Hmmmmm.......... the blog website is being grouchy today!!! It won't let me move these pictures into place! If you keep reading, you'll find that it's really, really hot outside & I'm having a decidely "lazy" feeling day. Because of that, sorry... you're on your own!!!! LOL!!! You'll have to decide which picture goes with what! Let's call it a puzzle................................. yeah! ........... I INTENDED it to be arranged like this!................ Have a happy day!! xox Meg

Oh... it's SOOOOOooooo hot outside!! All of the flowers are getting leggy & in this heat, the color in every petal just seems to fade. We need a few cool, rainy days! Oh well, guess I'll just have to stay inside & stitch! ........... IF I had fabric to stitch on! I'm waiting on a package from Moda with the new April Cornell fabric (Nature's Notebook). Then I can start stitching on "Susan's Dresden Garden". I'm getting antsy....want to get started on it.... I have a bad case of itchy fingers!!! This is the fabric & floss. NOW you see why I can't wait to work on it!

I finished sewing together "Flight of Fancy" using the French General's Rouenneries Line (I know I spelled that wrong...that's my best guess & best effort for right now. I'm too lazy at the moment to walk across the room to look at the Moda catalog! LOL!!!) Now all I have to do is sew together the back & take it to Susan, our quilter. I think she's going out of town on vacation in August so I'd better get on it, huh??? Wow, really should have ironed it befor taking the picture!...........get real tho!!! Iron??? in 100+ heat????? Not THIS girl!! Not unless there's an ironing emergency of some kind.... no, who am I kidding, not even then.

We've sold out of Pigma pens, most of the dish towel fabric, the blue & green crochet trim & embroidery hoops. They're all on order & should be arriving soon. We'll get them back up on the website ASAP!

We've had some questions lately about red floss & red fabrics bleeding. I haven't had any problems personally, but I know it's totally possible! We heard from a shop last month that had several boxes of red DMC that were purchased for class kits & they had trouble with it (big, really bad trouble!!) And from a shop in Canada that was having trouble with many of their red fabrics. All I can say is.... red's always been a problem. We're advising everyone to pre-wash red fabrics & use Retayne or a vinegar solution to set the dye, or use one of those dye magnets. You can also test your floss & soak the entire skein in Retayne or a vinegar solution. We haven't seen any problems at all with the Cosmo floss but please DO remember that the Weeks Dye Works floss is not colorfast. Good Luck!

We have some more show & tell for you! This Halloween Journey stitchery was made by Candace Peckich. She finished it as a little wall quilt. I love her piano key borders!! Look at the back too, I swear it's just as cute! Great job Candace! Thanks for letting all of us see it!

This stitched dish towel is from Donna Huckabee. She got this free Texas wildflowers pattern at a Texas shop hop (I vaguely remember drawing it!!! LOL!!) It turned out really pretty Donna! She also sent a picture of wild evening primroses covering a field near her home. That's SO very pretty!!! I'd love to be able to see the bluebonnets blooming some day. Texans should be so proud of their wildflowers being protected & cultivated the way that they are!

Last, I have to show you a watercolor painting by Jan Clark. She emailed me a picture of it last week. I saw it & fell madly in love immediately!! It's her kitty but she looks exactly like MY Honeybunny!!!! I had to have it!!! She's bringing it by the studio on Friday. I'M SO EXCITED!!!

Show & Tell

When I was a little girl I would fill old jars with tiny fruit that had been thinned from the trees in the orchard, pour water in them & line them up on boards I'd set up as makeshift shelves for my "store". Next to be arranged would be the empty vanilla bottles & tin cans. Last, would be the pies & cookies that, even though they were just made of mud, were carefully decorated with seed pods, flower heads & dandelion down. I'd throw an old sheet over the picnic table for the counter & my "store was complete & open for business! I'd spend hours & hours daydreaming & helping my invisible customers..... Last week when the studio was open for the shop hop I got to do it for real! It was so much hard work & so much fun!! Thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit......... you're all just so sweet!

