PastThyme Blog

New fun

2012-01-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

Winter decided to make it's appearance here the past couple of days, and with temps below 0 we've decided to find that snowman spirit we were lacking on those days it was 50. . .

Flaky Fred made his debut last night for our Wednesday Woolies group.

This is a bit different look, size wise, for something Darci has designed but had good response from the gals who braved the cold to sip Mojitos. If you are looking for something to grace a door in your house or a larger space on a wall Fred is perfect. . .and for an added effect you could add a bit of fiberfill to give him some great dimension!!

Stumpy

This cute little guy is also one of Darci's new wool patterns. Stumpy is a good fit for the Penny Around background or looks cute simply hung up on a wall, or set facing you on a table.

Patches from the Heart

This is one of our newer favorites. It is also a bigger candle/table mat size.

It features four "pieced" and crazy quilted hearts and four smaller hearts with a fun crazy quilted wheel stitch in the center. (This is one of Darci's new fav's as far as stitches go!!)

It's all about Love

This little wool mat gives you some fun possibilities. . .it can be used on the Penny Around background, it can have a pocket added on the back to be used as a gift holder for your special valentine, or it can have a fun ribbon attached at the top so it can hang.

Speaking of "love" we have fallen in love with Pinterest. I say this with caution as it can get to be a bit addicting once you start looking on it but if you have a **few** minutes to spare and are wondering what to do. . .check it out!! (www.pinterest.com) If you are a do-it-yourselfer you will have found a fabulous new place to get inspired!! *We are not responsible for the "wasted" hours you may spend searching through the thousands of interesting ideas/quotes/pictures/etc!

When we have managed to pull ourselves away from the computer we've had fun working with some new fabrics and patterns!!

Madeline is a great pattern by Miss. Rosie's Quilt Co. that features charm packs for it's quilt top sewing. The above quilt has been a big conversation piece in the shop and we cannot wait until we get the boltage shipment later this spring. The wonderful fabrics above are Collections for a Cause: Friendship by Howard Marcus for Moda.

Equally as popular has been Twist & Churn by This & That patterns out of the new Redwork Rennesiance by Chloe's Closet for Moda. This is a charm pack pattern (a good usage of the whole pack I may add) that makes a fun shaped and nice sized table topper.

If you like charm packs but have trouble finding good patterns this one is a good one to add to your list. All you need is that one charm pack you absolutely love and some coordinating binding and you are all set my friend. . .sew away!

We've also been working in the Quilt's and More magazine.

The table runner will have to be saved for our next posting as between shop classes, basketball and Pinteresting progress was stopped for a bit!! The above project, however, is a quick one you can easily get done in an afternoon. It's called Sew Perfect.

It really is a perfect project for you if you are planning to go sewing with a friend or at a retreat. It has some nice pockets for making toting those essentials out and about fun and easy.

The fabrics used above are by Urban Chicks for Moda and are called Urban Cowgirl.

Speaking of Urban Cowgirl, next week we'll have the finished photo of our nice lap quilt using those fun fresh and springy prints. It features the 10-minute quilt block idea by Suzanne McNeill, which after a couple I really think you could whip them out in about that amount of time!!

We also hope to have the second color way finished for you all to see of our next Block of the Month Quilt. For those of you who missed the first one, it's back a few posts and it's green white & black. This one will be set different and is out of Kansas Troubles!!

January Blowout Sale

I shouldn't mention this but you can plan for snow next Friday Jan. 27 & Saturday Jan. 28 as we are having our January Blowout Sale!!

Stop on in to see all of our new class offerings for the winter/spring newsletter
and shop the sale.

Pattern Wall. . . Buy 1, Get 1 free (must be of equal/lesser value)
Book Bin. . . Buy 1, Get 1 free (must be equal/lesser value)
Bundles of snow (18- 1/3 yard cuts of coordinating neutral fabrics). . . Buy 1, get 1 free

We also have our holiday fabrics marked (mostly) at 40% off as well as select kits & patterns.

Hours
Friday: 10am - 5pm --- Saturday 10am - 3pm

Until next time,

Finish each day and be done with it.

You have done what you could, some blunders & absurdities have crept in;

forget them as soon as you can for tomorrow is a new day.

You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with

your old nonsense.

~Emerson

New Year- New Post :-)

2012-01-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

Well. . .now that it is official we want to wish you all a very Happy New Year!!

It seemed as if there were a lot of us who were ready to watch 2011 leave and welcome in 2012.

I had found a quote a couple years back and smile each new year when I read it again.

"We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

May we all take advantage of the new opportunities that present themselves to us in 2012 and make it a great year!

Now. . .onto sewing!!

First- we are happy to have our second project published on the Moda Bakeshop.

Ringlets Table Topper

The recipe was posted today so make sure you stop over to the bakeshop and check it out!!

If you had a new years resolution to sew up some of your charm packs or use up some of your stash this might be a fun project for you to try.

Speaking of new years resolutions. . .both of us gals decided to give knitting a whirl this year.

The madness of knitting started last September on our trip up north when Lacey fell in love with a knitted sampler afghan. "Santa" was certainly paying attention and delivered the book, needles and some supplies to both gals over Christmas. Our goal is to have a project or two done before the year ends so hopefully we'll be able to share some knitting progress with you all in the near future!

One of Lacey's new years resolutions was to get this snowflake quilt done. It was started during the state shop hop a couple of years ago and was pushed to the side because we ran out of the fabric. It was put into a box with what was thought to be enough fabric to finish the quilt top and after one good long new years day of sewing it is finished. . .almost. Lacey ran out of outer border fabric for the top & bottom and thankfully found a chunk under our shop cutting counter to finish!! Hopefully with a good start like this it'll be finished, quilted & bound soon!!!

Darci's new years resolution was to have her shop samples for Woolie Wednesday done a few days before the group meets and to have her second Generations quilt rows done a few days before the group meets. Both Lacey & Phyllis give her a month or two tops to keep the plan. Time will tell I guess. . .

Both of us gals decided after Christmas to work on a class offering for after the first of the year. The quilt above is the color selection that Darci chose to work on using a "planned" color combination.

This project will be a class called "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly"

as it is geared towards using up that stash we all have accumulated at home. The quilts can easily be sized up or sized down and finish as a nice big lap sized quilt.

Lacey chose 12 different fabrics--not necessarily coordinating and put all of her pieces in a brown paper bag and forced herself to sew whatever color she grabbed out. Although we were not impressed and laughed a lot during the assembly of this quilt we were both pleased by its finished outcome!!

Papillon in Prayers for a Friend

The quilt above is our prayer shall quilt. Block Party Studios has a wonderful prayer shall printed panel that is perfect for sewing with charm squares. One prayer shall panel and 2 of your favorite charm packs will sew up a wonderful lap size quilt for yourself or a friend in need of some comforting verses. We chose to use the new Papillon fabrics by Moda's 3 sisters as it is so soft, subtle and tranquil with it's flowers, colors & butterflies. We also quilted the top and then added Chenille-It on all of the seams and around the inner border.

Dora in Chloe's Closet

If you have not looked at or sewn out of the 3 Times the Charm book by Me & My Sister you really need to take a look at it. This book is absolutely perfect for those of you who love working with charm packs as all of the patterns really utilize your 5" squares and are a nice size projects that generally require very little coordinating fabric. (Plus it's only $9.95 and has 7 patterns!!)

"Dora" is sewn up using the newly released "Chloe's Closet" by Moda which is a 30s repo charm pack.

Greta in Salt Air

This work in progress didn't quite make the "finished" list yesterday but hopefully after a good day of quilting today it will be done. This quilt is also out of the 3 Times the Charm book and features the new fabrics by Cosmo Cricket called "Salt Air" This is all around a fun charm pack with fun designs and cheery colors to warm anyone up on a cold winter day!!

Until next time. . .

Happy New Year!!

2011-12-31T13:45:00.000-08:00

Snow finally made it's way to our neck of the woods and was sure pretty for the day it lasted!

We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends and wish you all a very Happy New Year.

We both got reacquainted with our sewing machines after Christmas and have been sewing up a storm of new things and finishing others started oh too long ago. We can't wait to show our stack to you next year!! Make sure you stop back here on Tuesday as we have our second Moda Bakeshop project ready to be posted and hope that you'll enjoy it as much as the first.

Until next year. . .

2011-12-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

During this Christmas season,

may you be blessed with the spirit of the season, which is peace,

the gladness of the season, which is hope,

and the heart of the season, which is love.

Somehow, not only for Christmas but all the year through,

the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you.

~John Greenleaf Whittier

Peace & Blessings to you all this holiday weekend. We hope that those of you who are out and about have safe travels and have wonderful times with your family and friends!

Shades of the Past will be closed Saturday Dec. 24 - Monday Dec. 26 as we celebrate the season with our family and friends. We'll be back regular shop hours again on Tuesday Dec. 27.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-17T11:47:00.000-08:00

We were thrilled to get in a shipment of "Sample Spree" fabrics featuring the fabrics that Moda will put out on the market later this spring. There are such wonderful fabrics for pretty much any persons taste. We have charm packs of them here in the shop for sale now for those of you anxious to work with some new fabrics!

Above, you'll see. . .

Collections for a Cause-Friendship

by Howard Marcus (muted reds/browns/creams/blues/tans)

Papillon

by 3 Sisters (wonderful pastel blues/reds/pinks/grays/creams)

California Girl

by Fig Tree Quilt Co. (cheery greens/blues/pinks/yellows/creams)

Meadow

by Blackbird Designs (country reds/blues/browns/creams/tans/greens)

Salt Air

by Cosmo Cricket (funky pinks/blues/greys/turquoise/yellow/cream)

The newest fabric panel that arrived into the shop this week is called

Beautiful Blessings by the new Moda designer Mara Bochart.

Darci is having a fun time sewing on a new creation using it. Check back to see what the finished result looks like!!

Summer Joy

by Kansas Troubles

This fun Kansas Troubles pattern is a perfect one to use up your favorite Kansas Troubles (or any other favorite!) charm pack. This project is a perfect size for a table or also to hang on the wall. The sample above was done using Cattails & Clovers charms.

Chenille-It in Jovial. This is a quick charm quilt, much like others we have done but features a couple of borders to make the quilt transform into a nice holiday/winter lap size quilt or table cloth. It features 2 charm packs of Jovial fabrics and one roll of lime green Chenille-It.

Russian Tea

Perfect drink to enjoy under the Chennille-It Jovial quilt on a chilly winter night!

1 c. Instant Tea

2 c. Tang (powdered orange juice)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cloves

1 pkg. Wylers lemonade mix

1 1/2 c. sugar (or less)

Combine all ingredients together and store in an air-tight container.

Use approximately two teaspoons of tea mix to one cup hot water.

Snow Days

by This & That patterns

This cute little embroidery pattern by Sherri K. Falls is quick to stitch up and is a perfect project to use up those small scraps!! The finished project size is about 12" x 12" and fits an Ackfield table stand or hanger quite well.

Christmas Cookies

Who doesn't enjoy yummy cookies and a cup of hot cocoa after making a snowman?

1 c butter

2 c. flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Mix together--Shape into 1 inch balls and press your thumb in the centers to form a small well. Bake at 325 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes. When cool, fill the thumb print wells with white melted almond bark. (You can also make them for festive with red or green tinted almond bark)

Poinsettia

by Pastthyme Patterns

This little wool mat is the December flower of the month for our Woolie Wednesday group. The poinsettia is made up of individual leaves, that once stitched in the center, becomes a puffed, dimensional centerpiece.

These fun place mats are out of the new G.E Designs book called

Fast & Furious: Family

The place mats are perfect for any kind of table, but are specifically geared towards those of you who have round tables. They are very quick and easy to sew up, and like many other G.E Design patterns are done with the quilt-as-you-go method.

Peanut Butter Cups
Our new family favorite--so good we can't keep enough stocked in the house.
These little guys are SURE to be a HUGE hit during the holidays!!!!

2 c. peanut butter
3 c. crushed rice krispies
1 lb. powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 cups)
1 stick butter

Mix above ingredients well and shape into balls.

Melt a half a package of chocolate almond bark in a double boiler. Dip balls in chocolate mixture and set on wax paper until chocolate coating has set. Place in an air-tight container and enjoy!

Tis' a very busy time of the year. . .

2011-12-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

Once again, almost a month has past since we've last posted! I just cannot believe how quickly the time and day can get away from a person. If the saying "Time goes by fast the older you get" is true both of us gals are going to be in trouble!!

I hope that you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving (with the way I get things done I should probably be wishing you all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year today!!)

Wasn't it amazing though, that we didn't have any snow on the ground?!

It's been a while and it was a nice change--and even today, December 5th, and just a trace of snow is on the ground, crazy how things change from year to year!

We had a lot of fun (especially decorating and cooking) for the group of family that took the trip to our house. We had a wonderful time, and of course, like many of you have been telling us, ate waaay to much!

This picture doesn't have anything to do with our shop, or projects, or the holidays but isn't it amazing that Joe got all FIVE dogs that were out hunting with the gang at camp a few weeks ago to sit and pose for his I-Pad?! Seriously, it never fails, there is always one dog in the group that has to spoil it!! So congrats, Finn, Abbey, Sadie, Tucker, & Andrew's dog, you all look great!

While the men have been out hunting. . .

. . .we've taken our show on the road.

We spent a Saturday afternoon out in Watertown, South Dakota at the Dakota Quilt Shop.

(Dead camera battery = no pictures of our day)

We taught the ladies all about wool, woolfelt, and hooking. Rug hooking that is!

The fabulous group of 30 created these fun gift card holders for the holiday gift giving season. It was so much fun to see many familiar faces and to meet many new ones. We also had a delicious eats at PastThymes. Yep--can it get any better than that?!! We also made a late day stop in Dawson (home to the newly crowned 2011 MN State football champs!!) to a Simpler Thyme. If you ever get through Dawson make sure you stop...it is a very fun place with great gift ware!

And most recently we attend the 2011 Minnesota Make it with Wool conference at Jackpot Juction in Morton. I did have my camera ready for action this time, but we didn't have the time to take any pictures. We both were super, super impressed by the day!! We had about 40 people between the ages of 6 - 60. Most of these were kids in the age range of 10-16. At first, I think we both were a bit nervous about how this was going to go. A room full of kids and only 2 of us. I have to tell you that NEVER in history of the shop have we had an event like that and probably never will again.

These kids (who often times get a bad rep now days) all knew how to sew. Everyone could thread their needles, tie off good knots, and stitch like the best of us!! The stitches they came up with were quite creative and left us wishing that even we would sat and taken note of how they were doing them. They were all so respectful and kind and we cannot tell you how much we enjoyed the 2 hours we spent with them.

To top it all off we decided to stay for the fashion show. Talk about a group of talented sewers!! From age 6 to age 21 kids all showed off the clothing items that they had sewn from wool. From pants and shirts, to blazers and skirts and long coats it was incredible. Many of them added fancy linings to coats, zippers to pants, elastics to waistbands and cuffs, cut plaids to match up perfectly and even on the bias for shirts and added snaps/buttons/hooks & eyes to boot. Amazing! It was all so fashionably "in" and both of us gals found stuff we wished we could fit in to bring home to wear. We were both so glad we stayed and hope we get invited back next year.

Now. . .onto shop progress. Seems like we've accomplsihed so much and yet I don't have any pictures to show for. Hmm...hopefully we'll come up with them later.

The biggest happening has been the Generations Quilt that Darci designed about her Grandma.

We brought the quilt to the nursing home to show grandma the finished result and as you can tell she loved it. She was so excited about it she was showing the nurses when they came to get her for supper.

This quilt pattern comes with grandma's history which has been collected by her children and our personal visits to the home to see her. Grandma is a "go-getter" and is so much fun to be around as she's always in a great mood and has fantastic advice and stories to tell.

