Kitty Cat Blanket

Kitty Cat Blanket

I was contacted by a friend who volunteers at a local cat rescue and asked if I would make a blanket they could raffle off to make money for the rescue.  Of course, I said yes.

    My friend loves this kitten design, so, I decided to make this design the center of the blanket.  The design was originally just a tiny outline about 2" tall.  The blanket required something a bit more massive.  When I made the design 15" tall, it just didn't look right without some detailed features.  After looking at many cat pictures, trying to find the same or similar pose, a few details were added.  Concerned that the design would be too heavy if I made it a solid color, I opted for the more zig-zag look for the fur. 

    After the kitten was embroidered, I finished the blanket, ruffles and all.  Rather than the usual quilting, the butterflies were going to hold the blanket together.

The original design had the kitten looking and pawing at a butterfly.  I wanted a lot of butterflies.  Back to looking at pictures.  This time it was butterflies, and a Monarch was chosen.  I digitized the butterfly and stitched it in several different colors and many angles.

At this point, the whole design seemed to be missing something which turned out to be flowers.  After searching through many of my store bought designs, I found the perfect flower design.  To be specific, sun flowers.  Now our kitty is sitting in a field of bright yellow sun flowers, playing with multi-colored butterflies.  Life is good.

I liked the design, but felt I could, and should, do better.  After all the rescue organization needs something eye catching and special to get those big bucks flowing in.  The 3D butterflies had been on my mind for awhile but I hadn't been able to find the perfect project for them.  Ah, this is the project.  Several butterflies were made in different colors and fabrics.  I made them like you would make a patch but before I tore them off of the stabilizer, I embroidered the body between the wings and then pulled off the stabilizer -- carefully.  To adhere them to the blanket, I measured the body of the butterfly and created a straight stitch a little shorter than the body.  Then I turned the straight stitch into a small zig-zag.  I would go to the placement site on the blanket, stitch the straight stitch, place the butterfly on top of the straight stitch and stitch the zig-zag.

Looking good.

Still something missing.  I can do better than this.

Rhinestones!

The rhinestones seemed to do the trick

I had changed the bobbin thread to various colors when doing the flowers and butterflies.  When you look at the back of the blanket, albeit no kitty, the design is still pretty.

As my little Cajun mama used to say:  "Fini."  This blanket was given to the cat rescue organization.  I'm not sure if they've raffled it off yet or, if they have, how much they made.  I certainly hope this unique, OOAK, blanket brings them some well deserved funding.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 5, No. 53

 

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 53 – November 10, 2013

 

Bon Jour!  Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.imprintit.biz/cgi-bin/cobrand/site.w?location=olc/catalog-home.w&top=catalog&frasmes=no&target=main&sponsor=000699

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

Before we go any further, let us bow our heads and say a prayer for the people of the Philippine Islands.  The photos that I’ve seen are horrendous.  They remind me of Ivan and Katrina, only worse.

This past week was certainly a creative week at Cajun Stitchery.  I have a lace mask design that the girls absolutely love.  We had a survey on their likes and dislikes of the mask awhile back and since that time, I’ve tweaked the design as they suggested.  These girls are professional mask wearers.  As a business owner, the mask is pretty high in the stitch count and hence pretty pricey for a Mardi Gras mask.  However, it is gorgeous.  I looked only at Etsy and various searches to see what other embroiders were charging for the mask and if I decide to make and sell these masks, I’ll have to stay in the ball park of others who are selling this mask.  The ball park it turns out is $25.00.  Of course, the lace mask that I make has been tweaked and is a bit larger than the original design.

Personally, I do not like to wear masks.  They just are not comfortable to me.  The worst, of course, are the hard masks.  As we get older, glasses become an issue with masks.  We may be older but we still enjoy the masquerade.  I am not aware of a mask created for the visually impaired glass wearers.  I determined to create “the” mask.  In the process of doing so I was discussing this issue with the owner of our local Mardi Gras store.  She said that her krewe was having the same problem and if I do create Mardi Gras masks for glasses, she wants to see them and put them in her shop.

My first thought was that I need a really good basic mask design.  I took the lace mask design and used it more or less as an outline for an appliqué design.  It took a few tries and tweaks.  What I discovered was most masks have one tiny hole on either side for the ribbon or elastic that goes around the head.  I tried making the hole large enough for the arm of the glasses to go through.  The problem with that idea is that when you put the glasses with the mask on your face, the mask wiggles and just doesn’t fit snug.  I ended up with the idea of 2 holes on each side of the mask.  Each arm of the glasses goes in one hole and out the second hold; it weaves.  The second hole seems to stabilize the mask on the glasses.  The holes are created with the boring needle which creates an eyelet.

