Quilting Embroidered Quilts

Hi! I'm in the office to pay the bills and catch up on my emails today.... then back to un-packing! I'm SO TIRED!!!! And SO ready to be DONE!!!!! ..........but it's fun seeing the house come together, so it's very worth it! Thanks for all of your well wishes!! They give me a much needed boost to keep working and get the house pulled together!

I had a question from Wendy this morning about how to quilt an embroidered quilt. You do have to quilt the embroidered areas or they'll "POUF" out and look really sloppy in the finished quilt. I'm a hand quilter and if I was hand quilting one of the embroidered quilts it would be really easy to quilt around and through the embroideries and not disturb them....... BUT!!!!...... I don't have time to hand quilt anymore so we've found two really lovely ladies to do my machine quilting, Jill Therriault from Wenatchee and Susan Johnson from Richland. I have them quilt around and throught the embroidery in designs that complement the stitchery. They have to avoid heavily embroidered areas (such as lots of lazy daisy petals or french knots) and, of course, beaded areas. Most beading should be done AFTER quilting. It will make your quilter MUCH happier, and it's easy to hide the thread ends between the layers of fabric and batting. If you only have a few beads though, I'd just go ahead and sew them on beforehand and let your quilter know where they are so that she can easily avoid them when she quilts.

Some embroidery (and fabric patterns..... and piecing for that matter!) lends itself to simple, simple, simple quilting................... Some embroidery just calls out for detailed quilting.... Here's an example; Flight of Fancy with it's bold, bright, graphic fabrics and large scale embroidery lends itself to large, simple quilting. Pieces of the Past with it's simple, uncluttered and pale fabrics and detailed, pastel embroidery lends itself to heavier, close together quilting that makes the embroidered areas "pop". Just use your imagination & have fun with it! (Jill quilted Pieces of the Past with an all-over vertical "wallpaper" design around the plates.... heavily quilted around the appliqued areas inside of the "picture", and left the "tablecloth" pretty much un-quilted so that it would ripple a little bit like a tablecloth normally would..... Winter Wonderland on the other hand was quilted by Susan with an all-over swirling pattern with snowflakes suggesting blowing snow... both look just great!)

Well..... enough of a break.... back to un-packing! WHEW!!!!! :o)
xox Meg

MOVING DAY!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!

YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! We received the go-ahead to move into the new house last night! I was SO excited I couldn't sleep last night, so, today I think I'm going to be running on nervous energy alone!!!....................oh... calm down girl!! LOL!!! Right now they're installing the TV's & stuff and there's a photographer out there taking pictures of everything before we fill it up with boxes and furniture. Kind of weird to walk into your own house & find strangers taking pictures...... "good" weird tho!!! LOL!!!!!
Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!!!! Just had to share today with you! I know.... I'm dopey!'
xoxoxoxo Meg

Another Valentine Greeting!

I just finished another block from "Fondest Regards" and realized..... GEEZ!!! .... it's a Valentine! I was going to do French knots all over the heart but if there's an opportunity to use pretty, sparkly, PINK beads??????? Enough said! LOL!!!!

Hmmmmm..... which block to work on now!!!?

xox Meg

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi! I finished stitching the center block of a new quilt "Fondest Regards" just in time for Valentine's Day!!! Really.... finished this about 10 minutes ago and I LOVE it!! I'm using new variegated floss from Cosmo (totally colorfast) and it's just been so much fun to work with and it's turning out SO pretty!!! The forget-me-nots are done with one floss.... YEAH! ONE floss!! Same with the blue flowers at the bottom and the words. This floss will be released at Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis. I don't know what they're going to call it either... right now their variegated floss is called Marble Threads but they're supposed to be changing the name.... something pretty I hope! We'll have all of the ones that I'm using up on the website when they're available. WOO HOO!!!!
OH.... another 1/2 woo hoo!........... our house is almost done & we should be able to move into it in a week or so! Once they give us the "go-ahead" I'll be pretty much missing in action for a couple of weeks to get "nested in" but I'm going to set aside time every day to stitch on the new designs so that they'll be ready in time for market. I can't wait to live without cardboard boxes everywhere!!!! Wish me luck.... this has been a marathon house build so hopefully the move will be easy to make up for it!!!