To our delight, she joined us at our first meeting so the gals could meet the woman behind the quilt. We have a four generation pic going on above--how wonderful that we all have a common thread running between us. Grandma turns 90 on the 10th of this month. Truly something to celebrate!!

Lacey has been working on our next block of the month.

She chose 3 colors (didn't photograph well but it's white, green & black)

The quilt is suppose to be 12 blocks to end up 80 x 80 finished but beings she was having so much fun she decided to make 2 extra blocks and add more borders to create a queen size quilt. This is a great class to watch for if you are looking to broaden your quilting horizons and we'll show a better photo once it's been quilted & bound and on the bed.

We also got into the winter spirit with this fun winter quilt. We used a bundle of our SW neutrals from the shop hop this summer to create this quick and easy wall hanging.

I'm thinking we'll need a bit more snow to be making these little guys anytime soon!

Well. . .with the way the days go by, before you know it there really will only be 12 days 'til Christmas and we'll still be placing last minute touches on our gift giving projects.

So. . .although I have good intentions of posting again before the holidays, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. . .just in case ;)

Something to think about. . .

2011-11-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

Today we received an e-mail from gal we know up north and after reading it thought.

hmm...this is really something to stop and think about.

Christmas 2011--The Birth of a New Tradition

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods--merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. This year will be different.

The year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans.

There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. yes there is!

It's time to think outside the box. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Everyone--yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut.

How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?

Gym membership?

It's appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.

Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed?

Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift cards.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plonking down the Benjamin's on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at a local golf course.

There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants--all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint.

Remember folks, this isn't about big National chains--this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle done at a shop run by an American working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Maybe should love the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.

My computer could use a little tune-up and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. And how about going out to see a play or ballet at your local theatre?

Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly, do you really need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house?

When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice big tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining our pockets so that China can build a glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we can't imagine.

THIS is the new American Christmas tradition.

This is a revolution of caring about each other. . .isn't that what Christmas is all about?

11.11.11

2011-11-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

Today is a special day.

Today is the only day we have the chance to write down 11.11.11 as our date.

I suspect many weddings, and some birthdays will be celebrated tonight.

But, today's date is more special than just because of numbers, today is special because it's Veteran's Day.

Driving into our little prairie town you find a main street with yellow ribbon signs with names of the military men & women currently serving our country and an American flag flying on every light pole. Simple and nice. We, like many of you, have friends and family who have, and are serving our wonderful country. It's important that we all take a moment, especially today, to thank them and their families for the sacrifices they make to keep us free.

We are still working on and creating fall samples here in the shop as we do acknowledge that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas. (I don't mean this to be a "burn" but we find that it gets a bit much seeing Christmas trees, lights, decorations all over department stores stores the first week of October--but I'll hop off my box) The above pattern is designed by Bonnie from Willow Wood Market in Bemidji.

Yes-we have hopped on the holiday train (beings it's November now) and have some new samples, some for just the winter season, and some more holiday specific.

The wool nativity stitchery is a Little Bits by Joan and is a very quick sampler to stitch up.

Lots of new winter woolies.

The reddish/pink gift box can be used as either a ornament for your tree, or you can add a pocket on the back and add cash or gift cards for the gift giving season.

The center of the photo of the snowman with the trees is a little woolie that can hang on a six-inch Ackfield frame, will fit on our Penny Around base, or can easily be used standing alone. The pattern for him is by Jana at Thistle Seed Primitives in Walker.

The snowman pictured at right, is another by Darci that has a few different functions as well. It can be hung on a five or six inch Ackfield hanger, or the back can be left open and you can put in your i-phone, cell phone, glasses, etc., or it too can be left to stand alone.

The ornaments at the top are the cutest snow family in town! The pattern is by Rachel T. Pellman and it creates a mom, dad, daughter, son, cat & dog to adorn your Christmas tree. The ornaments are super quick to stitch up and are great to use up some of your scrap pieces.

This little fellow was a HUGE topic of conversation at Woolie Wednesday.

This is a pattern by One Wing Wool from Saint Michael, MN.

This little guy is suppose to be a little lamb, however after lots of laughter with our group of gals we've decided it might not be as clear as we had once thought.

Donkey-Alpaca-Lamb-Goat...what do you think it looks like?

This crazy stocking came from our trip out and about to Bemidji in September.

This new pattern from Pam at Cotton Tales in Hackensack, MN is perfect for all of you crazy quilt lovers. This is all done up out of wool, and can work perfect for larger wool scraps that you may have accumulated from other projects.

Now. . . some new fabric arrivals!

The above fabric may be a step out of the box for Darci but fits us well.
Who knew the little dog in our last post would get to be so popular!!
For anybody looking to make a male in their family a quilt (and has found it difficult to locate fabric that is not full of flowers) may be able to find this suitable for a project. It is filled with hunting references and will be an easy pull for adding in other earth tone colors.
Check back for the progress of Darci's quilt!!

We were feeling fortunate to get some of the wonderful

Collections for a Cause: Comfort

Kind of civil war in feel, but very pretty pieces to play with!!

Late Bloomers.

This is a fabric line that both of us gals have been in love with. It has fabulous & rich color tones to play with and Lacey has absolutely been enjoying sewing her project up with it. . .

. . .here's a little teaser until Lacey gets the quilt top and borders finished! It's been really popular for those who have seen it in progress so you'll want to make sure you see the finished result :)

Until next time remember

"Life is like a riding a bicycle- in order to keep your balance you must keep moving"

~Albert Einstein

2011-10-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

How about that. We got a post in back to back weeks!!

There isn't a whole lot of fun show and tell from the shop this week as it seems as the week got away from us, but with a busy one next week I want to share what we have accomplished!!

This week has been a busy one.

We celebrate a lot of birthday is our family during the month of October. Joe & Lacey celebrated back to back this week.

For Lacey's birthday she went musky fishing with her dad up in Alexandria. They took "little b" with them for her first experience out on the waters. (She's a typically a bird dog)

Upon arriving at the lake, they noticed the docks had been pulled out. They got the boat and trailer in the water, helped little B get in, and pushed it out off the trailer only to find out that as Lacey tugged on the rope it broke, sending her falling flat on her butt with the long end of the rope in her hand, a little dog slowly floating out to sea. Luckily dad had quick reactions and waded into the cold water to get the boat before it floated too far out. Upon regaining their composure after a good hard laugh at what just happened, they got things going and had a wonderful day. Little B was quite nervous (do you blame her?) after that and spent most of her day pacing from Lacey to dad and "talking" the whole time.

We decided she might have fun getting to play fetch in the water in a wooded area with no homes and shallow water. Little b LOVES to play, especially when it involves water!!

Anyways. . .back to quilting

In our last post (or two) ago we showed Abbott's Hope pattern.

We decided we needed to see one that didn't have snowflakes on it, so we used the new fabrics by Whimsicals in a new table topper. This really is a quick and quite fun pattern to piece together.

Lacey has really enjoyed working with Whimsicals fabrics this week and has spent most of her time working with a holiday panel and side wall hanging projects.

This has a small, funky dimensional inner border around the sleigh

This has a really cool rick-rack effect when you step away from it.

Generations. Quilting.

What two wonderful words to put together. The quilt that Darci is currently working on is a row quilt that she designing by choosing blocks based upon the life of her grandmother.

Generations & Quilting. We've talked about how the thread her grandmother started with has wound its way into future generations through her daughter, granddaughter & great-granddaughter. It's fun to share such a common thread with one another!

We'll have show and tell of this quilt, hopefully next week, once it's finished. We can't wait to share!

=============================================

Event Reminder

We are having a Trick-or-Treat sale in the shop on Monday Oct. 31

from 3pm - 7pm

We will be doing demos on the hour, every hour that evening as well as having

Trick or Treat grab bags for $5.00

AND

if you dress up in a Halloween costume you'll receive 20% off your purchases of

$10.00 and more

Both of us gals are gearing up for the evening by putting finishing touches on our costumes and finding some spoooktacular treats to eat!

=========================================

Until next time,

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine"

~D'Angelo

2011-10-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

Hello again. Once again it's been a while!!

We've had a fun few weeks here in the shop working on some new samples and taking our show out on the road!

With our busy schedule we sort of feel like we've been chasing ourselves into circles.

Speaking of which, we've had a lot of fun working with those circles.

If you like orange peel quilts we have a fabulous new tool that makes them fun!

It's called "Leaves Galore" and allows you to cut out at least four different "leaf" or "peel" sizes to applique with. It also gives direction for cutting lemon shaped leaves & twisting ribbons.

We are planning to demo this fun new arrival on our Halloween sale on the 31st!

In an effort to get more stuff accomplished, Darci decided to see how it would work using 2 needles to stitch instead of 1. Doesn't it sound like you'd get twice as much done?!?

Guess it caused more confusion than anything and it was decided slow and steady wins the race.

Speaking of racing. . .if you are in dire need to get to St. Cloud (or St. Joseph) for a quilt show we highly suggest following the marked Detour route posted by Paynesville!!

A couple weeks ago we took a scenic route that brought us into Albany. It was a very pretty drive through the country and we decided it was much more peaceful than the route given to us to follow. So come last Friday (under a big time crunch as we left the shop an hour late and had about five hours to get to the show, wait to unpack, set the booth up, grab supper and rush to Maynard to the high school homecoming football game by half-time) we decided to attempt the same route. The only problem was that we may have turned too early.

Instead of arriving in Albany we arrived in Richmond. . .no big deal right?! Wrong. We turned left (the navigator thinking we were headed towards Avon to hook 94) and ended up back-tracking through the (pretty) countryside through Farming and into---Albany. (Some of you may be confused by this but try Map Questing the Richmond to Albany route and you'll see we drove quite a ways out of our way back-tracking to get to Albany) NOT a time saver!!!

While thinking we were still fine, we approached slow moving traffic that eventually turned into stop and go until we came a halt once we all got funnelled down into a single lane of traffic. Making up time on I-94 that day was not an option and we sat and watched the minutes clicking by on the clock while we crept and stopped through what seemed like a million miles of road construction. We'll just say that we may have run out of patience and were both a bit crabby when we arrived to the show to set up. (which is a story itself but we'll save you from that!)

After the experiences we had the day before, we decided to take the planned route.

And, of course we got stuck behind slow traffic and wound up arriving to the show

about 20 minutes late. Panicking as we seen the line waiting to get in, and flustered to find the booth plump full of people without us. By noon we feared we'd run out of stuff to sell.

Seemed as if our day was starting like it had the day before. . .

To relieve a little stress we decided to scope the quilt displays out.

The above picture (that doesn't do justice to the actual quilt) is of one of the most

beautiful Mexican Star quilt patterns done.

Tall, Dark & Ransom.

Isn't that a cool pattern name?

It was fun seeing such dark drab colors in a funky design like this one!

Remember my last post from Bemidji having pics of quilts that are pieced together based upon a cross stitch pattern? Well the lady had the peacock there and this boat.

There was over 17,000 little squares to this baby!

This quilt had a really, really eye catching effect if you stood across the room from it.

It literally looked like the boat was going to sail out of the quilt!

You lose that effect walking up close to the quilt and the photo can't do justice.

This lady could have a quilt show of her own--her pieces are very unique.

The design of this intrigued me.

And the quilting (below) was exceptional.

I cannot imagine having that vision to quilt a solid piece of fabric the way this lady could and give it a dimension all of it's own. What a talent!

See what I mean?

We capped off our day by celebrating success with eats at Red Lobster in St. Cloud and a bit of shopping. As we arrived to eat we racked our brains trying to find a person back at home to order pictures for patterns that we had sold out of---Darci's original patterns of course! This was an almost impossible task as Lacey is the guru of uploading and ordering all the pics.

To our luck, we made contact with Phyllis who agreed to try her best to make the order for us so we could pick them up on our swing home. While we nervously sat wondering how it was going, wishing we had Internet connection on our phones, our waiter (who wasn't that bad looking!!) so sweetly gave Lacey his phone to try and order the pics. We sat with it the whole time we were there trying to get the order to send through, and in the end didn't have the heart to tell him we failed getting it to send. Talk about an awesome act of kindness from a person his age!

That seemed like a nice way to end the day. Success at the show and finding a young person who was truly kind to people he'd never met. Just when we thought it couldn't get any better Lacey received incredible mail from Joe Mauer.

Yep. Joe. Mauer. That cute, famous baseball player for the Twins!!

A year before, her Sunday school class wrote Joe letters in hopes we'd hear back. They all gave up hope of hearing back, and to to her (and their surprise next week) got personalized postcards back from him answering all the questions the kids asked in their letters. Talk about a truly amazing guy. How many professional athletes will take time to answer fan mail in the way that he did, personalized to each individual, with a signed signature on the front of the postcard with his photo, and on the back under his typed name?
Lacey (and her class) will probably hold on to those forever.

On Tuesday we celebrated a 75th Birthday by taking a trip to Stillwater, MN.
What a pretty city!
We took the trolley ride (highly recommended if you like that kind of stuff) and were lucky enough to see a tour boat go under the lift bridge.

Beings we only had four passengers we got to see the grand tour of the many beautiful mansions in the city. This one, now in the Marvin (windows) family has a gorgeous view of the long, wide, flowing river. This is the only spot in town where the sidewalks and parking lot are heated so they don't have to shovel. Isn't that handy?

The guy in the photo--he's hand painting the house! Every place has such ornate detailing that has all been painted (with a little brush) by hand.

This boat, sitting near the lift bridge was used during 9/11.

It was the transport to bring medics and other personal through the harbor to land.

This was one of the first trips the four of us gals took

and will hopefully be an annual trip. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Now. . .onto our new show and tell!!

This is the newest fabric that has come in by Whimsicals.

This is the main panel, with 2 accompanying ones.

This wall hanging is featured in her book Buttons & Blossoms.

These little guys were the big hit at market.

They are stretched canvas boards by BasicGrey and have LOTS of

possibilities. This one is Darci's.

She stitched the wool squares and buttons down in the centers and glued some

lace and buttons around the border. Hers has been distressed.

Lacey did the quick route and used left over charm squares to fuse circles down.

She did do a little bead work in the center of hers.

This board was not distressed.

With winter coming, Cardinals become a popular bird.

This one, by Lakeview Primitives, is the newest wool sample to adorn our walls.

Speaking of wool, we tried a new idea of "rolling" pennies with 1/4" strips of wool,

or in the sample above wool felt. This is something to look for as Darci's wheels have been spinning with many ideas of what to do with these quick and dimensional pennies!!

Fire Escape.

We've laughed while putting this together.

Partly because Lacey couldn't read the directions to save her soul and partly because if you think about a fire escape it should be an easy route to safety. The quilt may not be a route to safety but it was certainly quick to do and fun. We put chenille on the back to give that whole idea a try and although it works well for some. . .this was not one of them!

Walter.

Just in time for Thanksgiving.

Notice those leaves. . .this was the sample Darci tried to stitch with 2 needles.

Sheep are popular with those of us who like wool.

Pumpkins in the Patch was also a new project from Darci.

Boo!

This was probably the most popular of the wool designs in St. Cloud.

The little owl in the tree seems to make it!

Snowflakes.

(I'm sure some of you are wrinkling your nose in disgust)

But believe it or not I actually seen some of them feeding the dog Wednesday morning!

This is my Abbott's Hope pattern, inspired by the floor tiles at Abbott Northwestern Hospital's floor down in the surgical waiting room.

And last but not least, is Northern Cardinal.

Featuring the ever popular Chickadees and Cardinals by Holly Taylor.

This is a wonderful lap sized quilt for the cold winter nights.

Now that racing season has come to and end for Lacey and we are done with quilt shows for a while we hope to make this blogging thing a bit more regular. We have been busy working on some fun new projects to share with you next time! Until then, happy quilting!

Buckle your seat belts!

2011-09-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

I hope that you all have found yourselves a nice comfy chair as we have

lots of catching up to do!! So sit back, relax and buckle your seats belts. . .

