Upcoming shows and a little cuteness!

We are going to have a very busy September!  I really hope that some of you can come to see us at a show - it's always really fun to meet people in person that we've gotten to know online!

We will be in Springfield, MO on September 8-10th - here are the details...

The Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild
Ozark Empire Fairgrounds
3001 North Grant
Springfield, MO

Thursday & Friday - hours are 9:00 to 5:00
Saturday - 9:00 to 4:00

This is the first time for us to vend here, and it's my understanding that this is a new location for the show - so if you live in the area, make sure you go to the Fairgrounds!

Next up is a show in Walker, MN on September 22nd and 23rd.  This show is put on my 2 guilds - the Northwoods Quilters and the Heartland Quilters.

Northern Lights Casino Hotel & Event Center
6800 Y Frontage Road NW
Walker, MN

Thursday - hours 9:00 to 6:00
Friday - 9:00 to 4:00

Hope you can come to one of them!!  We will also be in Ft. Dodge, IA in October - but I will post the details on that when it gets closer.

I have a week in between shows, and that is when the second "Surprise" box will be going out.  I've got those almost ready to go.  Then the charms will be mailed the last week of the month.  Speaking of charms...have you signed up?  The picture at the top of the blog is a sample of the charms and the details are on my website.  It's always lots of fun, and don't forget that you get free stuff!

My cute little niece started COLLEGE last week.  I just can't believe she is 18 already.  She is going to her local community college, which I'm happy about, I don't want her to move away!  Here she is on her first day of college - telling her kitties goodbye - lol!

And it's not the first day of school without Grandpa (my dad) seeing her off. My sister in law has taken a picture of them each year and they are sooooo cute.  Many are the 2 of them from the back, walking down the driveway to meet the school bus, holding hands.  Adorable!  Look at my dad - can you tell he's a farmer?!  He's quite the fashion statement with bibs and boots!

I talked to her after her first day and it all went well.  She also started a new job that day - so after a summer of leisure, she is a busy girl!

Hope you have a leisurely Sunday!

Scissor Hives

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you probably know that my husband is a beekeeper.  This will be his 3rd year already - boy, time sure flies.  He enjoys doing it, and I like the harvest!  Having our own honey is really awesome.  I didn't realize how different every honey tastes, and now I can tell you that I am very partial to ours!  I also love having the wax.  We sell these in our booth when we vend - aren't they cute?  These are new - a friend made these molds for us.

 We have these too.  The little rosettes aren't as cute, but they really do work well to have in your sewing kit.  I have one next to my stitching chair and use it when I'm hand quilting.

Clearly I'm not alone in my bee love, because Moda and Deb Strain created the cutest line of bee fabric that works perfect for pendants.  And notice the tiny little bee charms - I love them!  I've made loads of different bee pendants with this fabric

 And some more with a little less bling...

I already shared this bee block, but since I'm posting about bees, I thought it should be included!  Still no plan as to what I'm going to do with it = I really want to make a few more, and thanks to a couple of great online friends, I was able to get more fabric!

We have a brand new product that I'm super excited about...take a look at how cute these are...

We have named them Scissor Hives (thanks Nancy) and I am in love with them!  The "hive" is a vintage spindle and is 3" tall.  The scissors are a little less than that, and they are nice and sharp.  Another necessary thing to keep by your stitching chair!  These also make the perfect gift for any friend who quilts or stitches.  We have them on our website and will be taking them to shows this fall.

Speaking of the change of seasons, I've been making lots of pumpkin pendants.  These are 1 14" and have a little bit of bling added.

I finally finished this Welcome wall hanging - I bought it as a kit at The Woolen Needle a couple of years ago (again..where does time go??).  I've had most of it done, just needed to put it all together and I finally did it last week!  You can see that Callie is helping hold it down (wouldn't want it to get away).

Now I better get busy (as a bee) because I don't want the day to get away from me!

Have a great day!

I love Scentsy!!

Do you use Scentsy?  I love it and am thinking of getting a new warmer.  The good news?  It's all on sale this month.  Is that good news?  I really don't need any more, but I have had my eye on this one for awhile now...


And this?  It's adorable, but totally does not match my decor.  I would be owning it, if it did!


My friend who cut my hair for years used to sell Scentsy and always had a basket of the wax bars at the shop and I always felt the need to get some!  Unfortunately she stopped cutting hair, and stopped selling Scentsy.  Lucky for me, my friend Nancy is now selling it, and it's super easy to buy.  You just go to her website and place an order!  I always thought that you had to find someone who was having a party or find someone that you knew who was selling it.  Nope - you just go to this website and order whatever your little heart desires.  I think I'm going to break down and get that new warmer for my kitchen!  And, while I'm at it, I better get another bar of my favorite scent - Welcome Home.  Mmmm...it's a "fall" type of smell to me.  Love it!  What is your favorite scent?

