Knot-y Girl's Stitchery Club

The Photography is DONE!

2012-01-12T09:52:00.000-08:00

YAHOO!!! I'm working on laying up the covers for the new patterns, and when I'm done they'll be ready to go and I can start working on the "NEW" new designs!

A Gardener's Alphabet is above. Yes, we have the linen that I used... it's on the website... the mid-shade one. We don't have all of the floss yet for our floss kits tho....some of it is backordered.

The one below is called Crazy Love.....I know....it's almost too late for Valentines Day, but it's a one day project and hearts are good ALL the time as far as I'm concerned! It also has some new flowers/new stitch for my patterns.... that gives you 3D flower petals on the forget me nots. FUN!!

Moving past Valentines Day................to Easter!

All My Eggs In One Basket is above..... Here Comes Peter Cottontail Pillowcase is below.

The eggs and ribbon in the basket are glittered up with silver Sparkles floss from Cosmo. It really does look like old glass glitter!

The pillowcase (I just love this.......there's something about bunnies with coats!) is crayon tinted. You can launder it in cold water and mild soap. You actually wouldn't HAVE to tint it, but I think it makes it look a little like an old storybook picture.

The pillow above is called Sweet Violette. It's on linen and I used cotton lace for edging it. VERY old fashioned!

This last one is called Hedgerow Wreath. Some of my favorite flowers!!! It also has the 3D cast-on stitch flower petals. They're not as hard as they look and the directions for them are in the pattern.

I'm trying to get these on the website within 2 weeks....work, work, work!!! LOL!!!

It's about 19 degrees out this morning........Happy Spring! xox Meg

Let's pretend it's Spring!!

2012-01-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

The new patterns are almost ready to release! The photographer will be here Tuesday! I thought you might want to see some more images from A Gardener's Alphabet.

I have to admit... I've sort of fallen in love with this quilt and I've chosen my very favorite blocks....P (poppies), Q (queen ann's lace), M (morning glory - heavenly blues of course!), G (grapes), and K (kohlrabi....YES KOHLRABI!)

Oh yeah....and R (wild roses), and S (Spring & Summer...with appleblossoms and apples)

I'm kind of fond of the berries too.....B

The only problem is.... this pattern was just too big! (not the quilt.... the actual pattern!)

So I decided to split it up...two blocks to a pattern... and present it as a block of the month!

This way, there'll be big, color pictures of the blocks on the pattern covers and that will help everybody with their color tinting!

There will also be two Easter patterns... a pillowcase called "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", and one called "All My Eggs In One Basket". Also there will be "Hedgerow Wreath"... a flower wreath that you can put a monogram in the center of.... "Sweet Violette", a pillow with a bouquet of violets on the front....and a little Valentine (yes, I know it's a little late!LOL!!!) Called "Crazy Love".

There'll be many more new designs coming out in May at International Quilt Market in Kansas City too!........along with my new fabric line from Lecien.......nope, no hints or sneak peeks!

I should let you know too, that the October and June 2013 retreats are full. There are a few places left in the December retreat and several in the March one. BOY they filled up quickly!!!! I can't wait to meet everybody that signed up!!

Well....suppose I'd better get back to writing patterns!

Thanks for a great 2011!

xox Meg

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-01T10:45:00.000-08:00

Wishing For Snow!

2011-12-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

It's COLD and very, very foggy today! Don't the snowmen on the studio

porch look comfy in the chilly weather?

I made these many years ago for a store window display.....now I'm thinking of maybe making a pattern for them! I'd kind of forgotten about them... now I've sort of fallen in love with them again!

I'll never forget the day I drove with them from my house to the shop. I'd strapped them into seatbelts so they wouldn't tip over......You'll never believe some of the looks we got at stop signs!!!

Hoar frost on the crabapples of the little tree at the front of the studio. Isn't nature amazing??

Have a frosty weekend!!

The Winter Retreat Has Come...and Gone!

2011-12-06T13:08:00.000-08:00

We were so happy to see everybody arrive on Friday... and so sad to see them all leave on Sunday! We had such a good visit, so much laughter, and so much FUN!! I hope you enjoy the slideshow!

Customize your own free photo slideshow

We did something new this time... AN APRON CONTEST!! We sent the aprons out at the end of October to everybody and asked them to embellish them for the retreat. Not everybody brought one....PARTY POOPERS!!!.... it was a good thing though... we already had too many great aprons to choose from when it came time to vote for our favorites! The 3rd prize winner was Kim's candy cane apron.... 2nd prize went to Debbie's snow chef apron (it was complete with a matching tea towel and wine!).... 1st prize was won by Lynn and her Oh so cute gingerbread house Joy apron with the stuffed gingerbread man. They were all so cute!!!!! It was just darling with them hanging up all around the studio!

We were lucky enough to have several ladies who'd been at previous retreats, so there were many familiar faces! Traveling the farthest this time were Linda and Christine from McKinney, Texas. Every one of them was fun, funny, and so nice to have here! Thank you all for visiting us!! I'm already looking forward to our next winter retreat and have IDEAS!!!! for activities and projects!

HO HO HO!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the turkey is in the oven (the house smells GREAT!), everything else is either done, or ready to finish, and we're in that lovely time of the afternoon ................between bastings... and our guests and family arriving. Kind of a calm time before the final preparations and company...

Phil and I have come out to the studio to put some finishing touches on the studio's Christmas tree (I couldn't reach the top of the tree to hang the tinsel!) and to give HB a few cuddles and maybe a special Thanksgiving tummy rub! I think I may have enough time to finish up putting the tags on the last of the Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage kits (the last of the fabric we were waiting for arrived on Tuesday!!!! I guess I have to take back all those nasty names I was muttering under my breath about Moda and their backorders!LOL!!) They'll be ready to send on Monday to everyone on the waiting list. Once I know how many we have left over I'll put them up on the website.

Well... guess I'd better get to cuddling (HB's standing in front of the computer screen... a subtle hint??) I hope everybody is having a nice Thanksgiving!!

xo Meg

HO-HUM!!!

2011-11-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

We're getting so tired of waiting for the backordered fabric we need to complete our Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage kits.............it's all we can do to keep our eyes open!!! Some of us are having a little harder time than others!
Moda claims that the fabric should be here in another couple weeks......I'm so sorry for the Loooooooong delay.......but, at least we won't have to compromise about the prints we used!?
When it DOES arrive, where will Honeybunny a comfy place to take a nap?

Jingle Bells

2011-11-16T13:44:00.000-08:00

Jingle Bells...Jingle Bells...Jingle all the waaaayyyy....................
It's still snowing and the ground is WHITE!!!!!

AND!!! We have the winners for the Quiltmaker's 100 Quilt Blocks Blog Tour!!

The magazines were won by Jackie, Julie, Staci, and Jofrid..... congrats!
The fabric and pattern prizes were won by Linda and Ruth Ann.........YAY!!!
And the word puzzle contest was won by Lisa Marie whose email is windstream.net. PLEASE EMAIL us!!!!! info@crabapplehillstudio.com
We're having trouble with your email and it keeps bouncing back with an error!

We've notified everybody, but we need you to email your addresses ASAP so we can send your prizes!! YAHOO!!!! I feel like SANTA!.......Mrs. Santa??? It's SNOWING!!!!!

SNOW DAY!!!!!

2011-11-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

You have to stand outside....perfectly still......for a few minutes!!!! But there IS snow falling!!!!!
Does that mean we can have a snow day and all go home???
I wonder if you can make a snow angel in just frosty grass with six snowflakes stuck to it??
xoxoxoxoxoxox YAY!!!!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town....a little bit early?

2011-11-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was icing day!... Janice and I spent the afternoon in the house adding mica "ice" to gingerbread cookies that I'd made to put on the Christmas tree. We dipped and painted on Mod Podge glue....edges and tips.... and then dipped them in mica glitter (NOT EDIBLE!!!!) They look like they've been caught in a snow storm! I can't wait until the tree goes up so we can see what they look like once they're hung on it!!!

The problem is...........we got a little bit carried away..(an easy thing to do once you start adding glitter to things!) We started looking around for other things to "ice"! We decided to do pine cones for sure....and maybe acorns.......maybe some greenery? But FOR SURE we had to "ice" some branches!! Do you know how much you pay for fake, flocked (iced) branches?? Ours are practically free! Here's how we did it.....

1. First, you need Mod Podge glue. I prefer it because it's not super thin, so it won't just drip off the branches, and not too thick so you can brush it on without it being gloppy.

2. You'll need a brush to apply the glue. I like to use those cheap sponge brushes so I can just throw them away if they're too icky once I'm done.

3. Something to protect your work surface. We used large sheets of parchment paper.........I covered the countertop with one layer....then added a big sheet on top when we glued so it could catch the drips.......then removed it and added a clean one to catch the glitter (so we could re-use it). Yes, you go through quite a bit of parchment paper, but it makes the job so much easier! Stuff also won't stick to parchment paper...I paint and glue on it all them time because of that. It's MUCH cheaper to buy parchment paper in big sheets rather than those little rolls you get at the grocery store. I get a box of it at a restaurant supply store in town every year or two. It lasts for a LONG time even though I use it for everything from lining baking pans... craft projects...wrapping food... to using on the countertop to gather up peelings etc.... It's great stuff!

4. A bowl or pie pan lined with foil to put the glue in.... this is just easier and less messy than dipping in the jar of glue.

5. MICA!!!! Sometimes it's called Vintage Snow Glitter. It's a natural substance and has an extremely sparkly, icy, old fashioned look.

6. Something to "ice"! We did branches.

First, you'll dab the Mod Podge on to the top surfaces of all the branches and twigs. You may have to do a section at a time so the glue stays wet so the mica will stick to it...... Remove the paper under the area you glued (with the drips on it) and put a clean piece of parchment paper underneath.

Now sprinkle (dump) mica over the glued areas.

You'll want to carefully remove the paper with the left-over mica on it, and dump the mica back into the jar/box so you can re-use it.

Now all you have to do is let them dry. The glue will dry clear and the branches will just look ICY!!!

How cool is THAT??? And how easy!

We had so much fun with this project!!!! I hope you'll try it! Imagine some icy branches in a big pitcher...hung with a few glass icicles...or ornaments...or Christmas cards.....or cookies..........OR ANYTHING! How about sticking some branches in the tree here and there and decorating the tree with little "iced" nests and puffed up little birds? OOOOOOoooooo!!!! How about a branch in a pail with just one "iced" nest and a little bird???? How sweet would that be for a vignette that would last all winter long???? I'm going to do that! I'm going to put it in my foyer in front of my "Snow Days" quilt!! Oh.........I have to find a nest and a bird!!!!! Time to go to the craft store!

Oh, I almost forgot! Thanks to everybody that took the blog tour and entered my contest! We'll have the winners chosen first thing Monday morning and we'll get in touch with everybody... then we'll let you know who won!

I think I may have a bird and little twig nest in with my spring deco stuff....I have to go find it! Talk to you later!

xo Meg

Welcome Blog Tourers!

2011-11-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

Is "tourer" a real word?? Well... it is NOW!

We're going to print out our comments for November 7th and put them in a "hat"! The first and second names pulled will be the winners of a free copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Collector's Edition volume 4. YAY!! The third and fourth names pulled will receive a selection of fabrics perfect for embroidery or pieced backgrounds and a pattern.

THEN !!!!!!! We also have this little word puzzle above.... we're going to put all of the people who respond with the correct answer in a "hat", and the winner will receive a kit (fabric, tea towels, floss & pattern) for a brand new pattern called Peppermint Stick Tea Towels. It's SO NEW.... it won't be released until next spring! ........... all you have to do is take the letters given and find 9 (nine) words that have to do with stitchery and quilting! You should use all the letters....but no more than the ones given. I'll give you some really great hints to get you started.......... I have a fabric line called??? WHITEWASH, with LECIEN fabrics, and I stitch only with COSMO embroidery floss.... is that subtle enough???? LOL! That should get you off to a good start...........

We'll post the winners next week, so check back to see if you need to email with your address info so we can send your prize to you!

Here's another little sneak peek at a couple of the new "A Gardener's Alphabet" blocks. These are the last two!!! YAHOO!!!! Now all I have to do it trim them...sew them together.....figure out borders......write the pattern......photograph the quilt.......hmmmmmm....... there's a LOT of work yet to be done! But the stitching is completed at least! So it's time to celebrate! This pattern should be out in January if all goes as planned! I'll show you some of the other blocks as soon as we get them back from Lecien (they had them in their booth at International Quilt Market).

OH!!! The very first stitchery shown is a project for our Winter Stitching Sojourn Retreat that will be the first weekend in December. I'll show you the whole thing once the retreat is over... I've already spoiled the surprise! I can't keep a secret to save my life!!

Speaking of the winter retreat!... I spent the day shopping for Christmas stuff!! I found WAY too much great stuff I couldn't live without at Beaverbark (my favorite store in the world!) Got there just in time to pick stuff up out of boxes before it even made it to the displays! Talk about 7th heaven!! I also got a new Christmas tree for the studio to replace the one that was abducted and held for ransom a couple months ago........hopefully THIS tree will be the "stay at home" kind, and it won't wander off! LOL!!!!

Well, good luck on the drawings and the puzzle.......... it was nice of you to stop by and visit Crabapple Hill Studio if it's your first time here!.......... and have a nice time on the "tour"!!

xo Meg

Good News!