Last weekend Phyllis & Lacey strapped into Darci's magic school bus for a girls weekend up north. Our destination was the Funky Junk Market in Bemidji with side stops at various quilt shop and antique stores along our route.

Our first stop of the day (after lunch, of course) was Bay Window Quilt Shop in Perham.

This was the first time any of us had been there and upon leaving decided those girls set the bar high for the remainder of our day!!

Of course we couldn't leave without finding goodies!
Some of those goodies you'll be seeing in future projects here in the shop

Upon walking back to our magic school bus we noticed the cute little trailer.

We wondered if we would see them later at the Funky Junk Market. (nope-bummer)

Our second quilt shop stop was Back Porch Quilts in Detroit Lakes.
I forgot to take a picture of this quilt shop (I know-one of my many missed moments)
This too was a cute little place offering fun inspirations.

Then off to Park Rapids--now this town was FUN.

When we first turned the corner we stopped in a long line of cars, wondering what was going on. It took the driver a moment to realize she was waiting for a parked car with nobody in it to move. (thankfully she didn't honk the horn--that woulda been embarrassing and a sure sign that were tourists) Who knew people angle parked on curb AND parked in the center median and still had enough room to drive cars up and down the streets? (yes--those of you who are looking at the photo see it right. The cars in the center are actually parked there.)

After safely crossing the street we arrived at Monique's Quilt Shop and Yarn Shop.

The Busy Binder loves visiting this shop when she is up at the lake.

(good thing cars can park in the center median so I could get a shot of the shop front!)

The yarn shop stands out to us probably more than the quilt shop.

All 3 of us can crochet, and Phyllis can knit, however, after Lacey seen this

knitted sampler quilt the bug may have bit hard enough to urge her to learn.

We had many, many laughs while visiting the cute little gift shops.

Many of our laughs came from reading wonderful wooden signs in one of the shops.

Park Rapids was truly a main street you could spend a day looking around.

(excuse the poor photography. After we left the town I realized I had shifted my camera setting so between taking them in a moving car & the setting they leave a bit to be desired)

Dorset Minnesota

"The Restaurant Capital of the World"

Folks. Honestly--if you have never been there you MUST GO.

Add it to your bucket list.

It is WELL worth the drive to eat, and when you do I suggest you plan to eat at lunch, dinner and come back the next day to do the same so you get to all the places.

We ate at the Dorset Cafe (make it your first stop)

Darci had the BEST steak ever which was served in a super cute little cast iron skillet right at the table with all of the "good stuff" left in the pot!

Phyllis had some wonderful fish and Lacey a Taco Salad (in the deep fried edible bowl)

AND

(best of all) we had the most fabulous deep fried pickles.

I would have loved to have taken a photo with all of our food, but I didn't want the "regulars" to notice that we were crazy tourists. So, take our word for it, the food is so good we'd drive up there today just to eat there.

If you like noodles (or Olive Garden) the smell alone would bring your into La Pasta, a Italian restaurant that makes homemade noodles! There was a super busy Mexican restaurant, which too makes their own food right there. There is also a place that makes wonderful homemade pies (unfortunately closed for the season) that we'll stop at on our next trip there. It was actually featured on Jason Davis' show not too long ago.

The church.

Darci was struck by the church, more or less the neat cross embedded into the stones.

New pattern? Probably so! You just never know where the inspiration bug will bite.

I'll quit with Dorset now--promise--but do if you are near make an effort to stop!

We all stayed for the first time ever, at a bed and breakfast right across from

Lake Bel Taine in Nevis.

Our area had two rooms, a cute little cottage-style room in the enclosed deck over the front of the house, and the main bedroom.

There was even a cute little birdcage over the bed.

Phyllis said the bird was quiet and didn't even leave her a "surprise" in the morning

This was the main part of the bedroom.

Lots of neat antiques surrounding the bed was a nice little touch.

The nice dresser with the hat boxes.

Wall paper that looks like we rolled it off the fabric bolts!

The jacuzzi.

This is a fun story.

When the house was originally built, the bed the couple slept in was housed in that little inlet.

Their heads were up against the back wall. It housed a bed with one of them canopies around it.

When the in keepers seen it, they decided to change it to what you see above.

The woodwork around the opening came from inside an old church.

It was an absolute perfect fit for the size and shape they needed to frame!!

The funnies part about the jacuzzi--it would run it's course for 20 minutes and shut off.

The last person to use it, shut if off early and for the next hour it would randomly kick in and we'd shut if off. Thankfully, around 11pm we got it to quit so we'd wouldn't wake up to the loud noise or wake our other house guests up! Live and learn, let it run it's course.

All of the posts in the entry of the house had this fabulous design in them.

More ideas for Darci to play with? I'm thinking so!

The quaint little sitting room with a cozy fireplace, and pretty stained glass windows.

Doesn't the the whole decor and wall paper show the era the house was lived in?

We just loved it!

(a little blurry--think I was startled by the in keeper coming out the door you can't see)

The neat dining room with the wonderful old antique chairs and table.

We had wonderful stuffed blueberry french toast, cinnamon bread, fresh fruit and delicious sausage from the local meat locker. We ate with a young couple that was up north on to do a bike (as in the bikes you saw on the trailer in Perham. . .only in riding condition) trip to Itasca State Park. (We decided it was good we didn't know how rude some of those people on bikes can be to those of us in cars or we may have said something we would have regretted)

The entry into the house. Seeing more fun antiques?

The woodworking in this place was equally fabulous!

While driving to see if the little meat locker was open so we could get some good meat (which was closed for the season) we came upon the world's largest Tiger Muskie. Of course Lacey claimed the trip would not be complete without pulling over to get a candid moment.

Then onto the Funky Junk Market in Bemidji.

We have to say that the trees were just starting to turn and were fabulous.

We really enjoyed seeing all of the heavily wooded area as we don't have that back here at home.

Don't you sometimes wonder what people think when they come to see us after being up there?

CORN FIELDS!!! whoo-hoo!! Guess we take those for granted as we often get told during the state hop seeing the beauty of the open area and the green of the fields in truly wonderful.

The grass is always greener isn't it?

But anyway. . .

The Funky Junk Market was more than just about junk. Bonnie (who designs Willow Wood Market patterns) puts this on at her studio. It houses "funky junk" (antiques, furniture, hand made quilts, etc) and a quilt show that this year had over 100 quilts!!!

The quilts get hung behind the studio on clothes line wire in the trees. It is so neat and unlike what we've ever seen! Doesn't that just look pretty?

Lacey enjoyed the colors and pattern of this quilt.

The quilting on this was absolutely awesome and super tiny in nature!

The woman who did the quilting on this did some others there and truly has a eye for it!!

Similar in pattern nature, but yet quite different.

Check out the outer border design in the quilt--isn't that different?

If any of you have spent time on certain blogs you'll see there is a large group doing the

Farmer's Wife quilt-along.

This was very neat.

The picture doesn't do justice to it. I'm thinking this needs to be put on a "to-do" list sometime after getting to see this one in person. The quilting (wait for it--you get to see it!!) was also great. The same gal who did the quilting in the blue one talked about above did this one as well.

See? You could almost turn it over and show that off too.

They actually had a sign telling you to step behind it to admire the back!!

Yep--it's a peacock.

Yep--there are actual peacock feathers attached at the bottom.

This gal (whom Darci & Lacey met in South Dakota a few years back) took a cross stitch pattern, and made it into a quilt. Simply cut out 1" squares the in the colors given, keep them in separate containers and follow the colored diagram given.

If this one doesn't float your boat you could try this one. . .

Yep. Can you imagine?

There was over 6,000 little squares in this one!

This is not something you'll be seeing done at Shades of the Past anytime. . .ever, but it really is a sight to see. It's amazing to see how thousands of 1" squares can create that quilt isn't it?

I was close enough to her to hear that it took her a little less than six months from start to finish!

All three of us seemed to have pointed out the same quilts we liked and this happened to be one of them.

I'm not sure what the problem is with the uploading process on this one.

We all enjoyed this qiult as well.

The overall shot before we left.

They had fabulous food (wild rice soup, home baked bread and fantastic pie!!)

We left Willow Wood Market's Funky Junk Market with plans to visit again next year

and a car so full of antiques and stuff that the rockers on Darci's new mini rocking chair were on either side of her head. (Another missed Kodak moment: our stuffed car-bummer)

On our way home, we made a sharp turned stop at Piecemaker's Quilt Shop in Hackensack.

Yes-literally a super sharp turn was made by our driver Darci, who driving like that could win many features in her Shades of the Past race car into the parking lot. Phyllis & Lacey (once safely parked in the lot) bursted out laughing after the sheer shock that Darci could have such quick turning reflexes. (Good thing the acorns that had fallen off the trees weren't on the road or we may have missed the enterance!) This was a neat shop--lots of fun displays.

We also stopped (once we found a vacant parking space) in Nisswa, which had to be the most hoppin' town we drove by. Again, this was a main street you can spend a good chunk of the day shopping up and down. It's great to see little towns like that so lively with people. We also noticed in all of the towns we vistied little signs made up saying "Made in the U.S.A" "Hand crafted right here in America" It's been a long time since we've seen that type of stuff and are thinking (maybe hoping) that people will start a take pride in what is made right here. . .

Once we got home all of the wheels were a spinning.

Literally for Lacey as they dropped her off at the race track.

Come Monday morning we immediately began to work on new fun stuff we've found.

We are saving it until we get the bindings back from our Busy Binder.

We can't wait to share some fun exciting things next time :)

Come this weekend is the Art Meander.

We always dig out samples from the back room that we can't use any longer and mark them to sell. After much spring cleaning we found LOTS of boxes to go through!

yep--those are more to sort through!

Once the boxes are dug out we grab the bottle of wine and pour us some glasses.

Put on some good tunes (Jason Aldean & Lady Antebellum) and get our ink pens ready!

Part of what makes this so fun is some of the things we find.

Lacey found this beauty in the first box she grabbed.

It was one of her first applique projects. We decided she has come along way since then.

Check out that border in the left corner!! Those edges were finished folks-not folded over.

Hasn't she improved? Needless to say that went into the Shades of the Past archives.

Once we dried the tears from our eyes and quit laughing enough for our stomaches to quit aching Darci dug out Old Saint Nick.

Isn't he a beauty? As you can tell the laughing process started all over agin.

Looks like his box may have been a bit drafty.

And then we found Santa's cute friend Frosty.

Not as many gut-busting laughs as he really was kind of cute.

Darci made an executive decision to mark her artifacts to sell.

God Bless Ewes.

Sometimes. . .we wonder what we may have been thinking?

This is side numero uno.

This is side numero dos. It's was a 2-for-1 special on the sale.

Must have been a good idea at the time--last night we found a lot of humor in it.

(darn-again with the picture!)

This is what we ultimately end up creating that night--a nice big mess!

We are about half way through the marking and sorting process at this time, and

have a very organized system of piling.
At the end of the night we left with the biggest stacks (we think) that we have ever marked to sell. Managed to find things we want to re-introduce from ages ago, and orgainzed what we decided to keep at the shop. Both of us gals took a big box full of samples home to use, and hopefully enjoy there.

Come this morning, we braved the cold (not complaining!) and taped all of the samples up on the building. By the time we were done, it looked like this.

Yep-there was sure a lot of fun stuff that we have accumulated over the years!

It is always a blast reminicing about it and fun to see it go to a good home!

Next week we'll show our newest creations (we've got some fun stuff)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and that you'll be able to get out and enjoy this fabulous fall weather!

Until next time. . .

2011-09-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hoo-Hoo-Hoo is still out there with us in blog land?

After nearly a month we suspect we may hear the sound of crickets about right about now . . .

Although we could give a thousand excuses as to why it's taken so long

(sewing up new projects-sending out pattern orders--spending a week at the racetrack-vending a quilt show-designing new patterns-rearranging the shop--on so on and so forth)

we will share with you our happenings now

A couple weeks ago we both noticed this little walnut in the center of our welcome heart. Thinking it was one of the neighbor guys being clever we ignored it until they asked us why we would put one there? Hmm...I guess the squirrels wanted to leave a hello to us. At any rate that was our first glimpse, falling walnuts, that fall has, and is upon us :)

The berries on this tree had shown that at one point too--before the birds ate them all.

I was ecstatic that I finally got my Kodak moment with the tree before the birds did! I just love seeing this little guy with vibrant orange/red berries in the fall of the year.

The fall of the year also brings the end to the racing season. Lacey spent most of last week sitting out in Huron, SD for the Wissota 100. Her and the rest of the group had, for the most part, a wonderful time out there again as usual. And now that's she is back and focused, blogging and sewing new samples should be done at more regular intervals!!

While Lacey was sitting in the mud, Darci was sitting at the local quilt show in Willmar.

The above project was her little make-it, take-it project there and is something that has been bringing a lot of interest in the shop. If you are looking for a quick little fall hanging this is a perfect project for you!!

For those of you following the monthly wool Penny Around projects, this is the newest creation for it. Simply called Sunflowers, this was inspired by the abundance of these flowers in the road ditches at the end of our driveway and throughout the country side.

Northern Cardinal.

This is simply wonderful winter fabric and the quilt is quite rich in its own little way when you see it in person.

Both of us gals were brave one afternoon before the races & quilt show and spent the extra time mitering our corners. Darci on the Northern Cardinal above, and Lacey on one not shown here. It's amazing how sometimes that little extra time in the border detail can make that quilt. Between the two of us we decided that mitering corners wasn't bad, and what was even better than our approval of them was that of the Busy Binder's!!

Above is one of our newest creations called Spinning in Circles which was created by total accident. The fabulous fabrics used (Lacey's new favorite fabric designers) is Hometown by Sweetwater.

Speaking of Hometown fabrics by Sweetwater. . .

Our front window display devoted to Sweetwater fabrics.

The large quilt is called "Merge Ahead" by Gathering Friends. This is a large lap sized quilt, or as Lacey would like to think, one that would maybe fit part of her bed.
Spinning in Circles is off to the right and the bag on top of the quilt has become the new customer bag favorite! We are out of patterns so I can't share the name of it with you or who it's by (next post will have the details) but his bag is loaded with pockets, both inside and out and is perfect for a fun day out with friends shopping, or to carry your projects around in for the gatherings at your local quilt shop.

This is our newest wool felt sample just in time for Christmas by Bunny Hugs.
This elegant project would look wonderful adorning a classic holiday table.

And lastly. . .

This is a bright stepping WAY out of the Pastthyme box sample.
"Rooftop Garden" is its name.

Us gals spent a majority of the day laughing as this sample was being sewn.

(Just for the record--Lacey did not order this one on her own and we both though it would be a bit more. . .muted?) But at any rate Barney got finished and has been fun conversation piece and breath of fresh air.

Next weeks post shall be a bit more exciting as both of us gals and Phyllis head up to Bemidji for the Willow Wood Market's "Junk Market". We promise pictures of our road trip up there, and of the junk market as well as the new samples are currently working on.

Until next time, remember

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" ~Audrey Hepburn

We're Back. . .

2011-08-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

We're finally back in action!! Sadly, it's almost been a whole month since I've taken a moment to grab a camera and get you a re-cap of what we have been working on.

You'll have to hang in there with me on this one as the creative juices just don't quite seem to be flowing today. . .

We'll start by saying THANK YOU to all of the wonderful people who came into the shop during the state hop. It was quite a couple weeks and we enjoyed almost every minute of it!! We have found ourselves ever so slowly trying to get back into the loop of being able to create a mess for new sewing projects!!!
We showed our apron in the last post and were THRILLED by the number of names that accumulated on it. If anyone was curious-the farthest place listed was Japan and as the 50 states are concerned Alaska was the farthest out. It was always fun to find out where everyone was from and how they came about coming to travel our Minnesota shops.

