OK............ I have a confession to make... you'll find out sooner or later anyway.......... I, Meg Hawkey, am a big old blabbermouth. I can't keep a secret to save my own life, I've never been able to buy gifts ahead of time & hold on to them until the "event".... I get excited & give the whole thing away ahead of time. I'm terribly ashamed, but.... that's just the way it is!

NOW!! That explains why I just HAVE to show you the center block of a quilt I'm working on for release next May!!! Just plain blackwork looked too.... well,... plain, and I didn't really want to do crayon work on it, SO! I've been doing fill stitches in Halloween-y brights. I'm really happy with it so far. I finished another block last night & I'm getting REALLY EXCITED about it!!! WOO HOO!!
I've been trying to get this "blog" set up so that you will be able to make comments on things but it's not working correctly. I can't get it to "enable" that feature & just TRY to get a human being on the end of a phone line or email to help figure out what the problem is!! I'm still trying to resolve the problem so you'll be able to "talk" to all of us soon!................................ I hope.

We have some more show & tell photos to share!

Ginger, Nancy, Susan, Jennie, and Teresa (owner & staff at Ginger's Needlearts, Quilts & Framing) all chipped in to make the "Witches Stitches" block from "Hocuspocusville" for a display at the shop. They used buttons from Just Another Button Company to embellish it. I see they added a spiderweb & a button spider too! This is really cute girls!!!! OOOhh!..... I think I'm going to choose one of the blocks from it & do it up like this! ............. I never get to use the quilts & samples for myself.................... boo hoo! I'm whining, do you feel sorry enough for me to make another one of these & send it to me????? .... did it work??? They probably won't fall for it!

Sandy Miller sent us "Arlyn's Embroidery Envelope". Such soft, sweet wool! Very pretty Sandy! She'd sent another photo of the inside, but for some reason I couldn't get it to upload. Darn!

The next photos were sent by Shellee Jensen from Belding, MI. She's been a very busy girl!! Lots of Christmas projects. Beautifully done Shellee!!

Now! Our friend in Florida, Susan Ache, has sent in some photos of her project "Merry Little Christmas". She says it's her favorite so far... maybe because of the coloring. I have to agree Susan, it's my favorite too! I love the applique you did for the center medallion!! The buttons are going to just "make" it once it's quilted! Susan also has sent several photos of her home..............OMG!!!! Beautiful! Tons of quilts & stitcheries and pretty this & that! I could move right in & be SO HAPPY! Maybe she'll let us share a couple with everybody!?

Show & Tell!

For show & tell today......... let me introduce a few of our fellow stitchery "addicts"!

First, is April! She made the Garden Journal Baskets quilt & won FIRST PLACE at the Morgan Hill Quilt Show!!!! Yahoo April!! You did a beautiful job! And you look very pretty too!

Next is "Halloween Journey" made by Kirsten Scranton. Is that piecing in the corners, or a fun fabric? I wish we could see it better! One of the drawbacks to emailing photos is that some of our computers or email providers want the images to be really small. But, darn it!, it makes the photos blurry!!! And we want to be able to see every beautiful stitch! When you send your photos in to us, just leave them as big as you can for your programs & let us re-size them. High DPI is GOOD! ..... you know,..... if you squint it gets clearer!.......... I know, I'm goofy! Kirsten wrote us that she's going to start on "Over the River" next. That reminds me that I need to get the binding on our 2nd copy of that!

This is a quilt top made by Susan Ache. Susan works at the Old Green Cupboard in Jacksonville, FL. (They have a very fun website!) She's put together the borders of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and put "Heart of Christmas" increased by 200% in the center. WOW! I love it when I see people using the patterns in different ways!! This one is really effective isn't it? Great job! She told Cyndy that she's working on "Merry Little Christmas" & is putting it together a little bit differently too. CAN'T WAIT to see it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is "Chamomile & Thyme" made by Kathy Savage from Royersford, PA. She writes that she won first prize in the "Embroidered Pillow" category in their county fair! WOW! Very pretty!! How did you do the edging on your ruffle??? SHARE!!!!

