Quirky Cats

Hello again... it's Sunday afternoon and the weekend is nearly over, unfortunately!

Today I have spent a couple of hours turning a "quirky cat" into a birthday card for the Craftbubble "Crazy for Kitties" birthday exchange.  Tomorrow the quirky cat will be winging it's way over to the UK.

I stitched the design from a mini chart booklet that came with one of the "Cross Stitch Crazy" magazines - can't remember what issue though, sorry.  The booklet is called "Best Ever Pet Charts" and has animal designs by Lesley Teare, Sharon Welch and Lucie Heaton.  The one that I chose to stitch comes from the "Cheeky Chums" section of the booklet and was designed by Lucie Heaton.  It is a rather quirky patchwork cat in yellow and blues and I thought it would be lovely quick design to stitch and turn into a card.  It was quite quick to stitch and only took me about 4 evenings to stitch it.  It took almost as long again to turn it into a card this afternoon!  I'm not very creative when it comes to making cards so it takes awhile to think of what to do.... but I am quite pleased with the outcome.

Quirky cat - designed by Lucie Heaton
Best ever pet charts booklet - Cross Stitch Crazy magazine
Stitched for Craftbubble "Crazy for Kitties" Birthday Exchange

As promised, I have also taken a couple of photos of Oscar and Felix's new outdoor area.  The photos aren't the best as the light was failing yesterday when I remembered to take the photo.  Once we have some more plants in there and re-arrange things I will take some more photos.  The boys absolutely love their new area and have spent most of the day outside today sleeping in the sun!  They now have about 5 1/2 times the outdoor space that they had before. The best thing about the new space is that we can sit in there with them and Daisy can come too....  Although she is still getting the hang of the idea that the ball can't be thrown through the netting! 

Our boys are definately the most spoilt cats in this neighbourhood! 

Til next time, happy stitching

Friday on my mind!

It's Friday! It's Friday! I do so love Fridays.....

This week has only been a short working week for me (3 days as Monday was a public holiday) but gee I am shattered!  Normally I manage to fit 5 days work into 4, but trying to fit 5 days work into 3 days doesn't necessarily go!  But I did it!  Managed to get most of my work completed by the time I left yesterday - what I didn't get done can afford to wait til Monday.

So here we are again - it's Friday and I am at home with my dog and my 2 puddy tats after sending my poor long suffering husband off to work..... That is the only bad thing about Fridays - hubby has to go to work while I stay home!!  I'm sure that he would much rather be at home quilting on a Friday than being at work.

I didn't get a chance over the weekend to post a stitching update as we had a very busy non-crafting weekend.  After all the rain during the week, the sun was out and shining on the weekend, so Saturday and Monday were spent out in the garden planting up the new garden beds and re-arranging the pots that had been moved while the patio was being re-done.  Hubby also re-planted all the strawberry plants - we have about 40 in total now!  Some are in the raised planter and the rest are back in the ground with lots of nice yummy manure.  Hubby also planted our new dwarf orange tree and olive, and got the lemon out of it's pot and finally into the ground!  The vegie patch is now ready for the raspberries and gooseberries which arrived in the post today.  So guess what tomorrow will be all about!!

On Sunday we went down to Fremantle and spent the afternoon out with my sister and her family.  After a lovely lunch we went wandering around Freo and into the markets and generally had a lovely day out.  The weather was just beautiful.  We both just love going down to Freo for the day.  It is so relaxing and the markets are a wonderful place to while away a couple of hours.  Although they do get very busy....  Hubby and I almost got lost in one of my favourite shops - The Blue Buddha.  I love going into the Perth shop and now I have found the Freo one!  Such beautiful things in there, but this time I did keep my credit card in my handbag... however we are going to have to go back in a couple of weeks as I want to look at getting another crystal pendant.

I did manage to get some stitching done while I had the couple of days off last week.  Culinary Cat number 1 is finished and number 2 has been started!  I also have been stitching a "crazy patchwork" cat for a birthday card which I need to finish this weekend to get in the mail to the UK.  I will post a pic of that once it's finished.

Margaret Sherry Culinary Cat No. 1 finished!

Oscar and Felix are still waiting to get their outdoor area finished.  Unfortunately the job is taking longer than expected and the fellow is back today to finish putting up the netting.  So fingers crossed and prayers to kitty angels it will be finished today and the boys can finally get back outside.  They have now been inside for 7 weeks!  That's an awful long time in a kitty cat's life!  Once it's all finished I will post a pic so you can see what we have done for our very spoilt cats!

