Thursday, January 29, 2009

Sophie in Color!

Here is our favorite girlfriend-Sophie in color. Isn't she something???? We'll be posting our 2nd block sometime next week. We can't wait to share more of Sophie and her Dress Up wall-hanging.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Sophie Fabric and other Stuff!

Jeanne and I went shopping on Saturday to our local quilt store and found some great fabrics for Sophie. Besides the obligatory red and white prints that we must have missed last time, we fell in love with Terry Atkinson's Paisley Party for Red Rooster Fabrics. See the picture next door to get a feel for the lovely colors. I should be ready to post our first Sophie block in living color at the end of the week. AND our second block is about ready to be posted come next week! What a gal that Sophie is.

I also placed an order for some fat quarters from one of my new favorite web quilt stores Pink Chalk Studio. I placed the order yesterday and have already gotten an update that the order is shipped-how's that for quick service??? I've been reading their blog for about 6 months and have enjoyed what is going on at their store. I ordered some Kaffee Fassett, Heather Bailey and Elizabeth House fabrics. None of the quilt shops in my area carry these lines and I just couldn't resist-besides the shipping costs were much less than a tank of gas! They have collections of fat quarters already made up so it's a fun and easy way to try out some new fabric lines.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Friday at last!

It seems like I just try to rush through the week to get to Friday. Oh...I do, don't I? It's been an exciting week at least. I spent Monday and Tuesday in Atlanta for business meetings. Bruce recorded much of the inauguration events for me since he knew I'd miss them while travelling. I found it so amazing that strangers were watching the Inauguration Parade on airport tv's and sharing comments about the day. It felt like we were all connected and sharing what was going on-even if it was remotely.

THEN we finally got our new girlfriend-Sophie-out in public! The response to Sophie has been so heart warming. Both Jeanne and I are thrilled at the comments we have received. We are just jumping all over the design board trying to lay out the next couple of month's worth of designs. I think this time we will have TOO many good ideas. I'm planning to start the colored floss version of Sophie Soaking this weekend so it can go up next week to show you our girl in living color. February's design is ready to share when the time is right. Let us know what you can envision Sophie doing as she plays Dress Up-we'd love to hear what you think.

The sub-zero temperatures are coming back to WI for another frigid weekend. I think I'm all set with stitching to do, a new book to read (I just discovered Barbara Bretton and Robyn Carr), and a pot of white chicken chilli ready to make tomorrow morning. I hope your Friday sets you up for a great weekend!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Sophie is on the web site!

With great help from our technical support, Annie, our first block of the month has finally made it to our web site. Click here to go to our web site and find her. We were able to get Sophie-our first block of the Dress Up Block of the Month posted as a pdf file. You should be able to just click on her and print out the page. More information about this project will follow.



We plan to post a picture of each block in red and white (our first love!) and later each month, in colors. We will also post the details of how to put the blocks together as we go. For now-you will need no more than 1/2 yard of white or a light tone on tone 100% cotton and you will be ready to start. We're having fun getting this going and we hope you love the designs. We'll add each month and won't take them down until the entire project is finished.



Sorry for the delay-I was traveling and we desperately needed the technical expertise neither of us has. But we think you'll love playing Dress Up with us!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Uploads and next month

Our web mistress, Annie, should be able to help us tomorrow get the first block of our BOM on our web site. From there, I have figured out how to link to it so downloading it should be easier. I appreciate everyone's patience-I just wanted the process to be simpler than it had been to download our free patterns. I promise we should be all set soon.

Jeanne is working on the next block already-it's really cute...is that a mean hint or what?? I travel Monday and Tuesday so will have plenty of time to stitch. How do you plan your trips? Is it a matter of having a separate bag for your knitting and stitching? That's usually the case for me. Of course, redwork and other types of stitchery are pretty portable-that helps because I always have to have something to read too. One plane trip last year I had one too many bags and they weren't going to let me take my knitting on the plane-so I had to shove EVERYTHING into my purse and then kind of sneak on board . I want to be save and don't want everyone to lug all those big suitcases on board but still...a small paper bag with knitting in it wasn't going to bother anyone! Well, Monday I think it will be stitchery and no knitting. That way there is no possibility of an issue-everything fits in my purse.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

DRESS UP-take a peek!


We're still playing with getting this to load easily but thought you should see Sophie today. Isn't she great???? We are having problems sizing her but think we'll get it figured out later today.

Block of the Month almost ready

I know, I know-you want to see the first block. Well, we're close. We hope to have this ready to show you sometime today. Jeanne is working with our web mistress (who is the best ever helper!) and I am still working on the blog. Please hang in there with us because we think you'll love what/who you see.

