A New Day! A New Website!!

Well... the new website was launched in the wee hours last night!  We've spent several hours today trying to get our email back...something about the new website using a different server messed it up (blah,blah,blah computer talk that doesn't make sense...) Anyway, it's fixed now! YAY!!!  We're still fine tuning the site so some little things will change here and there over the next week or so.  By the time we're done, every pattern will show which flosses are used on it..stuff like that.  I hope that you'll like it and that it will be easier to navigate.  We'd started having SO MUCH trouble with our old site (it actually started just randomly deleting products!)  It was more than time for a change.  This website is using all the new technology (translates to "all the bells and whistles") and we'll be able to add some other things as time goes by.  Check it out!  If the link from here doesn't work properly just go directly to www.crabapplehillstudio.com.

We'll be working on the blog next and trying to get it up to date.  I tend to start computer-y stuff out of necessity and then not know enough about it to keep the workings up to date.  NOW I have two or three people here with me who know all about it, so maybe they can drag us into 2012!!!

All of the new releases are on the website... we just got the linen used on A Gardener's Alphabet in today! YAY!!!  So we'll start cutting it and filling the orders we have on the waiting list.  When we get those filled, we'll put it back up on the website.  I ordered fabric today for all of the new quilts so we'll have kits for those in a month or so too!

Browse around on the new website!  If you find anything that doesn't work properly PLEASE let us know so we can fix it ASAP!

xo Meg

What's up today???

 It's 100 degrees outside......about 150 degrees in the studio!!  Something's wrong with the A/C and we're DYING in here!!!!  This is proof of just how hot it is.........Jonn-O finally had all he could take and went outside to run through the sprinklers!! LOLOL!!!!

A few more minutes of this heat and we'll all be out there!  The A/C guy is coming (he just called to say he's almost here) so HOPEFULLY this'll be an easy fix and we'll be up and running right away.  It's supposed to be hotter tomorrow! YIKES!!!!  I'm thinking about sending my Jon into town to get a big kiddy pool....we could all sit around it outside in the shade......wonder if we can hook up the computers outside???  Can you say "electrocution"??  Hope your air conditioning is working!  xo Meg

Happy 4th of July!!!

Doesn't this just SCREAM 4th of July????  We're going to build a fire tonight and roast hot dogs before we drive down by the river to watch the fireworks display.... you know what???  I just realized I forgot to get a hot dog buns!! YIKES!
     
I promised retreat photos... here they are!

Project boxes all ready for the retreat!

The calm before the storm...... as you can see, the theme was "lavender"....color, not necessarily the flower.    Everybody arrived on Friday morning and WOW!!!!  What a fun group!  They were SO MUCH FUN!!!!..... if only Nadine had remembered to bring her fart machine.............sigh!

Everybody got straight to work.  Look at those pretty smiles!

Saturday's needlebook project underway........

Jennifer's scissor fob in the works.

Boy... that lady on the right has REALLY hairy arms!!  Oh.... that's just Jon putting clasps on the fobs!

Everybody was trying to glue their fingers together.......it's a new stitching technique??

We had some GORGEOUS show and tell on Sunday!  Look at this applique!  It was a prize winner!  Ribbon on the back  and EVERYthing!

This little purse had the Knot-y Girls logo on it!!!! SO CUTE!!

The bats on this are little bat BUTTONS!!!!  Darling idea!  

This is a needlebook that Sandy made....well, there were a few more but the pix didn't turn out.....  ANYway!.... they are SO COOL!!!!  She used old clip-on earrings as a closure for them!  Such a great idea!

Moss purses......we formed a wagon train on Saturday and drove to Beaverbark to scavenge for more.... totally cleaned them out!!  

More show and tell......these were so happy and spring-y!

Hmmm...... what's to say?......this is fruit.

Crayon tinting is a lot of fun.... watching the flowers come to life!

Working intently.........everybody was so good at coloring!  Also, every last one of these ladies are great stitchers!!!   So many finished their projects!!  Boy I wouldn't have......I was WAY too busy yacking away... I wouldn't have gotten ANYTHING done!!  

OOhhhhh........more show and tell!

Calendula Patterdrip in purples and greens!!!  This looked SO Stinking COOL!!!!!

Work, work, work, work!!!!

Nice girls on the right.............troublemakers on the left????  If you don't believe me just look at the next picture!
  Holy mackerel Roxie!!!!

Thanks to everybody for coming, talking, laughing, and making this such a fun retreat!!  I hope we can get everybody back together again one day..........OH! don't forget Stacy!!!  We need fascinators for the synchronized chair dance next time!!!!  I want a big embroidery hoop with feather and flashing lights....don't forget the lights!!
xox Meg

It's almost July???