Just Toasty

Have you gotten the new issue of American Patchwork and Quilting?  It is a great one!  Lisa from Primitive Gatherings is on the cover showing some of her amazing quilts.  And inside?  So many great projects!  But the first one that I knew I had to make was Just Toasty by Betsy Chutchian.  Take a look at these beautiful fabrics by Betsy and Moda.

 

I actually ordered the kit from Betsy before I even had the magazine, because I saw a picture and just knew it was a winner.  You can order one for yourself (you will not be sorry, I promise!) by e-mailing Betsy at   bchutchian@hotmail.com.  As soon as I got my kit, I just had to start cutting!

Look at the gorgeous fabric and I love the quote in the selvedge too...

 Here are some of my pieces...

And a few blocks...

Ozzie loves these new fabrics too!  

Can't wait to make more blocks.  Did you order your kit yet?  DO IT!  What are you waiting for?!?!  Lol!  Seriously...they are so nice.  I think we all love the fall season and this quilt will be just perfect. 

Have a great day!

Bow ties, bees, and kitties!

Do you follow Bonnie Hunter's blog?  She is such a busy lady - travels all over the world teaching, offers lots of free patterns, a mystery quilt that is always awesome each year, and on and on.  She also puts a leader/ender challenge out to everyone each summer.  Three years ago the block was bow ties.  I have never been a big fan of bow tie blocks, but for some reason it seemed like a good idea!  Honestly, I don't work on these very often (obviously, or this would have been done 2 or 3 years ago!) and I don't have much opportunity to use leaders and enders, because I'm usually working on jewelry and it just doesn't work for that.  I decided to start laying out some of the blocks to see what colors I still need.  I have no idea what size this is going to be, but I have almost 900 three inch blocks made so far.  That sounds like a lot, but what you see here is 144 blocks!

 
You will have to turn your head for this one, it doesn't seem to want to cooperate.  I've made tons of kitty pendants lately - these went with me to Kansas last week, and not very many came home, so I'm back to making kitties again.

 I drug out all of my bling making stuff - really wish I had a space where I could leave this out - why didn't we make my sewing room bigger!?  Usually the cats think they have to lay in the middle of all of this, but they left it alone this time!

 I've sold tons of bees too - these are all sold, and more are in the works.  I posted them on Instagram asking if anyone had any of the gold or black honeycomb fabric, and a few awesome people came through for me - quilters are just the best! I have a couple different people sending me some of the gold, and I think I know where I can order some of the black.  I heard that Moda is going to re-print this line (Bee Creative by Deb Strain), so hopefully I will be able to get some more of it in the future.  I want to make a cute bee wall hanging out of this fabric - that is what I originally bought it for, but then bee necklaces took over!

I'm going to have a new, fun item to show you soon (if you were in my Charming club, you got to see it early!) - will post a picture as soon as they get here.

Have a great weekend!

Silly cats!

Ozzie has had a fascination with the shower lately!  He sleeps here a lot, and walks all the way into the shower when I'm in there!  Doesn't seem to care that he's getting wet, and evidently likes to drink warm, soapy water.  Earlier this morning he was sitting in the shower, meowing his head off.  I finally turned it on for him for awhile.  What a weirdo!

 Yesterday I was attempting to pack up about 40 quilts for a presentation/trunk show that I'm doing in Mission, KS this week.  The quilt in the suitcase is the very first quilt that I ever made.  First quilt in the suitcase...I turn around...and here's Callie, nice and comfy!  It's no wonder it takes me so long to get anything done!

We have a bunch of small orders to finish up today, and a few things that I want to finish to take to KS.  It is soooo hot and humid here, so I am very happy to be working inside!

Have a great day!

Boxes everywhere!

We had a big customer order of these cute little 2" x 4" ruler boxes - don't they look fun all in a pile?

Take a look at our website to see all of the different shapes and sizes!

 I try to do a little bit of stitching each night, and have been working on block one of A Primitive Garden, by Primitive Gatherings.  If you want to join our Sew Along, go to the Facebook page and request to join, and we will get you approved.  We aren't officially starting until fall, but we have a lot of people that are already in different stages of working on this.  I love the group - we are already motivating each other to get stitching.  Exciting to have my first block finished!

