Kaye from Kitten Stitching

This week's Blogger of the Week is one of my oldest blogging friends.  We sealed our friendship through a competition I ran in the early days of my blog to win a stitched card featuring the skyline of an exotic city - Coventry!  We have stayed firm friends ever since, joining in with each other's events, SALs and exchanges.  Our blogaversaries are a mere 2 months apart (April and June 2011).  So this week's post is a very special one for me.  Please welcome Kaye from

Kitten Stitching

1. Please introduce yourself – name, where you are from, family, pets etc.

Hello lovely bloggers,

My name is Kaye and I live in the beautiful leafy suburb of Eaglemont in the most liveable city in the world, Melbourne, Australia.  I live with my husband (TraderVic) of thirty-five years (eeks! Where did that time go?).  I have three grown up children and a gorgeous daughter-in-law, who all live scattered around the world.  DS1 and his wife have just moved to Brunei (on the island of Borneo) for a teaching job, DD lives and works in London and DS2, lives the closest to us, in Sydney, NSW.  We have two furbabies: Furio and Milo (inherited from our children) who feature a lot on my blog, plus DS1’s cat, Nobu, lived with us for a year before being adopted by a dear friend of mine who was in need of a cat in her life just at the right time: when DS1 and DDIL decided that a new adventure in Brunei was waiting for them.

TraderVic and I at the footy (his abiding passion), barracking for the Mighty Tigers!

I am an absolutely avid/besotted/obsessed (you pick the adjective) cross stitcher and blogger, although life does have a habit of getting in the way of the latter, so I do not blog as regularly as I would like to sometimes.

2. How long have you been stitching and how did you start?

My very first cross stitch project was putting red crosses on a blue gingham table mat for Needlecraft class when I was twelve.  At that time needlework was not a great success for me as I recieved my only ever “D“ in the whole of my schooling for Needlecraft.  So, I gave up on stitching and sewing for the next several years and took up my knitting needles instead.  I went back to stitching sometime in my early twenties, when the long stitch craze began.  I did a few of those, a few tapestries and then went back to cross stitch.   This was interspersed with patchwork, quilting, sewing (when I was home on maternity leave, I sewed many of my children’s clothes and costumes and even made a couple of fully-lined winter coats for myself), smocking and stamping – phew!  But, I must admit cross-stitch was always there and since I started my main blog, Kitten Stitching, in 2011, it has become an almost all-consuming passion for me.

Here are a few of my early tapestry finishes, from the early 1980s.

3. How long have you been blogging and what inspired you to start? Is there a story behind your blog title?

I have been blogging since 2011, when I started Kitten Stitching, and I was inspired by an online friend, Jayne, who really encouraged me to start my blog.  Thank you, dear Jayne, you really changed my life.  My blog title was inspired by the fact that I am a bit of a crazy cat lady and at the time our two cats were still kittens, and they love to sit with me while I stitch - hence the title.

Furio is my stitching buddy.  He cannot wait for me to sit and stitch so that he can snuggle up and have a good snooze.  

Milo, whilst rather a skittish cat, has lately taken to snuggling up on my lap, too.

And here is the gorgeous Nobu:

Then, in 2015, I was inspired to start a number of new SAL blogs. They are:

Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics – every Friday night you can pull out a WIP/UFO and stitch-a-long with me and other Frolickers.

Christmas Ornie SAL – over each month you can stitch a themed piece and show off your finish on the blog.

Americana SAL – For some strange reason, I have a real passion for Americana and American Patriotic Stitchery (maybe because I studied American History in Year 11 at school and loved it?). The reason it is strange is that I live in Melbourne, Australia, not in the U.S. at all – lol!  So this SAL blog is for those of us who wish to indulge our patriotic passion – I try to stitch every Monday on something Americana – I call it ‘Merica Monday!

Tudor Tuesdays SAL – I also have a real passion for the Tudors, which is why I started this particular SAL, although I must admit that I have been a bit remiss re my Tudor Stitching lately.

Prairie Schooler SAL – This is a SAL blog I set up for those of us who love to stitch Prairie Schooler Designs. Although, I must admit, there has been no activity by anyone – not even me – on this SAL blog so far this year – oh no!

(If you are interested in joining in the fun on any of these blogs – please just follow the links above to check them out.)

NB: As the second half of 2017 was rather difficult for me – some of these SAL blogs have been a bit unloved but I am planning to rectify that in 2018!

4. How would you describe your stitching style? Are you a serial starter, a rotator, a OAAT (one at a time), highly organised, random and eclectic, etc.?

I am most definitely a Serial Starter, as I love, love, love starting stitching on a new design.  Whilst I definitely try to be organised (with my SAL blogs, etc.), I am a bit of a random stitcher – often just picking up a WIP or UFO that catches my eye to stitch on of an evening.

5. Do you have a favourite designer or style of design you are drawn to?

Oh, I have so many favourite designers – too many to list (but that won’t stop me trying to list them – lol!)

Prairie Schooler, Little House Needlework, Country Cottage Needlework, Blackbird Designs, The Little Stitcher, Homespun Elegance, The Primitive Hare, Madame Le Fee, Mon Ami Pierre, Just Nan, Needlework Press and the list just goes on and on.

6. Which piece are you most proud of in your collection?

This would have to be my completed Wind in the Willows birth sampler – which I stitched to commemmorate the births of my three gorgeous children.

7. What has been your worst stitching disaster?

At the moment, it would have to be my Cut Thru Castle by Bothy Designs. I made a mistake early on in the background and instead of biting the bullet and fixing it straight away, I kept stitching and stitching, thinking that I could somehow magic away the error by sheer force of will.  But it has been bugging me and bugging me and now I am finally going to ditch it and think about starting it over again in a year or two, maybe!

8. Which new technique would you like to try, either stitching, finishing or another craft?

Nothing really – Cross Stitch soothes my soul.

9. Do you have a box of finished-but-not-fully-finished pieces? Or is everything FFO'd? What's your favourite way to fully finish a project and what do you do with them?

Oh boy, do I have a drawer full of finished-but-not-fully-finished pieces!  However, I did make more of an effort to FFO in the first half of last year and plan to do more this year.  At the moment, my two favourite ways seem to be small cushions and self-framing in photo frames.

10. Which of your projects most represents "you"?

This is a hard question, there are so many different projects that are "me".  But to dodge the question, really, I would have to say whatever I am stitching on at the moment – lol! So, here is my latest focus piece.... A Prairie Schooler piece of course: Christmas Sampler from Book #63

11. Tell us a secret about yourself. Or a joke. About anything!

Hmmm! Not everyone might know this but while I HATE horror movies I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Zombie movies and TV shows - my favourite being The Walking Dead!

12. Anything you would like to add?

I would just like to say thank you to our lovely hostess and my wonderful stitchy friend, Jo.   She is such an inspiration to me – her stitching is always so wonderful and her finishes so inventive. She always picks the best designs to stitch and her blog hops are legendary and always so much fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear Jo, for being my friend.

Love to you all,