Party Fun

I had fun at the party yesterday and enjoyed the weather and all the friends and family who joined us. I can't resist showing off the table cloths I found right after the 4th of July! Aren't they great????

Party Weekend!

It's 7:30 a.m. and I am baking already for the party this afternoon. Yesterday, the party weekend bagan with an evening of fun at Jeanne's. Games, a cool breeze, good food and great conversation-doesn't get much better than that, does it? The only thing better would be another party today! Aren't we lucky??? Stop by around 2:30 and join in the merriment.

Tomorrow back to reality and working on finishing several designs. I am trying to make the final decisions on the new bag pattern. Jeanne is thinking about what to do with some new fabric that is on the way to us. We are anxiously waiting for the new Wizard of Oz fabric to arrive from Quilting Treasures. It's time to add several new designs to our Wizard collection. This time it's the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. Can't wait! Keep watching-we'll share the process as we work through the new ideas.

New Camera

How about the photo of the pink flowers to the right of this column? Bruce found a new camera (Sony Cybershot) that has a macro-focus feature that allows him to get great close-ups. As you can see from the photo, it's awesome. Jeanne and I have been struggling for some time trying to get really great photos to use for our pattern covers. While we may still have some problems with large quilts, this new camera feature may help with photos of smaller items. Now to convince Bruce that he should be our new photo-taker!!! (Please, please, please Bruce???)

Jeanne is taking a few days of well-deserved vacation while she has company from Spain. She and her family (including her son and DIL from Spain!) are enjoying our wonderful summer weather at a family cottage about an hour away from home. I don't think she took ANY stitching with her-that's a true vacation! I'm watching for the mail every day while she is gone. We expect lots of new fabric to be showing up as we are starting to work on new designs for Fall Market.

Windows of New York

I am attaching a couple of photos that I took while in NYC. The first is the window of Patchwork Soho. I visited there and found some great trims and fabrics. The second is a window model that I just love-I saw her and stopped in my tracks! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Back home and a Winner!

I made it back home last night with only 2 delays. Sometimes I feel like Alice in Wonderland when traveling through O'Hare...what a trial it can be. But I just sat and knit and thought about stitching and the time flew by. I did meet a really nice woman traveling from Dallas so that was a good way to pass some time.

We picked the winner from those commenting on our 100th post. Karen from OK-I emailed you and as soon as you send me your mailing address, I will get the fat quarters into the mail for you. We appreciate all those who check out our blog.

Here is a new picture of the fabrics I found at Patchwork Soho on Tuesday in NYC. I stopped in for a bit and loved looking at the wonderful fabrics. The shop is very small-just like it's sister store, Purl Soho- and to get to the basement where excess inventory is kept, you have to go outside and down what looks like a tunnel! What a trial it must be when deliveries come. I was at Patchwork when the UPS man was unloading a lot of new fabric-I wanted to just sit down on the floor and wait until they opened things up but couldn't find a spot to sit!

Still in NYC

Thanks for the comments yesterday and all the support. When I get home, we will draw the winner and get her fat quarters in the mail right away.

Today I have meetings most of the day and then it's home to Oshkosh. Yesterday I had meetings but had the opportunity to visit Purl Soho and Purl Patchwork-sister shops that feature specialty yarns and fabrics. It was fun and my purchases look great in the suitcase! They have some really nice Japanese fabrics and I fell in love with the linen bias tapes in polka dots. They have a great blog and web site.
Check them out here!

Don't you love the Needle and Button Sculpture in the Fashion District? I had to take a quick picture and share it with you. Time to get ready for the day-later!

100th Post!

It's finally here-our 100th Post. Doesn't seem like too long ago that Jeanne and I decided to start the blog and here we are. I understand that there is a tradition or something that you should do a contest when you get to this point. Well-who are we to buck tradition? So leave a comment on our blog through the end of today and we'll draw one winner. I think we'll send the winner some fat quarters of some new Quilting Treasures we just received to design with. I'll post a photo later tomorrow.

I'm in New York City today and tomorrow for meetings and about to head out for the day. I'm going to explore a couple of yarn, patchwork, bead shops in Manhattan and Soho (sounds exotic, doesn't it?) and will let you know where I find myself later tonight. Hope everyone has a great day-I hope to do the same!

I'm also on the hunt for some embellishments for our Care Bag pattern. As you could see, I hope, from the photo, we used strings of beads on the bag. Jeanne found them in a sale bin at WalMart and we've had some problems finding beading that could simply be sewn into the bag. If you have any ideas of where we should look, let us know. I'm on the hunt...watch out NYC!

New Purse design

We've been up to our noses in pink and green fabrics since we started in with the Care Quilt. Since that was so much fun, we had to continue and have our new purse to show for it! This simple to put together bag is just right for those hot summer days when colors sizzle. The lining uses a fat quarter of fabric, the outside is a mish-mash of simple charm squares cut into pieces and sewn back together with as much trim added as you can find. The bag handles we chose have a simple brown wood handle.

Next up, conversations about how hard it was to find trim in our area and why I DON'T like beading! or what I learned about myself while finishing this purse pattern!

Happy 4th of July!

We hope you all have a wonderful, safe 4th of July. And we hope our International readers take a quick look at the many hand-craft patterns we have on our web site that capture the flavor of a vintage America. Most of our embroidery and quilt ideas have come from vintage items we have found over the years. Several of our more popular patterns in 2007 and 2008 have been the flag patterns we have had fun creating-with both primitive stitching that doesn't require a sewing machine and YO YO's. What fun!

It's been a beautiful, cool, but sunny last couple of days and that seems to be continuing for this long weekend. As everyone here in America thinks for a minute about what makes our country great (our people and our love of freedom-I think!), take a minute to think about making something uniquely American.

Free Pattern up on web site!

Take a quick jump over to our web site to download a great vintage redwork design. We found this kitty with a goldfish bowl on an antique redwork quilt that we bought about 10 years ago. This quilt has been the original source for several of our patterns over the years. We think the work on the quilt is exquisite and this kitty is the perfect design to do if you love redwork.

I've been busy embellishing the fabric we are using for our Care Quilt tote bag. So far I've used the tiniest buttons I've ever seen in tropical colors. Next I have been trying to figure out how to string some beads together in hot pink! It's harder than I thought-perhaps this is a job for Jeanne???