I can't believe that this weekend is the end of June!  Where the heck did it go????  We've been busy around here with the Summer Retreat and new patterns...but STILL!!!  When did the month slip away?

I'll post pictures from the retreat next week......we had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!  I was hoarse for a couple of days from all the laughing!  One of the things that happened had a little something to do with this bear............

Jan lives at Lake Wenatchee....way out in the woods above Leavenworth, WA.  She got a call from her husband on Saturday night while we were all sitting here stitching.  He was all excited... telling her how he'd had a visit from this bear that's been trying to get into their garbage.  First, he said, he went out to chase it away with a broom in one hand and gun in the other.......then, it took a swipe at their dog (missed, luckily)......THEN!  This was when Jan totally lost it and couldn't stop laughing.......he "called it every name in the book" and it STILL wouldn't leave! (Imagine THAT!!! Calling bears names USUALLY works like a charm!!!)  The gun you say??  What about the gun? Warning shots??  No.... the broom and "names" !!!!  Anyway, she sent a couple pix of the bear on it's return visits after she got home.  The game dept. has put out a live trap for it, so hopefully the problem will be solved soon.

Janice and I are stitching on another new pattern this weekend called Autumn Hopscotch (name's still possibly going to change.......everybody here thinks it's a stupid name for it.... we'll see!)  I'll take pix on Monday and post them with the retreat photos.

Have a great weekend!  Summer's really here!  xoxox

Inkwell!

FABRIC PREVIEW!!!

We got our "pre-cuts" of the new fabric line!  

Vintage Tin is almost all stitched and the piecing has begun......I'm tracing and coloring a pumpkin/gourd quilt that will use only the pumpkin colored prints.......and I'm drawing on another quilt that has a French garden theme that will use only the taupe tones.......SO EXCITED!!!!!  

Janice got Snow Flurries all put together (at least as far as we CAN assemble it before we stitch on the borders etc....)  After all the snowflakes are embroidered, we'll have to quilt it before the beads and crystals can be added........I'm LOVING this quilt!!!!

Well...back to work!  We're getting ready for the Summer Stitching Retreat......lots of preparations for lots of FUN stuff!!!!

xo Meg

Busy, Busy Bees!

The bumblebees are buzzing away in the flowers....  They have so much pollen on their legs, it's amazing they can fly!! 

I've been stitching away on class samples for this summer's schedule...

Janice and I have been busily working on "Snow Flurries", a quilt that will be covered with snowflakes and other icy "brrrrr..." things and sparkling with crystals, beads, and Sparkle floss!

The little mama bird at Jan's house has laid her eggs...can you think of a more appropriate place to build your nest??

Honeybunny and I have been writing patterns.... how can I even THINK of getting anything accomplished without a kitty on my shoulder?

The Garden Girl in Yakima is busy BLOOMING!!!!

I was busy with my trusty VISA card....these are now in front of the studio....I'm so addicted!

Seriously!.... how could anybody NOT be enchanted by this shop? My fabric just arrived (YAHOO!!) from my new fabric line for Lecien!!!!!  It's called "Inkwell", and I LOVE it....and we're busy, busy, busy trying to get the sample stitched for "Vintage Tin" and the other patterns that will be coming out in July that use the new line.  I'm SO EXCITED!!!!  I hope you'll like it as much as I do.....we'll take some pix and show you a little bit later!!!   Boy oh Boy....I feel a GREAT summer coming on!!!!

More Halloween Patterns!

Here it is... about 90 degrees today....and we're ready for Halloween!  We'll be putting the new Halloween designs up on the website tomorrow.  This book is "Celinda Wickenblat's Spellbook".  It's really easy to make with cardboard...kraft paper....cardstock....OH!  And a little bit of stitching! There are even three spellbook pages to copy onto the cardstock to get you started!

 This is the Janette Needlebook and Pincushion!  It's a tri-fold felted wool needlebook that's lined in fabric. You could make it in any colorway... I just went with black because I wanted to use some of my new fabric line "Inkwell" for the pincushions.

The tea towels are "Spirited Tea Towels"... I really like the bound edging and it's SO easy to do!

And, this is the completed "Spellbound".  It's scrappy, scrappy, scrappy!!!  There are a bunch of closeups in the last post.  Also, I think the "Halloween Thimble Bouquet" is in the last post too.  We'll send out a flyer tomorrow too if you're on the mailing list.
Well.....on to Christmas!

Sore fingers!