While we've been fighting with this techie stuff we've also been thinking about all the fun we can have year round with our Dress Up block of the month. We'd like to share the excitement by putting together a Care Package of things that would help with your Dress Up efforts. We're throwing around ideas but think the concept will be that each month we will put something into a box that pertains to the block we are working on and at the end of the year-someone will get the Care package. What do you think?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Still working on posts


Jeanne is trying to make me understand that I can sometimes make things more complicated than they need to be. Funny-I thought I was perfect???? Two cups of coffee this morning have helped me see the reality that sometimes younger sisters know best. I'm still working on trying to improve the ease of downloading patterns from our blog and web site. I think I may be closer...while I'm stitching up the first block of our "Dress Up" block of the month, I'm also thinking about black and red and white stitchery projects. And Jeanne is working on a new idea for aprons. Stay tuned for more works in process!

And, just to show all is not stitchery, I am contemplating a new knitting project. Every January I start a new sweater. With all the sub-zero wind chill that we are experiencing this week, can you blame me? I am wearing a great purple sweater that I knit 3 years ago of some lovely Lorna Laces hand-dyed yarn with cables and a wonderful fit. I think I may need to make it again since I remember it as going together so easily and love the fit...hmmmm....maybe Jeanne or Jo would love one???

Monday, January 12, 2009

Playing with images


I'm trying to figure out how to make it easier to download patterns from our site today so bear with me. I am trying to get us set up to give quicker access to our Block of the Month patterns by clicking on an image and downloading it or just printing it off rather than going through the purchase process on our web site. So ... I may be coming back and forth today to the blog and web site to see how things look. I'll keep you posted.

Both Jeanne and I are stitching up the first block of the new "Dress Up" BOM to be ready for our start up on Thursday! We are in love with these designs..is that shameless enthusiasm, or what???

December free pattern

Friday, January 9, 2009

Planning for the weekend

Stopped for coffee at Jeanne's. We are hard at work on our 2009 Block of the Month. The trick is to figure out how to not include EVERYTHING we like about being girly! We spent some time talking about what makes us feel good when we get all dressed up-is it the ritual of a bubble bath, is it the fancy dress, is it the makeup and perfume, what about great shoes??? From this came the beginnings of our block of the month. For me, comes the fun of the layout and how to finish the final result of the little designs. I'm having fun now trying to decide on the fabrics to use. It's fun to pull it all together. Equally fun is deciding on the embellishments that will add some glitz!

We are going to show a redwork version of the first month's block first. That's our heritage and we LOVE RED! But I will also be stitching each block in colors and will share that later each month. We'd love to hear what makes YOU feel girly! Come on, you can tell us....

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Back at work

Well-I am back at work after the holidays and it feels like I never left. Today I worked on reports all day while thinking (with part of my brain!) about a new pattern. Funny how the brain can be split in two pieces and function well on both levels. Almost like something out of one of the paranormal novels that I love and Jeanne just can't get into...

I stopped at Jeanne's for coffee on the way to the office but forgot to bring my new project to show her. I think she kind of wanted to yell at me for forgetting it but she was good and didn't. So I have to stop tomorrow and NOT forget. I put the prototype by my purse-maybe that will help me remember!

We're pretty excited about the Block of the Month that we will start on January 15th. It seems that many new web sites are starting these but many seem to be kind of country-ish (which we love) and many seem to be starting off with a snowman in some form (which we also love). But OUR Block of the Month is neither country-ish nor has a snowman anywhere near it! How's that for declaring our independence? More to come soon.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

New Camera-new BOM

Bruce got a new camera and the results are awesome. Take a look at the top picture to the right. You will love the results because I hope to be able to use this camera for blog pictures because of the detail.

Jeanne is hard at work on a new block of the month that will start on January 15th. You'll be able to click on the design-one per month-and download them as pdf's. We will be taking all of the 2008 free patterns off on the 15th so you can focus on the new BOM. THe BOM will be called "Dress-Up" and will show all the lovely things that women and girls like to play with-we think you will love them and the finished size will be just right to hang in your bedroom or bathroom as a reminder of how much fun it is to be a GIRL!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!

It's 2009 and the start of the year couldn't be better. Bree, my oldest grand-daughter, spent New Year's Eve Day with me in the sewing room. She picked out fabric, used the rotary cutter, and successfully sewed together the front of our great simple purse pattern. (I did the stitching of the beads-but that is all.) We worked on the rest of the purse together and it turned out great. For a 4th grader, I think she did very well. It only took about 1 1/2 hours to do from start to finish. A great new pattern for the new year.

We also started to organize the sewing room-now that is another story!

We hope all of our sewing friends have a great new year. Please be sure to check out our web site for the start of a free pattern each month. It should be available early next week.