New Pattern! Lilac Beauty!

"Lilac Beauty" wool applique penny rug candle mat pattern.  The finished size is 13 1/2" round.
The wool kit for this is also available.  It's now available on my website.
I'll also be showing this later today done with a black background.  So pretty!
This design is very similar to my "Geranium Beauty" design.  The flowers are done just a bit differently though.

We have 4 large oversize lilac bushes on our property.  Last year, I trimmed back the bushes since they had overgrown the area.  I'm hoping that the cut-back will help with the blooms this year, giving me even more splendor.  But, I'm a bit concerned that I might have cut them back a little too much.  I love their scent.  While they're blooming, I always keep a bouquet of them on my living fireplace mantal.  The scent fills the entire room.
This color is my favorite of all the lilac colors.  It's what I struggled with for two days last week, trying to get the dye recipe just right.
Just love my lilacs!

Another design is in the works for hydrangeas too.  Wait until you see the colors!

I know, I know....this looks like a lot of work to cut and stitch all of those little flowers!
Well, it is a lot of work, but stitching them on is really easy!  Since they're stitched so close together, if they're not cut perfectly, it's fine and not the least bit noticeable.
And...one trick, if you just trace and cut enough flowers for one lilac, once that lilac is stitched and finished, your fingers are rested and ready to cut the flowers for the next one.

The other trick is to cut them while watching TV.  My favorite time to cut is during the Penguins hockey games.  If you root for the Pens, this is what you need to do too!  They win every time I cut these little flowers during the game !  :)
Way back before I sold patterns of my designs, I used to make cute little woolly pincushions, mug rugs and some candle mats to sell as finished items on Ebay.
The lilac pincushion that I made was so popular and in much demand.  However, as you can see by the picture, there are lots of little flowers that need to be cut.  Because of that, I had to turn customers down. It was just too much on my fingers to cut thousands of little flowers!

Browsing though my Photobucket account is like a stroll through my past.  It stores pictures of every single Ebay item that I sold.  Designs are stored in there that I completely forgot about because it's been so long!
It brings back so many memories and it also reminds me of how long I have been obsessed with wool.
Way back in 2000, I discovered wool and penny rugs. 16 years now, wool and I have been together.  :)
Since then, I've learned a lot about wool and working with wool.  I've also learned a tremendous amount from my customers / stitching sisters.
For all of you wonderful sisters (and some brothers too!) in stitching, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart for the business and the lessons that I've received from you.

I have comments shut off for now.  I've been getting a lot of foreign spam peddler comments so I'm hoping by shutting the comments off for a while, they'll move on and leave me alone later.
If you have a comment or a question, just email me at cathspennies@gmail.com.
My website is http://ww.cathspenniesdesigns.com
God Bless every one of you and Happy Day!

Also....a big THANK YOU to Kelly for the encouragement to do even better every day!                      

New Pattern! "Geranium Beauty"!

 The new design is called "Geranium Beauty"

Cath's Pennies Designs "Geranium Beauty" Wool Applique Candle Mat Pattern

The pattern and wool kit is available on my website,  CLICK HERE 

I often get emails with suggestions for designs.  I recently had a regular customer email to ask me for a design with Geraniums.  I love geraniums!
I started thinking seriously of what I could do and then I remembered that many years ago, I made a geranium candle mat and sold it as a finished design.
So I went on a search through all of my old sketchbooks to try to find it.
Unfortunately, back in the time before I sold my designs as patterns, I wouldn't save the design.  I never enjoyed remaking more than a few of the same thing...always preferring to try something new. so I never bothered saving anything other than the original sketches of it.  So, the only thing I found of my previous geranium design was a rough sketch.
The other problem is that most times, my finished version of it turns out nothing at all like the sketch!
I love to design and cut as I stitch, just making it up as I go.  That's pretty much what I did with this geranium design.

I had to start fresh with the design.  Thanks to my blogging back then, I did find some pictures ...
 
Here is one of the finished candle mats that I made and sold back in 2009.  This version was made with a cream colored background instead of the black.  I did my best to duplicate the design. 

 I like both the cream colored background and the black background but chose the black background for the pattern picture.
My favorite geranium color is the red but I'm going to make it with shades of pink too.

This candle mat looks difficult to make but it's actually super easy.  There are approximately 50 little flowers that make up each one of the geraniums.  That's a lot of cutting!  The good thing though is that those little flowers don't have to be cut perfectly.  They just need the basic shape. They are folded and then attached and because they're so close to each other, the shape doesn't show.  The pattern instructions include a step-by-step tutorial which shows exactly how to stitch those little flowers on.
So pretty and it's really fun to make!
Here's a side view of the flower details.  There are two different shades of red used in the flowers to give them even more definition.

 

Buy the Pattern on my website CLICK HERE 

The wool kit which includes the pattern and all of the 100% felted wool (NOT wool felt) needed to complete the candle mat can by found by CLICKING HERE

Thank you for reading !  Happy Day! 

Newsletter & Facebook

Just an update!

My Cath's Pennies Designs Facebook page is HERE.
 I used to use this blog to post my newest patterns and designs but I'm finding that Facebook is a bit quicker and easier for me to get the info out.
 So if you want to keep up with anything new, "like" the Facebook page. 