Something else that was an issue was keeping the mask sturdy enough.  The girls all mentioned that the lace mask was a bit flimsy.  From the beginning, rather than embroidering the lace mask as a freestanding lace mask, I used organza.  The sturdiness of the lace mask was rectified by using 4 layers of organza.  The sturdiness of the mask for glasses is fixed with the use of heavy stabilizer.

After several searches on Pinterest, Google, Bing, etc., I decided to make a butterfly mask.  There are some gorgeous masks out there.  My friend at the local Mardi Gras store absolutely loved the first butterfly mask and I have hopes of getting them in her shop.  Sure hope someone buys them.  By creating the mask as an appliqué, I am able to keep the stitch count down somewhat.  The butterfly mask should sell for about $15, depending on the detail work in the mask.  The first butterfly mask was made using purple velvet and purple thread.  Later butterfly masks incorporated metallic thread and other types of fabric.  Even though the mask is created to be used with glasses, they can also be used with ribbon or elastic connected in the holes.

Well, that’s as far as I’ve gotten on the masks.  I’d like to create several more designs, including a jester mask and fleur de lis mask.

Sometime around mid-week the glass panel in one of our bi-fold doors shattered.  George was a bit upset about it but I immediately decided that the broken bi-fold doors could be used in the Studio for display purposes.  George removed all of the glass in the one bi-fold door and painted it white.  It is perfect and now resides in the front room of the studio.  Some of our tee shirts are hanging on it.

Stores are all decorated for Christmas now.  Even the radio has begun playing non-stop Christmas music.  It is a bit early in my opinion but that’s what they are doing.  A friend of mine on Facebook owns a second hand store in Mobile and was decorating her store and taking photos.  I fell in love with some of her shabby chic Christmas designs and decided that I want to decorate the studio for Christmas and put out some of our stock in the front room.  The bi-fold door is already in there.  Our Christmas decorations need to come down from the attic and we need to separate out the decorations that we use at home and I’ll take the leftover decorations for the Studio.

One idea that I saw was “Believe.”  You’ve seen the signs and stuff with “Believe” on them.  I want to do shams with a single letter for the wall in the front room, spelling out “Believe.”  In my mind, it is beautiful.  I just need to figure out how to hang them.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Tomorrow Cajun Stitchery will be closed in honor of Veteran’s Day.  In fact, I’ll be in the beach parade all dressed in red, white and blue.

 

 

HAVE A NICE WEEK

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Thank you Bob for the following:

Late one night, a burglar broke into a house he thought was empty. He tiptoed through the living room but suddenly he froze in his tracks when he heard a loud voice say: "Jesus is watching you!" Silence returned to the house, so the burglar crept forward again. "Jesus is watching you," the voice boomed again. The burglar stopped dead again. He was frightened. Frantically, he looked all around. In a dark corner, he spotted a bird cage and in the cage was a parrot. He asked the parrot: "Was that you who said Jesus is watching me?" "Yes", said the parrot. The burglar breathed a sigh of relief, and asked the parrot: "What’s your name?" "Clarence," said the bird. "That’s a dumb name for a parrot," sneered the burglar. "What idiot named you Clarence?" The parrot said, "The same idiot who named the Rottweiller Jesus."

A blonde, wanting to earn some money, decided to hire herself out as a handyman-type and started canvassing a wealthy neighborhood. She went to the front door of the first house and asked the owner if he had any jobs for her to do. "Well, you can paint my porch. How much will you charge?" The blonde said "How about 50 dollars?" The man agreed and told her that the paint and other materials that she might need were in the garage. The mans wife, inside the house, heard the conversation and said to her husband, "Does she realize that the porch goes all the way around the house?" The man replied, "She should, she was standing on it." A short time later, the blonde came to the door to collect her money. "You're finished already?" he asked. "Yes," the blonde answered, "and I had paint left over, so I gave it two coats." Impressed, the man reached in his pocket for the $50."And by the way," the blonde added, "it's not a Porch, it’s a Ferrari."

One morning this blonde calls her friend and says, "Would you mind coming over and helping me out with this killer jigsaw puzzle I bought - I can't figure out how to get started." Her friend asks, "What's the puzzle of?" "From the picture on the box, I'd guess it's a tiger," replied the blonde. The friend obliges, and when he arrives the blonde greets him at the front door and then shows him the puzzle spread out all over the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then studies the box. Then, he turns to her and says, "I’m afraid that no matter what I do, I'm not going to be able to show you how to assemble these to look like the picture of the tiger on the box." "Why not?" asks the disappointed blonde." Because, you didn't buy a jigsaw puzzle... what you have here is a box of Frosted Flakes."

