Book Projects

Hey Everyone! 

I am so excited to have our “Autumn Gatherings” book done…Below are all of the 24 of the projects, the top four are the  bigger quilts from the book, the next 6 are the little quilts and wall hangings, the rest of the photos are everything else, wool projects, punchneedle, stitchery and pillows projects!  

Also included in the book are our favorite “fall” recipes.  They include: Apple Crisp, Green Bay Mac & Cheese, Easy Enchiladas, Molasses Cookies, Sour Cream Banana Bread, Baked Potato Soup, Southwest Chicken Chili, Cranberry Icebox Cookies and Tex-Mex Check Casserole…these are all great recipes that Carole and & have been making for our families for years.

The actual book turned out great, the color is nice and true, the layouts are all full sized (no enlarging) and we have 24 projects!  That is a lot for a self published book.  We try real hard to give you a lot of projects in each of our books.  Also, a lot of the projects are not seasonal, I know that may sound weird coming from a “fall” book, but if you look at the quilts and some of the other projects, they will not only look good for the fall season but can be used all year round! 

 Click on the photos for a bigger pic!

Thank you all for being wonderful in support of our business, we appreciate it and all the nice comments we receive.  We could not do this without you loving our patterns and hand dyed wools, enough to spend your hard earned bucks on it!

Here is the reason…

quilt for new book-coming soon

all done!

Ok, there are a lot of reason’s I have not been in blog land.  The first is… We have a new book coming out in a little over a month…My projects are all done.  My 1st draft of my directions are done.  Photography is half done.  I will soon post some of the projects when it gets a little closer to print.  On Jan. 15th my long arm quilting machine was delivered.  So you know what that means..I have to learn how to use it.  To this date I have quilted 6 quilts.  One of them which will be in the new book..is shown here on my machine.  I have to do something about those white walls..eeeeek..I am so used to warm color..but must have lots of light when quilting in the basement.  There is so much to learn and I have so many questions.  I have only done some edge to edge quilting so far… but my goal is to do custom quilting on my own quilts.

I think Carole and I are strung out from too much book stuff… but the load is lessoning.  I am looking forward to my Tampa Fl trip to teach 2 workshops and a lecture and trunk show starting March 11 for the Feather Princess Guild.  I will have to get lots of stuff done between now and then, but I am used to that…after another snow storm this week,Tampa sounds better every minute.  So I promise to post more often..you know I wanted this weblog to not be about my shop/business…I wanted it to be more personal, but I find it hard because I AM my shop/business, it is what I do and love.  So to heck with that I am going to talk about what ever I want from now on…piece out!

Thursday- already?

Ok..I really do not know where the days go…last weekend i attended Patsy’s Homestead Cabin Retreat in Hillpoint, WI. I met a lot of nice new people. If you ever need to get away this is the place. I love the food, and my Sweedish Birth, that were i slept…like a log, I might add… i am pictured here stitching in my sweats by the fire in the old cabin. This is the best place to runaway and stitch, or whatever…. 

Hand Quilting

 

 

 

Today  is way below 0 degrees here in WI with a wind chill factor of -45degrees, schools are closed and I am getting ready to go to a retreat this weekend.  So lots to do…My photo is a quilt that I am hand quilting.  Crazy Hearts by The Buggy Barn.  It is nice to do a row every couple of days or so…some quilts just need to be hand quilted.  I inserted a big pic so you hopefully can see the stitches.  Fans about  1-1/2 inches.  I have some acrylic templates from Judy at the shop, she gave them to me for my birthday, all my tools are shown here.  I have a wonderful frame that looks like a piece of furniture, so it is ok with me that it is set up in my sewing room.  In other words, it is not ugly.  

