Mini Swap Quilt Send

Hi all

I have taken part in the first of Cheryll's min quilt swaps. The first subject very fittingly was Welcome & doesn't everyone need a pretty little welcome quilt in the entry of their home. The stands that fit these 12 inch x 14 inch quilts look so wonderful. See the white one below in Cheryll's swap button.

My pictures will show my quilt on a wall as I have been a bit slow at ordering my stand. However when they get here there will be celebrations as I haven't stopped at one buying both the white & the silver that you can put different headers on matched to your quilt subject, season or celebration.

So here is my mini quilt I made for my swap partner that is currently winging its way to its new home.

I hope my partner likes it. From stalking her blog it seems she like bright colours so I used my current favourite paisley fabric in pinks & yellow on a white background. I also used this on my last swap with Raelene on her journal with lots of other bright contrasts that I posted about back here. Maybe now I should make something for me with it & then put any left to rest for awhile.

Here's a close up of muma & baby bird in their happy nest. When I receive my swap pressie & my hangers I will show you more.

Thanks to the lovely Cheryll from Gone Stitchin for hosting this gorgeous swap. Naturally we are not stopping at one of these little quilts, there will be ongoing swaps where you enter the ones that interest you (you don't have to do all of them) and end up with a selection to display. The next subject is Fathers Day so go to Cheryll's blog to sign up.

Happy swapping

Tracee xx

It's Official!

It's official & now I have a card to prove it -

I am a Crazy Cat Lady!

Check out the work of Susan Faye on her blog 365CatLadies and Etsy site. I admit I did buy 4 of the kitty picture necklaces, a cat nip pillow each for Brun & Hun-bun and my official Crazy Cat Lady card.

I came across Susan's work as a quilt in last months Homespun was based on Susan's artwork. It was purrs at first sight for me!

Happy purring
Tracee xx

Tuesday Treasures

I have to admit there is good & bad about my treasure for today. It keeps me in touch with friends & family, lets me see what crafters are up to worldwide & gives me a daily dose of kitties big, small, young, old, cute & a few that are not so cute. It makes me laugh which is a great thing.

It also wastes time when I could be sewing, doing chores, doing my cali accounts or sleeping. Some times you come across the occasional meany but fortunately they are quickly & easily anihalated & where else in life can you say that. On busy weeks, my crops die, my animals are neglected & the fruit stays on the trees too long....... but fortunately I have heaps of money to replant & buy more -  hey we are only talking about Farm Town!

Yes, my treasure of the week is FACEBOOK.

I know, some of you will be nodding with me & some will be shaking your heads in sorrow. I have to admit I am a Facebook addict. Where else can you find 100s of cat pics with funny captions to read & laugh at when you come home from a frustrating day at work?

There is even doggies & I am an equal opportunity animal lover even if I seem cataliciously biased.

I can feed my love of things shabby, vintage, beautiful cottage gardens & treasures of the past.

I can embrace my Kiwiness & never forget my Aussieness too.

I can at last have the farm I so desire & the funds to make it beautiful. It is called 'Crazy Cat Lady Farm & does have many cats but also every other animal a farm usually has as well as my beautiful herd of bulls - I love the bull riding so think it only fitting I become a bull farmer! I can do all this & play Mahjong, Bingo & Solitaire and 100s of other games at 2am when I definately do not want to go to sleep.

When I'm feeling a little down or unmotivated I can find sayings that touch me & make me realise how lucky I am.

And all this & so  much more I can do for free. I think that is a pretty great deal. So thank you Mark Zuckerberg & all those people that make pics to share, & thank you friends, family, crafters & random strangers whose posts make my day.

PLUS - where else can I go to be friends & swap comments every day with a cat called Zanda who lives in Melbourne & two cats called Dastan & Caspian who live in Cambridge in the UK???? Yes, 3 of my friends are cats on Facebook - no surprise there really. No, Brun & Hun-bun do not have Facebook pages, I think they are better suited to be blogging cats.....


Join in with Tuesday Treasures by going to Melody's blog The House On The Side Of The Hill to read what other treasures are talked about today or to post your own.

Happy Cat Booking (the official term for looking up cat pics on Facebook!)
Tracee xx

Quilt Kitty Bookclub

Hi all

I hope you can all forgive my neglect of you all over the last month. It has been an up & down month but I really had no good reason for it. It wasn't even that I meant to, it just happened and now I think maybe I needed to have a rest from something & unfortunately it was sewing, stitching, blogging etc. Work, my Treasurer duties & housework don't go away so naturally the fun stuff was the sacrifice. Hopefully that is over & done with now because I missed you all something awful & have been so lazy & unproductive.

I knitted one of those pretty mesh scarves in bright red & when a friend loved it & asked if I could make her one I did another one. I couldn't get the Moda Vera Honeycomb Mesh I usually use so used a Bobble Mesh, similar on the mesh side but with the cutest little bobbles on the outside edge. It made a pretty scarf & I forgot to take a pic before I gave it away. These are both from Spotlight for $5.99 a ball.  