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com

P.S.  You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

Cajun Corner - Vol. 5, No. 18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cajun Corner – Vol. 5, No. 18 – May 12, 2013

 

Bon Jour!  Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.imprintit.biz/cgi-bin/cobrand/site.w?location=olc/catalog-home.w&top=catalog&frasmes=no&target=main&sponsor=000699

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

It has been nice this week walking next door to work.  Working in a large room with good lighting and lots of space to spread out is a dream come true.  The creative juices are flowing.  There is a separate room for cutting, sewing, and storage.  George put peg boards up for my thread.  The problem is that it is hard leaving and coming home.

Last week we took the dogs for their annual check-up, shots, license, etc.  They are both healthy.  Sam is keeping Evie moving.  She is in real good shape for a 13 year old Labrador retriever.  The vet, Dr. Armani, was surprised at Evie’s good heath.  He was more surprised at the size of Sam.  The last time Sam was at the vet’s he was 40 pounds.  He weighed in at a whopping 80 pounds last week.  And, he is NOT overweight.

Date night turned out to be Friday night.  We got some Chinese take-out and a new movie and enjoyed the evening at the Cajun Stitchery house.  The movie was the life story of Coco Chanel and starred Shirley McClain.  I’ve always loved the rags to riches story of Coco Chanel.  She was a very tenacious woman.  I also like the clean lines of her designs, her little black dress, and what she did with jersey.

While browsing through some designs, I saw some that I’ve never stitched and just wanted to stitch the designs.  They were horses and created in black work.  Several people commented on Facebook about how pretty the designs were.  I think I’m going to make placemats out of them.  In the meantime, I made some coasters out of one of the designs.  While working on the coasters, I made some butterfly coasters. 

Not being able to upload my photos onto Etsy was very frustrating until I had the bright idea of trying to do it on Google Chrome.  The uploading worked perfectly using Google Chrome.  So, I decided to list the 2 new handkerchiefs.  I got as far as the pictures and realized that I’ve already sold those hankies.  I had nothing to list.  Now I plan on listing the horse and butterfly coasters.  I need to make more things to list in the Etsy store because we have had several sales lately.  It never ceases to surprise me what people will buy.  The “You Have A Booger” hankies still seems to be a hot item.

George has been working on the lawn and garden and we are planning several fun things for the yard.

Ever have a craving for a special food?  George did.  He was craving boiled shrimp.  Yesterday he went to Joe Patti’s and bought 10 pounds of Gulf shrimp.  Wow!  That’s how much I buy when we have guests over.  The shrimp were boiled and we ate our fill, and peeled the rest.  We froze some and have some left over in the frig for snacking. 

Have a wonderful week.

If you are not a subscriber and would like to receive Cajun Corner weekly, please email cajunstitchery@yahoo.com and let me know to put you on our email list. 

No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.

Found at http://www.craftbits.com/project/bath-tub-scrubber

You’ll need:  1 yard nylon tulle and strong thread

These Bath tub scrubs are much like a body puff except these are for scrubbing the bath tub clean.

Using your tulle lay it out flat and turn over a hem of 5 inches, keep folding it over in 5 inch sections till it is completely folded into a long 5 inch wide pile of tulle.

Pin it to secure and using a strong thread sew the middle of the length together tightly.

Cut the edges of the length to remove and folds and using a running/gathering stitch sew from one end to the other.

Draw up the tulle into a puff that fits into your hand and secure with stitches. Pull the puff around to open up the layers and to create a nice circular puff. Trim it into a ball with some sharp scissors.

Use this puff for cleaning and scrubbing your bath.

Peggy Henshall

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com

P.S.  You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

Cajun Corner Vol. 2, No. 26

Cajun Corner – Vol. 2, No. 26 – July 11, 2010

Bon Jour! Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit http://www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com/ often.

Bet you were wondering what happened to your issue of Cajun Corner. I apologize. I’m late by 2 days. Let me see if I can catch you up-to-date.

Saturday, a week ago, we met George’s sister, Kathie, for lunch at the Crab Shack in Perdido. Our home is about half way between Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key. Even though she lives in Fairhope, AL which is only about an hour away, we rarely visit each other. Usually 2 or 3 times a year, we meet half way. Lunch was delightful and we walked to the beach area where there were crews working but, surprisingly, a lot of sun bathers. The water and the beach looked beautiful. We were also surprised that standing at the edge of the beach we could see an oil rig in the water off of Alabama’s coastline. Florida doesn’t allow off shore drilling. None of us realized that they were so close to the shore that you could see them that clear.

The 4th of July: We ended up having a neighborhood bar-b-que with a decadent amount of food. We set up the table outside under our neighbor’s oak tree and it was actually pleasant. Not too hot at all. We ate until I told George I was grateful we took the car and didn’t walk. Had we walked, he would have had to roll me home. As it was I simply waddled to the car. Everyone else was planning on going downtown to watch the fireworks. We politely bowed out. Instead, we had a glass of wine and sat on the deck watching the neighborhood fireworks. The evening was as pleasant as the afternoon.

