll be announcing over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Anyway, she urged me to keep, share or sell as I saw fit, so I'll be doing all three! LOL. So, here we go....

Yards and yards of Christmas cottons

Lots of lovely quilting cottons, including pieces matched for a quilt she never did. These cottons are probably from the last 10-15 years.

Transportation-themed cottons in large cuts. I'm going to hang on to some of these for quilts or jammies for the grandkids.

Lots of vintage (1940's-1970's) and some '80's fabrics. Most of these are just pieces, as you see. But these will be one of the lots in the giveaway. Also notice that cute little milk glass toothpick holder!

These are some GORGEOUS cross stitch books.

This pictures shows a hodgepodge of things; another book, vintage bobbins (anyone need some?), interesting couchable threads, hankies, tapes & braids and rick rack. And some twin needles (which I use when I do heirloom sewing, so those were exciting to see!)

This vintage set of Singer books made me swoon! I love the illustrations, and will probably scan those in (and share) at some point.

Lots of sane quilting articles, templates, patterns. Plus 4 really cool vintage airplane panels. The pincushion is one that Catherine made, and I've added it to my growing display of pincushions from friends. Everything here will be in the giveaway EXCEPT that pincushion!

Final picture .... more mixed goods. Laces (which I haven't even gone through yet), a Vogart transfer (incomplete, but does have a lovely bird in it), Aida cloth assortment, three wooden large crochet hooks (one is walnut and once is cedar; don't know the third) and some vintage spool cards that will be given away in the ephemera-themed prize package....

Now, it's mid-afternoon and I'm off to sew for a few hours before DH gets home from work and his weekly banjo lesson (don't ask). A nice stew is simmering on the stove, and if/when I finish my projects for this afternoon, I'll begin photographing my estate sale finds from this last weekend.....

Hugs,

Whoooooo's on First?

I am so in love with these little owls!!! As promised, I snapped a picture of all 8 of these little guys lined up, ready to make their debut at the boutique on December 5 (although one of the black & white ones is already sold!) (it was a custom order).


I haven't stitched or sewed for two days, and I'm going through withdrawals! On Friday, I left work at noon and spent the rest of the afternoon running errands. Then DS (Shane) & DDIL (Heather) brought my sweet granddaughter London over, and Bruce and I tended her all evening while Shane and Heather went to the opening of Shane's show at a local art gallery. London is 2 1/2 months old now, and so alert. She LOVES looking at new things, and when she is happy she makes this gurgly sound and says "goooo". Cracks me up. And all the recent pictures I've taken of her are on my new phone, and I haven't learned yet how to download them to my computer.....

Then today, Bruce & I cleaned house, did the grocery shopping, and went Christmas shopping (for the grandkids). I wanted to get that done this weekend before the crowds REALLY hit after Thanksgiving. Plus one daughter and SIL live out of state, so that package needs to get mailed this week (so I can avoid post office crowds later). It was after six when we got done, so we stopped and grabbed a bite to eat before heading home.

One of my "errands" on Friday was an estate sale. I even went back again today (second and last day of sale) for the "half price" items. I got lots of wonderful linens, aprons, hankies, vintage Christmas ornaments, a couple limited edition bird plates, and lots more things. Before I photograph and show these things, I need to photograph and show all the goodies that my Good Samaritan friend Cathy D gave me (which I told you about in a recent post). I will do that over the next day or two...... as soon as I can clear a place to photograph this stuff.
I'm being overrun!!!

And after my dear friend Freda said I should "give up the day job and just buy and sell", I gave that a lot of thought. And then I dreamed about it. Although I'm not going to quit my job (after all, it's only part-time and I LOVE WHEELER FARM!!), I AM going to start selling.

In fact, as I sort all these items to photograph and show you on the blog, I'll also sort out and snap pictures of the giveaway items. As I said, the giveaway items will be listed over the Thanksgiving weekend.