Now, everything is put away & we're all back to normal in the studio. We're working as quickly as possible to get the new patterns & notions that we had in the shop hop up on the website & out to the shops! Hopefully, we'll get everything loaded on the website today!! Right now though, I'd like to share some photos that have been sent in over the last few weeks!

First, is a bluebird pillow sent in from Lori Delino of Poland, OH. She made this for a friend's birthday................. If I tell you when MY birthday is, will you make one for me too???? (That was whining, I know...) It's a bluebird from the "Bluebird" quilt. Really cute way to take an image from a larger pattern & use it in a different way!

Next is "Heirloom Romance" made by Cheri Testa from Maple Falls, WA. She's going to be entering this quilt in the Leavenworth Quilt Show in September. It looks beautiful Cheri! I hope you win a ribbon!!

This is Three Cheers for the Red, White, & Blue by Elizabeth Swinney. It's really pretty Elizabeth! Well done!!

This is Shellee Jensen's (Hiccup!) Gardener's Angel of Spring. I hope that you can see that she put seed pearls along the inside of her skirt. I'll bet it's just gorgeous in person Shellee!! Thanks for showing us! You can make just about any stitchery more interesting & pretty with the addition of some beading!

OK..... I just think this is the greatest idea & I like it SO MUCH MORE than the way I finished this quilt!!! I'm not sure who made this "Merry Little Christmas" but it was sent in by Roxie of ThimbleCreek Quilt Shop in CA. They used the stitchery from "Winter Wishes" and set it in the center of the quilt. Then, it's very heavily quilted. It's just plain gorgeous!!!! I'm SO JEALOUS!! I want it!

I mean..... SERIOUSLY!!!!..... look at this!!!! WOW!

Speaking of WOW!! This version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" was sent in by Carriage Country Quilts in Des Moines, WA. It makes me wish I'd used this colorway instead of reds..... This is just beautiful.......... Oh man.............maybe I should do one again like this, just for me. Hmmmmmmm............................ ? Do they have kits???The rest of the photos are all from Carriage Country Quilts! I see "Farm Fresh Produce", "Home Grown" pincushions..."Honeybunny's Harvest" (look at the cute display!!!)"Three Cheers For the Red, White, & Blue"........love the way they finished it! Once again..... great display!! I bought one of those houses when I taught there last year... they light up, very cool!!!!

Oh!.... is that all??? ............ well, I guess it's time to get back to work! Bye!! xox Meg

Shop Hop Day 300

Proof-positive that the most fun shop hoppers come around closing time !!! We laughed so hard! Have fun hopping back to Boise!

Taking photos for her blog at gracioushospitality.com

Pretty, pretty ladies braving the heat....... it was 100 degrees today (it felt hotter than that!) We kept the air on full blast (I think we may have icicles around the windows on the inside!) so that we'd all be comfortable in the studio. We have one more full day of the Shop Hop to go! We're out of kits, we ALMOST ran out of floss but we got an emergency shipment just in time from Cosmo, we're out of embroidery hoops & running low on needles. What we still have plenty of is fun, laughter & patterns (we print our own & never run out. HA, so there!!!)

Maybe we'll see YOU tomorrow! Bye! Meg

Shop Hop...Day 20

Hi Again!

We're still here shop hopping away!! I have to tell you tho... we got a layer cake from Moda last night. It's an April Cornell line that will be coming out in Nov. (I think?) & it's SO BEAUTIFUL! It reminds me of old Delft china so I've been drawing all day on a new pattern!!

It's going to have china & dresden plates & embroidered dresden plates & flowers & more flowers, all in periwinkle blues, yellows, ivory & a touch of green. I'M SO EXCITED I don't want to stop for the night!!! I'll try to remember to take a photo tomorrow to show you!

We've been meeting so many people & some have brought show & tell. I just love seeing my designs done up in so many different ways. Does my heart good! Thank you so much!

xox Meg

Shop Hop.....Day 5

Hi! This post is from Jan! That's me cutting grab bag fatQ's........ (not really, it's me, Meg again. Jan's a party pooper too.... & won't write). She's put together the greatest grab bags for us... all color coordinated! We love her, so she's forgiven for not wanting to blog... anyway, she's been at a dead run all day & is too tired to type!