Monday may have been a holiday for most people but not at Cajun Stitchery. Over the weekend I had some ideas on making lace with Boudreaux and incorporating the lace into handkerchiefs. I played with the idea over the weekend and did make a few, each time figuring out something else. By Monday I think I had the process down pat. All of the lace handkerchiefs were listed on Etsy and WOW! People started hitting the website and looking at the handkerchiefs. There were a few who left hearts on our shop and some others left hearts for the items (meaning they like them). People are still visiting those handkerchiefs. One lady sent a convo (inner Etsy email) asking if I could personalize a hanky with a poem. Of course, I replied yes, please send the poem. She never responded after that. Even my friends were telling me how beautiful these handkerchiefs are. But no one bought them. I am selling them for $6 each. After perusing other handkerchiefs on Etsy, I realized $6 is way to low. There are no others like mine and other shops are selling their handkerchiefs for $20 and up. I increased the price on the last handkerchief that I posted to $10. They really are a steal. As I list more and more of these handkerchiefs, the price will become more in line with the other shops. So, get ‘em now before the price goes up.

I’ve also been thinking about the Arts & Wine Festival on the beach. I’m assuming we will have our 3rd Annual Festival but I haven’t heard anything about it. Last year it was in October. I need to get my stock up so that we have plenty to sell at the Festival.

We ordered some bags from a wholesaler this week for some customer orders and I’ve kept myself busy working on these orders. We’ve now ordered 4 dozen caps to fill another order.

All of this was on my mind and I had made a fabric shopping list and knew I needed to go to my favorite store – Fabric World. That happened on Thursday. I took my list and once in the store I was so overwhelmed with fabric that I forgot why I wanted the fabric on my list. I ended up getting a bunch of fabric to add to my house full of fabric collection. George said I went into that store and touched every piece of fabric in there, then started again and made another complete round of fabric touching before I even began picking out what I wanted. He is such a patient man.

George was waiting on a call or email or something telling him where to go to get permitted for the job. When all was said and done, he had to take an online course and then a test. He made 100% on the test, of course. His first night on the job was Friday night. We were preparing for him to be awake all night and into the morning. We were trying to adjust his sleep routine. I ended staying up all night and he slept. Hence, my sleep routine is now totally out of whack. I slept Friday and was awake most of the night working on orders. George got home around 5 a.m. and was beat. The job is easy, the hours and humidity are rough. Of course, he couldn’t do the job at all if he had to work during the day because his doctor makes him cover his body up since the skin cancer was removed. We both ended up going to bed mid-morning and now it’s 4 a.m. and we are both awake.

We’ve been getting green beans and bell peppers from our garden lately. Home grown is so good.

I’m going to post some pictures of items we’ve been embroidering this week, pillowcases, messenger bag, and a tote bag. They are beautiful.

Always remember that we are just a call or email away at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com or 850-261-2462 and place your order.

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Boudreaux and Thibodeaux go see a movie. Boudreaux, in the middle of the movie, turns to Thibodeaux and says, “Betcha five bucks he falls off da horse.”

“You’re on” says Thibodeaux.

Sure enough, the guy in the movie falls off his horse. Thibodeaux hands his friend the five bucks.

Boudreaux admits, "I seen this movie before. I knew he’d fall off da horse.” He hands him back the money.

Thibodeaux tells him, “I seen this movie before, too. I just din't tink he’d be stupid enough to fall off his horse again!”

ΘΘΘΘΘ

French phrase of the week: Jacques apprend bien à l'école mais son petit frère est manière doucement. (Jacques learns well at school, but his brother is rather slow.)

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Clean out your automobile to reduce the weight and get better gas mileage.

Please let me know if there is something that you would like to see in the weekly email. You may always call me at (850) 261-2462 or email me at cajunstitchery@yahoo.com.

If you are not a subscriber and would like to receive Cajun Corner weekly, please email cajunstitchery@yahoo.com and let me know to put you on our email list.

C’est tout, mes amis

Peggy Henshall

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com

P.S. You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

SALE OF THE WEEK (Good through Thursday, July 15, 2010)

We had an order for one of these bags last week and now that we’ve seen them, we think they are great. So, the sale is on for another week.

This bag has all sorts of compartments in it.

Sale: Tote with initials embroidered = $20.00

Liberty Bags - #8811

Recycled® Super Feature Tote

Colors: black, hot pink, light tan, navy, purple, red, royal blue

50% recycled 600D polyester/PVC. 15"W X 13"H X 4"D. Zippered main compartment. Adjustable straps. Contoured main front pocket gusseted side front pockets. Compartments for water bottles and cell phones as well as pen loops. 8" X 9" inside hanging pocket. Hanging ring for keys. Color matched hardware