Darci began her sewing by grabbing a jelly roll. This is the first project she's done using one of them and I believe she had fun putting this one together. The quilt itself has really generated a lot of interest in the shop, and once it's quilted I promise a better picture!!

Just in time for the holidays, this uses a jelly roll specific pattern by Sandy Gervais and her holiday fabric collection called "Reindeer Games"

I firstly want to apologize for the photo--believe me no matter how hard I try and retake the picture it uploads like this. . .and today I am going to let technology win.
However, I want to point out the intended object, being the quilt, out of Ruby by Bonnie & Camille and the wonderful Chenille-It bias strips.
If you are ever in need of a quick gift grab a charm pack (or two--we used 2 in this one) and sew them together, layer it with batting and backing and lay chenille-it strips over your seam lines. Sew in the ditch (or the center of the chenille strips) as best you can, bind, wash, dry & enjoy!
Really--it's that simple!!

Moving on to something a bit more involved is our Christmas Star.

This is taken out of the book "Make It Merry" by Whimsicals and used her holiday fabrics.

I have never done anything with 'y' seams so this was a challenge for me, and I am thrilled with how it turned out. Is is perfect? No. But I can say that I did it, have my hair, and even better yet a table topper for the holidays!!

Yes, after getting this together, I believe that if you have any desire to sew a pattern that has those darn "y" seams be brave and go for it! With a well written pattern, your determination, a bit of patience, I think that you too, can be as delighted as I was with how it worked!

Our Busy Binder was out of work during the state hop with our no sewing and all
so she resorted to doing some wonderful fall embroidery projects!!

This pattern above is a new one by This & That and is part of something that can be added into a quilt, found on her blog, or as we are planning to do, be simply framed.

Crabapple Hill.

I think the name pretty much says it all--she is so well known for fabulous stitchery!

"Autumn's Harvest Pumpkin" doesn't disappoint!!

Of course we had to do some looking for some "fun" new stuff and the UPS man earned some smiles with a couple fun deliveries this week!

Rooftop Garden.

Quite a different color selection for Shades of the Past but it's always fun to step out of the box and into something more modern and bright.

"Wool & Needle Flannels"

These. Are. Simply. Wonderful.

We have charm packs & layer cakes--what a wonderful duo for making a cozy quilt for the cool fall (or snowy winter) nights!!

And of course we saved the best (?) show and tell for last!

Yep--it came in, at least some of it anyways.

Little Gatherings by Primitive Gatherings.

These are--FABULOUS fabrics to add into a stash.

Such rich color choices with simple pattern designs to delight any quilter's stash!

Definitely a must see.

Yardage hasn't come in yet but we have charm packs and fat quarters to get your creative juices flowing!

Until next time, hope you all have been having a wonderful summer. With school starting in just a couple of weeks it's hard to believe just how quickly this summer has went by!

2011-08-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

It's been all too long since the busy beavers have been able to sit down and let you all in on all of the latest and greatest adventures we've had here in the shop.

Thankfully none of those adventures revolve around skunks and woodchucks like they did almost a whole month ago--but rather meeting and greeting lots of people on the hop!!

Believe Batiks graced our shop the week before the hop started.

We always step out of the box into batik land once a year around the holidays and have to say this was, once again, quite fun to work with. There is a fabulous focal scene (see block centers) with words and pictures, great snowflakes, and a gorgeous red. A true must see for those of you who like batiks or those who are eager to try working with some.

We also decided to quick sew up a couple things with Sandy Gervais' charm packs.

"Prairie Pinwheel" out of Late Bloomers hangs to the right

and

"Diamond Charm" out of Reindeer Games hangs to the left.

Collections for a Cause-Comfort has been a huge success during the hop.

This pattern- Simplicity- by This & That has been quite popular also.

We were also quite excited to work on some fall samples--especially some using wool!!

This is a very fun and unique pattern is by New Leaf Stitches and does use some great wools and has added dimension with the sunflowers and scalloped border!

~ To the hop~

We dug in our back room to find a sample from each of the five years that quilt Minnesota has been going. It's been really fun to hear feedback on how the fabric has changed and to hear the "favorites" that people have had through the years!

Upon trying to come up with a pattern for our bus Darci stumbled upon a really quick
creation that she's called Crossraods. If anyone is looking for a quick gift for the upcoming holiday season this is a great one!!

Another "Crossroads" sample done up as a variation and has added wool applique.

And our conversational piece.
We have always wanted to do an autograph quilt to have as a momento of the event but never seem to find the time to get quilt blocks assembled. Thankfully our sector seemed to have a cooking theme and an apron was quick to do.

We had high hopes of having a full apron by the end of the hop-and by the end of the first week found ourselves with an apron full of names. We have truly been blown away by the number of people who have traveled near and far to come visit us during the hop and will treasure the apron once the hop is over!

We have met SO many wonderful people whom we have been so grateful to meet and laugh with during their visit. We hope that we'll see many smiling face come back to see us soon!!

(Special thanks to "bubbles" "the 3 blind mice" and "pirate eye" we very much enjoyed our visit with you all and wished we could have cashed your car ride during the hop!! If you are reading this you'll know who you are--thanks for brightening our day!)

Until next time. . .

2011-07-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Busy Beavers.

(photo credit: link here)

That's what we've been here in the shop!!

Yesterday our colony (that's a group of beavers) gathered to help us in rolling logs for our expected guests during the state shop hop.

Our busy beaver crew gathered 18 different 12 inch "twigs"

laid each twig into one stack on the table (aligning the edges)

And rolled them all up in a neat little roll.

We found some left over "glue" and ripped sections to tie the twigs together

and then put our label on them so other busy beavers would know where they

gathered their log from.

At the end of our long hot day we had successfully rolled up three boxes full of logs!!

(If you want one of our logs make sure you hop to each of our 10 Southwest Sector shops during the Minnesota State Shop Hop that starts next Friday *July 29* and ends *Aug. 14* Upon your completion of our sector you will get a fabulous "log" (SW Wrap) containing (18) 1/3 yard cuts of Galaxy neutral fabrics.

If beavers aren't your thing maybe Woodchucks are.

We seem to have a nice crop of them this year at our shop.

As innocent looking as he may appear I think they are not.

However (if you are a die hard animal lover you may wish to skip to the skunk please note that this little animal escaped unharmed)

Like I said--we seem to have a crop of these woodchucks this year, and while the Geico commercial with woodchucks chucking the wood is funny, having them live under your deck is not.

A couple years ago our neighbor got one in a cage. Of course he happened to have a nice group of young on-lookers who stopped to chat with them that day and they enjoyed making memories of trying to bug the woodchuck in its cage that they still reminisce about today.

A couple weeks ago we laughed at the scene of this neighbor trying to"sneak" with a B.B gun up on a woodchuck who was just a wee bit quicker/smarter than our dear old hunter.

This scene continued on and off for a week or so. . .until

we saw one of the young on-lookers from a couple years ago running/pointing at the running woodchuck headed the quilt shop with the dear old pellet gun hunter right behind him.

And just when we thought the darn old woodchuck had met his maker he darted between the two hunters and under our quilt shop steps.

The two decided to stomp on the porch--hoping to scare him out.

This--did not work.

The two decided to spray break cleaner through the crack on the porch--hoping to scare him out.

This---did work--eventually. And with one bent over seeing if the woodchuck was coming out and the other with the break cleaner in his hand the woodchuck darted out from under the steps and ran to safety before either one of them could react fast enough to shoot it. . .

leaving us in our back room to sew in break cleaner fumes praying that someone would resist the urge to light a match.

If woodchucks and beavers aren't your thing maybes skunks are?

A few weeks ago Joe reluctantly took Lacey with on a skunk hunting episode where the were unsuccessful on finding its location. A few days ago the other hunter missed his opportunity on eliminating our skunk friend who enjoys hanging on on the driveway.

The same night as the missed attempt on the skunk Lacey was in the orchard picking up sticks when the two family dogs decided to see if this black and white cat wanted to be their friend. Against a desperate attempt to get them both to safety, Lacey hollered and while the older, wiser dog listened, curiosity got the best of little one and she learned the hard way just how terrible tasting skunk spray is and just how smelly you get with it on you.

After tearing apart the house, Lacey found the proper skunk removal ingredients:

1 qt. hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 c. baking soda, 2 tsp. liquid dish soap and warm water

and most importantly: RUBBER GLOVES and old clothes.

The little dog and Lacey successfully managed to remove most of the odor so she could spend the evening in the house. What a true friend.

We also celebrate the big white dogs birthday with pizza last night.

It is her favorite food of all time.

(See--we really do love animals!!)

Aside from rolling up logs, watching men chase woodchucks and washing skunk out from dogs we have made time this past week to play some intense games of scrabble.

Isn't it such a great feeling to have used up ALL of the tiles in the bag and have NONE on your boards?

(Don't look too carefully at our words above--we cheated the last game we played!)

We also finished up some projects that we had started.

The one above combines some applique and embroidery and makes a perfect

thing to frame and hang/stand or even would be a nice pillow.

Penguins!

We fell in love with this little candle mat at the Quilt Show in Mpls.

It's hard to find a cute mat with these fun little birds and seems to be a customer favorite this month!!

This pattern is by Willow Wood Market out of Bemidji, MN and we have both patterns and kits ready to go.

We also have a new sample done out of some of those charm packs that you saw in our last post. The charm pack used above is from the newest Moda designers Cosmo Cricket called

Circa 1934. Kind of a different retro feel in color with some funky design that was fun to work with!

The most popular sample that Darci has sewn up seems to be her design of
Paton's Crossing
featuring fun fall fabric with a great center pieced section.
This is a quick quilt, table topper, wall-hanging to sew up especially if you have a great border fabric to show off!!

She also sewed up another "Pinwheel Twist" out of Jovial (BasicGrey for Moda) holiday fabrics. It has been so much fun to see how much this pattern changes with various charm pack collections!!

This is one of our Quilt MN samples featuring the large focal piece of fabric and what seems to be the most favorite piece people talk about: green pine cone fabrics.

Simple cross quilting designs make this a quick quilt to piece & quilt.

The second quilt for Quilt MN.

This features the block pattern we intend to give to all hoppers, various photo scenes from the focal fabrics and both of the border stripes. This is a great lap size quilt!!

And of course we have a nice pile of works in progress and "yet to do" list before the hop begins in just a little over a week.

We hope that you all have been enjoying the summer sunshine that we seem to be having a nice amount of and that you have had a moment or two to sneak in some sewing!

Until next time. . .

Back in action. . .

2011-07-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings to you all on this beautiful July day!!

It sure has been a long time since we've sat down to share our shop happenings with you all as we've been preparing for the upcoming state shop hop.

We sure hope that you all had a safe and wonderful 4th of July.

It was nice to finally have such a beautiful day that wasn't super hot & humid. . .
. . .unfortunately the days leading up to the 4th proved to be a bit ugly for many area people.

We felt incredibly blessed to not have any damage done to our home other than being without power for a day or two. Isn't it amazing how much we rely on that power source?! None of us could believe how absolutely quiet a house can be with nothing running, and just how pitch black a house can get! So while the lights were out we decided to head on out, or rather over to our neighbors to the east--Wisconsin--for a racing road trip!

It was a beautiful day for a road trip. We loved the area leading up to Taylors Falls. The lakes were so pretty and peaceful!! And coming into Taylors Falls right along the river is always a great sight to see.

Once we crossed into Wisconsin we began looking for antique shops along our path.
Of course the window photographer didn't remember to continue to take pictures of our destinations much beyond this point. . . however you can find one of Darci's "treasures" in a photo a little ways down!

(photo credit: Rice Lake Speedway)

After two fun antiquing stops, and a quick stop along the side of a gravel road for some "Wisconsin Birch" we arrived at our destination- Rice Lake Speedway- to make a parts delivery.

And thanks to the Manley family we had primo seats in a private box above the track! It was an awesome place to cheer the guys on from and we didn't even get dusty! We were also treated to one of the best fireworks shows we've seen!! Dave and his crew certainly did not disappoint--it was the perfect way to end our visit to the track.

Of course back at home, we began unpackaging some new arrivals!

We hit up Moda's sample spree to bring you all fabric early!! We have pre-cuts of great new Moda arrivals that will finish arriving into the shop this fall

We have charm packs of

Collections for a Cause~Comfort by Howard Marcus ($9.50/charm pack)

Circa 1934 by Cosmo Cricket (new designer) ($9.50/charm pack)

Late Bloomers by Sandy Gervais ($9.50/charm pack)

Cattails & Clover by Kansas Troubles ($9.50/charm pack)

and. . .

Ruby by Bonnie & Camille ($9.50/charm pack)

We've also got some fat quarter bundles of the above lines as well!! We can't wait to get sewing some new projects up from these great fall lines.

In the mix of all of this we've been re-doing the shop for the state hop.

Once our sector decided upon doing a cooking-type theme Darci decided to run with it and began looking for an old cook stove to use in her display piece. A guy from a near-by town had offered her this stove back when she first opened, and would gladly let her use it over the course of the hop.

Unfortunately we don't have a good picture of what this looked like before it was brought into the shop, but I can tell you that it was quite rusty on both sides, and on the top. After a little T.L.C yesterday Handyman Owen got it looking like brand new.
Well maybe not brand new--but as cosmetically close to it as he could get.

It will grace your presence upon your arrival into the shop and will continue to be surrounded by our Southwest Section cookbook recipe quilts. It is also graced by one of our "Wisconsin treasures" that now sets upon the shelf. (Look for the bright orange creamer & sugar)

Many of our sector patterns have been sewn, quilted & bound.

You'll be able to purchase your copy of the cookbook (containing 10 quilt recipes & many, many delicious recipes to use in your kitchen) on July 29.

And what would cooking be without aprons?

Although neither of us gals use them in our kitchens we sure do enjoy sewing them.

We have a nice collection of assorted aprons that we'll throw on during the hop.

Remember the cute "My Little Apron" from our previous post?

Well--this is Darci's hop apron, using the same pattern, just minus the top.

It happens to be the favorite in the big bunch sewn up last week!

And the state fabric. We finally have the majority of our fabric bolts in the shop.

The fabrics are by James Meager this year and will sell for $9.99 a yard.

Remember that you can purchase your fabrics ahead of time but they can't leave the quilt shop buildings until July 29.

See the blue box? Yep--it's another fun find on our road trip stop!!

AND the birch trees!! That is am quite proud to have home with me. I plan to add a nice big log that the handyman so kindly hack-sawed to fit in the pickup box!

This quilt was inspired by earlier events this year--specifically floor tiles from Abbott hospital in the cities. It is very fitting of my family who are all avid outdoors men!!

And lastly, Phyllis got our newest wool sample sewn up!

This is a beautiful pattern by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings featuring

lovely baskets of pretty flowers.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Until next time,

Happy Quilting :)

2011-07-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

(Click here to view photo source)

Happy 4th of July!!!!

We want to inform all of you that the shop will be closed:

Saturday July 2 - Monday July 4

Check back next week for a much overdue post containing all of the newest fabric arrivals that have come into the shop, as well as Quilt MN samples, cookbook recipe patterns, and much, much more!! We hope that you all have a very fun and safe holiday!

Back in action

2011-06-15T13:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've shared anything that we've been doing.

It's been a couple weeks of not feeling like we've accomplished a whole lot, but deep down we really have made more progress than either one of us give ourselves credit for.

Last week we spent a short weekend in the city to hit up the spring market wrap up meeting. We were both excited to see the latest and greatest patterns, notions, and fabrics that were shown in Salt Lake City. But of course we have to make the most of our trip into the city aside from doing the market thing.

Darci's best friend from high school met up with us to have supper. It's always fun catching up with friends! After chatting with her over supper we decided to go see a movie and if you couldn't tell we went and saw Bridesmaids. Neither one of us are "go to the movies" gals so this was a fun treat. The three of us laughed from the start of this movie to the finish. We ended our evening by walking around this cute little pond near the movie theatre which was quite relaxing.

