Almost the weekend

Well, looks like I may not get an outside walk in early this morning. It looks like we might have some rain today so I think I may steal a few minutes of cleaning off my cutting table instead of walking on the treadmill. Just don't feel like a treadmill walk today! I ran to Hobby Lobby last night to get some floss for a new Christmas design I am stitching and tried to figure out which DMC Perle cotton I should get for Jeanne. She wants to try using some of the slightly heavier threads but, of course, since she was home and I was standing in Hobby Lobby looking at the threads, I couldn't remember what she wanted. So I grabbed one of each thickness and dropped them off for her. Oh, what a decision!

We are playing with different background fabrics to see what we want to use for a couple of new designs. Jeanne found some great tan fabric a year ago that she thinks is called "Paperbag" color. We haven't been able to locate it but absolutely love the color and texture. If you've heard of it, please let us know!

Hope you have a great long weekend if you celebrate Memorial Day. I think we may go to one of the area parades. There is just something about all the flags on Memorial Day that tug at my heart.

New design

The weekend went by really fast. Yesterday I went to the Flower/Plant sale I talked about earlier and got some real treasures. Today I was able to get almost all planted with some help from the digger guy that lives with me! I'm not the world's best digger in gardens-especially when the dirt is packed in pretty hard. But Bruce helped and everything but one hosta is in.

Most important is that the concrete statue I fell in love with is also in place. I'll take a picture tomorrow and share it this week.

Jeanne stopped over this morning and we spent some time talking about her new design idea. It's going to be fun to pull it together. I'm going to trace it tonight on some dark brown linen and see how it stitches up. I have a long drive tomorrow to Minneapolis so should be able to get a good start on it. We come back on Tuesday so I could have something to show Jeanne when I get back.

She is going to have a group of friends over Tuesday night so talk about making jewelry and what you can do with beads. Hmmmm....can we make it back by the time the party starts??? Hope so! I hope your week goes well.

Christmas in May

Ok-I know it's not really Christmas but I'm trying to get my arms around a Christmas wall-hanging design. Jeanne and I have laid out all our Christmas folders of ideas and need to pull them together into one cohesive plan. I'd like to be able to start laying out something by the end of May. That would give us about 3 months to get everything ready and several samples made before we start to plot out what to introduce at the Houston International Quilt Market.

Besides that, Jeanne is working on June's Sophie design. We've plotted out the balance of the year but this particular block is giving her a few problems. (Could it be because I've changed my mind 3 times??? Hmmmm...no, that can't be it!)

This weekend there is a plant and flower sale at The Paine Museum that we want to go to. I think it should be great fun if there isn't any rain. I hope to spend some time at a booth featuring orchids. A friend from high school has been raising orchids. I bought one from her in March that is doing so well I think I may need another one! An event like this always gives inspiration and new ideas. Maybe some of the new Japanese prints that are in the market would be perfect for an orchid-inspired design. We'll see!

Ready for the weekend

It's been a good week-we spent time brainstorming new pattern designs, both of us have started work in our gardens (Jeanne's husband has put time into their big vegetable garden-it looks ready for anything), and I organized part of the sewing studio. I'm sharing a picture of the lipsticks that Sophie will be trying out for her day out adventure. Jeanne is hard at work on the June design-I can't believe it will be halfway through the year of our first Block of the Month!

How are you spending your weekend? I hope there is a little time for some sewing or craft magic!

Every Girl Needs Shoes!

I've decided to share the colored version I did of Sophie's shoe selection. Remember that you can download this from our web site! They were fun to stitch and went together pretty fast once I decided on the color arrangement. I have a dear friend (yes, Jane-I am talking about YOU!) who is a true Shoe Diva. I would think that she has each of these styles somewhere in here closet just waiting for the perfect reason to go stepping out.

Yesterday's mail brought me a late birthday present to myself (do you do that???). I ordered 2 jewelry kits from Indygo Junction for sweet bracelets. Now if I can just figure out what a "crimp pliers" actually does, I'll be ready to try to put one together. Jeanne is planning to host a jewelry/bead evening at her place later in the month. Maybe this will give me a head start on the excitement and a try at a new craft.

Also, be sure to check out the news on our friend Shannon's great Australian pattern web site and blog. It looks like she has some great sales going on. She has shared pictures of how she and her helpers put together their booth at Quilt Festival last month-what a lot of work but what a great result.

Spring At last!

I spent a wonderful day working-finally-in my flower beds without sinking into the mud. It was gorgeous-about 63 degrees with blue skies. My main flower bed needed to be raked and some leftovers from last fall pulled out. It felt like seeing some old friends to see what was coming up under the old leaves. I also found a small rose bush that I had completely forgotten planting last fall. Now, if I could just remember what color the roses are I'd be happy!

Jeanne stopped over this afternoon and we got our lists out and made sure they are in synch. Since we are now officially back from Festival for 2 weeks it is time to get back on track with the new patterns. Check out our web site to see the 2 new patterns that were favorites at Festival-A Kind Woman and Button Faces. I'll be talking about them this week, as well as sharing pictures of them and some new friends from Festival. Hope your week starts out well!

New Sophie Ready to Go!

We are almost ready to share the May Sophie design with you. Peek at our web site to see the lovely choice of shoes Sophie has to pick from. The download should be up sometime today so take a look and check it out. I'll be sharing the image later today too but wanted to give you all a heads up.

I hope to be able to finally spend some prime time in my flower beds on Sunday. I am hoping for NO MORE RAIN in the next coupld of days or I will need to wear galoshes. I can see the daffodils and crocuses blooming and it looks like it might be a great hollyhock year based on the growth I have coming up. But I have had to hold off from all my raking and bed preparation because it's just been to darn wet.

What are you working on in your gardens? I'd love to hear. We're working on some ideas of for a new garden inspired quilt...more to come on that!