Well, I stitched ALL WEEKEND!!!  Watched (listened to) several movies......do you KNOW how many hours long "Lawrence of Arabia" is???? Holy Mackerel!!!...........found a show that I LOVE!!!!  The Bronson Pinchot Project.  It's GREAT....really GREAT!!!!  Makes me want to win the lottery....buy an old run down town.....and restore everything in sight!  But, since that hinges on winning the lottery, I don't think it's going to happen....DARN!!
Anyway, didn't finish Spellbound, but I made a big dent in it!  I'm thinking two more days...........my finger is sore, just thought I'd whine a little bit there............wish me luck!

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!!!

Ok!  It's traced and tinted.... basted and ready to stitch!!!!  "Spellbound" is going to be SO MUCH FUN!!
I'm going to try to complete it before Monday..........let's see if I can!!!!  Could be a pipe dream, huh?

Janice has started sewing the blocks together, so we'll be ready to put it together as soon as I finish the embroidery.  I'm planning on releasing this in a few weeks with the rest of the new patterns..... WHEW!!  It's going to be a race to the finish!

I feel like I should say "HAPPY HALLOWEEN" !!!  LOL!!!!

Sneak Peek!!

 WOW, has it ever been an eventful and busy Spring!!  So many changes have happened here there hasn't been time to THINK, let alone post!!  We've been Spring cleaning..........Out with the old...in with the new!
Lots of patterns are being discontinued.... gone for good in July!  We're going to flag the ones that are going on the website.  I always hate to discontinue things... but there's just not enough room for everything FOREVER!!

Change is an inevitable part of life, I know, but that doesn't mean that it's always easy!!  This winter we lost two employees.......and gained four!  That meant TRAINING!!!!.... and mistakes.... and fixing mistakes... and delays....and finally, "WHEW",  things running more smoothly than ever before!  We also have some new machinery which meant things had to be moved around and built...... I just had to put a lot of things (designing) on hold until we got all of our little ducks in a row!!  Now I can get back up to speed.

and................................................

I thought I'd give you a little peek into some of the new things coming out in May and later this summer.  The quilt above (I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT IT!!) is my first "MAN" quilt.... Let me give you a little back story..............This Spring I was finally able to talk our son Jon into joining us here in "Girly Land"!!  He's come on board as manager of the studio, and BOY!!! has there ever been a shake-up...shake-down.... shake, rattle & roll?????  Within a few days he had us all super re-organized and un-fussied, running smoothly and up to code!  We've even had our first safety meeting!  A man's perspective has done us a lot of good I think.... so..... time for a man's quilt! This is called Vintage Tin.  That means vintage car parts/body parts or something in car nut manly testosterone soaked talk..............Jon collaborated with me on this so I'm pretty sure we can say it has the "Man Stamp of Approval"!   Don't laugh at the way it's set up.  The blocks were just "stuck" in the image to figure out where to put the fabric... it's not the final image.. YIKES!!  I'm planning on having it ready to release in July.  I don't have the fabric to stitch it on yet or I'd be working on it NOW!!!!

The next picture shows the Halloween Thimble Bouquet.  It will be released in May for International Quilt Market.  We're not going to Spring Market, but the patterns will be released as if we were!  I had planned on going but my fabric line is delayed a little... and I wouldn't have had any new samples to put in my booth.... all that way for a bare booth???? No!    I decided to stay home and enjoy my lilacs for once!  We always seem to leave for market just as the lilacs are coming to their peak.  Not this year! YAY!!!!

The next is Janette Needlebook and Pincushion.  It's a tri-fold needlebook with a wool cover and fabric lining.  The elongated strawberry-ish cone pincushions are really fun.  I want to make a bunch of them to hang on one of my Halloween trees!  We made this pattern for one of the retreats....the Thimble bouquet too, for that matter!....... I did the linings in plain linen and everybody stamped them (and the ties) with permanent ink.  REALLY fun!!

I have more... a few Christmas things (tea towels, stitchery, Snow Flurries quilt with tons of snowflakes/beads/crystals) and some Halloween tea towels....OH! And another Halloween quilt ala Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage, with an unrolled scroll with spells on it... and a box of the newest taste treat on the witch's snack food market....Guano Puffs!!  But first I need to take photos of the ones that will be released in May.........I'll show them to you later!  As for some of the other ones...I don't have FABRIC to make them with yet!!!! AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!  Take a few deep breaths and count to 10......

On another subject COMPLETELY............ I'm having the website re-done. Not just a different "look", but totally re-done.  I'd really like to know if you have any suggestions or observations about the site now or things in other websites that really work well that you'd like to share???  Links to other websites that are easy to use, have all the bells & whistles, look really good.......etc.... would really be appreciated.  I can forward them to my website guy and maybe we can build something that will be GREAT!!  Just email info@crabapplehillstudio.com and put "website" in the subject line so we can sift through them a little more easily.  I really do want your input!!

xo