Are they real or are they statues?
I have no idea what they were looking at......
but as you can see they are on my stitching again!

Til next time, happy stitching and have a great weekend!

Totally Useless SAL update - New Moon 1 June 2011

Another new month begins and another new moon appears!  Where did May go?  Welcome to June 2011.  Here in the Southern Hemisphere it is the first day of winter, and here in Perth it is cold, windy and rainy with a chance of a thunderstorm.  Which is music to our ears - we so badly need the rain to fill up our dams so that the city will have water for summer.  Although I should be careful what I wish for!!

This month sees my little ORT's jar full of some more lovely colours from the quilt squares that I have been stitching.  They have been squished down again this month to give me room for some more ORT's over the coming months.

What has contributed to the ORT's this month: well, we had the cute puppy with his garbage can, then all the whites and oranges of the Precious Moments angel, then the MS Purrfect Partners, and finally a bit of the MS Culinary Cats and the MS Totally Tropical.

Next month should see me finish the Culinary Cats so the jar will be overflowing with pretty cat colours!

Last month when I took my TUSAL photo Felix wanted to join in - so this month I took the ORT's jar straight to the boy and took the photo while he was lazing around in his cat basket!



TUSAL update 1 June 2011

Oh, it is a hard life being a cat!!

I wonder where Felix and my ORT's will want to have their picture taken next month??  For more info on the TUSAL pop over to Daffycat's blog.

Quick Stitching Update

Now that my Quilts 4 Kids squares are all completed and sent off, I am back onto my Margaret Sherry Culinary Cats.  I managed to stitch a bit more on cat number 1 the other night... so now he has feet!

Culinary Cats (1) - Margaret Sherry
Cross Stitcher, Issue 222

I am also finishing off another Margaret Sherry freebie that came with yet another Cross Stitcher magazine.  My left shoulder was quite painful on Monday night and I didn't really feel like sitting at the table and holding the frame while stitching, so instead I sat on the couch surrounded by cushions supporting my left shoulder and stitched on "Totally Tropical" for a while.

This is another small UFO that I started some time ago and put away.  I put this one away because of the top of tree - it is all half cross stitch (which are quick and easy) but two of the symbols are the same colour, one in 2 threads and one in 1 thread so I kept losing my place!  But over the last couple of nights I have managed to get quite a bit of the tree top stitched.  I noticed on the stitched model, that was on the cover of the kit, that the stitcher did all of the half cross stitches as full cross stitches..... not sure if she made a mistake or if they changed the design for the magazine, but I think by the time I have finished the half cross stitches it will actually be nicer as the cat will stand out more.

As I now have 6 days off.... I will alternate between the 2 Margaret Sherry designs and hopefully have a finish to show on Monday.

Totally Tropical - Margaret Sherry
Cross Stitcher Issue 201

Til the next new moon on 1st July 2011, happy stitching and collecting of ORT's.

New Moons - 2011

1 July

30 July

29 August
27 September
26 October
25 November
24 December

Last day of May....

Hello everyone!  Hope you are all doing ok....

I was doing a wee bit of blog stalking ealier while having a cuppa of tea and a bit of lunch - I know I should be working.... but for some reason I have no motivation for work this week!  May have something to do with the fact that today is my last day at work for the week as I am taking a couple of days leave while the Catmax man comes around to re-install Oscar and Felix's outdoor playground.  (They can't wait to get back outside in the fresh air again!) 

With my 2 days leave and my normal day off on Friday, and the Public Holiday on Monday for Foundation Day, I will have 6 days off!  Woo Hoo..... I feel a happy dance coming on... Just think of all those stitching hours that I will have!!!

Here's a little bit of WA history for you.  The Public Holiday on Monday is a Western Australian holiday to commerate the founding of the first British Colony in the state of WA.

The first Europeans to visit the Western coast of Australia were Dutch explorers in the 1600s.  Later a French party also visited the area.  However, many early visitors were not positive about the land's potential so they travelled further.  In 1826, the first British settlement, an outpost of the army, was established in Western Australia.  During 1827, Admiral Sir James Stirling led a number of explorations along Australia's west coast and recommended that a permanent settlement should be established in the Swan River area.  In 1829, he returned to the area with a navy vessel, HMS Challenger, and the merchant ship Barque Parmelia.

On June 1, 1829, Australia's west coast was sighted from the Parmelia, although the ship did not reach anchor until the following day.  Later that year, more ships arrived in the area and Perth was officially founded.  The area was known as the Swan River Colony until 1832, when it became known as Western Australia.  In 1834, Stirling, who was the administrator of Western Australia, decided to hold an annual celebration to unite the settlers, masters, servants and Indigenous Australians within and around the colony.  June 1 was the chosen date because it was the anniversary of the first sighting of Western Australia from the Parmelia and marks an important victory for the British navy over the French in 1794.