2011-11-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Last night I pulled my last block of "A Gardener's Alphabet" out of my project bag only to find that it was damp and stained! I don't know what was spilled in it.....nobody fessed up!....
ANYway.... I tried rinsing the stains out and it didn't come out. So... I thought "Oh well... I'll probably have to re-do the whole thing anyway!" and I used Shout stain remover on it... AND the little scrubber attachment.......99% of the stain came out and NONE of the crayon tinting was removed!!!! YAY!!!! Talk about trial by fire! So... I'm not going to re-do the block. I'm going to leave the little stain that's left as proof that the crayon tinting isn't as delicate as some people think.......it's in there to STAY! I SOOOOoooooooo didn't want to redo that block! It's almost completely done and has alot of stitching in the zinnia petals. What a relief!!! Panic averted........I can breathe again.

It's SO cold here today... it was 27 degrees last night... so November's started with a BANG!!
This morning I chose the days for the 2013 retreats. I'll be posting them on the website the morning of January 1st (no... not at midnight!) , and we'll take emails and phone messages in the order they were received by the time posted on each. We'll start phoning and emailing everyone as soon as we're back in the office after the holiday.

I've just finished drawing a pattern (Valentine!) for the class I'm teaching at Village Quiltworks in Richland on February 11th. And... as I find myself alone in the studio today.....I'm going to scan it in to the computer, and then take the rest of the day off. I'm thinking there may need to be some shopping that REALLY needs to be done! LOL!!!

Have some fun today! xo Meg

Happy Halloween!!!!

2011-10-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween from Meg and "the Gang" !

Show & Tell

2011-10-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

Hi! Time for show & tell!! The first two "Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage" photos are a quilt made by Carolyn Strain from San Diego, CA. She writes that it's her all-time favorite (I have to admit...it's mine too...of course, I'm kind of a Halloween nut!) and it was quilted by Kerri Youngdale. It's beautiful Carolyn. I wish we could see more detail!!!!!

The next few pix are from Melinda Maw. She wrote that last year sent in pix of Hocuspocusville... "How I spent my summer vacation 2010". This year is "How I spent my summer vacation 2011" Calendula! She personalized some of the bottles/books/etc.... and did such a GREAT JOB!!! I hope you can see the detail on her "Dragon Scale Elixir" bottle...it even has a dragon foot for a base!... and her pincushion has become a voodoo doll complete with PINS!!!.....Geez....really wish I'd thought of that one!!!

We had so much fun hunting down all the little changes Melinda made...this is SO COOL!!!!! I can't wait to see what other people do with it too!!!!!

This is Sharon Larson and her Knotty Stitchers Club that is held at Quilter's Junction in Centralia, WA. They all made "Arlyn's Embroidery Envelope". Isn't it fun how just the color choices make the project look SO different from one another???

It looks like they have alot of fun at their gatherings...and all of your work looks GREAT!

Thank you to everybody who sent in images to share....but now I'm going to scold everybody, sorry!

When you share photos we really want to SEE the detail on your projects!!! I get so disappointed sometimes, because I can usually see the detail in the email, but when the photos are saved as pictures they're so small they look blurry once they're posted. Sometimes your email will make image files smaller so that it can send them quickly...sometimes your photo program will allow you to make them smaller for the same reason. We really need them to be no less than 400dpi for them to show up well once they're posted. If you can only attach one image to your email at a time that's FINE with me!!! I'd much rather have you send 6 emails, each with a clear, large image....than one email with 6 little ones that will be blurry. Really! It won't bother me at all to open them all up!! We all want to see your beautiful workmanship!!.................... there....lecture over! LOL!!!

Well...everybody is heading for Houston and International Quilt Market. We're staying warm, snug, and comfy at home to watch the leaves turn and pile up under the trees....HEAVEN!! I hope everybody has a good time! I didn't release any new patterns for market but we're working on a few that I'm hoping will be ready the first part of January. One of them is "A Gardener's Alphabet" ....I've shown you a few blocks already. Sheila and I are working on the last two blocks. All the rest of them have been sent to our friend Nireko....they'll be in the Lecien booth at market..........so we're SORT of there, right??

We've been getting ready for our winter Stitching Sojourn Retreat...It's going to be SO MUCH FUN!!! There are just SO MANY things to do with a winter/Christmas theme!! We've had too many ideas and have to pare them down somewhat....after all, we'll only have three days to squeeze everything into! On my list of things to do this weekend.......buy Christmas trees! Wow! Early, huh??? We have to be ready before the retreat.........looks like we're going to have a VERY Christmassy Thanksgiving this year!!!

Tomorrow night our son Jon and his girlfriend Laura are coming out to carve pumpkins. I think we'll have a fire in the firepit and roast hot dogs....sounds like fun!...........OOOooh.......we need marshmallows huh???

Happy Halloween everybody!
xo Meg

It's out!

2011-10-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

I think the new Quiltmakers 100 Blocks issue is out!! The link to their website is www.quiltmaker.com/100blocks. (OH!...by the way, I have a block in it!....I think there was a sneak peek of it in progress in the blog this spring.)

ANYway!!! They'll also be starting a blog tour of all of the designers who contributed blocks! Doesn't that sound like fun??

Day before yesterday I got everything sent off to Nireko at Lecien for my next fabric line.....this is just the first step. I'm really excited about it though...and I can't wait to start drawing up my designs for the patterns I have in mind for it!!................................now, just how to go about finding the TIME to do it???? That's another issue! LOL!!

See you on the blog tour! I'm going to have to think of something fun to do for it.......xo Meg

We had so much fun at the retreat!

2011-10-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

Customize a free picture slideshow

The Whitewash Fabric is HERE!!!

2011-09-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!!!!
Finally! Enough is here that we can put it up on the website! I just got it all put on there a few minutes ago.....WHEW!

It's here just in time, too, for the Fall Stitching Sojourn Retreat! We'll have everybody here next weekend and I can't WAIT! We have everything A L M O S T ready........we just have to arrange some pumpkins and clean up some of those pesky dust bunnies that live under all of the tables..........who am I kidding? They're reproducing like MAD and they live EVERYWHERE!!! If I could just get Honeybunny to dust......I KNOW he's capable if he'd just apply himself!

The Walla Walla Quilt Festival was SO MUCH FUN!!! What a great group of people the organizers are... alot of fun, and really good at what they do! ................and I got to meet Eddie Walker!!!!!!! She lives in Walla Walla!!! I have to admit that I made a fool out of myself....Geez!

Anyway... I bought WAY too much fabric, sparkly stuff, jewelry, you name it.... at the vendors. Ahhh....all in all a VERY good weekend!

Have a great week! xox Meg

Show & Tell!

2011-09-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

WOW!!! Do we ever have a lot of show & tell to share!!! Let's start off with a "BANG"!!! This is an adaptation of "Susan's Dresden Garden" made by Josephine de la Cruz Keasler from Riverton, UT.

I just love what she did with it...the applique is gorgeous and the sparkles are beautiful! Truly breathtaking Josephine! Thank you for sharing it with us!

This is "Snowmen A to Zzzzz" made by Paula Smith. She won not only the Best of Class and Reserve Best of Show...but a People's Choice award too!!! WOW Paula!!!

Paula wrote "I added one taken with all the ribbons (any more and I think they would have covered up one entire border.) I love winning those silly things!" It looks like they were very well deserved!!! Beautiful!!

This "Winter Wonderland" was made by Carmen Sipes and was quilted by her husband George, and was entered in the AQS Show & Contest in Des Moines IA. This is just plain exquisite!!! Both of them did such a great job!!! Look at the closeup!! Are the snowmen stuffed lightly or is that just the effect of the quilting? It looks SO COOL!!!!

This is "Flight of Fancy" made by Mary Matt from Mt. Si Quilts in North Bend Washington (it's really pretty there by the way!) and she calls it "Birds". I just love it done in browns!! You know, this looks very masculine this way...a good quilt for a husband!...Hmmmmmm...... maybe I'll make another one in browns for someone I know! Good job Mary!

This "Snow Days" was made by Mary Rogers of Baird, Texas. I love the color combination and the borders she added....beautiful! She wrote "I loved every minute of making this." It shows!!

OOOhhhhh........I LOVE this border fabric!!! Monica (She's in the witness protection program or something....only gave me her first name! LOL!!!) shared "Which Witch's Boot". She did such a great job on it... Look at her crayon tinting! Love This!!!!

This is "Hocuspocusville" sent in by Melinda Maw. She wrote "I got the idea for the added color (an element in each block) when one day my granddaughter came over and was up in my quilting studio. The black outlined/embroidered blocks were all arranged on my design wall. Mia picked up a red crayon and began to color neatly within the lines of one of the cats (I'm sure she thought the cute little house looked like a perfect coloring book page). Her mother gasped and yelled, "Mia, that's MaMaa's quilt!" I calmly said, "That's fine Mia, that makes it look even better. I'm going to sew that in just like that..." Melinda donated this quilt to the Primary Childrens Hospital Festival of Trees Quilt Auction. She says she's going to have to make another one for herself. Beautiful Melinda, and such a great thing to do with the quilt, too!

This is "Over the River" made by Sharon Metzger. She's simplified the piecing...it really showcases the embroidery, doesn't it? Beautiful work Sharon! She writes that she's getting started on Winter Wonderland and wants to make Zelda's Fancy Hat too....Get to work Sharon!!

This is an embroidery envelope made by Sharon Larson from Onalaska Washington (another beautiful place!) She writes that this is her second embroidery envelope and that she's teaching a class at Quilters Junction in Centralia, WA in a few days and will take pictures of her students with THEIR completed projects and send them in!!! YAY!!!!! I can't wait to see what they come up with!

So pretty Sharon! Thanks for making such a great sample for your class...and for teaching a Crabapple Hill pattern! xoxox

This is a "Wild Rose Sewing Wallet" made by Mary Ellen (Nash?....another witness protection program person???) She says that she enjoyed using the "old family crazy quilting" stitches from her childhood and also embellished the wallet with some needle tatting, silk embroidery and beading! WOW!!! Very, very pretty Mary Ellen!

This is our free heart quilt (they were free patterns on the website a year or so ago) made by Martina Schaefer from Germany (if I'm reading her email address correctly). You did a beautiful job on this Martina!! It's only the second one that I've seen completed. I love the way you added the year to the banner in the corner!! Beautiful, beautiful!

These last four quilts were all made by Helen Belcher from Huntsville Texas where she is a Historical Interpreter at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. I've actually been to Huntsville many times! We drive through there to get to and from Quilt Market in Houston!!!...I know...It's goofy of me...but I love being able to get a picture in my head of the places people come from. Anyway........The Winter Wonderland and "Bluebird on My Shoulder" were shown in the Airing of the Quilts in Huntsville and she will enter them in the Walker County Fair next year. The second "Bluebird" quilt is called "Tea and Bees".

All of her quilting was done by Becky Stowers from Tennessee. They're all just gorgeous Helen!

WHEW!!.........did I forget anybody??? There were so many emails and pictures I hope nobody fell through the cracks! Thank you all for taking the time to send us an email with your images!

Well....I'm getting ready to leave for the Walla Walla Quilt Festival this weekend...I'm taking tons of samples and will be doing demo's of crayon tinting. Come and say hi!

Sheila is going to be at the EE Schenck Trends show in Portland this weekend. Since I was busy this weekend, she agreed to go over there and represent us for the show and do a make & take series! I'm so proud of her and if you're going to be there...stop in and say hello & give her a hug. It's her first time stepping out on her own and could use a little bit of encouragement

(translation....she's scared stiff!)

OH! Thank you to Shabby Fabrics for honoring me with a designer profile on your website! My heart's all "a'flutter"!! And thank you too, to Hoffman Distributors for doing a designer profile on their website (this may just go to my head!! LOL!!)

Remember, come say "hi!" in Walla Walla. I can't wait to see all of the quilts!!!!

xoxox Meg

Question???

2011-09-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

Let's see..........no, you don't have to wash your fabric before coloring on it.

Yes, you can wash a color tinted quilt. Just use very mild soap and cold water, no stain fighting anything, and take as much care as you would for any embellished piece.

No, our Santa wasn't stolen! LOL!!! We put our Christmas tree out at the end of the driveway (anything we put out there will disappear before the day is out...MAGIC!) When Phil walked out there at dusk to see if he needed to drag it back to the studio...it was gone but a BIG sign was in it's place (The one on the previous post. If you click on it, it will get bigger...then you can hold down the ctrl key and scroll up to make it bigger yet!) It was SO FUNNY!!!! We just couldn't stop giggling about it for a couple days! The people who "abducted" it put an ad in the craigslist classifieds about it...they took "kidnap" photos of it, all lit up, with cutouts of Elvira and John Wayne! Really hilarious!!!!

Yes, I'll do a color tinting tutorial soon...don't have time today! I'm getting ready to go to the Walla Walla Quilt Show next week...trying to figure out what quilts and things to take...how to display them, etc... I don't want to just hang stuff up!! It's GOT to be pretty! If you're in the area, stop by and say hello! I'll also have a new little free pattern to give away!

OH! We have all of our Weeks DyeWorks embroidery floss on sale for 40% off....it's been put in 8 skein assortments. I've decided it's time to just jump ship and make everything with Cosmo floss so we'll be converting all of the patterns and the Weeks floss will be only available while our supplies last. Get it while it's HOT! Beautiful floss....$10.00 for 8 skeins...usually $16.80...WOW!
Talk to you later!
xo Meg

The Joke's on YOU!