And then it was to market. . .

On of our favorite finds was this apron pattern by Whimsicals called

My Little Apron

It is a super cute reversible apron that can really be jazzed up with some large and small rick-rack and even some crystals if you have fabric that allows you to do so. The fabrics that we used are "Jovial" by BasicGrey. This apron would make a lovely gift for the holidays!!

We were also able to find some fun Halloween/fall fabric that we could take home with us. It's always hard to get snowmen in July and pumpkins in September. Something just doesn't quite fit in that picture to us. . .

For those of you who are up on the fabric trends and fabric lines that will become available to you this fall you may want to check with us come mid-July as we'll be getting in some of those fabrics early! We are very excited about this as there is really some fun new stuff!!!

Speaking of fun new stuff. The UPS man got a laugh compliments of us a couple weeks ago when he dropped off a box of Quilt MN fabrics. We had the first box opened and partially unloaded before he got the second box off the truck! We were excited to finally have our first shipment of those exclusive fabrics in to start to play with--beings the shop hop starts in just a little over a month and all. We have been busy brainstorming ideas and even have one sample sew up (which will remain a surprise to the blogging world until its quilted).

We also had a fun evening last week with our Woolie Wednesday group. It's always such an enjoyable day/evening with those gals and this month again didn't disappoint.

One of the projects that they had the option to work on was the runner above. The pattern is a tulip basket by Primitive Gatherings.

This little quilt has been a big topic of conversation!

I've decided to name this baby something on the order of "Just go with It" or "It is what it is" as this was just one of those quilts where what could go wrong would go wrong but if you just went with it, eventually it would somehow miraculously turn out to be quite cute!

This has also been a conversation piece for many people. "Pure Happiness" by Sweetwater is a very fun, very quick pattern to sew up and get quilted and is really "finished" once the dimensional flowers are added.

We also found a fun new table runner book called

"My Runners" by Disa Designs.

We are so excited to make up a bunch of the runners from the book, but started with this "simple" quilt-as-you-go one. Here's to hoping that my next selection will be chosen on a day where things sew right!

And finally, Darci has been busy creating a church banner for a local church that is celebrating 125 year anniversary. This is just an absolutely beautiful quilt in person and we cannot wait for the gal to come in a pick it up.

Hope life is treating you all well and that the rain didn't float you all away!

Until more progress in made. . .

2011-05-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings on this fabulous Friday ~a kickoff to a long holiday weekend.

This week we've had a very fun and productive week here in the shop,

and thanks to our Busy Binder have some fun (or at least we think so!) projects to show!!

Notice the bright yellow flowers on the machine?

Gerber Daisies are one of Lacey's favorite flowers. We both looked to their cheery-ness on this chilly and drippy day today. But what I really wanted to point out was. . .

. . .the twins!! We have 2 flowers that sprouted from one stem!

Last week we showed our sample out of Jovial and today we got some yardage.
So here are some of our coordinates (so new we haven't gotten them un-packed yet!)

Now-- on to our new show and tell samples!!

A while ago (back in late March when snow was falling) we showed this quilt.
After much thought into its quilting process Darci picked a home-run idea.
She utilized those stitches that many of us may have on our machines and used them to fill in the large cream areas on the quilt~giving it a drastic change in appearance~one that we LOVE!!

There has been a lot of interest in this as people have seen it being quilted.

If you have fun decorative stitches on your machine this quilt is a great one to play around on using those stitches!! Just get your bobbin's ready as it doesn't take long before you are out and anxious to start in again!

While Darci filled bobbins, Lacey battled the Bernina.

This quilt pattern is found in the Quiltmania magazine and is called Kites.

The fabrics used were Lilac Hill by Moda's Brannock & Patek.

Also-fresh off the machine is this super quick (and cute) table topper by This & That patterns.

If you are in need of a quick gift this is a great one to add to the list as it can easily be done in a short afternoon.

Now. . .if only next week will be as productive as this week. Our "to-do" stack will grow a bit smaller and our show and tell stack a little bigger!! Next week you can look forward to some "SW Recipes" show and tell, kids quilts, and dimensional pinked flowers. . .

We want to wish you all a safe and fun Memorial Day holiday and that we all take a moment to stop and remember all of those brave men and women who have given their lives so we can enjoy doing what we choose to do each and every day.

And also to take a moment to appreciate the things that we have around us. As rain continues to stream down our windows and interrupt our plans we are thankful that all it is-is rain.

2011-05-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

Last night we had the privilege of attending the annual spring band concert.

It's always fun to hear the music that the kids have all worked so hard to learn

during the second half of the school year.

Joe put in some extra hours with a handful of other students in the Jr. High Jazz Band.

This group of kids woke up extra, extra early one day each week to practice their

songs before school would start in the morning. Such dedication from them sure paid

off as they sounded wonderful :)

We've also found a bit of time to sneak in some new projects!!

"Flair" panels make a wonderful center square for a table topper.

This topper has been such a popular pattern here in the shop and is a quick one to sew up. The pattern is called "Dynamic Duo~ Soprano" by New Leaf Stitches and the fabrics used are "Flair" by Gudrun Erla of Red Rooster Fabrics.

Now that the weather has shaped up a bit outside it's a bit fun to take some outdoor shots.

About a month ago we showed you a sneak-peak of this un-quilted "Madeline" quilt and it's finally done and ready to show! The pattern is a Schnibbles by Miss. Rosie called Madeline and the fabrics used are by Moda's 3 Sisters called "Grace"

And last, but certainly not least is "Charlotte" which was previewed in last weeks post.

This has been a well received and quite fun table topper out of the new Jovial fabrics by BasicGrey (yes--it is winter fabric) The pattern, also quite fun to sew, is out of a fabulous book by Me & My Sister Designs called 3 Times a Charm. Both the book and sample are "must-see" item the next time you stop into the shop!!

Hope you all have had a chance to get out and enjoy the wonderful weather this week!
We have most certainly enjoyed the chance to do some much needed yard work, and give some attention to our flower beds and boxes!

~ALSO~

Make sure next Monday that you check our our SW Sector Blog as we are the featured shop! http://quiltmn-southwest.blogspot.com

Each of the ten southwest shops will be featured for one week on the blog-giving you all a chance to get to know each of us a little bit better!! We'll also feature the projects that each of us shops have designed to put into our Southwest Cookbook--which you will be able to purchase during the shop hop. (July 29 - August 14)

Little Bits

2011-05-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

Sure doesn't seem like spring has made its final arrival quite yet but we'll start with little bits of that.

It's been a busy couple of weeks here in the shop--so busy that I didn't seem to get my posts in!

But with the new arrivals of fabrics and patterns, and new samples sewn up we seem to have found
a nice collection of things that reminded us of a little bit of spring, a little bit of summer and a little bit of winter

~A Little Bit of Spring/Summer~

Just last weekend we celebrated Mother's Day and hope that all of you moms had a fantastic day being pampered for the hard work you put into keeping your families going!

Of course we couldn't have spring without having Prom.

Remember those days??

Spending yesterday chatting a bit with our moms and grandmas we enjoyed hearing and talking about how much prom dresses have changed over the years. It's always fun (and sometimes quite embarrassing) to look back at yourself in time. . .

We were fortunate to have a beautiful evening here in town for the annual walk through Lion's Park as it has been a few years since the weather has fully cooperated without gale winds, rain, or bitter cold.

As much fun as it always is to see everyone all dressed up in their tuxes, pretty dresses with the fun flowers, and sporty cars we were sure glad that we were headed home in our jeans, t-shirts and flip flops. . .

With a brief break from the rain the 3 racing junkies (Darci excluded) headed north to watch their friends go fast and turn left around the track in Alexandria. All 3 thoroughly enjoyed getting the season underway and look forward to more nights to come. . .

. . .meanwhile Darci has stayed busy tapping into the surge of creativity she has found in planning her new monthly wool series here in the shop.

Spring time always gives way to lots of fresh blooming flowers-one of those flowers being Lilacs. We sure can't wait for those lovely colored, fragrant flowers to start showing themselves by the shop soon!!

The second of the monthly patterns for this Wednesday meeting is the watering can bouquet.

For those interested--the wool group meets this Wednesday (May 11) at 1:30pm & 5:30pm

~New Arrivals~

These two new items are wonderful additions to any sewing collection.

They work wonderful for traveling to retreats or to class and are loaded with pockets to help keep all of your notions separated. The pattern is Pockets to Go by Atkinson Design and pattern contains both sized bags.

We used the Tangled in Threads fabrics by Whimsicals.

~A Little Bit of Winter?~

This word Winter isn't really a popular word to use around here after the one we are trying to finish up with. But none the less that is part of the new arrivals in fabric. Not just winter. . . but Christmas.

Yes--scary word when we don't have flowers and fields planted but it's good to plan ahead!!

Jovial charm packs are one of our newest arrivals in the shop by BasicGrey from Moda.

These at the moment are Lacey's favorite holiday arrival due to the non-traditional blacks, bright greens, turquoise blues, fun reds and white whites. It's fun to play with different colors!!

This is the start of our "Charlotte" sample using those Jovial fabrics. Very fun table topper that uses up most of the charm pack. Should be fun to see the final results!!

For those of you not into the trendy holiday fabrics this is simply fab fabric by Holly Taylor!

Wonderful greens, reds and creams. Great cardinal panel will arrive late this summer and is something that you won't want to miss out on!!

~A Little Bit of Shown 'n Tell~

Our Prairie Women's Group has been keeping themselves quite busy working on finishing up their first journey and jumping right into Journey 2. It is always such an interesting meeting session learning about the past and seeing the beautiful show and tells that they all bring in with them. We sure hope that you all enjoy their hard work they have put into the projects as much as we do!!

Beautiful baskets by Betty.

We love the skinny red border she added the quilt top!

Betty's yo-yo mat.

Sharon and her basket quilt.

Sharon and her yo-yo mat. We love the shape she chose to use!!

Sharon's "Spools" version of the Bow-Tie quilt from Journey #1.

It's always fun to see everyone's perspectives on patterns and how they all use their creativity!

Phyllis and her basket quilt.

We love the 2-color basket combo that she used on the quilt!!

And last but not least Susan and her basket quilt.
Using 30s fabric sure gave it a different twist doesn't it?

Until next time. . .

2011-04-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

The good old alarm clock rang this morning at 3:45 a.m. to wake me up for something that I had not initially intended on watching.

As many of you know today was day that William & Kate celebrated their love

for the whole world to see. . .

Both of us gals decided that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for

the both of us to spend our morning watching a little piece of history.

And although the press may get a bit carried away with their constant spotlight on the couple it was nice to see something more positive and exciting in the news for a change of pace!

Many people remember the day that Princess Dianna had what seemed to be the fairy tale wedding to her Prince Charles. She was a person whom captivated millions of people.

It has been fun hearing people this week chat about getting up to watch her wedding.

For us here in the states this seems to be such a fascinating experience to watch.

It seems as if the whole world feels a connection to the two young men that Dianna & Charles had which seemed to have made this particular royal wedding something special.

It was a very touching thing to watch in its own special way and although I could spend more time rambling on about how intrigued I was at many things I saw, I'll spare you the details.

However, both of us gals seemed to have noticed one particular fashion trend:

Hats.

It seemed as if every lady had a hat on.

Plain hats.

Flowered hats.

Feathered hats.

Hats of all shapes.

Hats of all sizes.

Hats of all colors.

You get the idea. . .

And if a lady didn't have a hat--there was some sort of feather/flowered piece in her hair.

Can you imagine trying to get a good clear view in such a vast sea of hats?

As nice as many of them looked on the women who wore them, I hope this isn't a trend that will catch on too quickly here. I can't say as I can picture many of your regulars walking into the shop with a donned fancy feathered hat--although some of you would probably pull them off quite well. . .

But no matter what fashion trends may come from this (which will be fun to see) both of us gals and those who got up early to watch it as well will always remember the day they got up to see the wedding the whole world watched.

2011-04-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to this week's edition of the Pastthyme Blog post.

We certainly hope that you all had a wonderful and safe Easter with your families & friends.

It was sure a nice surprise to have a nice sunny day to be outside

we all certainly enjoyed watching our 5 year old relative run around the yard collecting the remaining Easter eggs that our 2 year old black lab decided not to pick up.

(I guess the dog didn't get the memo that she wasn't an Easter rabbit. . . and I'm sure she'd tell you she was simply just trying to help!!)

Today we too have been blessed with a beautiful sunny day. Man oh man do I sure hope they are here to stay! After our here today gone tomorrow sun on the weekend I think we all felt a little blue that the rain, wind and snow came back to visit. . .

but just when you get to feeling disgusted about all of it--pictures of this (below) show themselves on the news or when you get into the Internet and things snap right back into perspective.

We have sure been thinking about the beautiful country side we traveled through on our way to Florida just two months ago and the sad and drastic changes it has saw this past week.

It sure makes a person appreciate going home tonight to a house that is (hopefully) still standing and being able to turn the power on our T.V sets, ovens/stoves, light fixtures and maybe even that source of heat. . .

But--on a more bright, positive note--

Ah yes, Quilt Sampler has arrived!!

As usual, there are lots of neat featured shop (including Gathering Friends in Bird Island) in this issue as well as pictures of many shop samples ranging from brights to darks, and traditional to contemporary piecing. . .

As both of us gals sat and looked through our magazine last night we began to chit chat about how many Minnesota quilt shops have been featured in this magazine--all of which really aren't too terribly far away from the comforts of our home!! Kind of neat :)

We've been busy piecing together some new quilt samples to put up on our newly re-arranged shop walls. This little guy (who will probably end up in a picture frame) is out of the Nine-Patch Gatherings by Primitive Gathering's Lisa Bongean. This book features a nifty method for piecing your 9-patch blocks together. Many of her patterns in this book are miniatures; however there are a few larger options available for you.

The Mini Bow Tucks Bag.

After a very nice visit with a dear friend I know have a hard time saying

"BOW TUCKS" and not "BOTOX"

Anyways--this is a super fun bag to make that is absolutely loaded with pockets on the inside of the bag. I just love it and can't wait to take it out for a day of shop hoppin'.

This bag is out of a new book that arrived in the shop called Baby, It's You! by Amy Hamberlin featuring 10 Quilts & Bags. The bag above "Katie's Favorite Bag" can be used as a diaper bag (like the pattern intended) a beach bag, or simply larger hand bag. It too has lots of pockets in the inside, as well as the outside.

And last, but most certainly not least is our projects out of "Grace" by Moda's 3 Sisters.

I have decided to make you wait a post or two for the finished table topper/wall hanging. (For those of you who don't like surprises you can search for "Madeline" by Carrie Nelson--this is a Schnibbles pattern) and try to imagine what our finished sample will look like. Things always change soo much when they get quilted and this particular project will look much prettier all complete. . .

BUT, with my left over charm squares I made one of the five "Tuffets" on the Tuffets pattern (again a Schnibbles by Miss. Rosie) by Carrie Nelson. (see the pin cushion upper right) I hope to have more tuffets to stick pins into by the next post with our finished Madeline.

Until next time. . .

That kind of day. . .

2011-04-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

Ever had one of them days?

Let me give a little background info

Today we spun our wheels, trying oh so very hard to get them going

which isn't an easy task with all of the rain, snow, sleet ball & mud we've had this week. . .

Getting ready for Easter can be a bit stressful, especially when everyone

is coming to your house. So often times a nice glass of wine and the end of one of them days is refreshing...however my day continued into my wine opening process.

Please learn from my mistake if you decide to serve wine for your Easter Sunday guests.

Carefully check the top of your wine bottle.

This can be tricky as most wines have cork stoppers

--not the screw tops--

but either way the foil at the top can be deceiving. . .as I inserted my cork screw in top "cork" I noticed a whooshing sound of air--note this means your wine does NOT have a cork and you have just put a hole in the safety seal of your screw on top.

