Yo Yo flowers

These yo yo flowers are our latest project foundation. Jeanne has been going from stack to stack of yo yo's and dreaming up great, easy ways to use them to bring smiles to your desk or table. We have been in love with yo yo's for about 3 years now and it just keeps getting better. I swear we much have about 1,000 yo yo's of various sizes between the two of us. But this pattern has been fun because it's so different from the typical embroidery/quilt project we work on.

We're almost ready to unveil the final result!

P. S. and we have great prices on Clover's Yo Yo Makers on our site.

New pattern in the works

Jeanne has been spending quite of bit of her time (when not holding her wonderful little grandson, Roco, who is visiting from Spain) surrounded by Yo Yo's. It's amazing how many yo yo's the two of us have accumulated over the last couple of years.

Of course, that included the hundreds (I'm NOT kidding) of yo yo's I made two years ago to use in decorating our booth at Houston's International Quilt market. We actually strung yo yo's together with fishing line and hung them from the top of our booth. And I made a "quiet" windchime out of yo yo's that made a lot of people laugh when they figured out what it was!

And then there is the big bag of yo yo's Jeanne bought at a rummage sale! There have to be at least a hundred in that bag-some of the ugliest fabrics I've ever seen in my life were used for those. You know, that's a great idea to use up scraps ugly fabric that wasn't so ugly when you bought it. HMMMM>>>>>

Anyway, we're working on a new pattern. So how many yo yo's would you think it would take to make a bouquet of flowers??? Just asking!!!

P. S. We have a great sale on 4 different sizes of the Clover Yo Yo makers on our web site. Check it out here!

Facebook fanpage started!

I've had some fun this weekend creating a fanpage on Facebook. Please be sure to check us out under Lasting Treasure Vintage Embroidery Designs. I think it will be fun to share some different photos and find out what our stitching friends are doing that spend time on Facebook. I'm not 100% sure how to do everything there but we can learn together!

Jeanne's visitors from Spain arrived last night-safe and sound. Coffee this morning was great holding baby Roco.

Jeanne and I spent some time on the phone last night talking about our next version of Sophie with flowers-we're thinking using yo yo flowers instead of embroidery would be a nice change. Let us know what you think. We're throwing around ideas for doing some different things this year with our Block of the Month-always doing one version in red and white (of course!) but maybe adding in some applique, yo yo's, beading, etc. for a different look too. What's your favorite embellishment???? We'd love to hear from you.

Perfect Inspiration!

With all the snowing and blowing that is going on across our country, I hope everyone is snug and safe and STITCHING like mad. What a perfect excuse to sit on the couch and work on a new project while the blizzards of 2010 whip around. If you're stuck at home, let us know what you're working on please. The sun is shining this morning here in Wisconsin but it is only 9 degrees-that's a bit cold for me!

Jeanne is just as excited as I am to start on a new version of our Sophie girl. Take a look at the great colors of thread that I received Tuesday. I was very pleased that the mailman delivered them-you know that "neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor dark of night" promise does still work as far as mail delivery is concerned. I spent a very pleasurable hour last night going through my Aunt Grace 1930 reproduction fat quarters. I must have 300 all neatly washed, ironed, folded and sorted by color just waiting for the right project to come along. ( Ok-so I get a bit obsessed with my fat quarters. Jeanne just shakes her head but she knows that she shouldn't touch them without permission. I think it could be a big sister/little sister thing!)

These DMC colors are pushing me over the edge-Sophie in 1930's is right around the corner! I can tell what will be the inspiration for my next project!!

What's your favorite color scheme for stitching during winter? I find myself trying to use brights usually-always with a redwork twist, of course!

DMC #8

I've been having a real hard time finding fun colors of DMC #8. In my area of Wisconsin, there don't seem to be many quilt shops that carry much beyond burgundy, black and tan/cream. I've checked Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's and Michaels-no luck. So-since I've been looking forward to starting a new project-(HINT-HINT-it's NOT Sophie!)-I ended up going on-line for a fun shopping trip.

I finally bought 8 fantastic colors (they remind me of an Easter Egg Hunt!) from Colonial Crafts-a wonderful on-line store. They are located in Sturbridge, MA and are great to talk to. They have carried our patterns and provide excellent customer service. I received my little spools of thread yesterday-3 days after I ordered! And, needless to say, I'm hard at work on my new project. Just wait-you'll love HER!

Check out Colonial Crafts here...they're nice people!

2010 Sophie Block of the Month begins!

We're pretty excited to finally be able to share the first look at our new Sophie block of the month. Last year Sophie went shopping. That was fun-especially seeing the wonderful ways that some of you put the blocks together. But this year we've decided to share some of Sophie's favorite things. And, while everything will lead up to a completed wall-hanging at the end of the year, we're going to have more fun with smaller projects along the way.

We'd suggest starting off with a one yard piece of muslin or Kona cotton to use for all the embroidery pieces. We'll share more about the finished projects as we go. We're stitching Sophie with her flowers in red because we have to start with redwork-you know US!

Stay tuned for more ways to enjoy your stitching. And download Sophie on our web site-click here.

P. S. We are going to leave our 2009 Sophie on our site so you can download any parts you may have missed. I really get upset when I miss a month of this kind of project. So we'll leave Sophie 2009 available for a while yet.

February already???

So when did January end on me???? I'm looking out my office window and it's snowing-no surprise as it is Wisconsin and it is winter but where did January go? Jeanne and I spent some time this weekend getting our new Sophie ideas pulled together and the first installment should be posted on our website tomorrow. I'll post again about that and tell you the ideas we are going to be pursuing this year with Sophie. We hope you'll find them as charming as last year!