2011-09-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well....there are alot of unsavory people in the world, but now I've come in contact with the WORST! But......the JOKE'S ON YOU!!!!

You think you've hit us where it hurts....

You think we'll just roll over and give you what you want?

Sure....we had a few really good years together. We did our very best for him...bought him WAY too much jewelry...made a big deal over him. Gave him our admiration, our love, and WAY TOO MUCH POWER!!!.....literally.

But then he started to go downhill.

As he aged, he got a little bit ratty.... a little bit dirty.

Parts of him drooped and didn't work quite as well as they used to.

But we still kept him around...still celebrated with him....told him he was beautiful.

WHAT DID WE GET IN RETURN????

He started wandering off.... running out at all hours of the day or night and we'd have to go get in the car and drive around looking for him. We'd see him hiding behind bushes...trying to get away. We'd drag him home even though he'd been plugging in anywhere he could, and sparkling indiscriminately for anybody who'd OOOOooooh & AAAaaaah!

Finally, we stripped him and tied him to the wall in our storeroom.

Then....yesterday when we were cleaning the studio, he sneaked out.

By the time we'd realized he was gone it was too late.

We followed the trail of flocking down the driveway & this was at the end by the road....

Well..........JOKE'S ON YOU!!!! KEEP HIM!!!! But make sure you tie him securely or he'll run away from you too!!!!!!!

Where has the time gone??

2011-09-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

I'm SHOCKED!! I had it brought to my attention yesterday that I haven't posted since late July! What happened to August?? It just disappeared!!!
We've had such a busy summer....one thing stacked on top of another, that it's just flown by! Well...I'm finally going to tell you about the classes at Thimble Creek in Concord, CA.... It was SO MUCH FUN!!!! We drove down for the four days of classes (beautiful trip to & from!) and got all set up in Roxie & Joe's huge classroom (we brought a "FEW" samples to hang!) They had the room all dolled up....the project supplies in those cute little suitcases... and big pots of zinnias marching down the centers of the tables! So summer-y and happy!

I know I have these pictures mixed up.....as to which class/which day etc... but they're an overview of who/what/where. Oh, by the way....it seems that the color tinting is serious business...lots of concentrating going on here!

Isn't that pretty? There were so many great color-ers in all the classes!

Questions????.... "Put the camera down and HELP!!!!" I only seemed to get pictures during the color tinting phase....during all the stitching time, I was moving around the room and didn't have much time to get photos..............everybody REALLY DID STITCH during the class, I swear!

Everybody was so nice.......very fun to talk to! All such great stitchers too! If it hadn't been for the new cast-on stitch flowers I think many of them would have finished their entire stitcheries in class! Really! They were THAT FAST!!!! The cast-on stitch??? You'll see it in some of the up-coming patterns.....it's SO COOL!!!! And really fun to do....a little fussy, but worth the trouble!
Then..........................you have the troublemakers!!!! This looks like the same type of person who would teach everyone Japanese curse words at a retreat! LOLOLOL!!!! This is Nireko! She's very pretty when she's not making this scary face, and is so sweet. I just love her!!!

OK.... now I have to show you some of why I haven't posted since July. Also, why if you've ordered recently there may have been a little delay in getting your order. We've been SWAMPED!! This is a picture of yesterday's invoices.........the ones that got filled.

These are the ones that we didn't have time to fill yesterday....they'll get filled today.

These are the ones that Sheila didn't have time to charge out so they could be ready to fill for yesterday.............did I mention that there will be an inbox full of new orders today to add to these?

I'm not complaining! It's great to be busy and I'm so glad that everybody likes the patterns and floss, etc.... It's just that we've come to a point where we can't keep up! I'm so sorry if you've had an order that hasn't gone out really quickly because that's really what we shoot for.

It's just been the three of us. Cindy and Sheila are up to their eyeballs (I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been a mutiny!), I've been trying to help (so that puts a cramp in time to design new things). We just hired Karen to help and I have an appt. tomorrow to interview someone else who hopefully will come on board also. We'll get back up to speed as quickly as we can, I promise!

Thanks for being patient with us!

Summer, Flowers, & Inspiration!

2011-07-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry...but I have to brag a little bit!!! Look at those hydrangeas!!! I'm so happy that after only one year in the garden, everything is looking so pretty and doing so well! I have to admit that I'm kind of a garden nut. If I wasn't doing focusing on embroidery and my patterns....I'd be in the garden... deadheading, dividing, moving things around. It's really easy to get carried away!

I thought I'd give everybody a look at a new design/designs! They're all going together into a quilt that is tentatively called "Gardener's Alphabet" for lack of a better description! LOL!!!!

Morning glories are my favorite......... I think I'll grown them next year all over the pergola off the end of the studio........remind me!

I'm kind of fickle........ wild roses are DEFINITELY my favorite! We planted a bunch of them under the pine trees. Just give them water and they grow & grow & reproduce & spread! Love them!

Zinnias in the back yard by the tomatoes.

B is for bee skeps, bees, and berries!!!

Apple??? Heck no! A is for Autumn! Our pumpkins aren't looking great this year...weird spring. I think we'll get some cool looking little green ones in time for Halloween but I'm betting they'll freeze solid before they turn orange this year.

Our cherry tomatoes are keeping up with our appetites. Oh....summer heaven is a handful of kosher salt and an unlimited supply of cherry tomatoes warm from the garden!

Iris of course! The beards are really fun.....lots of French knots!

I LOVE these hydrangeas!

I'm thinking about getting a few more bushes.............maybe 10? All in this white/chartreuse color!

I have two more blocks drawn, traced, colored, and ready to stitch. H.....guess what it stands for???? and F. I'll show them to you later.........I'm NO GOOD at keeping secrets! LOL!!!

Next week we leave for Thimble Creek Quilt Shop in California. I spent all day today getting the trunk show and goodies ready for the classes.... I'm SO EXCITED!!!! Phil & I have never been to that part of California and we're really looking forward to the drive to & from too! Uncharted territory...the road un-traveled (that sound romantic & adventurous doesn't it???....translation: we'll probably get lost! LOLOL!!!!) Four classes at the retreat...YIKES!!!! I told Roxie that they'll probably just have to prop me up in a corner with my nametag on by the last day....everybody will still have fun! They'll never even miss me! LOL!!

I froze a bunch of lemon slices and plan on plopping them into glasses of lemonade tonight for dinner....barbecued ribs, garlic bread, cucumbers & cherry tomatoes and big glasses of lemonade... I think we're going to eat on the front porch. I hope you have a nice night planned too!

xox Meg

2011-07-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

We're getting the studio all dolled up (trying to make it look like a shop for the Shop Hop!

The hop starts Saturday the 9th and runs through Saturday the 16th.

We'll be open from 9am to 6pm Monday through Saturday...and 10am to 4pm on Sunday.

We had a lot of fun the last time we took part in the shop hop and can't WAIT to see everybody who comes to visit this time!

These are two little patterns that I've designed for our shop "hoppers"! The redwork one on the right is a free little pattern and there will be kits available to make them....first come/first served! The one on the left also has a kit (very limited number of them) and the pattern will be available for purchase. I'll have the redwork one on the website as a free pattern also as soon as it's completed. The other one??? I'm kind of liking it!...........I think I'd like to think up something else to do with it......SO! It won't be available yet except for the hoppers. We also have the new Whitewash fabric!!! It arrived during the Summer retreat. We'll have it available during the shop hop before we put it up on the website.....OH! I love it so much!!! AND I love everybody at Lecien & Cosmo so much!! This is so much FUN!!!!!

I hope you'll be able to visit us during the hop!

Retreat Weekend!

2011-06-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend was our Summer Retreat!! We had so much fun!! Of course it's great to catch up with friends we haven't seen for awhile, share stories and.........what was that we did????? Oh yeah!...Nireko taught us all how to say "potty" words in Japanese! I have to admit....I've written them down & intend to use them!!!!LOLOL!!!!
On Friday we stitched and had show & tell. They brought some BEAUTIFUL projects!!! Where were the cameras THEN??? We talked about the "great bagel incident of 2011"...(Phil went to the store for 24 bagels and came home with 10 packages of 6ea....don't ask, it's still a mystery!) Then, of course, was the "great curse of 2011" which started with getting birdie pooped on in bed ...what was that, last week?....and hopefully ended this weekend with a week full of copier problems, a dead dishwasher, a dead ice maker,.....(wait, I'm not done....) broken food processor...Just what you want when 18 of your closest friends are stopping by for the weekend! Luckily the septic system didn't back up and the place didn't burn down!! LOL!!!
Saturday was beautiful. We stitched all morning (in between feedings) and then we went into the house to make the small projects. Dinner was outside....hot dogs & root beer floats. Then back into the studio for the evening.
Sunday...another gorgeous day!...we stitched (I hope everybody loved those cast-on stitch forget me nots as much as I do!) until everyone had to leave for home.
All in all, this was a weekend of laughter, relaxation, sharing and peace. Ahhhhh.........I can't wait till next time!
You're all so sweet, funny and just plain lovely! Thanks for coming!!
Xox Meg, Sheila, Cindy & Jan

Summer Retreat 2011

2011-06-28T17:47:00.000-07:00

Create a scrapbook

Calendula Has Left The Building!!

2011-06-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry! All of our Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage quilt fabric kits are gone! I'm going to order more fabric, so we should have more later this summer. We still have the floss kits available on the website!!
Later....xox Meg

Hard Luck Schmedley Week

2011-06-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Well...Monday it was one of the computers....Tuesday is was one of the copiers...Today???? Today a bird pooped on my head. No!!! This was no ordinary "walking along and bird bombs head" type of poop attack! This was a "bird flies by, poops on window screen/window open at head of bead/sprays through window and hits sleeping woman's head in bed" type of poop attack!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! I think that with this run of questionable luck, I should just (change the sheets first) crawl back into bed, pull the covers up over my head, and stay there for the rest of the week! Tell me...what are the chances that that could happen to anyone? I've had a long, long history of this type of thing. If it CAN happen, it'll happen to ME!

The pictures above were sent in by Gabriela Van Gemeren from Walnut Creek, California. This Hocuspocusville quilt was made for her by her mom (Gabriela wrote that her mom's "so talented!" and she's RIGHT!!! Look at the multicolored stitching she did to personalize this! Great job Mom!!

We've been super busy around here since we returned from Quilt Market. Every day has been so full, it's been hard for all of us to keep up! This is some of what's been going on.....

My new fabric line came out (The quilt fabric fat 1/4 bundles are still available, but all of the linen bundles are gone) and we should be getting more fabric any day now. It won't be made into fat 1/4's though...yardage only. I'll get it up on the website as soon as it arrives!

We have all of the colors of Sparkles floss now! I can't wait to use the black in something Halloween-y!!!!

We're getting ready for the Summer Stitching Sojourn Retreat!!!! It's next weekend already! I can't wait to see everybody!

We're also getting ready for the Sagebrush Shop Hop in July! We had so much fun participating a couple years ago! We're going to open the studio up again for the shop hop July 9th through 16th. We're planning for exclusive patterns and kits (with the time crunch, we'll see how much of THAT actually happens!!!). I'll put more info up about the shop hop as soon as I get a chance, along with directions to the studio!

OH!!!! Today we're going to start cutting kits for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage!!! It will be exactly the same fabrics used on the pattern cover. If you're interested in purchasing a kit, we're starting a list and can hold one for you. I don't have it priced yet and we'll have a VERY limited number of them.

Well....that's it for now. I need to get started cutting those kits!
xo Meg

Quilt Market Highlights!

2011-05-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

This free digital scrapbooking design made with Smilebox

Salt Lake City

2011-05-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we've made it to market! The booth is pretty much all the way set up...just some fluffing up tomorrow. We have so many cool COOL booths around us!! I'll tell you all about them after everybody's totally set up.. Wish I could post pix from my phone!! I have to tall you about the truck we passed on the way down here yesterday.. His mudflap on the back had a big sign on it that said "I dare you to flash me" and a sign on his window said "Chicken!". Phil says he wished he'd thoought quickly enough...he would have pulled up his shirt!! LOLOL! Would have served that trucker right!!
Well, it's time for showers and some TV. Nite!

Ready for Market!

2011-05-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

We're pretty much ready to leave for Spring Quilt Market! All we have to do is load everybody's luggage in the back of the Sequoia tomorrow morning and we're ready to head down the road to Salt Lake City!

Today is the last day we'll be shipping until the 19th. Cindy is the only one staying home to keep Honeybunny company and get caught up on our printing. Our son Jon is going to housesit and make sure everything in the gardens get watered (It's supposed to be WARM later this week...so of course, we won't be here!...my snowball bushes and lily of the valley are ready to bloom too and hopefully some of them will still be around in a week!)

The fabric above is from my new fabric line "Whitewash". I'll show you alot more when we get back home.

Let's see....Kindle.....IPOD....a few chick flix for the car trip.....stitching stuff.....big tote bag full of snacks (we had to test the Whoppers...Phil calls it "Quality Control Testing"....good thing we DID!!! They're minty! YES! Weird, huh?).......I think we're ready to go! I'll take loads of pictures!

xox Meg

First Lilacs

2011-05-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

I just had to share this little bouquet! Phil picked a few of the first blooming lilacs last night. Just this tiny bouquet, and it's perfumed the studio! I'm in a really lavender mood this spring...it just seems to be the color that brings spring to mind. Hyacinths, lilacs, pansies, violets, grape hyacinths and the hydrangeas to come......so much happiness in one little color!
I was so inspired, I drew something up and have it all ready to stitch.......violets like the ones that would have been carpeting the entire yard at our century old farmhouse in town (I still miss that old house!). I can remember "hiding" the lavender Easter eggs in plain sight in large patches of blooming violets when Jon was a little boy. I can't wait to start stitching on this!