We've had more stitcher's visit us today than any other day so far!!! You know what? I've decided that stitcher's are just happy people!! We've loved every minute of our visits with you!

Some of you have come from quite far away! Even as far away as Indiana, Rhode Island & Colorado! That's Peggy Smith in the photo above & she's from Colorado... isn't she cute? (I don't flatter myself to think that they're here just to visit us but it's so nice to know that they made us part of their journey!) Sheila brought a big pot of stew this morning & it simmered in the slow cooker all morning in the "kitchen" in the office. It smelled SO GOOD!!! We had so many visitors we had to eat lunch in shifts but it was worth it!!

We ended our day with a good long visit with Kathy, Diane, Kristi & Debbie. Debbie kept asking us for pancakes for some reason..............hmmmmm...............? Hope everything works itself out alright in the end! LOL!!!! Gee I find myself so stinkin' amusing!!! And yes, that was all in code, but good ol' Deb will understand!!

Shop Hop Day...4?

Hi! I'm Sheila!.... (not really... it's me, Meg but I wanted Sheila to write this & she refused so I'm going to pretend I'm her! LOL!!) I hate this photo of me because I'm really much prettier than this & so much younger than everyone else who works here they're jealous of me. (Oh man, she's going to SOOoooo wish she'd written this!!!)We've gotten to visit with so many shop hoppers these last few days! Several of them have been from my home state!!! TEXAS!!! We've been able to compare okra recipes & say Y'all & talk about all the stitching we're "fixin" to do!!! I've LOVED it!!! (we just love Sheila & her cute accent & stuff!) Here are some photos we've taken today................

These are three naughty girls.........yes, NAUGHTY........not knot-y!!! They're Miss Lucille, Miss B Peep and Miss Poppy Ann. They're a hoot & can come back & visit ANY time!!!

Well, I'm not going to ever be able to turn my back on Sheila again if there are sharp objects in the room after THIS!!!! xox Meg

Shop Hop Day 3

Hi again!

We just locked the doors & turned out the lights on day three! It's been so fun meeting everybody! We've seen some show & tell, done a lot of chit-chatting & laughed SO MUCH!!

We had an early evening today. Sheila is off to a church function with her 2 boys... Jan & Cyndy have left to do some shopping... & I'm winding things up here at the studio & trying to get all of the photos of the new Cosmo 2 ply floss on the spools ready for the website so that you can try them out!! I should be able to get them loaded on the website tomorrow (hope-hope!!) These are a few of them...

I think we'll also put these tins of button on the site. They turned out so cute I almost wouldn't want to open them & use the buttons!!
I hope that some of you will be able to come visit us this week. We'll be so happy to meet you!!

xox Meg

Sage Brush Shop Hop Day 2

Hi All!

Cyndy here, from Crabapple Hill Studio, we wanted to give all of you an update on our first ever shop hop! As most of you know we are not normally open to the public... Buuuuutttttt my lovely sister Dawn from Traditions Quilt Shop in Baker City, Oregon had this brilliant beyond brilliat idea to include us in the "Sage Brush Shop Hop" along with many other shops in our vicinity! (see the Hop list on our website under "Goodies to Download")

Of course a year ago it sounded so easy, HA! Meg, Sheila, Jan Cindy (with and i) and I worked our "patooties" off for the last couple weeks gearing up.. Meg designing, Cindy and Sheila printing the rest cutting kits etc. (Our hats off to the actual shop owners you gals do this on a regular basis!) We were up until 11:30 Thursday night, "fluffing" the studio. After all of the effort we have been so lucky to get to meet so many wonderful people. Everyone seems so happy! We have been having a great time. We even had a great lady from the Seattle area drive herself all the way over to the hop so that she could come in to meet Meg and hang with the rest of us! So many from Idaho & Oregon we love meeting you all!