NOW........
This is the Gardener's Angel of Spring, made by Wendy Stanek. She's added flowers from another pattern at the edges. She wrote that her 7 year old daughter wanted MORE embroidery on the fabric......................... a future pattern designer???? Looks great Wendy!

Well..... I can't remember quilte how long ago.... or WHAT this was for, but I love what Elizabeth Quigley from Texas did with this little free pattern! What a cute Valentine dish towel!!! Hmmmm...........I may need to make one!

These next few Hocuspocusville pictures were made by Laura Allen from St Louis, MO. She's done the quilt in mainly orange and she's added black beads and extra this's and that's here and there to spark it up!! LOVE what you've done Laura! Great job!

Hey, just a reminder! I LOVE to get your pictures of projects so that we can share them like this!!! If you can send them as big as possible (at least 600 dpi or so but can be as large as 1500 or more) Just as big as your email will allow........the bigger the pictures can be once they're loaded on the blog! YAHOO!!!! Then we can see all the beautiful details of all your hard work!

Extra Hugs & Kisses for Valentine's Day!! Meg

New Releases!!

Hi!.... OH HAPPY DAY!!! The new patterns are finished, printed and ready to release!! We've just finished putting them up on the website along with their floss kits. It's feels SO GOOD when something is completed!!! Now I can give ALL of my attention to the NEW, new designs! LOL!!!! Geez..... how lucky am I to get to work at something that's SO MUCH FUN!!????

Questions?

Good Morning!!! We had some questions about "Breath of Spring"!
Hi Holly! The pillow pattern is in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue #125 of Quiltmaker magazine. Hi to you too, Kathy! The stitchery is traced onto the background fabric and then tinted with plain old Crayola crayons. All you have to do is color lightly...make it look the way you want it to turn out when you're done - the crayon won't fade when it's heat set with an iron! .... then place a paper towel over the colored portion of the design and iron with a hot iron. Look at the paper towel to see if any color has transferred to it. If it has, put another clean paper towel over the design and iron again. Do this until no color transfers to the towel (usually 2 paper towels do the trick!!). It's important that you color on the traced design BEFORE basting.... anything on the back of the fabric such as a piece of thread, lint, crumbs on the table etc.... will cause the crayon to be darker in that area. Remember the crayon or charcoal rubbings we all did when we were kids??? It will do THAT! YIKES!!! The coloring doesn't have to be really intense. A very, very light tinting will be intensified once the stitching is in place around and on top of it..... SO pretty!!
OH!! The new house is a beehive of activity this morning! Trucks and men everywhere!! YAHOO!!!!.................................................... that came out wrong.......................... yahoo because of the activity, not because of the men everywhere! LOL!!!!! It's like they're dressing it up for the ball, and now they're putting on her jewelry! What a transformation after all these months of waiting... and WAITING!!! Door handles..........yeah, I remember picking those out!, mirrors and light fixtures and sinks and appliances, OH MY! It's been such a long wait, but today, really well worth it! I'm doing a little happy dance!
Hope your day is happy too! xox Meg

New Patterns!

Hi everybody!

We're working away trying to get the three new designs ready to release!! All we're waiting for now, is "Susan's Dresden Garden" to get back from Jill, our quilter so that it can be photographed for the pattern cover. HURRY, HURRY JILL!!!! It's supposed to arrive tomorrow or Tuesday. I CAN'T WAIT!! The picture above is a peek at "Breath of Spring". Some of you may have seen the pillow in a quilting magazine last summer, and since I used all three of these for classes a couple years ago, some of you may have already made one of them! Well, finally.....as promised......... here's the pattern with all three! It's just for the images though... no pillow pattern..........but then, how hard is it to make a few little 9 patch blocks and sew on some antique crocheted lace??? You don't need a pattern for that!! I look for old pillowcase edgings when I'm antique-ing. The pillowcases get old, thin, ripped and stained but their hand crocheted edgings hold up really well and make such pretty trims!!

Spring IS coming... this weekend I saw so many people out cleaning out their gardens so that the daffodils & tulips will be able to poking their heads up soon! Have a happy week!! Meg

Spring??