We're getting so close to getting the new website up & "on the air!" The new samples are complete, patterns are done & the new flyers that we send out to all of "our" shops are ready to print! Whew!! It's time to start working on NEW, new designs!! I CAN'T WAIT!!! There are so many images floating around in my head it's kind of hard to sleep at night. It will get better after I'm able to at least get them down on paper. Tomorrow! .... Tomorrow is going to be a drawing day! YIPPEE!!!!!
This weekend Phil (my long suffering husband) & I are heading for the mountains. The leaves in the Cascades are in FULL color, so we'll leave early, spend the day soaking in the beauty, stop at Apple Annie's in Cashmere for a marathon search for old tablecloths & green glassware, hit Smallwoods fruit stand & get pumpkins, gourds & some great Wenatchee Valley apples (they really don't taste the same anywhere else!) , and have dinner at Rusty's..... the best hamburgers on the face of the earth! .... before we head home. I can't wait, can't WAIT, CAN'T WAIT!!!!!
Oh, here's one of the new patterns "Farm Fresh Produce". It looks so much like the fruit stands that are along the roadsides in the orchard filled valley where we're going on Saturday.

Hi Everybody!
This is officially my first entry in the Knot-y Girl's Stitchery Club! The name.... the name was actually my husband's idea, though I think he meant it with the correct spelling! Whenever all of us (we?? so much for proper English!) girls all get together, we talk WAY too much, laugh until we're all sore the next day, and come up with way too many ideas that in one way or another are going to eventually get us into trouble!! I'm sure if all of us were here, in the same room together, that's exactly what would happen..... so.........Knot-y Girls we are!!
We're going to use this "blog" as our stitchery club where we can share what's going on here in the studio, where you can share ideas & tips & photos of your projects etc.... We're going to have free patterns & contests & games & show & tell & anything else we can think up ("we" being me, the girls & YOU!) Anyway, you get the idea!
I thought I'd show you the first photo of the first new pattern to be completed for release in October. It's called "Home Grown". It's cotton velveteen pincushions & seed packet needlecases. There are radishes, beets (my fav.) apples & carrots (my fav.#2).

I went nuts a few weeks ago putting together things to decorate our booth for quilt market in Houston. I LOVE decorating!! Looks like we won't be able to use any of it right now tho. You all know that Houston got hit by hurricane what's her name & when we found out that we'd lost our reservations because our hotel was badly damaged, we decided that it may not be wise to travel all that way concidering the uncertainty.... "Would we be able to find another hotel? Would the convention center still be housing evacuees? Would any shop owners show up???" So, we're going to stay home & enjoy Autumn instead! One thing I really regret is that I won't be teaching in McKinney, TX at Happiness is Quilting after market. We had to cancel that also. I was really looking forward to it. I got a call from them today though, & we're on for next fall for sure!

Here's another new design... this time a quilt called "Berry Picking Party". I was asked by Lecien Fabrics if I would use fabrics of theirs for an up-coming design. Their florals are

absolutely GORGEOUS so I said "Yes, Please!!". They also sent us their embroidery floss to use. It's called COSMO, comes in beautiful colors & has such a nice sheen. It was a joy to work with! We're putting both the COSMO & DMC floss numbers on the pattern. Here are a couple close-ups of blocks.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..................... putting photos on here is going to take a little bit of experimentation to get them where I want them!

The other blocks are a berry pie, a pitcher of lemonade, a bowl of berries with cream & a bluebird, tea stuff, a table set for the party with cakes & petit fours and a gift basket with berries, flowers and jars of berry jelly!

I've always wanted to have a jam making party! Get together with a few friends & make four or five kinds of jam & then split them up between us. It's just such a good feeling when you look at those jars all lined up on the kitchen counter!! Maybe next summer............. We made two of these quilts. Sheila & I stitched the first one & Gracie, Judy, Cyndy & Jan divvied up the blocks on the 2nd one & got it done SO Quickly!! We have to make at least two of everything so that we have enough to send out in trunk shows & to catalogs to photograph.... YIKES!!! By the time you make the 2nd one, you don't really ever want to look at it again! Well, that's not quite true. It's sort of like giving birth - it takes a little while to forget the "pain" & then you're willing to do it again! I'll post more photos as we get them ready for their pattern covers.