Ask anyone who came in we girls get to work in a magical place (it really does look like the pictures on the website). Sheila even met a fellow Texan (they had a fun time "fixin" to do things), we are only into day two and already we've met just the nicest people. So a big thank you to the actual shops that let us partcipate... We're having a blast!

New Zealand is Calling!!

Yesterday we had a visit from a tour group from New Zealand!..... well..... one of the girls was from North Pole, Alaska... but MOST of them were from NZ! They had started out the morning touring The Buggy Barn, near Spokane WA. They, QUITE understandably!, left the Buggy Barn a little later than planned (their shop is so much fun!!) and reached us at about 1:00pm. We all had lunch & did some shopping... they were all SO NICE!!! Even their bus driver! We're not used to being a "shop", so this was kind of our first taste of what's to come with the Sage Brush Shop Hop starting tomorrow. We need to get a LOT faster at making change & stuff... hopefully everyone will remember that this isn't something that we do on a regular basis because, quite frankly, we stink at it!! LOL

Everybody got back on the bus (so sad to see them go!!) and started to drive away.... when we realized that we didn't have a photo of them!! So we made Sheila (that's her finally finding time for lunch above... she'll kill me when she realizes I've used this picture!!) run out & pretty much throw herself in front of the bus to stop them while we ran to get the camera!This is Lesley Christiansen waving her New Zealand flag. Lesley is their tour coordinator & is so very nice. She'd brought with her a bag full of pink scarves made for us by her sister. She thought that we might know how to distribute them either to the designers who donated blocks for the Forget Me Not quilt or to Susan G Komen for the cure. We'll come up with something for them, I promise!! Thank you so much for doing this!! What a sweetheart! Thanks also, to Lesley and all the girls in the group for the this's and that's that you gave us. We're so grateful. You all can come visit ANY time!!!

Our Early Summer Contest Winners!

We've drawn the winners for our word contest!! YAHOO!!!
I've always been a sucker for word puzzles and now it's obvious that I'm not alone!! We had SO MANY entries it's taken us a few hours to go over all of them & count letters in long words & phrases!
First, I have to mention our favorites (whether they won or not!):

"straw cookies...yuck, ten loopy jars & fairy tale ways" from Karin

Pat's "pink rose & pace yourself"

"A jar of pink flowers" from Lisa Leimone, which we thought may win the longest phrase but someone else had one with 3 more letters.

Ruth Berke's "no flakes & walk, run, fly"

Karen Martin's "a asocial qwerty rip-off junky"......yes, it doesn't make much sense & has a made-up word....but I think Karen might have been describing someone who was giving her a bad time! LOL!!!

Cathie Dein's "Fleur in Pot" is so pretty!

Becky Shafer & Betty Dobberpuhl sent their words in crossword puzzle form.... YIKES!

"tranquil space" came from Janelle Huntsman.................. Ahhhhhhhhhhh..... may have to hang that in the studio!

"quilts for joy" came from Stina Blomgren..... and yes, even though English isn't your first language everything was spelled beautifully!

Several of you included "quilt fairy".... unconsious or consious wishes for magical help???

Arlene Forney's "craft fools in quirky yap" didn't make sense but still managed to sort of describe all of us girls here at Crabapple Hill !! LOL!!!............. especially Cyndy! HA-HA-HA!

Anyway... thanks to all of you! I really am planning on using your words for this & that as the years go by.......I'm saving ALL of them! You've made me a happy girl!

Finally..........Our winners are............

Drawing: Ina Maslana, Diane Koenig, Barb (sorry, no last name yet!) Elizabeth Swinney & Shellee Jensen

Most Words: Terri Woodford ....... NINE pages........ NINE!!!!

Longest Phrase: Mary Burn's "Parkway for fine quilts"

Longest word: Jane Laatsch's "watercolours" with 12 letters (lots of you had 11 letter words!)

Most long words: Danny Campbell....... almost all of her words were 10 or 11 letters WOW!

Thanks to everybody for participating! We'll be contacting you to get addresses so that we can send out your prizes!