I've been grumbling all day.... trying to get a few good pictures of Windflowers to use for the pattern cover and advertisement.... I have to have a picture & bio of myself for a magazine (two things I HATE to do!!)....the house isn't done and the painters are missing in action, I'm outside trying to get a closeup of the quilt with the crystals sparkling in the sun.....grumble, complain, poor little me......

Then I realized... holy mackerel girl!!! The sun is shining and it's almost 65 degrees! The birds sound like they're all twitterpated and I know absolutely, for sure that my son is alive & healthy and safe. I know that my husband is at work, just on the other end of a phone line & is healthy & safe. I know where all of my friends are, and that they're alive and safe too.

How horribly selfish and thoughtless am I that I can complain on a day like this? So, I can't get the perfect shot! So, my submission to the magazine may be a day or two late! So, that house is unfinished! I'm going to take a break and call Jon & Phil and bother them at work. I want to hear their voices.

Then I'm going to call that Red Cross cell number again and donate another $10 for the earthquake victims in Haiti. Hope you will too............then hug your family!!

xoxoxoxo Meg

New Designs!

Well, the three new designs... Windflowers, Susan's Dresden Garden, and Breath of Spring... are almost ready to release!! The patterns are complete and being printed. I'm just waiting for the quilts to return from our quilter, Jill Therriault, so that they can be photographed for the covers!!! Sooooooooo................... that means it's time to get started on all of the ideas that have been running around in my brain!!! They're causing trouble... and they need to get out & on to paper! I've been drawing all afternoon and decided to add color to one block and scan it in! That's it above......... I think this is going to be SO MUCH FUN!!!
We've received some pictures from our friend from Jacksonville FL, Susan Ache. She's been freezing her tushy off for the last week or so... in the deep freeze that's hit the southern states. We've learned that those Florida girls don't have alot of warm winter clothes! I'm trying to arrange an air lift of turtleneck sweaters and long johns for them....but they'd probably arrive just in time for a heat wave!! LOL!!! So....guess you're on your own! Bundle up in some of those embroidered quilts!? Anyway..... Susan, it seems, is staying at home where it's warm and sewing! She sent these photos of her Flight of Fancy quilt, but she's an over-acheiver and did birds in flight blocks as it's alternate blocks. IT'S GORGEOUS!!!! Thanks for sharing!

Keep Stitching! xox Meg

"Almost" Happy New Year!!!

I know I'm a little early with my "Happy New Year!" We've been closed this week and I find that I just can't stay out of the studio! I'm in that.......... Christmas is over...... time to take down the decorations, organize and do the spring cleaning mood. Out with the old and in with the new just in time for the new year!!

There are going to be so many changes this year. New house (can't wait till they're done & I can start decorating and moving in furniture...sigh!) new layout in the studio, new designs (of course, and by the way the new quilt pattern shown above is called Susan's Dresden Garden and will be available next month some time. The fabric line used is by April Cornell for MODA and is called Nature's Notebook. It should be new in stores right now! ), new floss to play with ( OH! JUST WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE NEW FLOSS!!!!!!!) What new floss you say????..................you'll just have to wait & see! New gardens to plant, a new market booth design (I already have it all worked out, it's going to be SO COOL!!) New products to carry (looks like we're going to be able to make scissor charms again! Yahoo!!) New ideas (OH, I love having new ideas! It's so exciting!) A full schedule of workshops planned for the year (hint.... purses!) and our first Crabapple Hill Retreat this fall! (I'm having so much fun making plans!)

So... I know I'm a little early, but I just couldn't wait.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

xoxoxoxoxoxox! Meg

Blue Christmas

"I-I'll...ha-have...a-a...BLUE (ooo-ooo-EEE-ooo-ooo) CHRISTMAS (ooo-ooo-EEE-ooo-ooo) without you! (ooo-ooo-EEE-ooo-ooo, ooo-ooo-EEE-ooo-ooo)

Aren't these Martha Stewart glitters and tinsel glitters yummy???? I loaded up on them... don't quite know what to DO with them yet! Maybe just hang them on the tree???
As you can see, I'm going through a "blue" phase. If it's aqua I actually go into spasms of delight!! Really embarrassing if I'm out in public when it happens! LOL!!!!