I love lacy handkerchiefs! I'm thinking....lots of white French knots!xo Meg

Pictures!

2011-05-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

I just love it when you put your own "spin" on my designs!!! Penny Pierce from Lakefield, Ontario Canada, really made Snow Days her own! She added an icy pond by the creek, complete with "shinny hockey" players (I've no idea what that is...I'm sure every Canadian out there does tho!) They're SO COOL!!!

Then she made the schoolhouse flag the Canadian Maple Leaf!

And added extra snoballers throwing snowballs from the interior pieced area of the quilt!!! I don't know about YOU....but I'm EXTREMELY impressed!!!! SO,SO...SO great Penny!!!

Here's another "spin" on Tea Party from Christina Smith from Leavenworth, Kansas. She said that she used nine of the blocks in this quilt and the other three for a table runner! It's beautiful Christina! Good job!

These two garden angels were made by Carol Gerety of Lansing, Kansas. She hand quilted the angel of winter with perle cotton (don't you love the way that looks Carol?...back when I had the time (wow...no free time now!) I hand quilted everything and my favorite method was with perle cotton!)

Carol says she made the winter angel for her Aunt Ellen and says "She's written to me about how she's loved reviewing seed catalogs and now is losing her eyesight, so I thought she could feel my stitches." What a lovely thing to do for her Carol! It's a beautiful lap quilt and I'm sure she'll be able to feel the love in all of your work.

This "Love" pillow was made by Nancy Guilfoil. She wrote the name herself and added flowers to it. You did such a beautiful job of personalizing this Nancy! It's so delicate and "little girl"!! I'm sure the new mom loved it. It's so very sweet!

These are pictures of a project bag made by Sharon Szekely. She says that she took this class last summer at Quiltmaker's Shoppe in Arlington, Washington and used scraps from another project to piece it....look at the side pieces of the bag!

She pieced them too!!!! That looks SO COOL!!!! You did a beautiful job!

This picture was sent in by our friend Shellee Jensen "Hiccup Girl". Isn't the snowman fabric fun??? I hope we see you at Quilt Market in Salt Lake! ?
Please, Please, PLEASE email pictures of your finished projects...ESPECIALLY if you've kind of "done your own thing" with them!! I LOVE SHOW & TELL!!!
xo Meg

Almost ready for Salt Lake City!

2011-04-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

There will be 16 new patterns released in a couple weeks...as soon as we get back from Spring International Quilt Market! The booth has already been set up...taken down...packed into the freight containers...and shipped off to Salt Lake City (Market is held in the convention center called the "Salt Palace"...don't know why I find that humorous, but I do!) All we have left to do is figure out what clothes to pack! We're so close by (a full day's drive), we'll be driving down...all four of us....me, Sheila, Jan and Phil (The driver who, by the way, is REALLY looking forward to spending 12 hours or so in a car with three women...that is sarcasm if you didn't recognise it!) We'll take our Kindles and IPOD's, and try not to talk non-stop the whole way...I promise! We'll meet Susan in Salt Lake...she's flying in from Jacksonville, FL to help in the booth...can't wait to see her! She's so funny!!!

ANYWAY!....I've only shown you a few of the patterns that we'll be releasing...only the ones that use MY NEW FARIC LINE FROM LECIEN!!!! It's called "Whitewash", and is mostly backgrounds in white, ivory, and pale taupe. There are also redwork reds, a taupe-y gray, charcoal, prints with embroidery images and monograms, and three linens!!! I love this fabric SO MUCH!!! It all works perfectly with the new "French Grays" look....old worn galvanized metals, mercury glass, linens...Thank you to Lecien, Nireko, Matt, and their whole design team for making this such a great experience with such a perfect outcome!!!

I'll show you the entire line a little bit later... BUT!!!! These patterns are made with it! The pillow above is adapted from the front of an old postcard (It has Cosmo's new "Sparkles" floss on it in places...looks like mica or glitter!...the back of the pillow is below. Yup, kind of two patterns in one! The front was done on linen, the back on the "Postcard" print.

Guess I don't have to tell you that these are Christmas stockings!? They're all done on the linen and lined and trimmed with prints from the line. The pattern gives you lots of images and options to make these two sizes of stockings as long or short as you want, and to add any of the decorations to them...even two alphabets (upper and lower cases). The snowflakes on the center stocking were stitched in silver "Sparkles"
floss and embellished with beads and some old lace.

This quilt is going in my house!!!!! Hopechest includes monograms for all the letters of the alphabet so you can personalize it.....I'm going to enlarge one of the letters and make a pillow on linen with green floss. I wish I had a little girl to make things for!!! I'd make this in all pinks!

This pattern is called Typeset Ornaments. I wanted the lettering/numbers to look like they'd been typed on an old typewriter with worn out keys. Kind of an imperfect, spotchy look. Everything I tried turned out looking too perfect.........then I tried just making the outline of the letter (water/air erasable pen) and filling it with little, imperfect xx's...PERFECT!! They'd be fun to use for signs, banners, tags,.....They're going on our Christmas tree this year!
Well....hope you liked the preview of the fabric line! I'd better get back to work on the newsletters about the pattern release...and the catalog pages....and the ............OOoooooo!......there's so much to do!!
xox Meg

One More Finished!

2011-04-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Christmas stockings in April..........weird!!! I'd love to make a few more while I'm on a roll tho! I had so much fun with the white one with sparkly, beaded snowflakes! It's using a new Cosmo floss called Sparkles.....really easy to work with!! And linens from my (ta-da-da-DA!!!) new fabric line called Whitewash. I'll show you the whole line later..... These stockings are really fun. The really long skinny one was kind of a challenge though....it took the three of us...a pair of tongs...and some not so nice language to get the lining all the way down into the toe where it belonged! Cindy, Sheila and I were all laughing so hard we were teary eyed.......possibly would have been easier if we'd been able to see!

This pattern will be realeased with all the rest next month........this weekend we're doing our booth mock-up so we can pack it all up and ship it to Salt Lake City for quilt market.....It's sneaking up on us!!
Later! Meg

Hurry, Hurry!!! No Time To Talk!

2011-04-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

Just a preview! This is "Hopechest".... released in May with all the other new stuff!!! WHEW! xox Meg

Spring Retreat 2011

2011-03-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

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Well.... the Spring Retreat is over! We all had so much fun.....I thought for sure I was going to lose my voice after laughing so much on Saturday night!! You were all such a hoot!!
Jan drove back home and I gave Cindy and Sheila the day off today to rest a little bit! We'll be back in the office tomorrow to get ready for Quilt Market and......................the retreat in JUNE!!! I CAN'T WAIT!! Hmmmmm...........we'll have to starting planning the 2 hour feedings! LOLOL!!!!!

Tomorrow's the Retreat!!!!

2011-03-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

It's Time for the Spring Retreat!!!!

I can't wait until tomorrow morning when everyone will arrive!

We're expecting some rain showers outside, but nothing but sunshine in the studio....look at Cindy & Jan's smiles!

We'll keep you posted about our weekend's fun!

xox Meg

March is here already????

2011-03-09T14:26:00.000-08:00

When did it become MARCH????? It snuck up on me! Today is really warm and sunny off and on. Sheila and I have been working all day with the windows open in the studio.......HEAVEN!! Other than the phone ringing off and on, it's been a really quiet day. Neither of us feel the need to talk constantly...so it's literally QUIET! LOL!!! The birds are singing outside and Honeybunny has spent the day trying to divide his time between the window sill in the sun chattering at the birds...("OOOOoooo.....they'd taste SO good!") and taking long naps. Sheila has been tracing all of the stitcheries for the March retreat.........YES! They're all traced and ready to go when you get here!........ and I've been finishing up the quilt above....I think I'm going to call it "Joyful Poinsettias". It's very much fun and (you can't tell by this photo) it has parts stitched in a new sparkly floss from Cosmo! I haven't used metallic or sparkly floss since my crosstitch days....OH the tangles and shredding, and language that would make a sailor blush!!! This floss lived up to the usual Cosmo standards.... minimum of tangles, easy to thread the needles, no catching in the fabric and no shredding! It was surprisingly easy to work with! YAY!!! I'm going to have to use it in something else!!!!

What is it with cats and boxes????

I just had to share this...I sat down at my desk and he woke up just long enough to peer at me through the pencils....Sweet little face!

I have some really great pix of quilts and things to show you that you've sent in....sorry, just don't have time to get them up today....I'm on to the next project...."tick-tock-tick-tock" ! YIKES!!! Quilt market is coming up and the March Stitching Sojourn Retreat is in..........OMG!!! Two weeks??????

UGH.....I really need to clean my house......OR!....can I talk everybody into believing that it's an old tradition to decorate for spring with dust bunnies?????? No?...didn't think so.

xo Meg

Finished!

2011-02-19T14:35:00.000-08:00

See how the colors POP once the stitching is done??? Well....off to the next project... it's crunch time!

100 Quilt Blocks

2011-02-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

Hi!

I'm just winding up the day and trying to get this Christmas quilt block ready to stitch (have to have something to do when I'm sitting in front of the tv this weekend!) This is a block I drew up today for an up-coming issue of 100 Quilt Blocks. I was playing around with the little dresden and thought it kind of looked like a poinsettia.....hence the leaf! Then I put a candy cane stem on it and now I think it looks like a Christmas lollipop...........I think I'm going to do something with these "lollipops" on it! I'm really liking it!! The crayon tinting will really pop once the embroidery is around it...isn't it funny how that works? If you haven't tried the tinting yet, this is a pretty good example of how much color you need...doesn't look like much yet....but just wait!
Have a great weekend!
xox (and, it seems, Merry Christmas!??) Meg

WHAT are the white crayons for???

2011-02-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

So many questions!!! Here's the gist of it.........

The instructions for the infamous white crayons is below...I think it's the Feb. 1st post. They're really, really necessary to get the look that I'm trying to show you.
Yes, you can wash a quilt that's been color tinted this way. Wash in cold water and don't use a detergent that contains baking soda....you know, the one with the bulging muscles and the hammer!? Legend has it that it will remove the crayon...I've never tried it tho and I got the info from an unreliable source....SO, better safe than sorry! I'm not going to say that it would be a good idea to wash it frequently...but once in a while will be OK.
YES!!! Both "Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage" and "Which Witch's Boot" will be realeased in May at International Quilt Market in Salt Lake City. I'll have many other new patterns at that time that will be released too!................AND OTHER SUPRISES!!!
OH!!! And Happy Valentine's Week!!! Don't you think we deserve a whole week??? Flowers every day.....Valentines every day in the mail?.........I know.....dream on!

XOX Meg

DONE!!

2011-02-02T18:31:00.000-08:00

Yes...it's 6:30 and I should be in the house making dinner....BUT...I was so close to finishing I just couldn't stop. Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage is ready to send to the quilter...YAY!!! Hope you like it!

xox Meg

PS....I think it's going to be a Brickhouse Pizza night!

More about the white crayons...

2011-02-02T09:35:00.000-08:00

Some teacher's supply shops carry the boxes of all white crayons (our local shop doesn't...how DARE they do that to me??? LOL!!)
I tried ordering them from the Crayola website but couldn't find them anywhere...poor little, un-loved white crayons! I'm sure there's a distributor out there somewhere that has them (for wholesale purchase) but I couldn't find one. I got mine from the Dick Blick art supply website, which if you're at all artsy is a VERY dangerous place to shop!!! I'm going to ask a couple of the distributors that carry my patterns if they'd be willing to also carry the white crayons so they'll be more accessible for needlework and quilt shops.....we'll see!...........

Why the white Crayons????????

2011-02-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

OK!.... NO, I HAVEN'T LOST MY MIND!!!
I guess we need an explanation for the white Crayons! LOL!!!

Some of the patterns are tinted with colored Crayola Crayons. It's a really fun technique that looks SO COOL when it's done right!!! I like to start the process by coloring any area that's going to be tinted with white crayon. It sort of "fills" the weave of the fabric and smooths it out to create a base for the colored crayons. It also helps with the blending of colors..........SO!!! You can go through quite a bit of white crayon in a single project. In the new "Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage" I used almost 3 white crayons. Having to buy another ENTIRE box of colored crayons just to get one, single, lousy white crayon is just, well......maddening! But....having a little box of all white on hand.....is.....happy-ing! Yes, that's a new word.

Color tinting is really easy......

1. Trace the design onto the fabric as usual

2. Make sure your work surface is clean and smooth and there isn't any lint/threads on the back of the fabric.

3. Color all areas that you'll be tinting somewhat heavily with white crayon.

4. Tint all areas as directed in the pattern (or use your own imagination!) I like to use a little circular motion........

5. Heat set with a hot iron by laying a white paper towel over the tinted area and pressing (you'll smell the wax) Remove the paper towel and look at it.....if there's ANY color on it repeat the pressing process with a clean paper towel.

xo Meg

White Crayons

2011-01-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

YAHOO!!! Our white crayons have arrived and are up on the website!

Hot off the Sewing Machine!!!