My website is HERE 
My Cath's Pennies Designs website will have the newest designs shown on the main page.  You'll also get the details of any give-aways or contests that I might have to offer at the time.

To sign up for my newsletter, click HERE
I usually send out my newsletter when I have announcements or new designs ready.  I tend to send one out monthly but there's no real schedule for it.  Every once in a while, I offer up something special just for my newsletter subscribers, so be sure to sign up.
To see the 11/13/14 newsletter, just CLICK HERE

Need to contact me?  Email me by CLICKING HERE or cathspennies@gmail.com

Here are some new designs.  Visit my website for more info ...

"White Christmas" pattern

"Doily Hearts" pattern

"Snowflake" Candle Mat with matching mug rugs pattern

"Holly & Pine" candle mat with matching mug rugs pattern

Beaver Valley Piecemakers 20th Annual Quilt Show

Gosh, I need to update this blog! 
Lots of new things coming very soon, so don't give up checking in on my postings.  :)

If you live anywhere close to the Western Pa area, the quilt show next month is a wonderful event to  visit.  This year it's back at the Brady's Run Park Lodge.  It's the perfect rustic fall setting for the quilt show.

Beaver Valley Piecemakers 20th Annual Quilt Show

Location – Brady’s Run Park

121 Brady’s Run Road

Beaver Falls, PA 15010

2014 Dates and Time - Oct. 24th and 25th 10-5

Oct. 26th 11-4

Approximately 100 quilts judged by a National Quilt Association Judge. 

The theme this year is curves. 

Also, quilt and sewing machine raffles, vendors, café with homemade food, and a boutique. Admission is $7 and children 12 and under free.

http://www.bvpiecemakers.com/

"In Their Easter Bonnets!" New Pattern!

"In your Easter bonnet, 

with all the frills upon it, 

you'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade"

~Irving Berlin

It's been a while and despite customer requests that I blog more often, my time is so very limited now and other things, dyeing wool, stitching and orders are always at the top of my "to do" list.
I'm here now though and I'm very excited to show off my newest pattern design called "In Their Easter Bonnets".  Finished size is 14" across.

The entire time while creating and stitching this , I kept humming that "in your Easter bonnets" tune.  Every time I get an order for the pattern, that tune again emerges as the current tune that gets hummed.  So, I'm thinking if that tune is stuck in my brain, most likely, while you're stitching it, you'll be humming it too!
The design process for this one took quite a bit of time.
It all starts in my brain, of course.  I see the design/image in my head that I want to make and in this case, since lately I've been obsessed with HATS (look over at the Christmas "Snow Ladies" design for their hats) I visioned Easter bonnets on my "Bunnies In Spring" design.

Sometimes the most difficult part of the design process for me is to draw on paper what my brain sees.  Sometimes it comes super easy and quick.  Other times, it's pretty time consuming because I work and work at it until the drawing matches or is better than what the image is in my brain.
So here's my pencil sketch of what my brain image was at the time:

 

I started with the "Bunnies in Spring" basic design which looks like this:

I used the same background shape and the same nose and cheeks but I had to redesign the ears so that they would fit better with the Easter bonnets. I also had to resize the eyes and the little tooth and create a background face shape since the original design uses the brown background for the face shape.

My most useful tool is my eraser.  If that eraser could talk, it would complain of abuse.  

A LOT of erasing went into getting those bonnets to fit right onto their cute little heads.
Not only did the bonnets have to fit correctly but I also had to struggle with fitting the hat sizes onto the background shape too.  It took some time and I would draw it, then hang it up on my cork board and look at it for a day or so, then erase more, hang it, look at it again and again and again.  It took about a week to finally get the bunnies with their bonnets to look just how I wanted them to look.

I'm so very proud of this design.  It's so much fun to make. I went easy on decorating the bonnets but knowing some of my customers like I do and how much they love decorating with beads and buttons, I'm betting I'm going to be seeing some pretty fancy Easter bonnets soon!

 I used feathers in the bonnets and gave this bunny lady a yellow tulle net veil.

This Bunny lady has a rosebud with tulle netting bonnet. The underside of the bonnet is a darker shade of wool to show off the dimensional detail.  

If you love this design as much as I do, just click on the little "buy" button over there on the left sidebar to purchase it.  I'm offering it at a special price for the next week or so.

If you prefer to pay by check, just email me at cathspennies@gmail.com  and I'll send you my mailing address.

I have the wool kit available for this too.  It's all 100% wool.  I used Dorr & Woolrich wools for this and quite a bit of it is my own hand-dyed wools.  The wool will come felted and ready to stitch so all you'll need is the thread, the needle and some freezer paper.  I even include the tulle netting and the feathers.  For purchasing the wool kit with the pattern, visit my website here:

http://cathspenniesdesigns.com/item_110/Wool-Kit-For-In-Their-Easter-Bonnets.php

There's a lot of wool involve with making this but I promise that you'll love the finished result and it will be well worth the time and $$ that you put into finishing this.

Although this design is shown with all beautiful 100% wool, it would work well with wool felt for any or all of the wool requirements.  If cost is the issue, then wool felt is the way to make this inexpensively. Otherwise, please consider 100% wool. 

There are so many possibilities to decorate those Easter bonnets to make your bunny ladies the grandest ladies in the Easter parade!