It snowed a little bit.... looks like someone dusted everything with powdered sugar doesn't it? We woke up to freezing rain this morning. It doesn't show up in the picture, but everything is coated with about 1/4" of glass! Sheila stayed home today (school closures) and Geri, our bookeeper called in and told me she's a "weenie" (her words, not mine!) and didn't want to drive out to the studio from town. I don't blame her, I'm very grateful that my commute is just a treacherous walk over from the house. I tried to walk in the snow wherever possible and not on the walkways (temporary ice skating rink!) Cindy braved the ice and drove out to do the shipping... she's such a sweetie!

This photo shows my new trees! None of that was there a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing how quickly they can put all that stuff in! In years past, Phil and I would have done it all ourselves.... many, many months and backbreaking work! If you look really closely you can see that all the stickers are still in the windows of the new house.......I'm trying to be REALLY calm about this...... we won't be able to move until late next month (well, at least that's the latest story they're giving me.... first it was September, then October, then after Christmas....see, it's getting more & more vague as time goes by!) Oh well, all the furniture hasn't arrived anyway so this was destined to happen.... that's my story & I'm sticking to it for my own peace of mind! I had really looked forward to decorating the house for Christmas. Now I'll have almost a whole year to plan for next year!!..........................was that too "Pollyanna"?

Speaking of "blue"... I just finished stitching Windflowers and sewed the borders on and sent it to Jill to quilt. When it gets home I'll stitch the mother of pearl buttons and beads to it. I found blue, aqua, aquamarine and purple saworski, sworski, sajworski..... (aw, the heck with it!)....crystals, to sew on it too.

I'm sewing together Susan's Dresden Garden. That's it above. Gracie did all the appliqued dresdens (they're so perfect and lay so flat, they look like they're printed on the fabric!) Jan, Judy, Cyndy, Sheila and I split up the stitched dresdens and then I did the center block and the mini dresdens. I'm going to sew it all together this week and then hand sew the little dresdens and the yo-yo plate centers on before we hand it over to Jill for quilting........ and yes, see! It's mostly blue!

Time to turn on the Christmas lights outside while it's still light enough to find the plug-ins!

Merry Christmas!! xox Meg

Snowflakes!

Want to whip up a flurry of snowflakes????? I've been making these since I was a little girl... they're SO EASY to make and so, so pretty! Make a blizzard for your windows.... decorate packages.... decorate the tree (did that one year! The colored lights glow through the paper!)...cut them and don't even open them but just put them in your Christmas cards as a surprise gift! All you need is regular, old copy paper and a sharp pair of scissors! Snip, snip away and you'll have a snowstorm! If you click on the images below, they'll be bigger and easier to read... or you can right click and print!

Have fun making it snow!!!

xox Meg

Our Holiday Hours

Here it is, all finished. I didn't like the frame I'd embellished tho... the buttons are too pink-y a taupe. I'll have to look for something else!

We're trying to look ahead to the holidays, kids out of school and planned vacations and traveling out of town. Because of this, we're going to be closed November 25, 26, & 27. and we'll be closed for Christmas and New Years from December 23 through New Year's Day. We'll be back on the 4th. If you need to order for Christmas plan a little bit beyond the usual 3 to 4 days because the postal service tends to slow down with the rush!!

Talk to you later! xox Meg

This House Was Built...

Well, didn't get much done on this today...actually had to do "weekend" stuff instead. But... I got all the stitching done and I'll add the leaves and frame tomorrow (that's a piece of the wool I'm using at the left edge. I also have to do the lettering, attach the needle/floss, and sketch my house & add that too. So far, so good! I'm liking it!!!

OH!!! I forgot to put the dresden plates on it... made them last night, they're VERY cool!

What did you do today?

I've had a lovely, quiet day today with nothing to do but sew. It's been SO NICE!!! Sheila took Windflowers home this weekend to stitch on it (we're going to "tag team" it!) and I was left with nothing to do but make something for myself!!!! Heaven forbid!!! I decided to make a stitchery for the new house... kind of my version of a "champagne bottle" christening! I got a readymade frame and glued mother of pearl buttons all over it. I added silver lined beads in all the glue-y voids between the buttons. They'll tarnish quickly and will turn kind of gray...pretty! The picture shows them above but the glue isn't dry yet so I wasn't able to turn it upside down & knock off excess beads. I'll do it tomorrow.