2011-01-23T16:16:00.000-08:00

Anybody remember this??? It was our project for the Autumn Retreat! I was going to design a quilt around it...other blocks too. Well...I drew and drew and ended up with Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. This block just didn't fit in anymore!! Sometimes that happens. You've no idea how many things get abandoned altogether. I found some 30's type blacks and oranges that just fit this PERFECTLY!! I finished it a few minutes ago and just HAD to share!!!! xoxox Meg

Snow Days in Teals

2011-01-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

I just had to share this beautiful Snow Days quilt! Rose Ann Cook of Quilters Emporium in Stafford, Texas (just 50 feet southwest of Houston...LOVE that!) sent in this picture of their version of the quilt all done in teals and tans. This is SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! Makes me wish mine was in this colorway too!

xo Meg

Is it too early to talk about Halloween????

2011-01-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

Well... you know that we have to work a little ahead of schedule???? We're almost ready to send this new design, "Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage", to the quilter! Here are bits and pieces of a few of the blocks..........ignore the wrinkles please! It hasn't been pressed yet and the piecing isn't complete. Jan just finished the top block...a long, horizontal block with a line of crows.......and sent it yesterday. I can't WAIT till it arrives!!!!

What would you expect to find in a witch's cottage? Potions, spell books, herbs...hobgoblin earwax....just the normal stuff! LOL!! Also her boots, hat and broom of course!

It seems that Calendula is also an avid embroiderer and quilter..........hmmmm...... I think it would be really easy to give the books and potions your own names to personalize them!!

WOW!!! Do these stitcheries ever need pressing!!!!

They've been tinted using the color crayon technique but I only used brown shades with a few muted colors here and

there to mimic the look of an old photograph that's been hand tinted. It's turned out better than I'd even imagined!

"Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage" will be released in May at Spring International Quilt Market in Salt Lake City. I have lots of other things in the works too....I'll show them to you later, I promise!

This week we'll start emailing a newsletter showing you the new patterns for spring! There are six new Valentine Penny Candies and two project bag patterns........I'm LOVING mine!!

Talk to you later! xox Meg

Sparkly Icicles

2010-12-28T09:44:00.000-08:00

Hi!
The sparkly icicles shown on the arrangement in the kitchen in the last post are really easy to make. Simple, simple, simple!!! You'll need white modeling clay (I used Fimo), stiff black wire, glue such as Elmers or Aleene's, and white glitter or mica.

Cut lengths of the wire about 3" long (one for each icicle)

Roll little carrot shapes from the clay. Mine are about 4" long but they could be longer or shorter...just keep in mind that the longer they are, the heavier they'll be.

Poke a wire into the top of each icicle. The wire needs to be at least 1" inside the clay.

Bake the icicles according to the package directions on a foil lined baking sheet. They will be totally hard when they're done. Cool completely.

Use a disposable paintbrush or sponge brush to coat each icicle with white glue and then roll in glitter or mica.

Let dry completely and then use pliers to carefully make hooks out of the wire sticking out of the icicle tops.

YOU'RE DONE!!! Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

Well...I've been told that I'm holding out on Christmas pictures! So...here goes!! The one above & the one below are in the foyer (that's Snow Days & it fits PERFECTLY and looks so good there!)

This is our Christmas "branch".... We had it up for Halloween and decided that we really liked it! Soooo....some twinkle lights, old photos and a few mercury glass ornaments and......doesn't look like much in the daytime, but at night!!!!!! Really cool!

This is the livingroom looking in from the kitchen. I got a little carried away making those circle hang tag word thingy-s. They just really "do" it for me tho!!! LOL!!!! I think this one says Merry Christmas. The one in the kitchen windows above the sink say Winter Wonderland.

This is the dining room. I decided to string lights through the bottle holder on the left because it's kind of tree shaped....once again, not much during the daytime....really cool at night. Makes me think that I'd like to try a framework that you could put clear and green wine bottles or those blue water bottles on and light it up. I bet it would be gorgeous....yes, only AT NIGHT!!!

I have to show you the sign I found. It says "money can't buy happiness, but can buy marshmallows which are kinda the same thing. Makes me smile every time I see it!

I stuck greenery and mercury glass in everything I could find in the kitchen.

The arrangement below is on the kitchen island. I made the glittery icicles a few years ago. The tag swags say "White" and "Snow".....

This is the front porch last week when we still had snow... it's all melted now because it was about 55 degrees for a couple days.....it's freezing in Florida and Spring weather here....how does THAT make sense??? Oh well, it's nice to not have to shovel snow!

I tried to get a picture of some of the lights on the trees but there was still too much light in the sky the afternoon I took this.....HEY! Another thing that's much prettier................wait for it!........ AT NIGHT!!!!

We're going to be closing on the 23rd and won't be back in the studio until January 3rd. When we get back, Sheila is going to start emailing a new pattern announcement! That, and I'll have some preview pictures of a new quilt I've been working on. We're hoping to get all the blocks stitched while we're on our Christmas break....we'll see how THAT works out! I hope you have a great Christmas with lots of music, decorations, good food, friends and family, and beautiful memories!

Merry Christmas!

xox Meg

First Snowfall of the Year!

2010-11-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

Create your own picture slideshow

You know the scene in the movie "White Christmas" where Bing Crosby opens up the barn doors at the back of the stage? Everything is snowy evening blue and white? That's EXACTLY what it looked like out our bedroom windows at about midnight.... enough to take your breath away!!! It's snowing again...HARD....and I've been running outside every now & then to try to keep the porch clear in front of the studio (Don't want Bob, our UPS guy, to sue me!!) As quickly as I clear it & go back inside... it's dusted over again. SO GORGEOUS!!!
I snapped a few pictures and put them into this smilebox (I think I could get really hooked on these things!) The music is from my collection. It's John Doan. We were lucky enough to see him perform at the big, old Methodist church in town several years ago. Believe it or not every bit of the music is one instrument. Some people simply amaze me with their talent!!!
This morning Bob (yes, UPS dude!) dropped off a box from one of the lovely ladies who attended our Autumn Stitching Sojourn. She sent a framed picture of me & Honeybunny in full tummy rub mode and some other pictures from October. Geez we had fun, didn't we? Thank you for the pictures and the good memories! OH, by the way.... her name is Susan Pinick and she has her own line of embroidery patterns! Her business is called "On Pins and Needles" and her designs are pretty, pretty, PRETTY!!! She has her own beautiful style & I'm really hoping that you'll all see her patterns in stores soon. If you look back on the blog posts to my latest visit to Carriage Country Quilts you'll see nametags that she designed. Hopefully she'll take her beautiful designs to the next International Quilt Market....remember the name & look for her!!
This weekend I tried a new recipe from one of my Paula Deen cookbooks and it's a winner!!! I'm a real toffee lover and now that I know I can make this in about 20 minutes start to finish.....LOOK OUT!!! Give it a try, it's GREAT!

Toffee Bar Cookies (sort of a "mock" toffee)

1 sleeve saltine crackers (YES the ones with salt!)
1 stick (8T) butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
One 12-oz bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 and line a jelly roll pan with foil and spray with PAM.
Line the pan all the way to the edges with the crackers.
In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar over med/hi heat until simmering. Cook for 3 minutes stirring constantly with a whisk. Pour the mixture over the crackers and spread around with a spatula if necessary.
Bake in the oven until the top is all bubbly (about 5 min.)
Remove from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips all over the top evenly. They'll melt in a couple of minutes (even if they look like they're not) and spread them around evenly all the way to the edges of the pan.
Cool completely (I stuck it in the refrig. for a few minutes.....but then, it WAS about 10:00pm and we wanted it NOW!!!) Cut into squares with a knife. Store airtight at room temp.

Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving!
xoxox Meg

Warm Fuzzies for the Holidays to Come!!

2010-11-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

Please, PLEASE, PLEEEEZE use this link to facebook and play this little video for T mobile. It's so very sweet/funny/uplifting you'll be happy you did!! It was our boost for the day & I know you'll just love it! You can tell that it's such a genuine surprise. Don't you wish someone would do this for all returning travelers???http://www.facebook.com/tmobileuk

2010-11-02T14:47:00.001-07:00

Free ecard generated with Smilebox

Oh! I Forgot!!

2010-10-26T13:04:00.000-07:00

Yes! This was the retreat stitchery project! I was going to finish it as a pillow, but decided that I had too many ideas to put WITH it! So.... now it's going to be part of a quilt that will be released next spring. I'm going to start drawing right now, TODAY!!

xo Meg

Kids....Don't try this at home!!!

2010-10-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Too much stitching will cause eye damage!

(Thanks Kathy for sending the pic of Marianne!)

Stitchery Sojourn Retreat 2010!!

2010-10-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

WOW!!! There's so much to show & tell.....but I think we'll start at the "end"! LOL!!!!! This is Gerry, Marianne, Susan, Judy, Kristi, Ruth, Judy, Sandy, Dianna, Diane, Kathleen, Jill, Brenda, and Wendy (Diane and Lisa are in the "witch's witness protection program" it seems, and wouldn't get into the picture!)
First, I have to tell you that there was a big, nasty weather system moving in on the weekend, and the weather reports all said that it was going to be dark and rainy the whole time....luckily nature smiled on us and it was only gray and raining when we wanted to be inside. Whenever we wanted to go out....it cleared up and was warm and GORGEOUS!!! We were truly charmed!

Friday at lunch time. Gerry and Kristi are checking out the bread....

Work, work, work!

Ruth tries to decide which sweet treat to try... While Honeybunny stands guard at the candy bar.

On Saturday afternoon we all walked over to the house to work (WORK????....NO!) Play on some small projects. Jan was upstairs helping everybody make beaded pins. Cindy was in the dining room helping everyone get their scissor fobs made and Sheila had everybody else making little sewing cases in the living room. I was outside by this time helping Phil strip. (more about that later!)

Susan, Gerry and Wendy are the last to leave?

No... Ruth is there too!............It looks like Judy, Diane, Judy and Jill all went out to sit in the sun on the back porch to finish their cases. It was SO, SOOOoooooo pretty outside!

We got just about everybody in on the stripping......(OOOoooooh, you have a dirty mind! We're stripping the leaves off of willow branches to make the witch's brooms!!!)

Sheila and Kristi are working away in the sunshine.

It's kind of like a witch parking lot huh?

More stripping! Looks like Judy's choosing the perfect broom handle.

Ruth's broom is finished! Look at all the cool, twisty handles they chose!!!

Back to the studio for dinner and our Saturday night "Stitch-in". We laughed SO hard and had so much fun! Wish I'd gotten a pic of Marianne with the Halloween candy eyeballs inside her glasses!!! Or was that on Friday???

Gerry and Marianne (check out Marianne's earrings...they glow in the dark! REALLY!!! We tested it! Turned out all the lights and made her dance around in the middle of the room...

well, the dancing may have been HER idea!!???

What's everybody looking at? Oh yeah...a new design!

Wendy's tying her nametag on the tree! We're going to have to try to find all of them and see what they say! All good, I hope! I think everybody had a good time, Cindy, Sheila, Jan and I sure did! By the way... this retreat just plain wouldn't have happened if not for all the hard work that they all did! How many times DID you all walk from the house to the studio and back??? How many dishes did you wash??? You all know the in's and out's of my kitchen and pantry better than I do now!!!

I'm SO thankful for this group of "girls", you've no idea!!!!

Now................................for the troublemakers of the group!...................................

Diane by the pumpkins, what a pretty picture!

Susan: "Wendy, Gerry....do you think these would make good earrings????"

Wendy: "................AAaaaaaahhhhhh......................................no."

Brenda and Dianna pretty in red!

Judy and Sandy getting ready to fly home to Idaho!!! LOLOL!!!

Ruth looks too sweet to carry a broom.

Goodbye everybody!!! We loved, loved, LOVED having you come to our first retreat!!!! You were such a lovely group and we can't wait to have an Alumni get-together!!!

BIG XOXXXXX's!!!! Meg, Sheila, Cindy and Jan

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2010-10-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

It's ready to go! The new pattern and it's floss kit are up on the website and if you haven't received your email announcement about it....you must not be on the mailing list! YIKES!! We can't have THAT!!!

I just love this cheerful quilt........It's going to International Quilt Market with Nireko from Lecien, so if you're going to be there...pay it a visit in their booth and say "Hi!" from me!!

xo Meg

It's almost time for the Autumn Retreat!!

2010-10-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

We've been working on all of the retreat surprises and spiffing up the studio & the house to get ready for everyone's arrival on the 22nd. We're all SO EXCITED!!! As you can see... we're also getting alot of help from Honeybunny.......every piece of wool we'll be using for this kit has been 100% quality control checked for napping comfort!!! It has his stamp of approval (and a few hairs!)

A couple of nights ago (from L) Cindy, me, Jan and Sheila went to the "Girl's Night Out" Halloween event held at Beaverbark Garden Center (OH....it's so much more than just that!). There were about.......hmmmmmm....... a jillion??? people there!! We had so much fun! Before we left we got our picture taken in front of this old hearse with the tall, young vampire behind us.

It was so funny because after the picture was taken and the "photographer" started to leave our vampire said in a very UN-vampirish voice to him.........."Thanks grampa!"..........SO cute!!!

Next, I just took some pictures in the house...just a little bit of Halloween deco! Have you made Zelda's Fancy Hat? I LOVE mine!

Yes... I'm MADLY in love with mercury glass! It seems to be a new addiction..........like I NEEDED another one! LOL!!