One thing I have been doing over the last month is my usual fallback position - reading. I have had the flu so while in bed last Thursday & Friday I read the latest Elm Creek Quilts novel by Jennifer Chiaverini called Sonoma Rose.

I love all of these but normally the books set in modern times at Elm Creek Quilts & about the quilters are my favourite. This was one of the series set in the past, that fleshes out some of the back story that we have read about in earlier books.

The official blurb reads "As the nation grapples with the strictures of Prohibition, Rosa Diaz Barclay lives on a Southern California rye farm with her volatile husband, John, who has lately found another source of income far outside the Federal purview.

Mother to eight children, Rosa mourns the loss of four who succumbed to the mysterious wasting disease currently afflicting young Ana and Miguel. Two daughters born of another father are in perfect health. When an act of violence shatters Rosa’s resolve to maintain her increasingly dangerous existence, she flees with the children and her precious heirloom quilts to the mesa where she last saw her beloved mother alive."

On Goodreads web site where I log my books I read it rates a 3.76 from 344 ratings. However it was a 5 out of 5 for me. It was a family saga, with a lot of sadness & turmoil but also good people, neighbours that rally around and hope for the future.

Even if you haven't been reading the series, this stands alone as a great book too. If you are already an Elm Creek fan then don't miss it.




Before I go - The times & trials of an old cat! I was sitting in bed watching the Dockers vs Adelaide game & Brutus was sitting on the other side, leg up in the air, washing his nether regions when suddenly he did a backward somersault (maybe with a half pike) & landed on the carpet. I ran around the bed to pick him up,  patched up his ego with soothing words and put him back on the bed. For a few minutes he glared at me as if the say 'What did you do muma!' Then of course, he went on with washing those regions....

(not actual event - taken when Brun was a sprightly 18 years of age)

Happy Reading

Tracee xx

Weekends With Brunnie =^..^=

We lives friends! Brunnie here still!

I know, it been so long, some of you think we disappeared. Thanks for the emails & comments, we all purred when we read them. Don't know what's been wrong with muma, no sewing, no fabric shopping, hardly any stitching, no blogging, no blog reading - think alien took over muma's body & it was a very boring, non-sewing, non-blogging alien!

Muma's had the flu but only the past week but that was very bad timing as it started on the day muma went to the Quilt Show & she didn't buy much, didn't look at most of the stalls and come home and went to bed. By the second day muma was due to go she was very sore & snotty so muma stayed tucked up in bed with me instead. I think that is over pretty much now though. She's started playing with her SKOW SAL book & neglected block so paws crossed tonight it will be footy & sewing in front of the gas fire for muma, me & Hun-bun.

So what have we been up to in the last month.....

I have been back to see the kitty Dr. I have a very stylish bag muma carries me in while I travel but I don't like it, I don't like it at all. At least I got to see my favourite kitty Dr, Rudolph. I was a bit rude though & hissed at him as he gave me an injection in my back but that was no fun at all. Muma was cringing something bad while he did it too. He also stuck goo in my eyes & gave muma some to bring home. Muma's not the best at that stuff so if I move she jumps with fright which is kind of fun. Eventually I end up with gooey stuff in my eyes anyway & muma saying 'mush it around Brunnie'. My infection has gone again so I guess it was all good.

I watched the WA Footy Derby last weekend & as usual couldn't keep my eyes off my team - The West Coast Eagles & their purrfect performance. It must have been half time when muma took the photo, just resting between quarters.

Muma put up a new hanging rail above her cutting table to hang these funny things from. I didn't know what the blue & white things were but I know the blue brush. Muma chases my furs off the furniture with that. It has been around for a long, long time.

Muma has since used one of the blue & white things on a cutting ruler to keep it from slipping, so that's what they are for. Muma cut up & then sewed back together some charm squares that Aunty Leanne sent her in a swap. I supervised but it seemed a bit pointless - cut up squares, match with the charm squares, sew them together, cut the squares of fabric in half & end up with new squares??? I'll be glad when muma back to daily stitching, making pictures from string I understand....

Muma has done one little bit of stitching which I quite like. We like sewing machines in our house, even Hun-bun who isn't really in touch with his creative side like me & muma. He's only 5 so I'm hoping he will learn in time. He's not much of a writer either, sometimes in my humble opinion he thinks he is around just to look pretty....

Yesterday was nice & rainy in Perth so we all made the most of it. Mum was in bed coughing away with her flu again. Hun-bun he was on his couch snuggled up with Hermoine napping....

I was looking after muma, hard work but don't feel too sorry for me. I had my red cat face blankie, my pink knitted rug, muma's soft old flannelette sheet over me & my electric blanket on two. Ahhhh, this is living -  muma, but please stop coughing......

I hope muma will be back blogging this weekend, now I need to go check on her, if she is stitching I will give her a purr, if not I will knit on her until she can't stand it & pushes me off with the excuse that she can't stitch with me on her knee. Sneaky kitty ; )

Purrs

Brunnie xx