Take a break from sewing and play in the sprinklers!

I was setting some sprinklers yesterday & had a "helper"!!! This HAS to be the same goofy robin that is so in love with all of our car's windows and mirrors!

I swear... I'd just turned the hose on and walked around the corner of the house & he was already in the middle of bath time & happy as a clam!!!

I think with a couple of these shots, if you didn't know he was a bird, you'd be hard pressed to figure out WHAT it was! LOL!!! He was thoroughly enjoying himself so I just waited until he was finished before I hooked the sprinkler to the hose....well.... there it is! Proof positive that spring is here!

Thought I'd share a couple more pictures of the new house. This is some of my green stuff in the kitchen. They all thought I was out of my mind, just wanting shelves instead of cupboards!!...I think I was right!!! I love the way they look... clean, old fashioned, open and airy!

And this is a pic of the kitchen......I put the dirty dishes down in the bottom of the sink so they wouldn't show! HA!!!!

I've sewed all week on the blocks for "Snow Day".... all the girls & I have been stitching away on the blocks too and tomorrow Cyndy and Jan are driving down from Leavenworth to drop off the ones that they, Judy and Gracie have been working on. I'll take a picture after they're all together & try to remember to post it tomorrow. I LOVE this fabric and I LOVE the way the piecing is turning out!! Can't wait to see all the blocks together!

xox Meg

Moving along......

It feels so good when projects start getting finished one by one! I got "Fondest Regards" all put together yesterday and started on the blocks for "Snow Day" bright & early this morning!

The "Vintage Postcard" above is actually really big! I want one of them to put in my house. Usually I don't get to use any of the samples because they're traveling here & there as I teach etc... but this one Sheila stitched TWO of!!! One tinted with crayon and one just stitched. I LOVE the both & I'm going to have to steal one away!!! I'm making simple pillows out of them. They'll be the linen on front & back and a corded edge.

Here's a little preview of "Snow Day"!! (un-ironed...sorry!) I'm really loving how the blocks are turning out in that beautiful Lecien "Mrs. March's" and "Centenary Collection" fabric!!! I have alot of piecing to do...soooooooooooo.......back to work!

Out with the old & In with the new!

Don't you just LOVE it when an old project is completed and you can dust off your hands, clear the decks and start something NEW & EXCITING?????? I just finished sewing several of these purses for class samples.........they (and another 2 purse designs that I'm still working on) are for 2010 classes. I wanted to do something a little bit different....these were SO MUCH FUN!!!!

AND.... for the exciting "something new"???? Well.....that would be "Snow Day" coming out in May. I've just gone through all of my Lecien fabrics and chosen my palette........it's just PERFECT for what I have in mind!! The floss will be all one color.........but it's actually several shades of golden taupe with some brown/blue green/gray thrown in for good measure!!! I LOVE the way it looks once it's stitched....sort of like old, faded ink!

Some of the stitching on the blocks is going to spill out onto pieced areas.......OH SO COOL!!!! My fingers are itching to get started!!! It's going to be old farmhouses and barns, covered bridge, general store, schoolhouse, a little country church, a brook with a waterfall, sledders, snowmen makers, and snowy woods of course!! The perfect little town and countryside of my dreams....ahhhh........hope you like it too! I'll give you a little peek as we get the blocks stitched, OK???

Thanks so much for all your well wishes and compliments about the new house! When I started taking pictures I realized how much WASN'T completed and picture worthy! LOL!!! I'll take more as things come together. There was a question about my paint colors....let's see.... for the most part I went with a creamy, french vanilla color called "Cottage White" from Behr. There was plenty of contrast with the white trim & it really stands out. The main living areas are in a little darker, warm linen-y shade called "Warm Scones" from Ace... the white woodwork really pops against it. It looked pretty dark in the small test area I painted but once the trim was added and the whole room was painted it really lightened up.... of course there is nothing but light in there...a MILLION windows.........really, ask me, I know because I paid for the window blinds!! LOL!!!! OH! The blinds!!!! They're like old fashioned roller blinds, but they roll up automatically and don't do that "flip...flip...flip" thing like the old ones... and they are totally hidden when they roll up all the way (had to fight tooth and nail for THAT one!) Then...(this is the good part)...when the blind guy came (NO...he wasn't visually impaired!...you're SO FUNNY!!) he saw the house and asked me if I'd like to see some old blind pulls that he's had stuck away since his father owned the company in the 50's..........I said......YES!!!! Please! They're the old kind with the crocheted ring on the end..........now THIS was just meant to be..........there were exactly enough to do all the blinds in the house! YIPPEE!!!!! .............................now that I've bored you to death!.....................................hmmmmmm........... isn't it about time for another contest??? YES!!! I have to start thinking of something! Keep posted!

xoxox Meg

Nesting in...