I just love this tiny little pumpkin pail! There's something so cute about mini things....don't know why?!.....maybe that's why mini cupcakes are so darn appealing..........it's a conspiracy!!!

The next picture is just a "teaser"!!! This is part of the stitchery we're going to be doing at the retreat. I've decided that I'm going to draw up several more blocks on this theme and put them together in a quilt for release next spring. I'll show you the rest of the stitchery after the Stitching Sojourn Retreat is over!! I will say tho.... it's alot of FUN!!! (do you like the candy cornflowers???)

We're working feverishly to get the new pattern "How Does Your Garden Grow?" released. In fact Sheila is working today (Saturday) at printing them up...yes, she's a VERY good girl! LOL!!!! We'll be shipping to the distributors and then we'll send out info about the pattern to shops next week and get the pattern up on the website. I'll send out a little message to let you know it's ready!
I hope you're having a GREAT start to Autumn! Talk to you later!
xox Meg

Beautiful La Conner Day!

2010-10-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well, La Conner was gorgeous! The weather was perfect and there were farm stands EVERYWHERE with pumpkins and the last of the harvest fruits and veggies. The roads around were lined with sunflowers and black eyed susans and they all had signs that I'd want hanging in my LIVINGroom!!! La Conner, itself, looks like a seaside old town on the coast of Maine or something! Crab pots were stacked here and there and almost every building looked like it came straight from a movie set!

The class was so much fun! Everybody was so nice...AS USUAL!! We had a teaching assistant (Jane from Anchorage, AK) who was SO much help and made the day go off without a hitch! I love that the photos all show the sun pouring in the windows onto everyone.

After the class, we went for a short drive to Anacortes on Fidalgo Island (Check out a map of Washington, we're right off the San Juan Islands) and I took a few pictures of the water...(I PROMISED I'd get water pics this time!!) I got kind of turned around so I don't know if we're looking inland or toward the San Juans in these..........HEY! I'd been in class all day and I was TIRED!!! .........well, sun sets in the west...SO, we'll have to do some CSI type forensic photo work to figure that out! LOL!!!

I'm sorry, I'm sort of punchy from working on writing "How Does Your Garden Grow?" all day. The diagrams are BRUTAL!! Hope you enjoy this pattern! It will release next week (if all goes as planned that is!)
Talk to you later!
xo Meg

La Conner Here I Come!

2010-09-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

We're packing up the trunk show, making floss kits, putting together door prizes and goody bags and heading for the La Conner Quilt Fest! I'll be teaching there this weekend and I just can't wait to see everybody! I wish that Sheila had been able to come with me to help with the class but she's busy with kids etc.... DARN! I'd bring Cindy along, but she doesn't stitch or sew.....so much for THAT! LOL!!!! I'd have asked Jan, but she's going to be with her sisters all weekend and I don't want to ruin her "girl's weekend"! So.... it's just me..................maybe I could get Phil to sit in on the class???? He HAS to have picked up SOME stitching skills over the years, even if just by osmosis!? No.... he refuses to learn to stitch............just CAN'T understand why NOT!! LOLOL!!
I'm sure that it's going to be just gorgeous crossing the mountains (lots of fall color!) and we'll be staying at a campground that's right on the water... YAY!!! I'm meeting a friend there and we're going to go to the quilt show on Saturday! Usually I miss all the fun because I'm in classes the whole time, so this will be a real treat! The show is focusing on applique (don't know quite why they invited ME to teach! I think somebody made a mistake?.... well, I guess I do a LITTLE bit of applique.... hmmmm......) ANYWAY!!!! I LOVE applique and can't wait to see these quilts!! Every one will probably be a work of art. I'm so excited about it I just CAN'T STAND IT!! Maybe I'll see YOU there???! Tho I guess you'd walk right by me without saying "Hi!" because I don't plan on wearing a big sign on my back that says "I'm Meg Hawkey". I'll just have to say hello to EVERYbody and hope I get lucky?..... or get arrested for being obnoxious???........maybe that's not such a good plan.

We've been busily preparing for the first Stitching Sojourn Retreat. Today I tried out a brunch recipe that Jan gave me...I brought it out to the studio so that Cindy and Sheila could taste test it this morning and it got a "thumbs up"!..... Cindy & I think we're going to have to doll it up a little bit tho....can't leave well enough alone...EVER!!! LOL!!! We're having so much fun preparing and planning... I wish you could ALL come and visit!
See you in La Conner!
xo Meg

Time passes SO quickly!

2010-09-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have just flown by..... I've totally lost track of time! I looked at the last post and realized that it's been almost an entire MONTH since I last wrote!!! We've all been so busy. Between finishing and writing the new "How Does Your Garden Grow?" quilt and pattern, getting ready for the retreat in October, classes, and doing all that "guilt" cleaning (the cleaning you only do when you realize that somebody's coming to visit? LOL!!!), decorating for Autumn..........oh, and a million OTHER things....there just aren't enough hours in each day! Add to that Sheila and Cindy's childrens' school and sports activities and we're up to our EYEBALLS!!! We talked it over today and decided that we need a week..... all to ourselves that nobody else has.... just to catch up. That could only happen in a movie! Yeah, we need a "Groundhog Day" week! Just today we had the photographer here to take pics of "How Does Your....", 2 copier repairmen (not at the same time... 2 separate calls!), 1 computer dude, and a partridge in a pear tree!!!

THESE GIRLS NEED A BREAK!!!!!

The pictureis one of the first test shots that Rich (Breshear...our photographer) took this morning. I'm just SO in love with this quilt! The pattern should be ready to release in a couple weeks. I'll send out a little note about it when it becomes available!

Later! xox Meg

One step closer to Spring!

2010-08-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

I tried SO hard to finish the center block this weekend!!! I still have most of the verse to stitch...PROMISE I'll have it done tomorrow! This has been so much fun! I really like the little circle flowers done in a buttonhole stitch. I'm thinking that we may need something done to go along with this, that uses JUST those flowers.....Hmmmmmmm...........!
xox Meg

Time to think Spring??

2010-08-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

The newest patterns will be up on the website at the first of the week, so now it's time to start working away on.....well,.... the NEWEST new patterns! LOL!!! I have all of the patterns drawn up for our first Stitchery Sojourn Retreat in October and Sheila has started stitching on them (they're SO MUCH FUN but a BIG secret!) and now work on the new patterns for Spring has begun! This is a little preview of "How Does Your Garden Grow?" (as in..."Mary, Mary, quite contrary etc....") It's so bright, sunny and cheerful it makes me happy just to look at it. I'm going to start stitching today... hopefully I'll have it done by Monday and I can start on the pieced blocks (they'll have some stitching on them too!) Then we can send it to the quilter so that it will be ready to release in October! It's so exciting to start new projects! I feel like a big breath of fresh air just swept through the studio!!
xoxoxoxoxo! Meg

Des Moines!!!...the one in Washington!

2010-08-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

When you start off your weekend by passing through THIS gorgeous scenery, you know it's only going to get better!! This is our beautiful Mt. Rainier in all it's glory. This is where I most love to be. It's just amazingly beautiful here! We passed by on our way over the mountains to the class at Carriage Country Quilts in Des Moines.....(beautiful too! Right on Puget Sound...sparkling water...sailboats....big ships............nope! Didn't get a SINGLE picture!) You can see the water right out of the front windows of the shop too! The class was held at a church nearby, so I didn't get to visit the shop until after class. Isn't this just the cutest shop you've ever seen?

Now.... for the class!!! The girls at Carriage Country Quilts really know how to spoil everybody! I think that even if you didn't really care much about the "class"... it would be well worth it to show up just for the flowers....and the food....and all the little (and NOT so little!) special touches that they provide!

Aren't these beautiful??? They were freshly picked from two of the CCQ ladies' gardens, and were arranged in these lush bouquets ALL OVER the room!!!

These were the "goody bags" they had made for everyone attending the class..... I got SO lucky!...they gave ME one TOO!!!!! These are pillowcases....all of them were different...there are snacks and provisions inside (their kits were in here too) and then it was all tied up with a wired ribbon bow. On top of each pillowcase "bag" was a hand embroidered, stuffed nametag! Susan (you'll see her pictured later) had designed and made ALL of them!!!! They're SO pretty!!! Such a perfect, special little touch, huh?? I love mine! I think I'll find somewhere to pin it up in the studio, maybe on a lamp?

I'm sorry....caught everybody eating in the next photo! This is "naughty girl corner"....no, not "knot-y girl"...these ladies are actually trouble makers! But in a very good way! They met at a class a few years ago and are BFF's now! Isn't that cool???

Busy, busy! Everybody's getting to work!.......it's taking a while to go through everything in the goody bags tho!

More lunch scenes.....or was this the continental breakfast? Bagels, muffins, homemade cinnamon rolls, orange juice....WOW!..... everybody finished just in time for lunch!!....by the way...come hungry to a CCQ class....just a hint! LOL!!!

Carol and Sandy checking out the new designs I'd brought...

HERE is Susan (who designed and made the nametags) and Kathleen showing off their pretty smiles!

OK!!... it's time for the afternoon snack!..........after all, we're all getting weak from lack of food (lunch WAS a whole 2 hours ago!!) and all this hard work! Emily and Wendy are all ready to make rootbeer floats!!! YES!!! Rootbeer floats!!.... They also had little cupcakes in different flavors.......not positive what they were.... I was busy and didn't get over there until all that were left were the rootbeer float and orange cremecicle flavors. They were REALLY good! I didn't even tell you what they did for lunch!!!!..........oh, it was really all about the food!! These girls need to put together a cookbook!!! Thank you to Debbie for such an enjoyable day! I didn't get a single picture with Debbie in it!.... darn!!!

Here's the aftermath of my trunk show.... ready to pack up again. What a mess!!!

Thank you to all the lovely ladies who came to the class, and thank you, THANK YOU to Debbie and all the girls from CCQ for such a special day!

XOX Meg

New Designs

2010-08-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I've had lots of questions about the new banner and the designs shown on the home page of the website...YES!! They're new designs that will be coming out in a couple of weeks! The ones shown on the homepage are all going into the same pattern...3 designs....two needle packages and one button card. I have them all appliqued to their backgrounds and will be framing them tomorrow. I'm SO in love with them!!! There's also a stuffed heart that will be released at the same time..........geez!...come to think of it, I'm in love with IT too! LOL!!!

We'll send out an announcement when the new stuff is available. Watch your email!

xox Meg

August Begins....

2010-08-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

Scissor Charms!!! Cindy's been busy, busy...and had made some beautiful scissor charms! Kathi will have them up on the website within the next few days. I'd like to keep them ALL!!

We have some new photos to share!!! This is "Winter Wonderland" made by Diane Ashley from Yakima, WA. (Just down the road!!) She has won a blue ribbon with her quilt... congrat's Diane!!!! It just looks beautiful!!! She writes that she'll be starting work on "Snow Days" soon....can't WAIT to see it!!!!

The next "Forget Me Not Bedding Set" pics were sent in by Leslie Fehling....she made these for her daughter.........Her work and her sewing are PERFECT!!!! Want to see WHY?????.... Want to really get jealous because you don't live where she lives, in her house????? Go to her blog at www.lesliefehling.blogspot.com and after you've read EVERYTHING there....go to her other site that shows you pictures of her Summerhill Retreats!!!! OH YOU HAVE TO CHECK THIS OUT!!!! I SO, so want to go to a retreat at her home.....lampshades!...I want to do the lampshades!!! Already know how to make slipcovers......YUP, LAMPSHADES!!! Check out the one with all the little pleats! I wish I lived right next door .....well, a forest and a few acres away!...and Leslie was my new BFF!!!!! Thanks for sending all this in Leslie!

This friday I'm heading to Des Moines (the one in Washington!) to Carriage Country Quilts. Can't wait to see everybody! I know we'll have fun!! I'll try to take plenty of pictures while we're there...CCQ's classes are always so nice!!

Bye for now!

xox Meg

How I Spent My Summer Vacation...#1

2010-07-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-07-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2010-07-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-19T11:27:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2010-07-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-07-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

Summer, SumMER, SUMMER!!!

2010-06-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

It's finally feeling like summer outside! The sun is shining....the sky is blue...flowers are blooming and birds are singing!!! We've had so much rain and gray skies this spring that it didn't feel at ALL like summer would EVER come! I think we need to have dinner outside tonight....OOOoooo!! BLT's!!!! Yep, summer is here and I'm WILLING it to stick around!

NOW!!! Look at all the pictures we have! The one above is from Donna Babbitt. She wrote that there is cat hair in one of the buttons but ...they're from "my sweet deceased Mom's button box and the cat hair stays!!!" It's beautiful Donna! AND! I LOVE your wallpaper too! The Breath of Spring pitcher below is by Donna also. Gorgeous! So sweet and soft. Her background fabric was a really good choice!

Last weekend...no, the weekend before... I was in Spokane at Haberdashery Designs & Needlework teaching a couple of workshops. Unfortunately the only time I really had to get the camera out was during lunch! My apologies to everybody I caught eating (never how you want to get caught on camera!! LOL!!) This was the class on Saturday. LOOK AT ALL THE FLOSS AND STITCHERY STUFF IN THE BACKGROUND!!!!! Heaven.....sigh........ And everybody was SO nice! It was VERY warm that weekend and the shop, unfortunately had no air conditioning, just fans. Nobody got cranky ALL weekend!!! We DID at one point talk about going out and buying a couple kiddy pools so that we could fill them up with ice water and sit around them with our feet in them to stitch! LOL!!! There was also a big container filled with water bottles on ice and we talked about the benefits of filling our bras with the cold bottles.....yup!....real twisted group of girls!!!...MY kind of people!! LOLOL!!!