Have a great week!

Last year we started a program called "Celebrate" - it's a year-long program, where you receive a new pendant or pin every-other month, that are related to holidays or seasons.  It was a lot of fun, and we have decided to run that program again.  This is a sample of what you will receive throughout the year.  You can see all of the details on my website.  

Along with the pendants you also get a free pin cushion pattern each month!  One of my clever customers, Kathie, decided to use her patterns to make wall hangings instead - such a great idea - then you have something cute to hang up for the seasons and holidays!  Look how fun these are...

 Make sure you sign up now - as always, space is limited (because I can only make so many!).  Do you need a unique gift for a friend?  This would be perfect - the gift that keeps on giving!

I started stitching on my Primitive Garden quilt. You can see that I'm using the cute ruler box that DH made for me to hold my threads, scissors, needles, etc.  Perfect!

 I bought a little bundle of wool from Shakerwood Woolens that I used for the purple flowers - it was just perfect.

 We've been busy with jewelry - trying to build things back up for upcoming shows.  I am doing a presentation/trunk show for a guild in Mission, KS in just a few weeks and will be taking some of these with me.

 I had a ton of pendants that I wanted to add bling to - it took forever, but I'm happy with the results. I ordered a bunch of cute charms and had fun adding them to the mix...

I used a lot of little sewing-related charms in these - scissors, irons, buttons, sewing machines - fun!

And now it's time to get busy mailing out the first installment of "Surprise!".  If you signed up, be watching your mailbox this week!

Have a great day!

Pin cushions galore!

When we vend at shows, we usually have lots of pin cushions for sale.  I just don't have time to make them, so my aunt has taken over that job.  Look at all of these! Lots of variety and so fun to just look at all of them.  Now that was a fun mail day!

And speaking of fun mail - our new program called "Surprise" is full - thanks to everyone who signed up - you will be getting a fun surprise in the mail in the next few weeks!

There was another little surprise in the box with the pin cushions...

Haha - this made me laugh - and sounds just like something Aunt Nancy would say!  Now I need to find a couple of these for my nieces!

I bought a fat quarter bundle of this fabric called Bee Creative, by Deb Strain.  I've wanted to make something bee related for my hubby and thought I would give this block a try.  I spent some bonding time with my seam ripper making this, but that was operator error.  Now I just need to decide what to do next.  I keep thinking of just having four bee blocks, with some kind of sashing and a border or two.  There are some really pretty, large prints in this line, and I bought a little yardage of a couple of them when we were in Paducah.  I really don't have time to think about it at the moment, so it will marinate for awhile!

I'm trying to keep up with Merry Christmas from Buttermilk Basin.  Sew Graceful has really chosen nice fabrics and wools, although there were a couple of little things that I substituted in this block.  Awhile back my dad gave me a wool suit that he has had for as long as I can remember.  Of course, I cut it up and felted it!  I have decided to try to use some of it in all or most of my wool projects.  See the 3 Christmas ornaments?  The plaid one is Dad's suit!  I think it blends in fine.  Better than what I used for the toe and heel of the stocking - lol!  I am kind of getting tired of this BOM, but I don't want it to get tossed aside and not finished, so I will try to keep at it.  Glad it only comes once a month!

Hope you have a great holiday weekend!

A finish, a start, and a few other things!

I am so happy to report that I finished Sunflower Gatherings!  I really love this quilt and now I can't wait to get it quilted so I can hang it up!  

 My goal was to get Sunflower finished up so that I could start in on A Primitive Garden.  If you want to join in on this one, we are doing a Sew Along (officially starting this fall).  We will be posting on Instagram and Facebook.  Here are the flowers all cut out and ready to go.  I still need to figure out which greens to use on all of the stems and leaves.

 Some backgrounds that I drug out - still trying to decide if I like them all.  I don't have enough yardage for all 4 borders, so will have to shop for a couple more.

Callie is the one who is usually in this basket, but Ozzie took over to watch me trace my pattern onto Steam A Seam.  Doesn't he look interested?!

I just had to share these cute bees!  They are made out of beeswax by my friend Lois.  She is making us molds for these so we can make our own and sell them at shows.  Aren't they perfect?  That was a fun mail day!

 And look at this one!  It is so stinking cute.  Take a look at her website, she has this and many more - all are just wonderful.

Ok, gotta go, so they can work on my computer some more.  That is getting extremely old.  So sick of it, and I just don't understand why no one can get it straightened out.  I keep thinking we are getting closer, then it seems that something else happens.  Cross your fingers for me!

Have a great day!