But the other items - well, much of it will be for sale and will go into my Etsy or Artfire shops in the near future. Generally, I'm going to try to use the Crazy By Design for my personal sewing/stitching creations, and "A Touch of Vintage" for the sale of vintage "supplies" (laces, etc.) and vintage goods (linens, Christmas decorations, etc.). My only limiting factor is that my Etsy shop is already stuck with the name "Catkiz" (CAThy KIZerian), which I stupidly named it when I set it up a couple years ago.... Oh well.

So, stay tuned!!

Check out this Blog & Giveaway

No, I'm not ready with my giveaway yet, LOL. But tonight, as I was reading blogs (instead of stitching), I happened upon this blog and giveaway .....

Cathy at MudBay Musings is celebrating her 100th post with a giveaway.

This is only one of four pictures of treasures that she has crafted and collected to give away.

But the best part, truly, is her blog. She is an ARTIST. Besides being a talented collage artist (who works with fabric in addition to paper), she's recently made some gorgeous felted purses. Her work is not crazy quilting, but the feel of it is very artsy and ... well, I'm not good at describing it. You'll just have to go see it. For me, it's the perfect blog to add to my Reader, because I feel it will broaden my perspectives, teach me to appreciate other methods and styles, and even influence my own art (influencing in style is good, copying is bad).

Plus, she's got lots of great vintage images to share, and has even started a new, separate blog just for images.

Back to work for me.... The owls are done and tomorrow (after a minor clean-up) I move on to.... more aprons? Lace and button cuffs? Christmas ornaments? I don't know.....

Owls and Crochet and Giveaway Thoughts....

I've been stitching my brains out (yep, I had some brains once, LOL)... I saw the cutest pattern for stitch-n-stuff owls in Handmade magazine (an Australian publication). The issue I have, which I just bought a couple months ago, is Volume 25, No. 8. Don't know what year, but I found it interesting that on their website the "current Issue on sale now" is Volume 27 No. 6. Now, that's quite a lag, LOL!! It's understandable, of course, with it being Australian, but I sure wish those Aussies put dates on their magazines! (and this is probably exactly why they DON'T!!).

Anway, here are a couple of the owls, with several of their feathered friends in progress.

Since I've taken this picture, they're all stuffed and all I need to do is sew up their little bottoms. I love owls. When I was a teenager, I collected anything OWL. I even had a cat that I named Oliver Wendell Livingston (OWL). We called him Ollie. And of course, Owl (or should I say "WOL") is one of my favorite Winnie the Pooh characters. But I digress..... I'll post another picture of the whole gang when they're done. They're for the Christmas boutique, of course....

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but on one of my recent thrifting forays, I scored a major treasure - loads of crocheted motifs and edgings. Per the tags, they'd just been put out the day before I got there. Let me show you some of these.

There are sixteen of those fans and six of the purple and yellow floral motif strands. I'm pretty sure that they were intended for pillowcase edgings (at least some of the following were). I don't know if they're vintage or modern, but they're pristine. And would've looked better if I'd bothered to iron them first, LOL.

Six of these lovely pink & green pieces..... look at the detail!

Six of these yellow (gold) and white pillowcase edgings...

Two of these gorgeous orange and white pillowcase edgings...

And last but not least, these miscellaneous pieces and edgings. There are actually two of the pink edgings, although I only photographed one.

I think I'm going to sell half of them and keep the other half to use as trims in projects. The fan motifs are especially well-suited to crazy quilting!

Some of you readers who have been around awhile might remember that a few months ago I got an amazing windfall gift from a very generous stranger named Catherine. She has actually moved here to Utah and is my brother-in-law Doug's girlfriend. Last weekend I got to meet her for the first time when she and Doug came over to visit. Catherine also brought me another load of goodies, which includes fabrics (including vintage fabrics from the sixties), trims and laces (mostly vintage), books (including some vintage treasures!) and magazine articles and other supplies. She encouraged me to pass on whatever I don't need or want myself. And that brings me to my next topic.