Spokane and the surrounding towns & area are really pretty too. We stayed (in our camp trailer....my tent days are SO over!) in a campground in Riverside State Park just a couple miles outside of town. Pine trees, wildflowers and the river......Ahhhhh..... not a bad place to be after being at the classes all day.......... The whole weekend was just great!

See the little tin on the table with the clear lid??? The shop did these as kits for everyone...they had their entire kit (including needles and a hoop!) and THEN ...(they had a theme of yo-yo's and buttons) ... they gave everybody a set of ALREADY MADE goodies!!! A little bag filled with a yo-yo encased measuring tape (the end you pull out has a ribbon with buttons attached to it! CUTE!!) A pin keeper made from 2 yo-yo's with buttons on each side and ribbons and bows...cute!! A needlecase made from 2 yo-yo's with wool pages...ribbons and buttons....cute,cute! A little fabric ORT bag (stands for O-something, R-something, Thread) to put your little leftover scraps of thread in as you work...you pull it closed with ribbons with buttons on the ends...cute, cute, cute! And an absolutely adorable little pincushion that looks like a ball with a cap of 2 yo-yo's stacked...buttons and ribbons and a pin...get this.....with two tiny, tiny, miniscule yo-yo's at the top so it looks like a pouf-ball!!! DARLING!! Then two little kits..one with round yo-yo's to make a little ruler holder and one with graduated heart shaped yo's to make an embroidery scissor holder!!!! Not only was this just really sweet of them to give everyone these things.....DO YOU REALIZE HOW MANY YO-YO'S THEY HAD TO HAVE MADE????

Well.... no yo's involved, but beautiful stitching!! on Ina Maslana's Snowflake Angel wallhanging! This was made for her by her BFF. She wrote that it's hanging on the cabinet she keeps her fabric in.

She says that Luna, her dog, is supposed to be guarding her fabric stash but "Obviously, doesn't take her job seriously!" Ina... I have to admit... I had a hard time finding Luna in this picture.......but I couldn't figure out why you kept your quilt batting in a cage! LOL!!!! What a sweetie!

Our last picture is from Gabriela Gaudet from Canfield Ohio. She took this with her to work on, on a trip to South America. I love the way she used different fill stitches to fill in all of the flowers! It's very artistic isn't it?? It always amazes me that twenty people can take the same pattern and come up with twenty different ways to finish it! Every one a winner!!!

Lona... Zelda's Fancy Hat is a witch's hat with lots of embroidery on it! It should be with the Autumn patterns on the website. We've heard from whole groups of people who have made them, but didn't make them as decorative pillow-ish hats.... actually made them into REAL hats! Also, I heard from someone a week or so ago who blew the pattern up and was making one that would fit over a traffic cone.......YES!!! A traffic cone!!! That's just TOO much fun!!!

Have a great summer day!!!

xox Meg

Off to the workshops in Spokane!

2010-06-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well... we're getting ready to leave for this weekend's workshops at Haberdashery Designs and Needlework in Spokane! We're taking our camp trailer and have a campsite reserved at Riverside State Park (hopefully we can find the campground...the park service maps are ATROCIOUS!! and google maps just seems to have gone blind as far as this goes!) If we can't find it, we'll be the people camping in the WalMart parking lot!! LOL!!!!
Sheila and Cindy & I have been working all week getting the goody bags, door prizes and trunk show ready....we spent a panic-y hour or so tearing the studio and the house apart searching for the ONE sample that they'd requested...Zelda's Fancy Hat....finally we had to get Phil involved to do some heavy lifting and found it in the nick of time!! Ever store something SO CAREFULLY and safely, that you can never find it again????? THAT'S where good ol' Zelda was!! LOL!!
I hope I'll see you at one of the classes this weekend!? If not, hope you're going to have as much fun as we are!
xox Meg

Show & Tell Weekend!

2010-06-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! Look at this "Hocuspocusville" quilt sent in by Mary Meats (I've misplaced your email Mary...hope I got your name right? And I don't have any of your other information about your beautiful quilt!! I'm SO sorry!!!) Don't you love her choice of colors???? I would have never thought to do it on lime green!!! It's PERFECT!!! and I love the brights used in the center piecing...WOW you're good with color, Mary! Thanks for sending this in so we could all see it!

This wallhanging by Debbi (sorry, no last name) was made for a co-worker. She says they had so much fun sitting on the floor of the office to choose fabrics! I can just picture that!!! LOL!!!! I love the little candy canes! Her friend chose only a few of the blocks from the Winter Wonderland quilt and Debbi stitched them up BEAUTIFULLY!!!! She says that she sewed on glass beads instead of the french knots on the snowflakes.........I'll bet it sparkles! Thanks Debbi!!

This next picture was taken last night while I was stitching on some new dish towels. Honeybunny likes to get as CLOSE as possible (preferrably right in in face!! LOL!!!) but he rarely grabs at the floss...........just likes to watch it go up and down....and purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs..........!

Phil took the pics....finally figured out how to use the flash in the one below so you can actually SEE Honeybunny's face! He's a real sweetie who just walked in one very cold, snowy winter (we think someone dropped him off......I just can't imagine doing that!) His two favorite things to do are get as close to your face as possible (I think he thinks he's a kitten that can curl up under your chin, not a 13 lb. cat) and ....run around the house all puffed up and gargling. We call it gargling...it's not meowing or yowling... it's.... gargling! He gets a little out of control on the hardwood floors but that just makes it funnier!!! What do you think cats hallucinate about when they go absolutely nuts like that????

This weekend I've tried to whittle away at projects around the house and studio. One, was to come up with some kind of curtains for the pantry and utility room. We didn't really need privacy...just something cute and simple. I used dish toweling for the pantry and "tied" it back with clothespins.

On my way down the hall to the utility room...stopped to take a picture of my first applique quilt. I LOVE to applique.......haven't had much time to in several years........can't imagin WHY???!!!

I just put an old tablecloth over the rod in the utility room (the other side of the cloth has some damage so if the sun fades it out it's not a huge loss. I also made a new ironing board cover using some reproduction 30's fabric. I didn't realize it matched my iron until I got it in there!!! LUCKY!

As long as I'm here!... These are the storage cabinets to the left of the window with my red stuff on top. They couldn't understand why I didn't want the cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling.....WELL!!!.....where the heck am I supposed to put all the cute stuff?????? Think men, THINK!!!!!

While I'm on a roll I think I'll cover the ironing board in the studio...wonder if I have enough batting?? I'll have to check.

Hope you're having a really nice weekend!?

xox Meg

Home Sweet Home!

2010-05-26T13:26:00.001-07:00

Hi again!!! Here are the pics I took yesterday on our cross country trek....after this I won't bore you with any more travelogue!!! LOL!!!

Eastern Montana someplace.....I think that's the Yellowstone River. Doesn't it look like John Wayne should be leading the calvary across that river??? "Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon"! I'm POSITIVE this is the Yellowstone River below... can't really tell from the photos, but it's flooding a little and looks like milk chocolate (the rain was something FIERCE the day before!)

The first entrance to Yellowstone

More Montana...sorry, they're out of order

Even MORE Montana! (yes, that IS a big bug splat)

This is just minutes before heading down the hill into Butte MT.

This is a very pretty view as you head down the hills into Butte....except for the gorgeous bug splat taking up most of the picture!!! LOL!!!! Ok....we'd planned on stopping in Missoula for the night but since we were so close....we decided to drive on to Coeur de Alene (Boy, if I spelled that right I'll be amazed!!!) Idaho. THAT turned into "We're only 3 or so hours from home, so let's just go for it!!!!"

Ahhhhhhh........................... Idaho!!! Now the hills are starting to look like "OUR" hills, and the trees are getting taller and thicker like "OUR" trees!!!! HOME is so close we can TASTE it!!!

Down the hill...................and there's beautiful Lake Coeur de Alene! (yup...still think I spelled it wrong!) This is just part of the lake. It twists and turns...so pretty! Then.... here's good old Spokane in the setting sun! Two more hours and we were home!

We arrived to freshly cut alfalfa hay fields around us... a little bit of rain (unhappy hay farmers because of THAT I'll bet) and a VERY happy cat! Sixteen hours is too long to be in a car, but when home's at the other end of the drive it's worth it!

When I got in the office this morning I realized that these pics were on the blog sideways!!! Kind of hard to see, so I moved them here (they're of the booth!)

When we get a chance to unpack the trailer and take all the tags off the "trees", we'll lay out some of the "autographs" and get a picture of them to show you!!

Thanks for hanging in there with me while we drove home! I'm all junk-fooded out!!! Tonight we're having SALAD for dinner!!!

XOX Meg

OK, why i don't get to stop at quilt shpps..

2010-05-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

...And why all my travel pics include the hood of the car or a side mirror!
My husband, tho a willing driver, refuses tp stop for shopping, views, or photo op's which is why I don't have a picture of the herd of antelope with their babies!!
Phil wouldn't stop for a flock of sasquatch by the side of the road unless they were manning gas pumps and were beckoning to him with bags of MandM's!!!!!
He should make ads for adult diapers too, because any unscheduled stops bring on heavy sighs and rolling eyes worthy of a sixteen year old!
THAT Kristinn is why I didn't get to stop at Quilting In the Country...and I'm not at ALL bitter about it...can you tell???
XOXOX. Meg (almost to Missoula for the night)

Road Food!

2010-05-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

Just got a comment from Sandie...Yeah!!! I'm on Diet Coke intravenous drips!!! So funny about the snack-y stuff! We'd just stopped for gas and managed to walk out of there with:
Circus peanuts
Slim jim
Teriaki beef jerky
Salted cashews
MandM's

THAT should last till Missoula!! LOL!!

40 miles to Billings MT

2010-05-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

Montana's getting prettier and prettier..lots of muddy, swollen creeks and rivers tho...undoubtedly because of the wild weather yesterday. We got off the road a little earlier than we would have liked to last night because it was raining so hard it ws hard to see and every now and then the car would hydroplane as if we were on ice. Not real safe!! The second half of North Dakota was a blur...literally!...pea soup fog, heavy rain, hailand lightning.
Today we're just enjoying being able to see off th sides of the road!LOL!! I'm taking a few scenery pics and will email them to Sheila this afternoon so she can post them. She and Cindy are hard at work in the studio shipping Quilt Market orders (that will take a few days) and Cyndy (who went with me to help in the booth) is back at her home this morning and hard at work catching up on emails. Me??? I'm driving along with nothing to stitch on because my stuff got BURIED in the boxes in the trailer when we broke down the booth....SO... I'm just boring lucky YOU to death with this constant posting!!! Sorry! Aren't you glad I'm usually too busy to do this??
OH!!! Totally forgot to tell you that I ordered really COOL reading glasses at market!!! They have SPARKLIES!!! As soon as they arrive I'll photograph them and get them up on the wesite.....that is, after I take out the ones that I fall in love with...hope I ordered enough! LOL!!!!
Someone commented on what I'd said about acting like an idiot when I met lynette Jensen...I wasn't tongue tied when I met her!....no...that would have been a blessing!!! Instead, I was struck STUPID!!! And, unfortunately words still come out of your mouth when that's your affliction!.....geez...what a dork!
Hey, what are your opinions about Transfer Eze?? I'd really like to get as many people's takes on. It as possible and I'm going to test it myself too.
Later!!

Lilacs!!

2010-05-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

North Dakota is COVERED with lilac bushes in full bloom! Everybody has long, long, lush hedges of lilac bushes in full bloom! Every shade of lavender,purple and white...wish we could smell them...can't you just picture me whizzing down the freeway with my head hanging out the window!!?? Don't know if I'm all wound up because we're headed home at breakneck speed or if it's the half bag of Whoppers I've managed to down in the last 3 hours!!!LOLOL...probably the latter? Anyway...ND, you're gorgeous today!

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig!

2010-05-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Well, we're on our way home from market...halfway through South Dakota and we've already driven through 3 big thunder/lightning/sleet/heavy rain storms!! As long as there are NO tornados we'll be happy!! I'm TERRIBLY homesick!! Just got a text from Sheila telling me that she's taking her daily hour lunch "date" with Honeybunny. He just needs his daily cuddle, head rub, and company until we get home. Wish I was there!!
It was so nnice to see everybody at market...catch up, gossip and laugh until our stoaches hurt! Our last night's dinner together at the Hyatt hotel, I thought we just MIGHT get thrown out of the restaurant!!!! Between Susan's air travel stories and Jan's smuggling her TAB in and refilling her glass under the table..."POP..sssssss!" And choreographing our routine for the Crabapple Hill synchronized swimming in the lobby fountain we're lucky they didn't call security!!!LOL!!! Oh well...it's amazing what trouble you can get up to when you're so tired you're downright punchy!!!
When Sheila gets back to the office we'll see if she'll have time to load the pix I sent this morning. They're oF a few of my favorite booths (and fav people!) And a little of this and that!
See ya!...sorry for the typo's..mtired thumbs!

Quilt Market day two!!

2010-05-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Denise Sheehan from A Graceful Stitch in her booth ( I bought the pattern for the quilt on the table and two others that aren't shown in pic........GORGEOUS!!! And Denise is SO nice too!!!

A new Christmas BOM from Pearl at P-3 Designs (looks great here and even better in real life!!)