After much laughter between us gals--we were finally able to enjoy our

glass of wine and eat some of the most delicious cookies. . .

Before I share my cookie recipe I do want to let you all know that

we received information in regards to an event we think would be a lot of fun

to attend. It is called Quilts & Wines and is a quilt show/wine tasting event in Kimball.

For all of the information please click here

"The Best!!" Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup- butter, softened

2/3 cup- brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 c. old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1- 6oz. pkg. Craisins

2/3 c. white chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 375. Using a mixer beat butter and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and cool on a wire rack.

Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies

2011-04-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

This week seems like it has just flown by. . .and although we really did feel like we had a good week of accomplishments in the shop it doesn't really seem like we have a lot to show for!

But. . .what new we did get done we are excited about and can't wait to show you...

The "Busy Binder" and Lacey ended up doing a double-team on this beautiful quilt top.

The pattern, "Here, There & Everywhere" by Prairie Sky Quilting, gave us many options to use for the quilt top. Simply choose 3 fabrics (we may have, as usual, changed that to four) and one of the three block patterns given to use for your quilt top.

The quilt above is a nice lap size, although the pattern gives directions to go from a crib to king.

I believe a couple posts ago we showed these wonderful blue & yellow fabrics.

Now we have our sample using them.

This is a very different color scheme for us but love the way it turned out.

The pattern is called "Just Can't Cut It" by All Washed Up and is a super, super pattern to use a nice focal print for, and creates a quilt that can easily be sewn up in a day.

Wouldn't this photo have looked absolutely lovely on a lush green lawn?

Dreaming that spring (and dry conditions) will be here soon!!

Darci is back at it again with her wool creations and is very excited about here newest stuff.

The above project is the start of a monthly collection designed by her.

The background (with the pennies on it) will always be your background giving you the option to change out the rug center (daffodils) each month.

It's been a long time since she's been quite this excited about one of her projects

and we are anxious to see where this road leads her!

(If anyone happens to be interested in this. Kits for the background are $25. The background pieces are cut to size & all of your pennies have been pre-cut in the shop so all you have to do is simply grab some thread and start stitchin'!!! Each months mat will vary in price)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With the Easter holiday shortly upon us we want to wish you all very safe travels to and from your destinations and wonderful times with your family and friends.

Blessings to all of you!

Something New

2011-04-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

Ever wish you could get those quilt projects done in a jiffy?

Well blogging friends, we have discovered the art of staple sewing!!

If only it would work out that way!!!

We most certainly had a laugh when we returned from lunch to see this though! Funny how the quilt top and border piece just landed like it did in front of the stapler. . .

That staple project turned out to be our first project in

Prairie Women's Sewing Circle Journey number two.

While Darci stapled away, Lacey battled the sewing machine into making Pinwheel Twist out of the new Strawberry Fields fabric by Fig Tree. This is just one of the those refreshing fabrics that truly fits the season we are in now (that being spring) If you haven't got your pattern yet you can still find it on the bakeshop here

Having taken some time off from stitching in the evenings we've done a little reading . . . Darci set aside the book below and picked up The Art of Racing in the Rain which she absolutely breezed through and loved and would certainly recommend for anybody who is looking for a good book. If you are a dog lover (or even not) this is a fantastic read!! The Help. This is a book that both us gals picked up to read. Darci is still in the process of reading it and Lacey finished it. Lacey would say this is one of the best reads she's had in a long time. We are looking forward to the movie due out hopefully this year. . .should be interesting!! Fiesta Flair. I'm only showing part of the quilt because this is a bigger lap, or small bed quilt. This was a very different quilt using panels. Very fun-- fun colors, fun blocks. Both the pattern and the fabrics are by Gudrun Erla of G.E Designs. This quilt uses some background yardage, a jelly roll & the strip tube ruler, which was a fun new method to try for a change of pace. I chose to create the "Radiating Out" pattern shown above. If you cut your strips careful, you'll end up with some extra blocks that can be made into another project (like my runner above) or added onto the quilt to make it bigger. Sentiments. New baby fabric (panel and coordinating yardage) This is a free pattern on the Andover website.

This is just a fun, fun project for spring.

It's also a free pattern on Modabake Shop. Find it here

Great way to use a pre-cut!

And if you follow the pattern it can be a runner & placemats-kind of neat!

Also in-we've gotten in some fun new fabric.

Blues & Yellows by Sentimental Studios.

Gorgeous colors--a truly must see!!

Well. . .we must rush off and select a project to start to quilt on.

If only we could just staple the layers together!

March Madness

2011-03-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

We were thrilled to have spent most of the past week in the cities following

the MACCRAY Wolverine basketball team as they played in the state tourney and watched them as they placed 3rd in Class A!!! Congrats to them :)

We started the madness on Thursday as we burned up the wash boarded snowy road at a speedy 35-40 miles an hour. This can make for a long trip as not only does it seem like it takes forever but you have no clue where cars you meet will be without any line guides. . .

========

Thankfully we allowed extra time for both travel and parking. For anyone who has taken in games at The Barn (Williams Arena on the U of M campus) you know that parking can be a bit tricky. Having thought 40 minutes would be ample time to park we found out it wasn't. But thankfully we snuck into a ramp and arrived right as player intros were given. For the first time the team made it out of round #1!!

========

Day #2 brought us to the Target Center. This is a much, much easier place to park and leave from which was quite nice. This is a fun place to take in games, although the atmosphere was very much different from the day before. The boys played a team that is a mere 35 or so miles from home. . .funny how that works, and unfortunately lost. It was fun to see such a great attendance from the community, and of course those who couldn't see in person could watch on T.V.

========

Day #3 brought us to the final game of the season. We watched the consolation game at Concordia University where they boys played an excellent game and finished 3rd to bring home the hardware, which was fun to see them do. We had a great time watching that game as the team played Chisholm. Darci watched the coach of that team coach his teams in state tourney while she was growing up. It was fun for her to see him up close and in person!

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Now. . .MARCH MADNESS. . .Shades of the Past Style

Thursday March 31 from 10am - 5pm

we are having our March Madness Sales Event.

$25.00 fat quarter bundles (bundle contains 25 fat quarters)

Bundles are pre-bundled and are bundled in various color styles

While supplies last

25% off select kits

25% off printed fabrics (1 yard minimum cuts from same bolt)

25% off clearance fabrics (3 yard minimum from same bolt)

25% off select books & patterns

Stars

2011-03-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

Are you a righty or a lefty?

Silly question. . .right?

I'm not talking about whether or not you favor your right hand or left hand but rather if you are a right brained person-or a left brained person.

Still silly--yes--I know.

Last week we had a very interesting conversation with a gal who had taken this test to find out a bit more about herself and why she thinks the ways she does. So last weekend both of us gals decided to take a test--it's always nice to know why you do what you do and to learn that even though the people around you think you are abnormal (and are too nice to say it) you really aren't!

If you have never taken such a thing, take a couple minutes and click here and you too shall be able to answer the question and learn a bit more about you.

Turns out Darci is a total right brain. She of course already knew this would be the result before the results were formulated. She is a very dominant righty and her creativity proves this!!

Lacey on the other hand was equal with a very slight left brain dominance. Might explain why she would much rather grab a pattern someone else wrote instead of writing up her own.

So in the end we have decided that when we cannot see eye to eye we'll blame it on our brains.

Now, whether you are a righty or lefty we can all agree that when we woke up today the season that was suppose to have started on Sunday (for those of you scratching your head that answer should have been spring) decided to run away and hide.

What a slap in the face as just a couple days ago when we had lovely water puddles showing that the power of the sun could melt that snow away and we could see the promise of green grass. Some of us were actually alright with the idea of mowing lawn. But in the span of a few hours we instead gave up the mower, dawned our long underwear, wool coat, mittens, caps, boots and got that darn old shovel to scoop what seems like the heaviest snow of the season.

Although I shouldn't complain I must say the timing of this could not seem any worse.

As I sit here typing this the sirens are going off. Typically this is never a good thing as it means that either you are going to be getting a ticket (especially if the officer has to leave his car on a day like today) or you are in an ambulance . . . but not today.

Today--the fire trucks are escorting a groups of stars out of town as they represent three very proud towns in the boys state basketball tournament.

Luck was sure on their side was week as they punched their tickets to the state tourney, something that has not been done since 1996!!

We cannot wait to head down tomorrow morning to cheer them on- and no matter what happens that first game they will all still be stars to the town followers!

The other day while I was "wasting some time" (which never happens when you log on the Internet!!) I found the Just One Star project that Moda is working on. They hope to make 100 quilts in 100 days and will send them off to the Semper Fi Fund. They are asking that you create a block, shown above, and send to them. It just seems like such a wonderful cause to support and would be a great way to use up some of that blue and red stash at home. To read more about the project, and print the block directions and place to mail your block please click here (please note that you may have to look at their older posts to find the info!)

It's been a while since we've made a penny rug with tongues but it has been a nice change of pace. This is something our wool group is hoping to start on and will be a monthly series that can be either a wall hanging, like shown above, a block (to form a large size hanging, or that can be framed) or a tea towel. We are just hoping that we will see these flowers soon!

Both of us gals have been busy working on fun new projects. Darci is using the new "Flair" fabrics by G.E Designs and almost has hers finished!! Make sure you stop back to check out the finished results--this has been a quilt that's gathered lots of interest in the shop!

Lacey has been working a quilt with the Antique Fair jelly rolls and strip tube ruler. This has been a quick and fun technique that has started to make a beautiful quilt. Again--you'll have to stop back and find the finished result next week!!

==============

Here's to warm spring thoughts and hoping that the next time you come to visit you won't need to bring your yellow rubber boat!

2011-03-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

LUCK

a.) A force that brings good fortune or adversity

b.) Events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual

Why the info on Luck you may ask. . .

well St. Patty's Day of course!!

However, if you don't really celebrate the holiday like us- you may be in luck to see that we have some new fabric arrivals!! We decided to do a Sample Spree order of the stuff that will be shipping to stores this summer (doesn't that word sound wonderful?!) Sad to say this is all winter fabric...thankfully none of it has those darn snowflakes pasted on it!!

If you are looking for some fresh fabrics you're in luck as Strawberry Fields by Fig Tree has come into the shop. Her color palate is always so wonderful and put together and always seem to coordinate well with all of her other fabrics! (No yardage--only charm packs)

If you are looking for more along the lines of traditional red & green holiday colors this may be a good color choice for you- and of course it has the deeply fabulous 3 Sister's browns as well as bone colored fabrics. Grace brings the fabric designers usual floral design with some funky coordinating prints & stripes. (Again--no yardage just charm packs)

Kansas Troubles...the name says it all. Warm Memories gives you rich reds- browns, golds & tans to work with as the seasons start to change. Cute and subtle designs lend themselves to be wonderful blender pieces to work with almost any project! (Layer cakes & Jelly rolls are in now...rest of the stuff to arrive this summer)

Our goat kart is loaded with something quite different. Flair by Gudrun Erla (G.E. Designs)

We have a very fun pattern that she's designed that uses the whole collection (which we have) and makes interesting use of the panel fabric. Now--we just need to have a little luck finding some spare time to work with this fun new pattern!!!

On the topic of Luck. . .I promise I'll quit soon...

We are very lucky to celebrate a special birthday tomorrow- -DARCI--the Irish baby will celebrate her birthday tomorrow on St. Patty's day. Her plans don't involve going out on the town & drinking green wine but rather heading out of town early to cheer on the MACCRAY boys basketball team as they play their final game at SMSU in Marshall for a chance to stamp their ticket to the state tourney next week.

Due to the time of the game (5:00pm) we will be closing at 3:00 p.m. so we can travel out of town and support the team. We apologize for any troubles this may cause. We'll be back to regular times on Thursday.

March madness---gotta love it!

Laughing with flowers

2011-03-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

~The Earth Laughs in Flowers"

E. E Cummings

After a day of using up some of our accumulating wool felt scrap we looked outside to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers that had sprung up from our snowbank by the door.

Lilac Hill by Brannock & Patek of Moda.

These are beautiful fabrics that we are itching to get working with!

The 5-yard Quilt. . .again.

We've had so much fun using this pattern as it's great for any types of fabric. The fabrics we used in the one above were Fresh Flowers by Deb Strain. If you need a great quilt to cheer you or a friend up (and are maybe limited with time) this is a wonderful & cheery lap quilt.

For those of you who may do a bit of spring cleaning, and happen to clean the sewing area this may be for you. I know here in the shop we quite often have a piece of batting that is much too big for our project but use it, cut away the excess and put it aside for later. The only problem is that excess you saved never seems to be quite the right size and it's hard sometimes to use them up. Both of us gals have given the Heat Press Batting adhesive a try and would both say that it is something worth trying.

It was really quite quick to do-neither of us had the iron gum up-and neither of us seemed to be able to feel where that seam line was at. Both of us agree it's quicker than sewing and you have a better chance at not feeling that joining line. . .

And just in time for our next Woolie Wednesday meeting is the newest addition to

PastThyme Patterns called: Here a Chick, There a Chick.

Last weekend we spent some couch time working on some of the above projects and some that we have yet to finish. For the first time in a LONG time we actually rented 4 movies that were all good ones. Typically we don't recommend many movies but the series above were good.

Due Date-we spent time laughing with the men in the family

Life as We Know It- all around one of the best movies we've seen in a while.

Secretariat- inspirational true story! great from the moment it started!!

Conviction- can make you think a bit--based on true events

So, until our snow melts and spring flowers start to show through,

grab some wool felt scraps and start to help the earth laugh. . .with flowers.

Moda Bake Shop: Pinwheel Twist

2011-03-07T06:39:00.000-08:00

We are thrilled to have our first published pattern on

Moda BakeShop!!

To view our tutorial on how to make this "Pinwheel Twist"

please click here

Live from Florida. . .

2011-02-28T09:31:00.000-08:00

A week ago we were soaking up some sun in wonderful Daytona Beach Florida

on our favorite family vacation to the Daytona 500.
On our free day before our racing marathon started we dragged the Daytona strip and found of all things a quilt shop!!

Even the men were sports and smiled pretty for the camera in the tourist friendly

Byrd Nest Quilt Shop.

This store had lots of bright fun colors to reflect the beach setting we were in. It was very different from any quilt shop that we've ever been in and we had a blast snooping around and left with lots of different inspiration. If you are ever in Daytona Beach make sure you check them out!

After the quilt shop it was off to the beach.

Daytona Beach is such a fun place to visit as you can actually pay to drive your car along the waters as the sand there is quite hard (those of you who may follow the history of the racing that started there know that they actually raced on the beach!)

Living in the land of 10,000 lakes makes you aware of how calming waters can be to a person, but there is nothing quite like the ocean. The sights (all except for the man wearing an all too tight red speedo) and sounds of the waters was wonderful to take in and we enjoyed every minute of our time there.

Of course you had to watch where you walked as these little fellows had washed up on shore.

None of us had actually seen a jelly-fish this close, and thanks to curiosity and a pocket knife to touch the fish we got to see what they look like when the jelly top is flipped over. (Kinda gross!!) Can't say that I'm very disappointed we don't have them in lakes around here....

Not only does Daytona draw in beach crowds, and racing crowds, but motorcycle crowds too.

This week starts Bike Week down there and this weekend will be a large race at the track. I have no desire to attend one of these and motorcycles make me nervous--I'll stick to the four wheels. But this was a beautiful marble engraved statue sitting along the beach in memory of those who started the sport and those who tragically lost their lives doing it.

Above this statue was a complex full of eating places. We of course picked to eat at Sloppy Joes to try something new. Doesn't Joe look excited to take a picture by his sign?! In order to view the ocean while we ate we sat in the bar area. While waiting for our pop to arrive we noticed Darci do a bit of a startled dance in her chair.

If you look towards the back of Darci's chair you'll notice a pigeon.