Yesterday I was in Brookfield WI teaching a workshop on Wool Applique and gave a lecture and trunk show of my things…I met a lot of new ladies and seen some old friends.  My students were all outstanding and will be happy with there projects.  I appreciate the ladies all coming out in this awful weather.  I forgot to take pics at our class, oh well next time…

New Year 2009

Below is my first quilt of the year! I started it on New Years Eve and finished it today! I just love it.  I have not peiced this much in awhile.  I used 9 bobbins piecing it and it measures 106×106.  It will be for the new book coming out this spring!  I ran out of spray size, that was a bummer. I will talk about why i use it in another post.  My New Year resolution is to BLOG!  I am going to try at least a couple of days each week..Instead of my late night TV watching …A&E -Dog the bounty hunter or intervention..last nighth and tonight i watched 100 best rock songs…that took me back a bit…i will blog at night..why didn’t i think of this before..  So here’s a peak at my 1st quilt of the year..good night and have a great year!  Where did that red tape come from on my drawer?

Sewing in sewing room

 

work area- pattern writing

Well my desk area is all back together and is messy as usual.  My sewing space in in the shape of an “L”.  In the short side of the “L” is this space where there is a 3×6 window and then my sewing machine is to the right of here.  I will show the long part of the “L” another day.
 

Sewing area

I am working on a Lori Smith Fit to Frame. I finished the top at the retreat this last weekend now I am quilting it.  I got a new light on my machine…it is the best!  It adheres to the side and has little clips to hold the cord to the back of your machine.

 

Bendable spotlight is awesome!

I am putting on a singlefold binding, because of this quilt is only 18×24.  But this light makes it alot easier to see everything.  I quilted crosshatching 1″ apart both ways…Mark your quilts with a hera marker it is fast and easy.

Sewing Studio

Ok..i have not written in long time…i did a couple of entries and i think i had too much information and when i went to publish they were gone… so i was only a little mad. I will try a little one now that i am over it.  I have been gone a lot last month.  So I am nesting now.  I just got a new floor put in my sewing space.  

Here it is…I will show you an after picture when i am done putting it all back in…i need to get ready for a sewing retreat this coming weekend..so all for now.

Vacation!

 

Weekend in Chicago for Race…Is Kyle Bush going to win them all?

 

Ok..I know most of you quilter’s don’t know what I am talking about…maybe you do…but Race days are good for sewing (Lisa) and napping (Nick). But we went to the race last weekend because it was a night race and we have never been to a night race…we have gone to all the Chicago races but 1 the year we opened the shop.

Thursday started off with a great storm that cancelled the FREE Gretchen Wilson concert…We stayed in my brother’s camper in the middle what used to be a cornfield… they make more money running electricity in their field, than growing crops…but they do a great job of getting us to the race and with local bands,ice and doughnut trucks that come around every morning with the paper…So we basically rode the storm out in the trailer and played cards, girls in one trailer, boys in the other…the boys played for money, we learned a new game one of the girls plays with her kids at daycare. 

About 2 o’clock the next day we learned Gretchen was going to play at 2:30..it was hotter than blazes…people getting heat exhausted…Gretchen was very good…we loved her Separate Ways songs from Journey and Barracuda, from Heart-along with all of her hits…the race on Friday…the Busch race was kind of boring..not too many crashes and I was the only girl that went, the other stayed around the site drinking martinis, they said they had a blast.

I sewed my muti-colored penny rug all weekend from Threads that Bind…this is the second one i have done…i love them…no hangover for me…i finished  all the pennies by the time we arrived home…see it below…

Sat. Nights race…i froze..should have brought a sweat shirt…who would have thought…fry like fish on tinfoil every year, this year froze…oh well…this is probably our last year…but who knows….

Illinois Storm on Friday Night

Gretchen Wilson at Chicagoland Speedway

Turn 4- Second Row

Multi-colored Penny Mat all done!

Summertime and the 4th of July

 

Summertime....ok...now how do I quilt it????

I spent a wonderful weekend boating, grilling, dog sitting and sewing my blocks of the week together.  I love how it turned out.  I hope those of you doing it also like it… I know the block of the week is sort of a mystery quilt.  Hope you are not disappointed.  We went out with Todd and Jeanine to hang out while the kids swam…i sewed a little..Nick took a nap and then we all went to Canova’s in Neehah for dinner and then watched the fireworks while on the boat in the middle of the river where they shoot off the fireworks!  On sat. we watched Roscoe and took care of our garden, grilled out and have a fire in the pit….

The boats all tied to each other in the lake on the sandbar.