There's Pearl in her booth surrounded by her beautiful quilts!!

The Weeks DyeWorks booth made that entire end of the aisle GLOW!

Check out the flaminco dancer ruffled sleeves on the man in the booth above!

There are SO MANY people here!!! That's GREAT, don't you think? Really says something about the health of the quilting industry!
We have some beautiful booths directly around ours.. Michael Miller is directly across the aisle and is done all in white...white trees, white fabrics, crystal chandelier..."Ecien and Cosmo are across the aisle in a different direction. OOOoooo!! Looking at all of their floss and fabrics all weekend!!!! The Weeks Dyeworks booth is several rows down but pretty much glows with all the gorgeous color in their booth. The other booth is A Graceful Stitch (really, REALLY beautiful applique!!!
The last images are all of my own booth. The"trees" have turned out to be a lot of fun for us! We"re having everybody who comes into the booth sign a card, put down their company or shop name, a message etc... Some people have written messages,song lyrics, and even a recipe or two!! I'm going to keep each and every one!!
OH! I'm so excited because I met Robyn Pandolph last night and then met Lynette Jensen today!! (Kind of got flustered and made an absolute fool of myself!)
I'll get more booth pix tomorrow...sorry I'm not getting out and about much but I will tomorrow!!
Good night!! XOX Meg
PS...sorry about all the typos, I'm doing these from my Blackberry and the buttons are TINY!!!

We're in Minneapolis!!!

2010-05-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

We've arrived, set up the booth,(well ALMOST finished!) And today Jan, Cyndy and Susan are shopping at the Mall of America. We're all going to meet up this afternoon to put the finishing touches on the booth. I'll take some pictures then!
Last night after setting up the booth Phil, Cyndy and I headed back to the hotel and Jan and Susan took a little detour... Let me back up a little bit. ;an drinks TAB and it's kind of hard to find so she had us bring a case of it along with us in the trailer. She was carrying her case back to the hotel the last time we saw her. ANYway... They got lost walking back to the hotel (One block away!) And ended up walking for about a mile...with that stincking case of pop!!!!! Wish I'd had my camera! Poor Jan!
I'm hoping that by the time we get over to the convention center this afternoon ther will be more booths set up so that I can get some pic's for you!
I'll keep you posted! SO EXCITED!!!
XOX. MEG

testing mobile

2010-05-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

Let's see if this works! Then maybe I'll be able to figure ot how to add an image.

Just another test.....how to add an image....let's see if a pic off my new phone is good enough quality. Maybe I won't have to lug around my big, heavy camera at market! OH! turned out rather well if I do say so! That's the hostas and bleeding hearts right outside the front door of the studio.

Oh...answering questions!

Spring International Quilt Market (yes, it's a wholesale only trade show) is in Minneapolis this time. Minnesota is really pretty at this time of year by the way!

.........wow!..........that's all the time it took for me to forget the other question!.........thinking.........thinking..........................uh................OH!!!! I remember! The new patterns are out RIGHT NOW!!!

xox Meg

October 2010 Retreat

2010-05-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!

Boy!!! What a great response for the retreats!!!! Our October 2010 retreat is full, though we have a waiting list if you'd like to be put on it just in case! The 2011 retreats all have spaces available...(Well... I should HOPE SO!!!!... it was just posted YESTERDAY!!! LOL!!!)

Our Cosmo "Seasons" variegated floss arrived yesterday morning and Cindy and I worked ALL DAY getting floss kits for the new patterns ready to go. They're up on the website without pictures (that's the next thing on MY agenda for the day....take floss kit pics!)

We got the booth for Quilt Market mocked up (that's what's in the picture above, one vignette minus the patterns that will go in the baskets) photographed (so we'll know where to put everything) ...taken down...packed and ready to load onto the trailer (we're driving it to market this time instead of shipping it) and we're pretty much ready to go! Sheila and Cindy will stay in studio this time instead of coming with us, so they will be here to fill orders, ship, and answer phone/emails and stuff. I wish they were able to go with us, I'll miss them SO MUCH!!!! They'll be here watching "the Middle" on Thursday eating pizza without me!!! (We do that every Thursday for lunch...so if you call & don't get an answer around noon....you'll know that we're stuffing ourselves and laughing our heads off!)................sigh!

I'm going to have to figure out how to blog from my phone so I can send you pictures from market!! OOOooooo!!!!!!.................. I'll do that today!!!! bye!

Stitchery Sojourn Announcement!

2010-05-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

Market Mayhem!

2010-05-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well.... here are the new patterns!!! They're all written and printed and ready to go! We'll get them up on the website within the week! Above is Snow Days (I LOVE the way this turned out!!!! It uses between 14 and 16 skeins of one color of the new Cosmo "Seasons" variegated floss...100% colorfast !!!! I just have to keep repeating that...it makes my heart happy!!!) The floss ranges through charcoal, taupe, golden brown, blue-green and back again...GORGEOUS!!! You could sure do it in other colorways tho!..........blues would be SO beautiful!!!!

This is Vintage Postcard....kind of speaks for itself!!! These samples are going in the house with me and I'm not going to let anybody pry them out of my hands!!!!! They were worked on a linen background fabric and can be crayon tinted or left plain. The floss I used is from the same new "Seasons" line. This time it's 4?...5?... different colors (can't remember...too lazy to swivel in my chair and look in the file or heaven forbid click...click and bring up the file on the computer! LOL!!!) ANYWAY..... they're all the softly variegated flosses....the "writing" looks for all the world like faded old ink!!! COOL!!!! You can use the old message I put on the pattern or use an address and message of your own to personalize the postcard... Lots of fun....

This is called Nesting Time (there'd a bird's nest in the pot snuggled down amid the flowers) Love the word "amid"...it's so Victoria Magazine!!! Kind of like "hence" and "hey nonny, nonny"!!! Do you ever read the letters to the editor? They're so full of flowery language...so cute! But I digress....I was talking about Nesting Time!!! This one is done in Cosmo floss (I used all colors that we have in spools) and you just use one section after another of all the floss colors called for to achieve a mock variegated look. Once again....use a different colorway & you could complement any deco!!! This stitchery is BIG!!! I'm mounting mine in a 22"x28" frame...no mat. I'm putting this one in my house!!! Another one nobody will be able to pry out of my hands!!!

This is Fondest Regards... I LOVE the way Jill Therriault quilted it!!!! Look at the feathers she did in the borders!! This pattern also uses the "Seasons" floss. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE working with the hand dyed look floss... the way it gives movement to the petals of flowers... some look as if they're back lit by the sun, others in shadow... It gives shading to everything without even trying!!!! Anyway, it's really nice to be able to use that beautiful type of floss without having to worry about the color bleeding. I'm just thrilled with the watercolor-y look it gives...hope you'll try it, but if you don't care to, I've put conversions to DMC on the pattern backs.........but that means you're a party pooper!!! : o)

Well, we're getting ready to go to International Quilt Market in Minneapolis in a week or so, so I'd better get back to work on our booth mock-up!

Bye! xox Meg

Retreat!! and treats!

2010-04-15T15:43:00.001-07:00

Well, It's time to announce the dates for the first..........

Crabapple Hill
"Stitching Sojourn"
Retreat
October 22, 23, and 24 2010

We'll have detailed information coming very soon, but I can tell you that there will be a class project with kit, free small projects, door prizes, gift bags & lots of fun, laughter, good food and plenty of free time to stitch, stitch, stitch!!! I'm getting exhausted just PLANNING it!!!! Come join us....we're going to have a ball!!! I'm planning on having a Stitching Sojourn each season, so I'm looking at dates for Winter 2010 and all of 2011 so you can plan ahead if you're interested! I'd like to have no more than 16 guests at a time so that everybody has plenty of room to stretch out and be comfortable in the studio....soooo.... spaces will be limited. You'll be able to reserve your spot as soon as we get the detailed information on the website so keep checking!

Here are the Treats!!!
Well, since we're thinking "Autumn"!!!! It's perfect timing to show you "Spookyville," as Lauretta Allen from St. Louis, MO calls it!! LOL!!!! I like that name, wish I'd thought of it! Didn't she do a great job????

I really like it when it's mostly orange!

See all the beading??? Doesn't it look cool!!!???? Lauretta says that she's working on Heirloom Romance right now. Can't WAIT to see pictures of it when she's done!

This Angel was made by Debbie Rice as a gift for her daughter...LUCKY daughter! She said that this was only the 2nd embroidered piece she's made! Great job Debbie!!! Sheila & I saw one of the Spring Angel's done up at the Tri-City Quilter's show a few weeks ago & the flowers were so heavily buttonholed, they looked like they were separate...sitting on top of the fabric! Really cool....I'll have to do something with those in it. Wish I'd had my camera!

Questions and Thank You's!

2010-04-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

It's a very dreary, windy day today (I LIKE the dreary....HATE the wind!! Some of the branches on my bleeding hearts got broken off!!! UGH!) The perfect kind of day to just sit in front of the computer and write patterns!..... and, I have to admit I had to take an apple crisp break.... perfect time to update the blog!....bite of apple crisp, type a paragragh....bite of apple crisp, upload a picture.... you get the idea! HA!!! I snagged some of the apple crisp when I went into the house to snap this picture. We got this blackboard finished and put up this weekend and I'm SO THRILLED with the way it's turned out!!! It looks old, doesn't it??? It's not tho! It was made by Doug Bettinghouse who did all the trim work in our house. Didn't he do a great job?? I gave him a little scribbly sketch with about 1/2 this detail and he just ran with it.... turned out so much nicer than I'd ever even hoped! It was kind of that way throughout our whole experience with Doug working on the house though.... he'd just run with things & we could absolutely depend on him doing it well... and doing it right.... very uncommon these days. He also built us a counter/storage really cool cabinet, a couple pillar/vase things, and several storage seats for our market booth. They're just beautiful and I can't wait to use them (I'll share pictures!) Doug's wife Suzi thinks he's just about the greatest thing since sliced bread...and I think we all have to agree with her!! Thanks Doug!!!

There were several questions to answer........

Q. Where did I get the stools in my kitchen?
A. From Restoration Hardware (they have way too much beautiful stuff!!! BEWARE!!!!

Q. When will the new patterns be released?
A. Next month! I'd love to release them RIGHT NOW, but the patterns aren't written yet and
the quilts aren't back from Jill Therriault, the quilter yet and we need to do the
photography for the pattern covers...........OOOOooooh..... I need to remember to get UPC's
too!!! Thanks for reminding me!

Q. What floss and fabric did I use on Snow Days?
A. New floss from Cosmo from their new "Seasons" line. They're variegated as if they were
hand dyed and 100% colorfast. Same smooth, silky feel. This floss color ranges from taupe
to gray to a kind of blue/green, to a light charcoal. Really gorgeous! The fabric was all
pulled from Lecien's fabric lines.... Mrs. March's and Centenary. The stitchery background
was a solid from their 1000 colors line. I started out with several dark charcoal-y fat
quarters in my palette but decided not to use them after I'd made several blocks for the
center of the quilt (wanted it to be somewhat darker than the outer border) and they were
just TOO dark!! Anyway....I went with mostly lights and mediums and put all the blocks I
had to re-make on the back of the quilt! Nothing got wasted, I promise!!!

Q. From Lynn S about the Quilter's Home article.......where were my email and website
addresses???????
A. I wondered the SAME THING!!!!!!

Q. From WAY too observant Brenda Riddle!.... "Isn't that your house on Snow Days???"
A. well........................................yeah.............................I have to admit I put the house and the
studio on the quilt...............figured they'd just blend in and nobody would notice.........I'm a
little bit ashamed of myself...........................but just a little! HA!!!

Last, but not least, thanks for all the nice comments about the Quilter's Home blurb! I've avoided magazines like the plague. Turned down several offers (I know, really dumb move!). But the thing is....they all want a picture! You have to try to understand the gravity of that request.................I'm one of those poor, unfortunate people who can't just flash a smile at a camera and out pops a cheerful....perfectly acceptable picture! I end up either looking heavily drugged or downright demented..........no middle ground at all! No matter the camera angle, no matter the pose, no matter how much I rehearse in the mirror, the split second that shutter clicks I close my eyes and grin like Jack Nicholson. Not a pretty sight............... hey! Want to buy a pretty, girly pattern from a crazed axe murderer????? You get my point. YIKES!!! So....if you EVER see my picture ANYWHERE, every again..........it'll probably be the same one in Quilter's Home...........for the next 30 years...........I just won't age! (Not too bad an idea after all???)
See Ya! xox Meg

Snow Days!.... April Fools??

2010-04-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

No, REALLY!!! I just finished "Snow Days"! The back was the last chore....pieced from leftover pieces from the quilt top (and a few of the darker pieces that I ended up not using) I'd wanted the center area to be darker than the outer border, but once I started putting it up on the design wall, I ended up re-making several of the center blocks in lighter fabric combinations to tone it down a tad. This was SO MUCH fun to make!!! We all actually stood around here yesterday trying to decide which house we'd want to live in if it was a real community.... I know, we're pretty goofy!!!

If you look closely (click on pic to make it bigger) you'll be able to see that some of the trees flow out over the pieced portion of the outer border!

Now I have to get to work on writing the new patterns.....know where I'LL be for the next few weeks! Right in front of this computer!!!

See Ya!!

Meg

Take a break from sewing and play in the sprinklers!

2010-03-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

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......

2010-03-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-17T15:47:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-03-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

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