The bottom is randomly pieced and the band above the piecing is going to have a saying made with letters/words cut from old books (don't worry... they'll be color copies!) that will say "This house was built with a needle and thread" (Because it WAS! But that's a story for another day!)I'm going to thread an old needle with floss and sew it to the band somewhere. I haven't sewn on the rickrack and old lace pieces yet. I'm going to wait until the top portion has been embroidered so that I don't scrunch it up with my hoop. I'm thinking of attaching the wide lace though and stitching right over it. I'm going to do branches coming up around the square in the center and sew wool leaves to them & maybe a few buttons.

The square in the center will have a frame appliqued around it.... think I'll applique something in the two full squares in the bottom pieced area too.... we'll see. I'm going to draw a little pen & ink sketch of my house to stick in the center of the square at the top of the lace. I scanned in the inside cover of an old piece of sheet music & I think I'll do the drawing on a copy of it... it's all water spotted and aged.... COOL!! I think I'll do a couple of little dresden plates to put up in the top outer area too, kind of layered with the embroidery & lace. I'm going to try to do the handwork tonight... I'll show you what I've come up with tomorrow!

Oh! Brenda wanted to know what to hang with painted clothespins! Well.... just about anything that you can get them around! I hang ornaments, copies of old postcards, old linens for curtains, use them as paper clips, clip cards, letters & photos to an old gate here in the studio...... the ends of garlands........tags to presents.........OH!!!! I should show you how to make little candle holders for the tree!!!! (not lit of course! HA!!) A couple of years ago I scanned in tons of old family photos & used my photo program to make them black & white (they were mostly in color) and then printed them off in sepia tones. I used scalloped scissors to cut edges around them like old photos and clipped them to the tree.... TONS of them... tried to find every old Christmas or snow picture I could. It turned out really, well... I'd get teary eyed every time I looked at it! Of course..... that's coming from someone who gets all choked up when they start running those coffee commercials where the son comes home & surprises his mom... or those new crescent roll ads where all they do is click their heels together and you just know it means "there's no place like home"..... Ooooooooh..... here I go! Can't see the screen because that's all it takes to get me going!!!! See you tomorrow! xox Meg

Blog Tour Winners!!!

Well, our portion of the blog tour is over and we've chosen our winners! Thanks to everybody who stopped by to visit and took the time to enter. We had such a fun day yesterday, reading all of your messages and comments!!!

Our three winners of the 100 Blocks magazine are:

Nancy Alderman

Sharon Szekely

Edith Soper

Our winner whose name will be sent to Quiltmaker's for the big drawing is:

Robin Brown

Our winner of the gift from Crabapple Hill is:

Scarlett Hobbs

We'll be contacting everyone for addresses so that we can send out your prizes! See Ya!!

And.....yes, I'm decorating the studio for Christmas so I thought I'd share a little picture!

"Ho-Ho-Ho, who wouldn't go?.....HO-HO-HO, who wouldn't go-o-o-oooooo? Up on the housetop, click, click, click?? Down through the chimney with good St. Nick!!!"

Feel free to hum along! xox Meg

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour

Thanks June, for sending me a picture of the block.... you're so sweet!

"Windflowers" first corner is almost completely stitched!!! YAHOO!! only 3 more to go! Then I can get started on the beading and mother of pearl buttons. That will REALLY be the fun part! I got the border fabric from MODA this morning so I should be able to have this stitched, bordered, embellished and the pattern written by the end of the month (barring any difficulties! knock on wood & all that!) I'm planning on releasing it in January or February. I know that this seems a little out of the ordinary for me, but really it's not. I dearly love so many different styles and color palettes.... I just haven't dragged them out for everyone to see yet!!! This fabric just sang to me when I was shown it be my very sweet MODA rep, Bonnie Tyro. It has another fabric that will be used as the outer border..... it looks like a band of gorgeous, ...."gasp"....watercolor-y lace laid over the blue background! It's SO beautiful!!! I used that same band of lace but cut it up and pieced it for the inner border. There are two other colorways in this line too... I want to use the beige one too because it will come out looking snow-ish!... It's called "French Lace Batik". There are so many types of fabric that would look good with this. Everything from soft florals to Kaffe Fassett or Amy Butler. All that would have to be changed would be the floss colors used. I'm using 1 yard lengths of 10 or 12 different flosses randomly. It's been so much fun doing something a little bit different than the norm! I hope that everybody likes it!

