How I Spent My Summer Vacation...#1

What a busy, but fun and relaxing weekend!!! I made jam (isn't it pretty with the sunset shining through??? We'll be set for raspberry and pineapple/apricot for the whole year!
Then I made some "artwork" for the house. I've been putting this off for MONTHS....just waiting for the right time to get everything out and make the mess! LOL!!!

I have an old, torn up, coverless compilation of the Ladies Home Journals from 1923 through 1924 (I can't WAIT to do something with the Christmas editions!!!). I used some of the pages for backgrounds etc... This was SO MUCH FUN!!

The next picture is in my livingroom...I wanted to give you an idea of how big these three botanicals are. Phil and I went up in the mountains and picked a few stems of roadside plants and then I pressed/dried them between paper towels and a couple big pieces of plywood. We stacked heavy boxes of paper (for patterns) on top. It just took a few weeks, and VOILA!!!!

I had wanted....(not a descriptive enough word for what I felt....)....COVETED some botanicals like this that I had found on the Wisteria website last summer. They were smaller than these and cost over $300 each. Yeah....just couldn't justify THAT much no matter HOW cool they were! LOLOL!!!! All three of these together came to under $100 (not counting the gas to drive to the mountains....It was so pretty that day....sigh!!) Not a bad deal! I think I like these better anyway. Local flora, good memories... WOO-HOO!!!!

I found out too late that the glue would show through the leaves....I'll stick something in front of this one to sort of cover it up... it'll be OK.

I've decided that I'm going to have to dry/press more and do a few more of these for here and there...........smaller tho! I'm thinking wild roses, wild lilacs, phlox....stuff like that!

When we had to move out of the house to have the floors re-done we moved Honeybunny out into the studio. He's been so happy out here! He greets everybody when they walk in....demands attention even if it means lying down on the keyboard or right in the middle of YOUR DRAWINGS AS YOU'RE DRAWING THEM!!! YIKES!!!.... and he takes great joy in helping Cindy with the shipping...(everything she does makes SUCH fun noises!) Anyway, I think he's now a shop cat so you may find cat hairs in with your orders! Sorry!!

Well.... I'm off to new adventures. With the whole day empty and ahead of me I can do whatever strikes my fancy, huh????

xoxox Meg

Summer Vacation!!

Summer vacation starts TODAY!!!! .... A whole week of possibilities!...WOO-HOOO!!!!! I have lots of plans............cushions to make for the front porch's furniture, slipcovers and curtains to make for here & there in the house, a COMPLETE cleaning and re-arrange of the studio, raspberries and apricots are in all the farmer's markets so I think I'll make raspberry and apricot/pineapple jams, I have some artwork I want to finish and frame for the house..........THEN!!!! I think I'm going to think about giving the website a new look??? THEN.....I think I'll..................oh, who am I kidding???? I'm going to vegetate for a few days and run out of time and won't get even HALF of all that done!!! YAHOO!!!! A lazy summer vacation!!!
xoxoxox Meg

Free Christmas Pattern!!!

OOOOooooo!!!!.... I forgot to tell you that I have a free Christmas pattern to download on http://Freequiltpatterns.info . Take a look! There will be another new one on there in a few weeks also! I'll let you know when it goes up.
How could I have forgotten about that???? What a silly girl......................

Workshop Weekend!

On Friday, we packed up the camp trailer...(not too hard to pack up since we've been LIVING in it in the driveway all week because our hardwood floors had to be refinished...they had lots of problems with the finish to start with...dry spots...paint spots etc...).....and drove over the mountains to Arlington, WA. We camped at a lake resort nearby and the first class at Quiltmaker's started bright and early on Saturday morning! Here are a few pics of everybody hard at work...stitching away!!

Everybody was SO NICE!!! I only got pics of the first class on Saturday...completely forgot to get out the camera during Sunday's class!!! They were a great group of ladies too!! We had alot of fun, and Kim and Marty from Quiltmakers made the days so special for everybody. Arlington is such a beautiful little town...clean...old buildings...flowers everywhere....VERY old fashioned! I'd live there in a heartbeat!!! It's surrounded by beautiful forests and fields of hay, turf, pasture and one huge nursery after another!...rows and rows of trees, bushes and flowers! Several farm stands too, with fresh produce EVERYWHERE!!! They grow alot of raspberries over there evidently....raspberries for sale around every curve! Such a lovely place.....sigh!

This was a little store next to the quilt shop. They had lots of fun stuff. It's called Favorite Pastime and the little girl who was working there said that they have a facebook page...I'm going to try to find it...

After class on Saturday we were lucky enough to make it to this store before it closed. It's called Sasafrass & Company and was having it's grand opening RIGHT on the weekend we'd arrived! I was hoping each time we passed it to get to the lake where we were camped, that we'd be able to make it there before we had to leave!!!

Most of the stuff in there was right up my alley!!! I walked out with all of the things shown below. Old milk bottles....one of them was from the Yakima City Creamery! (Yakima's only about 75 or so miles from us) A red tablecloth that's almost in perfect condition, some embroidered table scarves, an embroidered tablecloth that was unfinished (I think that's so charming!) and lots of crocheted potholders (I'm going to sew them together like yo-yo's and make a pillow cover for my front porch)

This was the view in back of the store.....geez, it's so pretty there!

We had to leave for home right after the class on Sunday. I would have loved to stay a few more days and explore....I saw SEVERAL more shops and farmstands I would have liked to have visited and we never even made it down to the water (Puget Sound) though it was only a few miles from where we camped. We got close enough to see the sunset glinting off the water, if that counts! Totally forgot to take a picture....sorry, it's gorgeous! I have a class in Des Moines WA in August at Carriage Country Quilts and classes at La Conner in October so I'll get some water pictures FOR SURE both times!!!