The public holiday on the first Monday of June is to celebrate
WA's Foundation Day

I am a very proud West Australian, although I was actually born in South Australia!  My parents moved over to WA in 1966 when I was a wee little 'un, and we have lived here since then, except for about 18 months in 1969/70 when we went back to SA for awhile.  But the call of the West saw us back here to stay.....

But, I digress - again.....

As I said when I started this post, I was having a quick blog stalk while having lunch and I noticed a giveaway that Krystaline at  Relentless Stitching has going at the moment.... the giveaway ends on 3rd June 2011.  So pop on over to Krystaline's blog and say hello....

Don't forget that tomorrow is the "New Moon" so it will be time to dust off the ORT's and upload a pic so that we can see how much they have grown over the month.

Til next time, happy stitching and may the only frogs you see be the ones in your garden!

Purffect Partners

Hello again.... It's Sunday afternoon and I have been fiddling around doing some blog stalking, updating my photo album on FB, and now I thought I'd do a quick post to show you my latest little finish, and also what I have added to my stash!

Last Saturday hubby and I went off the Craft and Quilt Fair.  We try to go every year when it's on as it really is our only chance to see all the wonderful crafting ideas that are out there in one spot, especially the quilting stuff for hubby.  This once a year treat always comes to town around hubby's birthday so he gets to spend up big, and he also gets to choose his own pressie.... This year was no exception - the credit card got a workout as hubby spent lots of $$ on quilting stash... Meeza was very good in comparison!  Hubby could have spent more... I saw him drooling over the Husqvarna Viking sewing machines!!  Last time he drooled over a Husqvarna it was a ride on lawn mower and we bought it!!!  This time we were good and kept the credit card in our pockets...  By the way - I never did get to use the Husqvanrna lawn mower - I used to do my mowing on the old green Victor ride one!  It was much safer coz when I ran into things it didn't matter with the old one!!!  But that's another story...

Anyway, I digress... as is my want to do!!!

At the show I did buy three new kits to add to the ever increasing stash in the drawer!  I bought two Dimension kits - "Maggie the Messmaker" and "Kitty Litter".  That was going to be all until I saw the "Colours Down Under" stall and drooled over a finished and framed Chatelaine Designs "Taj Mahal Mandala Garden".

I have followed Joyce's stitching of the Taj Mahal on her blog Random Ramblings and thought that the design was stunning.  And then to see it in real life and up close.... wow!  So I decided to buy a small Mandala... or rather a chart pack of 3 small ones and at some stage over the next 12 months I will give one of them a go.....  So watch this space!

Latest addition to the stash drawer!

As you know I have recently been stitching a number of quilt squares for Quilts 4 Kids so I haven't stitched much of anything else of late!  After finishing my last quilt square, I decided to stitch something small, or even finish off a small UFO (of which there are many to choose from) before carrying on with my Margaret Sherry Culinary Cats.  So I went through the basket of UFO's and had a quick look at all the freebies in the box.. and what did I decide to finish... well another Margaret Sherry design!  Just to warm me up for my culinary cats!

I can't remember when I started stitching the "Purrfect Partners" cats.  They came as a freebie with Cross Stitcher issue 196, February 2008 but I do know that I didn't start them that long ago!  I think I started them around this time last year and for some reason put them away... as you do!  So I decided that they would be my next finish! I finished off the last of the backstitch this morning while waiting for my brother and his family to come and visit.

Purrfect Partners - Margaret Sherry

Cross Stitcher, Issue 196

 

Purrfect Partners finished 29 May 2011
No longer a 2010 UFO!

Another 2011 finish to add to the list.... now I will go back to my MS Culinary Cats and work on them for the next couple of weeks and get them finished off. 

Just before I go....  what else does a dog and cat do on a very windy and cold winter's afternoon while mum is playing on the computer???

They cuddle up together! 

Daisy to Oscar - you do know this is my bed, don't you???

I had to take a photo of Oscar and Daisy asleep together as this is quite a rare occurrence.  Whenever the boys try to sleep with Daisy she gets jittery and moves away... but this time she obviously decided that sleep was what she wanted and if she had to share with the cat... well so be it!!!

Daisy - Oh blow it... I will just ignore you - you are not there!
I don't see you.....

Purrfect Partners indeed!

Til next time, happy stitching!