Several months ago I was asked to design a block for a book called "Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks from Today's Top Designers". I designed a simple to stitch urn full of buttonhole stitch daisies with an old fashioned cross stitch type border done all in rich golds and chocolate browns (Though you could use any colors you'd like, of course!). I wish I'd taken a photo of it before I sent it off to them but I just never thought I'd need one! Joke's on me!!!... because I really could use it right now! LOL!!

Anyway... They're doing all kinds of fun stuff to kick off the book's release. One thing is a "blog tour". You can follow the 100 Blocks Blog Tour daily November 9th through 13th at www.quiltmaker.com/quiltypleasures for inspiration, ideas and giveaways galore! Look for 100 Blocks from Today's Top Designers in your local quilt shop, or purchase it at www.quiltmaker.com/100blocks. They will be posting new links and prizes each day and all of the designers in the book have donated items that have been put together into a "Big Bundle Giveaway" that will be given to one lucky reader at the end of the blog tour.

www.quiltmaker.com/100blockshttp://www.quiltmaker.com/100blocks

We will also be choosing a winner within the next 24 hours who will receive a copy of the book and another winner who will receive a little gift from Crabapple Hill! All you have to do is contact us by email through the website http://www.crabapplehillstudio.com/ or directly at info@crabapplehillstudio.com and we'll put your name in the hat! If you enter by commenting on the blog we may not be able to access your email address to contact you. Sounds like fun on a cold November day, doesn't it????

Less than one month left!!

Hi!

It's hard to believe that it's already November! That means that the "Forget Me Not" quilt winner will be drawn on December 1st !!! You would not only win the quilt but also a pillow made with the block made by Judith Baker Montano! If you haven't purchased your raffle ticket yet, just follow the link on my website (http://www.crabapplehillstudio.com/) and it will take you to the Susan G Komen website where they are being sold. HURRY, HURRY, HURRY!!!!

I'm sorry about huge lapses of time between posts. Between working on new patterns and our new house, time just seems to disappear! Our house looks like it's about 2 months LATE and we may be moving around Christmas time..... I'm going to take the "Pollyanna" high road and look at it as a great big Christmas present and not freak out!!!!! But.....really...... I want to say "#$%^!@*, get it DONE already!!!" In the meantime, I've almost totally packed our old house, & since I'm not going to decorate IT for the holidays, I'm going "all out" in the studio! The tree is up...lights on....no decorations yet... village houses, lights, vintage ornaments, and greenery is arranged... music is on (I'm actually kind of embarrassed by the number of Christmas CD's I've found I have... I have two copies of several of them (must have REALLY liked them! LOL!!) so I'm telling myself that I just thought ahead... how CLEVER of me!.... and got one for the player in the car too!)

I'm going to have to paint clothespins to clip things to the tree and it dawned on me that you may like to know how to make them! So... here goes.... easy, easy, easy!

You will need:

wood clothespins (the cheap ones in the grocery or hardware store, not the craft store expensive ones)

a large zip lock bag or a good, thick garbage bag.

a bottle of acrylic craft paint (I'm doing white this time.... the black ones for Halloween turned out great too... I've also done pink, green, orange, and white.....wonder where those disappeared to?)

an old towel or large rag (absorbent and nothing you'll care about ruining)

paper towels

Pour some of the paint into the bag and mix water with it until it's about the consistancy of whipping cream (before it's whipped....duh!) Just squish & rub it around in your hands to mix it.

Put the clothespins in the bag of paint. Seal it up and roll them around until they look like they're thoroughly covered.

Take the clothespins out of the bag (I use rubber gloves) and spread them out on the towel. You can dab them with paper towels if they seem really..... paint-y.