It was BEAUTIFUL on the drive home! We don't like to take the freeways if at all possible, so we came back over the mountains over Stevens Pass (in the north/central part of the state) The mountain below is Mt. Index....I really think it needs a prettier name....something having to do with a secret, magic castle at the top or something????? It really looks magical....well....when you're not looking through power lines.....but, if you've kept up with my posts at all, you know that the car isn't actually allowed to STOP or my husband's eyes will actually pop out of his head and roll around on his cheeks............at least I THINK that's the reason I have to take all my pics out of the windows of a moving car!!???

The sun started to get really low in the sky as we went through the pass so everything gets that blue tint! These pics were taken on the east side of the pass in Tumwater Canyon. Those mountains are why the Rocky Mountains aren't terribly impressive to us....everything's bigger in Washington!....sorry Texas.....just a little Washingtonian pride peeking through!

We took a little detour after we got out of the pass and drove to Cashmere, WA to go to Rusty's Drive-in for burgers..........excuse me??????......THE BEST burgers, fries and milkshakes in the WORLD!!!! Know how to tell that I'm not exaggerating??? This is a little, little, little town (I lived here as a child by the way!) And look at that line!!!!! It never slowed down the entire time we were there. We parked in the museum parking lot next to the drive-in and just ate dinner and watched everybody pouring in to this place...little families with their children in strollers or wagons walked in from town across the river...everybody leaving with milkshakes and ice cream cones....carload after carload of people coming here straight from the lakes or the river pulling their boats...ending the day at Rusty's. If you're ever up that way, it's the place to go! It doesn't hurt that there are two big (very cool!) antique malls right across the street and the Aplets and Cotlets factory in town just across the river!

We finished dinner and headed home over Blewett Pass (yup, alot of mountains!) It was dark by the time we got off that pass and when we finally came down the hill into the Yakima Valley we were shocked to see the hills above Selah on fire! It all looked so close to the lights of town and houses, I hope that we'd misjudged where the fire was and that no one lost their homes! We'll have to watch the news tonight and see what damage it did.

Anyway! Home again....we get to move back in to our house tomorrow...YAHOO!!!!...and back to working on new patterns!

xox Meg

Ch-ch-ch-changes!!!

Hi everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I last posted...SO MUCH has been going on!!! First, we've just been SO, SO busy in the studio!!! Then we had computer problems that just went on and on......and ON!!! Then we had to move out of the first floor of our house so that they could refinish the hardwood floors..........NEW floor??? you say????.....yes...not a happy thing! Where'd we move TO???? Our camp trailer in our driveway...not awful, but NOT HOME!!! We can move back in next Tuesday or Wednesday and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!
We'll be traveling to Arlington, WA this weekend and I'll be at the Quiltmaker's Shop for two workshops.... I can't WAIT!!! It's going to be so much fun! I just hope I remember to take the time to take some pictures so you can see what we're doing! It's so beautiful over there too... I'll try to get some photos of the scenery in gorgeous northwestern Washington!
Anyway, I have to share these photos of quilts and projects made by YOU!!!! These first two were made by Joyce Strack of Missoula, MT. Her Twas the Night Before Christmas won a 2nd place in the Holiday category and the Snowmen A to Zzzz below, won a 1st place ribbon!! They're gorgeous Joyce!!!! No wonder they won ribbons!

The next few photos were sent in by our good friend, Shellee "Hiccup Girl" !! She made "Susan's Dresden Garden" and it's just beautiful!!! She appliqued the centers on the dresdens rather than making yo-yo's and....

she raided her mom's button bin and found flower shaped buttons for the centers of her mini dresden flowers in the center block...(wish I'd had those buttons when I made MINE!!!)

Beautiful Shellee!!! Thanks for sending these to us!

The next projects were sent in by Sandy Holton of Spokane, WA. She's VERY prolific!!

Sandy's done the Vintage Postcard as a larger pillow and used what looks like different floss than the variegated ones we used. I love seeing everyone's imaginations coming through in their projects!!! She also made the Nesting Time stitchery below with such a pretty floral fabric!

Sandy also sent in this photo of her "Fondest Regards" quilt. I wish the picture was a little brighter... I know all the detail is beautiful! Thanks for sending them in Sandy!!!

OH!!! I almost forgot!!! Sheila is working on getting our new Facebook page all put together! She's just getting started with it, but we'll be adding more and more stuff every day. I don't really understand fully what the "workings" of a facebook page are (cuz I'm OLD!!!) but Sheila will get it all up and running!!!

Meanwhile, we just got an order of beads and stuff in and Cindy will be putting together new Scissor Charms and other fun stuff, next week! Then Kathi will get them up on the website ASAP!!!

Last, but not least...there are two new patterns being worked on RIGHT NOW that will be released next month! They're both small projects.........one of them is 3 different images-each a vintage style needle package front or button card....BIG of course!!!LOL!!! The second one is a hanging heart that I'm MADLY in love with!!! I'll take pictures when we get back next week and I'll give you a sneak peek in the next post!

Gotta go make dinner in my mini kitchen in the camp trailer........................do you feel sorry for me?????? Good..........I need it....geez!!! Wait almost a year...move in...move out....move in....HOLY MOLY!!!!.......................................sniff!..................... I'm wearing my most pathetic face.....maybe we'll go out to eat? Anybody feel sorry enough for me to come help us move back in next week?????

xoxox Meg

Happy 4th of July!!

I hope you're having fun with family and friends today! BBQ'd anything, red white & blue blowing in the breeze, watermelon, water balloon tosses, drippy ice cream cones and fireworks!! Grab the most comfortable rocker on the back porch in the shade and relax!!

xox Meg