Hi! We're finally settling in to the new house, so I thought I'd take a few pictures....bear with me...this is sort of like home movies!! LOL!!!!

This is in the foyer... that's a stitchery I did last fall (sort of a "baby picture" for the house) when we thought it would be completed in November. I stitched '09 on it ...didn't know that it SHOULD have be '10 !!! Oh well... all's well that ends well and I DEARLY love this house. It feels old and cozy exactly as I'd planned!!! YAHOO!!! It's still quite echo-y though because we can't put any rugs down for another month or so...hardwood floors are curing.

Phil and Jon were SO relieved when I told them this buffet was going just inside the front door!! It's as heavy as lead! I would have told them it went upstairs just to get a reaction from them but figured I may have a MUTINY on my hands!!!!

View into the livingroom from the foyer. I'm planning on making a slipcover for that chair with a pleated skirt...light linen or denim. That's Honeybunny sitting on the bare floor....not a happy camper about THAT!!! When he does his nightly hallucination run around the house he slides all over the place... It's SO FUNNY!!!! He doesn't think so tho...seems to take all the fun out of it for him....just not dignified I guess!! LOL!!!! I'll wait to take pictures of the livingroom... most of our furniture isn't here yet so we're kind of "making do". I'll show you later.

This is the "breakfast room" off the kitchen. We're using the formal dining room as an office. I'd MUCH rather sit down to dinner a little more casually and with all those windows anyway!!! The houseplan called this the "breakfast room" ... I think that's so pretentious...sounds like you should also have a "lunch room" and a "snack room"....oh well! Our new chairs haven't arrived yet either..........they're out there somewhere in la-la land with our livingroom furniture. I LOVE these chandeliers!!!! Just think of all the things that you could hang from them!!! I put old book pages from storybooks, cookbooks, sheets of music, postcards etc....
The end wall back to the right is going to have a big blackboard on it.

Door to the back porch... living room is to the left

I went a little bit overboard on moss...it's EVERYwhere!!!

Sun's going down!

OK.... here it is!!! My very favorite room in the house! I've always, always wanted a big "pantry" with an area for baking. Everybody thought I was crazy for wanting this room off the kitchen but now all I hear from them is.."my wife would LOVE this!" It's baking area with low cupboards for rolling dough and kneading (I'm sort of short), storage up the yingy-yangy, and room for the freezer and an icemaker. I also had them put in a large cupboard that is just the depth of the wall (6") for all those little things....spices, extracts, cupcake cups...you get the idea.... We'd had a cupboard in the kitchen like this in a 100yr old house we lived in for many years & I SWORE that if I was ever able to build a house I'd have a cupboard just like it!
I'm going to make real simple curtains for this window using some of the dish towel fabric we carry on the website... don't know if I'll use the multi stripe or the all green multi width stripe yet. I'll have to audition both of them an decide! I think they may need some embroidery on them, don't you?

I got these galvanized squares to hang recipes on that I use frequently.... I need to make some cute magnets... I'm thinking clothespins (already use them for just about EVERYthing!!)
I had to smoosh together 3 pictures to get this one ....either that, or somebody was drinking very heavily when they installed the cabinets!!!?..... I wanted to be able to have that kind of old general store everything visible canning jars all stacked up look.... I finally have all of my cake decorating tools and pans out of boxes and put away (may actually USE them again now!)

Last picture for now is in the powder room.... very lavender....very girly!!! I promised Phil that this time I'd keep the "floral" to a minimum but HAD to have someplace to put my collection of lilac and pansy stuff! Didn't I????? Don't you agree?????? This little room sparkles! I love it...and I found a great lilac candle!!! The room smells like you just walked into the center of a lilac bush in full bloom!!!! Ahhhhhhhh..................................

Well...that's all of my baby pics for now.....................

Hey! Almost forgot!!! We had a question about coloring. Should you color before or after stitching? The directions are in each pattern that uses the crayon tinting, but here's a recap!

Trace, then tint with crayons, then press using a paper towel or two until you don't have any crayon transfer to the towels, then stitch.

I have forgotten to color an area or two and have gone back & carefully colored the area in after stitching & then heat set. It's more difficult to keep the crayon off of the floss though...so....maybe only do it this way in a pinch?

See you later!!!! xoxoxo Meg