Let them dry in a warm, dry place. If there's plenty of air movement they'll dry faster.

Every hour or so, turn them over & roll them around as they dry.

That's all there is to it!!!! Have Fun!

Who "helps" you stitch?

I have to admit it... I like dogs. In fact, I like them alot. But I LOVE cats! They're funny and cuddly and clean and.... well, I don't think they get the good PR that dogs do! So, when we got this email from Doris Marie Gerard of Cincinnati, OH, I decided that now's the time to toot the horn for kitty "helpers" everywhere! This is Doris' email:

... You left out one requirement in (Rules for Knot-y Girls Membership) Rule #4, but I don't know how to phrase it.... here's what happened: I did, on one occasion, stitch my cat's paw into my needlepoint! Biscuit was laying in my lab bathing when the loop of yarn caught her paw and pulled it up to the back of the canvas. She didn't scream or jump and run, she just laid there purring until I realized that I had a cat paw caught in my stitching. Then she gave me "The Look" as I picked out a half dozen or so stitches to free her dainty little grey paw! Years later, the same thing happened with my Siamese, Princess Oscar, aka The Kitten From Hell (shown below in the window) She wasn't so forgiving. Still have the scars! Fortunately, one of the skills Grandma taught me was how to reweave holes in embroidery fabric! LOL!



The next three pictures are our friend Shellee "Hiccup Girl's" helpers. I love the first one's hanging over the edge of the table/acrobatics act....

Somebody needs to keep the ironing board warm.....right?? Besides, what project would be complete without a little bit of cat hair sewn into it? Maybe if you move your board out of the sunshine... it's just TOO tempting!

The last one is a clear cut case of "Pay attention to ME, not your pattern!" I get this one all the time from my helper, Honeybunny. "If you like it, mom, I must need to be right in the middle of it!"

We got this picture from Terri Woodford from Fall Creek, WI. She says that she makes samples for a local quilt shop called The Quilt Yard. This is her "spin" on Halloween Journey. I wish the image was larger! She did her pumpkins in wool and it's SO STINKIN' CUTE!!! Thanks Terri!

This is Winter Wonderland made by Jan Thompson of McVille, ND. It was one of the first place winning quilts at the Indian Summer Quilt Show in Fargo, ND. (Congratulations! Great Job!) If that's not enough, her quilt will also be shown in a special show held by the North Dakota Quilters Showcase and will be photographed and documented as a quilt from the 21st century. Holy Moly Jan! How cool are you????!!! We're really excited for you!

These stitcheries were done by Robin Diessner (hope I got that right?) She made Halloween Journey and then decided that she wanted two stitcheries that could be hung together.... SO... she got really creative and flipped the border of Halloween Journey, designed her own title (Trick or Treat) in the same style of writing as mine, wrote her own verse in the same style as mine (LOVE her verse!!!) and added images from Vintage Trick or Treat that she shrank down to size to fit the stitchery. It is SO, SO COOL!!!!!! I want one.................really, I mean it Robin... get to stitching!!!! Really not kidding here Robin.... Get to work.

This Over the River and Through the Woods was made by Doris Jablonski from Georgetown, TX. She won a ribbon for it in the Chisholm Trail Quilt Guild Show this fall. (Once again, wish the picture was WAY bigger. AAarrrgghhh!!!) She also wrote that the judge's critique read, "Original hand quilting design showcases lovely embroidery"...blush, blush You SHOULD be proud of yourself!!, so stop blushing! You did a great job. (send us a larger photo next time please so that we can really see the detail.... I know, some emails automatically resize photos, what a pain!)

Well, that's it for today. Send in your photos of your projects (leave them as large as your email will allow) and photos and stories about your kitty helpers. They're so much company! There's just something very calming about stitching with a warm, purring (and vibrating!) cat leaning on my arm. The occasional floss covered in kitty spit is OK too! LOL!!!

By the way! Pieces of the Past (that's the center block at the top of the post) is almost ready and will be put up on the website next week! That pattern is HUGE!!!! Hope you like it!

xox Meg

Back From the Quilter!!