It's about time for a Giveaway again. When I'm done sorting, I'm going to pull goodies for four prizes - something for everyone. There will be a prize geared for crazy quilters, one geared for sane quilters, one geared for fabriholics, and another for lace and trim lovers. Or something like that. Honestly, I haven't quite worked out the details, LOL, because some of those crocheted trims will be in the giveaway, too. Maybe I'll have to do five prizes! I'm planning that you will look at the prizes and tell me which one you want to be entered for, and I'll do separate drawings. But this is just a heads-up, because it will be after Thanksgiving, OK?? Too much on my plate for the next couple weeks. Besides, I still have sorting to do!

That's it for now. I've got so much more to post, but DH and Boomer (my chatty cat who is meowing at my feet) tell me it's time for bed. Talk to you soon!

Hugs,

Beautiful Rose Giveaway

It's not often that I get excited about a giveaway, or the discovery of a new blog, but it happened just this morning. And I found it mentioned on another blog, so I feel I should mention it to you so you can go check it out.

Sandi at Wayside Treasures is having a giveaway. Look at this lovely vintage ribbon rose pin!!

I love her style, and am off to go visit her Etsy shop!!!

Wheeler Farm

Wheeler Farm (a working historical farm where I work as bookkeeper) has been nominated by Hampton Hotels as a "Save a Landmark" site.

If we are chosen, we stand to receive funding for a refurbishment project. This could mean tens of thousands of dollars towards the refurbishment of the historic farm house.

Please visit this site:

http://www.hamptonlandmarks.com

and click to vote for Wheeler Farm here in Utah.

Thanks so much!!

Bad, Bad Girl!!

Bad Girl..... that would be me. I got lazy this week. More accurately, I just burned out on denim-bibbed aprons, LOL. I DID finish one more (if you're counting, this would have been Wednesday's apron, I think).....

This is a little girl's apron. The colors in the photo look so different, but in reality they match very nicely. I thought I'd include some of the inside detailing. Yes, I did a French Seam where the two fabrics joined at the skirt bottom... And I added some lace - rather vintage-y (from the seventies)...

I spent more time than I had planned hangin' out with sick DH this week, but it's all good. He's going back to work tomorrow. :-) We did go to a couple thrift stores this week; one was a disappointment, the other netted me some Good Stuff, like fabric, crepe paper (for paper doll dresses), a small stand that I can use to elevate some stuff on my boutique table, and some books.

And I've never shown you this GREAT purse I got in October.

I can't believe this was just sitting there in one of the bins..... it had been there two weeks when I found it. I snatched it up real quick, let me tell you. It's in pristine condition. Look at that frame!!! I doubt it's more than 25-30 years old (does anyone know how to tell?). Guess what I paid for it????

Yeppers.... $2.99. I should've shown something for size reference, but I can tell you that the frame measures 14" across, and the length from top of frame (not clasp) to the bottom of the purse is 12". That's a big purse. Don't know what I'll do with it yet.

This is a rather hodgepodge post, if you haven't noticed.

At Crazy Quilting International, I'm the one who handles the monthly Challenge. This month, we're doing Silk Burning as a sort of afterthought, but the main topic is Organizing Your Stash. We've set up a database and a picture album so that members can have a place to both Show and Tell their storage solutions for fabrics, beads, laces, trims, silk ribbon, buttons, art suppplies, etc. etc. I plan to devote a separate post to my pictures. Tonight I uploaded 20 pictures to the CQI photo album, and I realized I haven't even taken pictures of my storage for silk ribbons, dyeing supplies, silkie prints & supplies and a couple other things. Hmmmm... maybe I'll have to do that in two blog postings.....

I've also been trying to update the graphics on my business card, labels, tags & signage for the boutique. Spending way too much time playing around with my Print Shop program....

And finally, I've actually been stitching yesterday and today on a CQ block for our Flower Fairies Round Robin. I should have progress - well, the whole 6" block, that is - to show in a couple days. Stay tuned.

Hugs,