You'll have to excuse the poor photo--the eating area had lots of people and I didn't want to be the obvious tourist (as if the ghost white complexion didn't give that away already) taking a picture of a bird on the floor. Turns out that the open window of the bar serve as a free entry for pigeons. They are even smart enough to know that if they stand by the automatic opening door it'll let them in. Thankfully the chairs are high and they short enough to not touch your feet as that would have been more startling. Many people shared with them a fry or two and it was kinda comical to watch.

What would our racing trip be if we didn't hit up a go-kart track?

Us gals decided to just take in the action but sitting in the stands-we gave excellent advice such as what kart to pick if they wanted to win and how to pass the people they were racing against-
the only problem was they couldn't hear us. Even though the karts that everyone were racing in were losing springs and running out of gas everyone racing seemed to be having a good time, which in the end is all that matters!

Then came the real race day. . .
We got up really early to get a good parking spot and snoop around the track. We spent most of our time by the Chevy tent. The above photo and below photo are 2 of the 3 Transformer Cars. (Jimmy Johnson's car is above)

Dale Jr. (car above) These cars will actually make an appearance in the movie due out sometime this year and made their way around the track on Sunday. They were really neat in person and may be worth checking out in the movie!

Of course all of the car brands had some of their hottest vehicles sitting out for you to sit in. Check our Lacey's new ride!! Would have been a fabulous car for Florida and a darn cold one once we arrived home. Can you say speeding ticket here she comes?

The Chevy stage proved to be a wonderful hang out as they interviewed all of the Chevy drivers. We got in on two days worth and were standing as close as we'll probably ever be to many of the big names in the sport. The guy above is Juan Pablo Montoya.

Five-time series champion Mr. Jimmy Johnson.

I have to share that he was much taller in person than I thought and also much smaller than I would have guessed. He seems quite humble about all of his success which was kind of cool.

Jeff Gordon.

Class act guy. I was very impressed with him in his interview. He really does seem like a truly genuine person both on and off the track. He really does make a good role model in that sense for kids of all ages.

Jeff Burton.

Didn't really know what to expect and would say he's also a classy guy. Not sure that I'd do well spending a day with him as he is very methodical and very routine structured but certainly a good guy!

Two favorites. Kevin Harvick (on the right) Clint Bowyer (on the left)

I've been fortunate enough to meet Kevin Harvick twice before this and will tell you that where you see him he always has that big smile on his face "Happy Harvick" says it all. We also were able to watch Clint race a couple years ago at Volusia Speedway (dirt track). These two guys are more our style--laid back, rolling with the flow, full of crap. You can tell these teammates have a lot of fun off the track and yet can get the job done on Sunday.

Ryan Newman.

This is Darci's most favorite driver. I love having captured him with a smile on that cute pudgy face of his. He really is a super guy--laid back loving to work outside with his wife, new baby daughter and dogs on their hobby farm. We were also fortunate enough to meet him up close at the Volusia dirt track a couple years back. Would be an easy guy to spend a day with.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Wow...was the crowd around the stage big!!! He is certainly one of the fan favorites.

Looking back on all of the photos taken we were thrilled to see he was practically looking at our cameras the whole time!! This was just so neat to be this close to such a big name like him. You can tell that he is just such a laid back guy and I sort of wish for him that the lights & cameras that constantly surround him would give him and break to let him be himself. I can't imagine what that constant pressure for him to preform must be like and I admire how well he handles everything. Truly a great guy--I'm so glad we were there for that!

Also close to by was this. Jimmy Johnson has claimed FIVE of these!

That is such an amazing accomplishment and it was really cool to see the trophy up close!

On Saturday (day of the Nationwide race) we had "fan zone passes" which allowed us to roam around the garage windows, stand on top of the garage area and look down into the pits, and get up close to the stage for driver introductions. It's a fun day with so much going on in that area.

While there, Darci had here photo taken with of the Budweiser Clydesdale's that would bring in the trophy on Sunday's Daytona 500. I didn't know that their skin could be so marbly.

Now we didn't know this on Saturday but Trevor Bayne (name sound familiar today?) was signing autographs in his garage window. There wasn't a huge crowd gathering around the window as on Saturday people would have said Trevor who? So both us gals got his autograph on our tickets! Who knew that a mere twenty-four hours later he would be the winner of that prestigious 500 race! You talk about a wonderful role model for kids--watching interviews of him he is the real deal! Quite a humble and good natured kid. Good things will come for him for sure!
(I would have shared photos of the driver intros but the computer wouldn't let my cropped pictures appear any bigger than an inch...bummer) After the intros we headed towards our seat. The guys had not yet made their parade lap around the track and so we stood close enough to the track that if Clint Bowyer (above) would leaned way out he and I would have leaned way out over the flimsy rope we may have been able to have almost slapped hands!

The last thing to enter the parade route was the famous Clydesdale horses carrying the Harly J. Earl trophy for the winner of the Daytona 500.

One of my favorite parts of the start is when the planes come over.

It is SO amazing how much speed and sound they pack in and it just gives you goose bumps to hear the our national anthem end and then the roar of the fly by--totally awesome. They of course come back and fly low and do a peel off before they head back to the airport. Nothing like--so glad we get to see that both days we are there!!

This is a view from our seats in the Turn 4 corner. I've zoomed in a little bit but this is pretty much what it looks like. We can see the cars on the whole track which is wonderful and sit at the start of pit road where there is always lots of action. This year we even had the start great views of some big crashes which was kinda fun-not that wrecking is fun.

And of course when that checkered flag fell it was Trevor Bayne who won!

Awesome sight to see and to hear the loud applause of the crowd--gave you goosebumps.

For not knowing what we'd be in for it was a heck of an entertaining race!!

Having been there there are now 3 of us who can't wait for the fun to start up here :)

But as with any trip at some point we must venture back home.

Having drove both ways we had the privilege to see our beautiful country.

From the barn quilts in Iowa, the Arch in St. Louis, the oil wells in Illinois, the large Ohio river and each farm sight with a barn in Kentucky, the mountains in Tennessee hanging moss, red dirt roads, cotton and peach fields in Georgia and the palm trees, ocean and sand in Florida . . .

. . .to the snow covered town in Minnesota.

and this was our driveway. We made a heroic attempt to get to the house but when our Avalance started to push snow with the grill we knew it'd never work. Turns out this was about the average heigh of the banks and in spots it was deeper. What a nice welcome home!
----

And now that we are finally home, unpacked and ready to work again we hope to post more quilt related things again soon!

2011-02-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

Well...now that the football season has come to an end (wasn't the Superbowl a great game?! We sure enjoyed the game and a handful of commercials. . .or at least those of us who managed to keep our eyes open did!) But now, we all start looking forward to-you guessed it- baseball!! A few weeks ago, we ventured to Willmar to the Twins Caravan to see Dan Gladden (see man to the above) and Matt Tolbert and Danny Valencia (see below)

These three gentleman put on the best Twins Caravan we have ever been to, and we were not the only ones to say so. It is wonderful that the Twins organization brings their players out to see all of us and we always like to take advantage of their trip out to see us. Having Heard stories of the upcoming baseball season and the start of spring training in sunny Florida, we left with the "want the sun" itch.

so much so that we decided to change the shop around to show off our spring spirit.

We have sewn up enough samples that we could take darn near everything off the walls out front and re-arrange it with new samples!! We have smiled as those that know the shop as walking into bright and bold yellows, blues, greens, and reds is so not what we are known for! But stepping out of the box and changing things up is fun, and keeps things fresh.

Isn't this just Lovely?

The projects above used the new Lovely fabric by Sandy Gervais.

The runners are a G.E. Designs pattern (quilt as you go) called Double Duty Runners.

The bag is a Beach Bummin' Bag by This & That patterns.

The best part about the photo above is that if you cut carefully you should be able to get both table runners and the bag out of one charm pack!! Talk about a great way to use up the whole thing in many projects!!!!

This cheery table runner is a free pattern on the Moda website (not bake shop)

It features the Fresh Flowers fabrics by Deb Strain and has cute little dimensional buds in the border created with the charm pack!

Keeping the merriment of working with fun colors we did up this bag out of the new Kate Spain fabrics called Central Park. Earlier the day the bag was made, we received a shipment of the newest Quilts & More magazine. While looking through the mag, we noticed the bag and loved it. A few hours later, the UPS man brought us the fabric. It was a match made in purse heaven. This bag is not only super fast to make, but is also reversible!

Now, unfortunately although we have tried to bring spring in with samples we haven't convinced mother nature of the change yet. We want to say a big THANK YOU to all of the ladies who ventured out and about last night in the Arctic air to take in the "break out of winter" sale in the shop. It was so much fun to see you all with your bread bags, snow pants and hats.

(We were sure glad we didn't suggest dresses & P.J's!)

Until next time, keep warm and happy sewing!

2011-01-24T13:12:00.000-08:00

Often times we hear people talk about wearing many hats.

Can you imagine walking around with a display like this for every hat you wear?

Some of us would have stacks much higher than this, and others much smaller.

I'm afraid that mine would tumble over, not that it would be so impossibly tall, but my head is generally stooped down fixing things, cutting things or sewing things. I'm glad mine are invisible.

The week, or at least mid-way thru we really started to chat about this.

One of our hats could be labeled as "driver" as we like to keep our jeep wheels rollin'

Darci strapped her "driver's" hat on this week and chauffeured into the cities one of the coldest days of this winter season.

Ever think you were alone?

While practicing for an American Idol addition, Lacey was loudly belting out words to a wonderfully upbeat song when while she watched the shop on that darn cold day Darci was gone. Much to her surprise she noticed someone had entered the shop while she loudly sang.

Sadly, I wasn't blessed with a SINGER hat, which may have caused a bit embarrassment.

Maybe in my next life I'll get that kind of hat and then. . .

AMERICAN IDOL----HERE I COME!

Saturday brought us to a youth wrestling tourney.

Who knew wrestling started at age four?!?

The $4 admission fee was worth every penny with so much going on.

There were kids who seemed totally clueless as to what they were doing. (that'd be me)

There were kids who cried when they were about to get pinned. . .halting the match. . .

And then there were kids like the little man above, who were determined to win.

Jax was a stoked little boy who proudly showed us his 2nd place trophy and kept asking if he could wrestle again.

Flags of football (and our Pittsburgh Terrible Towel) was what got waved on Sunday.

We were thrilled that the teams we wanted to win won.

We now have 2 weeks to decide which flag we'll fly for our super bowl party.

Our neighbors to the east. . . or the team of the beautiful town of Pittsburgh.

Both of us gals put on our "BINDER" hats this weekend as we sat to bind off our newly quilted samples. Generally we send them over to the busy binder, but she is in the process of moving. Thankfully her move is just a few blocks away into a main level apartment place which should be much easier for her. But until she gets situated, we will continue to put on our "big girl thimbles" and sit and bind at night.

This runner above, is our newest shop addition. The fabrics we used were of the "Tangled Threads" by Whimsicals and the pattern in the book is by Gathering Friends called "You Asked For It". This was a quick runner that was very fun to do.

Once the thimbles were allowed to be put to rest, we picked up our books.

Darci has absolutely loved reading this book "Choosing to See" and highly recommends

this to anyone who is looking to a good and inspirational story of an everyday woman.

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Now. . .onto a shop event that'll be held in a couple of weeks!

Bundle Up & Brave the Cold Night

Monday February 7 6pm - 8pm

We invite you to come on in, warm up and stock up after our cold January freeze.

Receive 10% off discount store wide (few exclusions apply) and an additional 5% off fore each of the following items you wear that night:

Bread bags over or in your boots

Snowpants

mad bomber hat OR earmuffs

Our new class offering samples will be on display that evening.

If mother nature doesn't allow the night to happen, all class offering information will be on our website the following day.

A Breath of Fresh Air

2011-01-20T06:13:00.000-08:00

A breath of fresh air. . .a line that has multiple meanings as I blog today.

With a temp that is zero and winds making it feel like -30 stepping outside means breathing in darn cold fresh air.....and when you step into the shop to warm up you'll be greeted by bright spring fabrics that are definitely a breath of fresh air from the weather outside.

These adorable little bloomers and britches are an easy to make item for any little kid.

This pattern by Jackie Clark gives you options on making either bloomers or britches in sizes newborn to 4T.

"Blue Light Special" came to us in pinks and reds. This quilt is very different from our typical patterns of choice in both colors and border styles. All fabrics used were from Luna Notte by Moda's 3 sisters fabrics, and gives this quilt a very old, antique/Victorian look. The quilt also features six borders!

A.B.C. and going to school. We sat and pondered what to make with our alphabet panels and came up with this. If you are looking to make a baby or kid quilt that is super simple this is the ticket as it's fast to sew and doesn't require a lot of fabric!

One of our more "shop fitting" fabric arrivals the UPS man dropped off.

This Blackbird Design fabric, "Antique Fair" by Moda sewed up lovely in the simple "Simplicity" pattern by This & That patterns. We expect this beautiful yardage to arrive sometime next month.

Remember that breath of fresh air in the fabrics?

Well. . .this is one of those breaths. This fun "Sunkissed" fabric designed by Sweetwater for Moda has been a great pick-me-upper this week. It has wonderfully soft and sweet greens, yellows, pinks and oranges. The pattern above was a front cover feature in a previous Quilt Sampler magazine and can be used as a table topper, wall hanging, or if you're on the shorter order like me a nice lap quilt.

Darci (yes, believe it or not) has been in love working with these fabrics!! A sign the shop will change over to these fabrics...probably not, but when it's this darn cold and snowy nothing will get you cheered up better than "Fresh Flowers" by Deb Strain of Moda fabrics. The table runner shown in this photo is a free pattern to accompany the fabric line with fun dimensional "buds" in the border.

Until next time, we hope that sunkissed thoughts about warm sunny days and fresh flowers may fill your thoughts.
Happy Quilting!!

2011-01-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and that dear ol' Mr. Santa brought you everything that you had hoped for.

Although the start of our holiday celebration got off to quite a rocky start we were able to take a brief break and celebrate the true meaning of the holidays with our family. Of course we received more than we thought we needed and ate until the buttons were about to pop off of our jeans. But during our celebrations, our thought would drift back to more important business.

On December 23 we got news that a family member had had a brain aneurysm. Our close knit family spent the night in a crowded ICU room, praying that he'd be alright, and much to our relief he should make a full recovery. We've all talked since coming home about how much that has affected us and our mindset that Christmas will never be the same. It's amazing how much we run around to find that perfect gift, and to get it at the perfect price, and in the end it's where you are going (to spend it with people you love) that is what really matters. Next Christmas when I'm sitting in church at my favorite Christmas Eve service I hope my memory drifts back to this year. I anticipate that I will sit in the pew and much like this year think about those families who are huddled together in those lounges waiting, and praying their loved one will be alright.

It is hard to get a grasp on just how quick time goes by. I especially felt this way when all the talk about the best/worst hair styles, clothing trends, movies and music of the decade started. It was one of those Oh- I guess it has been 10 years since the fear that the end of the world was upon us has happened. I remember celebrating that year 2000 with a good friend, staying up until midnight just to make sure that a new day came and ten years later it came in without me.

On New Year's day our annual ice fishing trip fell thru the ice. Mother Nature handed us a nice amount of rain to add to the already slushed-up lakes. Instead, us gals spent the day sewing in our "new" sewing room.

We sat and spun our wheels while we listened to the wind blow. I guess we both did a very poor job in packing supplies to take home. I guess that is one luxury of sewing all day in a quilt shop. All of the fabric you are using is just a few steps away...and those steps didn't wind their way to our sewing room at home. To top things off we were sewing on 2 machines neither of us were familiar with. Nothing is worse than having 2 people who have to dig out the cheat sheets to get the machines threaded all the while praying that the bobbin would last thru the day.

Darci began work on her next Prairie Women's project and thanks to the help of one spunky lady, had it twist together with much more ease.