Pieces of the Past is home again! Jill Therriault from Wenatchee, WA quilted it & got it back to us in record time!!! I'm THRILLED with the way it turned out! Great imagination Jill...LOVE the wallpaper design she did on the wall "behind" the shelf and plates! This is a preliminary photo just to give you an idea how it looks!!!! I worked all afternoon today binding it... Tomorrow I'll try to hang it a little bit straighter & get some pictures in better lighting (it's very dreary out today & they've recently dug potatoes nearby...lots of wind & lots of dust storm!!) The quilt is leaving for Houston tomorrow. It will be visiting Nireko Ohira in the Lecien booth at International Quilt Market... Thank you Nireko!! I'm going to try to finish writing the pattern this week while it's all still clear in my memory. WHEW!!!

Finally... It's Time For Pumpkins!

Autumn is my very favorite time of year! The extreme heat of summer is over and leaves are promising to turn very soon! YAHOO!!! We've picked the pumpkins & gourds that we grew this year. Kind of a meager harvest... but every one's a winner!!! I couldn't wait to clean out the summer flowers & replace them with mums. I got plants that are covered with buds... can't wait till they start blooming! I also got a Japanese Lantern plant while I was at the nursery. They're SO COOL!!! I'm going to have to plant some of these in the gardens next year!

See those little faces?? They don't just grow that way!! LOL ! My son dropped by the studio yesterday afternoon & by the time he'd left we had Jack 'o Lantern faces on our little lanterns!! He's a whiz with a Sharpie & always "game" for a quick project. Aren't they cute??

He also suggested that a Japanese Lantern vine with Jack 'o Lantern faces would make a really cute stitchery.... maybe with a harvest moon?? (Hmmmm..... I'd hire him if he'd just agree to learn to embroider!! ... dream on!) I think I need to start drawing that one!

Think I'll make some pumpkin bread.... or pumpkin muffins.... or pumpkin pie!

Happy Autumn!!! xox Meg

We Have A Name!

One stage of designing a pattern is always daunting. At some point you absolutely HAVE to come up with a name for it! I thought we'd do something a little bit different this time... I asked YOU to name it.

We received hundreds of ideas from you. Most had something to do with "Grandma's China" or Grandmother's China Cabinet". Great names and also the first thing that I had thought of for a name too! There were many, many fine names that ranged from pretty..."Memories Stitched in Porcelain", to whimsical..."China Palooza", lyrical... "If Dishes Were Wishes", literary... "Marmee's Best Dishes", and literal... "Flea Market Finds". Several entries came with stories about mothers, grandmas and favorite aunts whose pretty china brings back memories of Sunday dinners and tea parties lovingly given for little girls with clumsy hands.

I have to admit that my china collection doesn't come with memories attached (with the exception of one bowl and two Havilland covered tureens" It's mostly the product of my china....problem?? "Hello, my name is Meg & I'm a china addict." If it's round or oval, pastel or floral... it's going home with me!!! I don't care if it's a little bit chipped or crazed or if it's remotely valuable, it's MINE, MINE, MINE!!!! HA-HA-HA...(that's an evil, "I'm taking over the world one bowl at a time" kind of laugh by the way!)

Anyway, thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute. I've taken words or entire phrases from each of the entries & added them to the pattern. You'll be able to choose any you'd like and trace them onto the crazy quilt blocks on the quilt's borders!

Thank you again and..... hmmmm..... almost forgot!!!! The winning quilt name was "Pieces of the Past" sent in by Diane Stone. I chose it because the border's crazy quilt blocks contain sections of the plates as if they were pieces of broken china... it fits like a glove!!

The photos above are of the (almost) finished quilt center... I still have to applique the "frame" down to the quilt top.... and one of the crazy quilt blocks that Sheila is stitching on. To get the blocks done quickly, Jan & Cyndy drove down this weekend & sewed the blocks while I traced & colored them. The four of us have split the blocks up so that we can get them done ASAP!!!

Thanks again for all of your help!

xox Meg

"China" Quilt Late Summer Contest

Here are some of the stitched blocks & the Lecien fabric that I'm going to use.... thought they might help you come up with names! At the moment it seems that everybody wants it to be called "Grandma's China/Dishes" !! Remember to email us by September 12th with your entry at info@crabapplehillstudio.com