Earlier that morning, before heading up stairs we vegged out in the our favorite chairs and ate warm muffins while we watch morning quilt shows.

Just when we thought we'd get up to leave Eleanor Burns appeared.

We decided to watch her 1/2 hour program and extended our lives laughing while we did.

We learned a few things.

#1- Pitching your fabric scraps over your shoulder looks fun...and it is fun...until you have to clean it up. If only there was a quilting fairy to do that trick.

#2- We learned an awful lot about eagles. Maybe the next time we have a class in the shop we should try this new idea of multi-tasking. Not only will you leave having learnt a new technique but you'll know more about it's history!!

#3- Eleanor is seems to be the pioneer in the quilting field of the "If I cut it bigger I can trim it later" philosophy. One that both of us gals like ;)

Lacey decided to work on something that was bright and springy for this "Spring" table topper by Heather Mulder Peterson. Although things seemed to be all hunky-dory on Saturday, they weren't on Monday. Lacey's lesson for the new year should be to read directions instead of assuming that she knows what she's doing. Either way she fudged it in and has just the quilting and binding left.

At the end of the day we again vegged out (eating popcorn this time) while we watched Eat. Pray. Love. We ventured into the theatre to watch this when it came out and have had customers come in and share their opinions on this book, and although most of the time it's not a well received book/movie, I found a few things quite interesting. So much so that if I were to make new years resolutions, I'd consider one to be inspired by this movie.

Dolce far niente "The sweetness of doing nothing"

Leading up to this point in the movie one of the Italian men tells Julia Roberts, among other things, that Americans work too hard and get burnt out. I found that statement to be quite true. I have learnt a habit of feeling guilty just sitting in a chair. I feel like I should be doing something, making progress for the shop in hand work for samples, or doing some house hold task. This year I hope to try and make peace with the phrase "Dolce far niente" and just be okay in the sweetness of doing nothing (even if it is for just 5 minutes--gotta start somewhere)

(excuse my photo taking skills on this one) But I think I could spend 5 minutes looking at this wall hanging by Miss. Rosie. This cute Schnibble pattern called "Silver Swan" has so much to look at!! It is a great pattern to use charm packs for, and is something that you can have a bit of fudge room with as you trim all of your blocks down. A good friend said the other day that A successful quilt holds your attention and I would have to say that Carrie Nelson designed a very successful quilt pattern.

We also found a bit of time last year (oh that's just so odd to say) to finish up a quick little table topper by This & That patterns. This is a quick and easy little gift that you can easily stitch up in a day for someone special. The wine bottle sleeve in the photo is Darci's newest dabble in design. This weekend there is a benefit here in town for the Justin Ulferts family and it will be put on the silent auction to help raise proceeds for him and his family to off-set medical expenses.

We hope that you all had a very wonderful and safe New Year!

We look forward to keeping up with all of you in 2011

2010-12-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

Peaceful.

A word that doesn't always describe this time of the year with all of the holiday hustle and bustle around gift buying, or in the snows that seem to visit us every other day.

But in the case of the snow, it is always so peaceful and nice to look outside the window at the fresh white snow that so beautifully paints the trees, buildings and landscape.

And as much as being "stuck" at home may stink at the time, it's been great. The stockings are hung. Our trees are up, lit, and decorated. There are lots of baked goodies to munch on setting on the counter. And fun holiday decorations spread their cheer throughout the house. I guess Mother Nature decided it was time to bring that part of the holidays back to the way they use to be.

Little Miss "Holly" is Darci's newest and most versatile pattern.
These cute little angels can be arranged around a fun holiday center piece, sewn down around a base as a candle mat, used as a cute tree ornament or as a garland. She doesn't take many supplies and also is quick to stitch up.

We've also found some time to work on what will be our upcoming block of the month quilt.
This quilt is out of a book that features quilt blocks that are painted on barns throughout parts of the country. This quilt is great for people who have gone through a beginning quilting program and are looking to advance their quilting horizons and challenge themselves.

The UPS man delivered us a packaged filled with bright cheery fabrics one cold wintry day. During one of our stuck at home snowstorms this little "Twist & Churn" table runner was done. It is out of the new Minnick and Simpson of Moda fabrics called Charlevoix.
I have to say that this was a fabulous pattern for a charm pack. I hate using charm pack patterns that have you waste more of the 5-inch square than you sew, and that only use a small percentage of the pack, leaving me with a bunch of odd squares for who knows what. This pattern really utilized the squares and the whole charm pack. Yea!! We do have a few kits cut, they are $24.99 and include everything (even backing) the only thing you need to supply is the batting.

We also took some time to finish up a U.F.O before it got to be past the season.

This tree skirt is a pattern in the G.E Designs "Fast & Furious: Holiday" book that we have had so much fun using this fall and winter.

And, also done is this quilt out of the "You Asked for It" book by Gathering Friends that used the beautiful colors in the Evening Mist (new colors) by Sentimental Studios of Moda. Perfect for curling up on the couch with!!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

With Christmas just a few days away we want to leave you with this:

Christmas is forever, not just one day. For loving, sharing, and giving are not to put away like bells and lights and tinsel in some box upon a shelf. They good you do for others is the good you do yourself. ~Norman Wesley Brooks

MAY PEACE BE YOUR GIFT AT CHRISTMAS AND YOUR BLESSINGS ALL YEAR THROUGH.

WE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A VERY HAPPY AND SAFE HOLIDAY AND A HAPPY, NEW YEAR!

5-yard Frenzy

2010-12-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

We've been busy on this snowy day getting things in order for our Anniversary Sale that takes place next Friday (Dec. 10) and Saturday (Dec. 11)

As seen in our previous post we are having 5-yard quilt kits for $30.00.

(The quilts shown finish approx. 52 x 68. . .colored photo in post below)

Also during the Anniversary sale we'll be featuring a new item in the shop:

Several Settings (Four sided place mats) "a new dimension in place mats"

This neat little tool and pattern create four different place mats in one. Choose fabrics to feature each of the four seasons or specific holidays and simply "flip" thru the place mat to your desired fabrics.

Demos will be given throughout the sale days.
Several Settings pattern & template will sell for $10.00 if you purchase fabrics to create place mats. (We'll also sell them for $13.50 regular price if you do not wish to get fabrics)

Also. . .just a reminder that if you are planning to donate a pillowcase to our ConKerr Cancer pillowcase cause please make sure you get them into us by next Friday or Saturday. For each pillowcase you bring into the shop you'll receive a ticket to be eligible for a $25.00 gift certificate. Pillowcases will be donated to either Amplatz Children's Hospital in Minneapolis or St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester.

2010-12-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

We hope that you all had a very safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.

For the first time in MANY years we were snowed in at our house. Yes, we are equipped with a heated tractor that blows out the snow and 4-wheel drive vehicles and we were snow bound in our yard. Snow drifts that are six feet tall in the middle of a long mogeled driveway were Mother Nature's way of telling us to stay home and make progress there. . .and progress we made :)

But before we get to some of the progress (or holiday eats) that got made yesterday let's travel back a week or so ago. . .

After we recouped from Thanksgiving (eating too much) and Black Friday (standing in long lines) we decided to spend a relaxing night at a concert. Grandma, and us gals loaded up her car on Saturday and headed to Marshall to listen to the O'Neill Brothers play piano on the first night of their holiday tour.

One of the greatest segments was their "Ode to Brett Favre" in which the two piano playing brothers dressed up in old/new jersey's and sang their tribute song. These two men can play outstanding. It is sooo very soothing and wonderful to listen to. If you like listening to Lori Line or have seen her all three of us would strongly recommend that you check these guys out. We thought their performance was just as good if not better than those of hers we've seen.

Of course not only was the concert great (as expected) but the company was as well. For it is things like that that cannot be bought on Black Friday. It's not every day that you:

eat at Applebees and have one person get the wrong food, only to have the manager, food deliverer and waiter all over to apologize letting the whole restaurant know something was up . . .to leave to get into the parking lot only to find out that the "short cut" you (and the cars in front of you and behind you) think you are taking is just a round-a-bout that will bring you right back to where you came from. Aww yes-memories like that are priceless.

Oh-and if anyone knows where we can find a Vuvuzela (you know those annoying horns used at the world cup) let us know!!!!

Now, only if Santa could bring Darci & Lacey fingers that could magically play all those wonderful songs that we heard that night so wonderful and effortlessly as those wonderful brothers could play.

On Thanksgiving we decided to finish up a "U.F.O"

Last Christmas, Phyllis and us gals decided to make hearts out of old jewelry. The idea came from a tree out of jewelry in Great-grandma's nursing home hallway. After gathering up our prized pieces we began clipping, reshaping, hunting, and gluing treasures on our hearts.

Our hearts (or Lacey's) looked sort of like the one above. Of course the other gals were a bit more "over-achiever-ish" than her and have hardly any black background showing.

We all had such a wonderful time reminiscing over pieces we glued on our hearts and cannot wait to get them put onto a velvet background to hang and enjoy in our homes.

Now. . .

we of course have been busy little elves getting ready for the holiday season in the shop.

This little guy would make a wonderful gift for that special someone on your list this year. His hat is out of a rag-spun and his fancy scarf is filled with various frilly yarns. It's not only a quick little hanger but works great to use up those smaller scraps that seem to accumulate with any project.

This is our 5-yard Quilt that will be a featured sale item next week for our Anniversary sale.

This quilt really takes longer to cut out than it does to sew it all together. It's a very quick very fun quilt to assemble and gives such a fun pattern when it's finished.

We also did up a quilt out of the "Winter on Walden's Pond" fabrics to show how wonderful the quilt pattern is to use larger scaled or scene prints on. It's also amazing how different the quilt can look out of different fabrics.

Our Anniversary sale will feature these quilt kits for $30.00

Another project that was a "bucket list" item of Lacey's was a Drunkard Path quilt.

This particular quilt block is typically done curved piecing method, but not the one you see above. Lacey used the "fuse" method which totally eliminated having to put in curved seams. It was a very quick method to use and is something she'd like to do again.

In between eating, shopping and concerts we've been working on things that would make up quick for gift giving. The pattern used above features place mats (shown above) cloth napkins (shown above) and trivets. They are quick to sew up and really don't take much fabric to do up a set or two for that someone on your list. (Check later on during the week for our newest gizmo to arrive that lets you make 4 place mats in one!!)

Keeping up with the "kitchen" themed gifts we also did up a Pot-Pincher.

Also is this glasses (or rotary cutter or remote control) holder. This cool holder stands up perfect on a table to hold those treasures we are always in need of and sews up quick.

If you are looking for something quick and fun out of wool we'd suggest these candle cuffs by Bareroots. They tie around any size candle and come with an accompanying candle mat to set your spruced up candle on.

Now. . .to some of the "eats progress" made during the snow!

if you like pretzles, peanut butter, caramel and chocolate this is for you!!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites (Take 5 bar)

1 pkg. (14 oz.) Caramels

1/4 c. butter, cubed

2 Tblsp. water

5 c. miniature pretzels

1 jar (18 oz.) creamy peanut butter

26 oz. milk chocolate candy coating (I used chocolate almond bark)

Spread approx. 1 tsp. peanut butter on one side of each pretzel and set on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Next, melt caramels with the butter and water in a microwave safe bowl and stir until smooth. Top each peanut butter covered pretzel with approx. 1/2 tsp caramel. Let caramel set on the pretzels before adding chocolate (refrigeration works well). In microwavable bowl, crock pot, or double boiler, melt the chocolate candy coating. Using a small fork dip each pretzel in the coating until completely covered. Shake off excess and place back on wax paper. Let stand until completely set. Store in an air tight container in a cooler place.

Yields: 8 1/2 dozen.

May you enjoy these little goodies as much as we do in our household!

2010-11-16T08:10:00.000-08:00

Imagine if you will for a minute what it would be like at this very moment to find out that you are going to leave the comforts of everything you know to travel in a covered wagon to what you hope would be a better life hundreds of miles away from where you are at now. Imagine leaving behind everything you know- your friends- most of your family-and having the realization you may never see or hear from them again. . .

That's what we have spent the past week chatting about in our Prairie Women's Sewing Circle that meets three different dates/times here in the shop. It has been so enjoyable taking that trip back in time with all of the women who are participating in the club and discussing the ideas that the creator, Pam Buda, has come up with. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about what times where like when many of these women grew up. Textbooks can teach a person a lot in school, but not as much as the person who lived some of those things can!!!

Both of us gals have commented on how we think that those wagon train days were SOOO long ago and those that traveled those days were so much different than we were. . .but it is quite interesting to see the many similarities between our lives today and those back then.

Anyways. . .it was so much fun (to me) listening to those stories about clothing, how things have evolved from women wearing petti-coats, bonnets and long dresses to leaving the house in jeans, tennis shoes, and sweatshirts. Do any of you remember those shoes above? It was fun to learn about those that had to wear theses awful and uncomfortable saddle shoes to school, and those that loved these comfortable shoes. Even Lacey remembers wearing theses shoes once!!

===============================================

Come Sunday the gals loaded up their "covered wagon" and headed to the cities to visit the Tri-State textile show. {This was our opportunity to see the newest gizmo's' and gadgets that were shown at fall market in Houston. We also got to see and order some new fabrics!!}

On the cities side of Hutchinson we noticed that our amount of snow on the ground at home was quite minor compared to the ever growing amount of snow we were seeing. We decided it would be fun (beings we don't get out much) to meander towards Rogers. Not only did there happen to be a quilt shop (Quilted Treasures) but we also got to hit up Cabelas to maybe check into some holiday shopping.

We decided we had some extra time before we met a dear friend for supper at Champps. We would head up to Albertville and see what they had to offer. As we cruised along the Interstate we saw the first exit into Albertville. We decided it was in a bit of a residential area so we'd keep truckin' on to the next exit . . . only to find out that there were no more exits to take. So we waved to the mall as we drove by and searched for the next exit to take us back into the cities.
Thinking that we were approaching a stop light to make a famous u-turn we merged over three lanes only to find out those green and red lights were the sign that tells us which lanes were open and which ones were closed. . .hence the green and red lights. . .so we continue to drive. . .

. . .to Monticello which is where the next exit off of the road happened to be.

This now meant that we were almost closer to St. Cloud than were were going to eat.

Anyways, we eventually made it to our destination and enjoyed a nice supper with a friend that we don't see very often. The night went by fast and before we knew it, it was time to call it a day.

When we rolled into Tri-State the next day we noticed we were graced with the presence of this bus. We have absolutely no idea who they are but the bus looked kinda cool sitting outside.

But Tuesday meant back to work day, and working we were. We are still busy sewing up quick samples for holiday season. Darci is about done with this beautiful muted lap quilt that will hopefully be finished for a better photo-op real soon.

Those of you looking for a quick stocking stuffer or even just a purse organizer may like this super quick and simple wallet or punch card holder.

2010-11-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

Happy November!! It's so hard to believe that the year of 2010 is just a few months from being done and that the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas are drawing nearer each day.In light of the Thanksgiving holiday in just a couple short weeks, the wool designs for this months meeting are themed for the occasion. Darci's creativity has been flowing and we can't wait to see what the finished result will turn out to look like.
We've also been sneaking in some new cotton samples. The above table runner is a pattern by This & That and used the Holly Taylor holiday fabrics.

This quilt (shown a few posts earlier) is super close to being done. Seems like we just can't quite get the binding cut, ironed and sewn to make it complete. Many people who have come into the shop have commented on the choice of fabrics and especially the jumbo brown rick-rack that seemed to frame off the quilt top rather nicely!

A few days ago, the FedEx man stopped in to deliver a long-overdue package of fabrics by Whimisicals called "Tangled Threads". This is fabulous fabric to work with in beautiful fall tones. It also blends in beautifully with some of our coordinating pieces of "New Mist" that was by Moda's Sentimental Studios.

Now. . . if we just had some extra time to sew up some great samples!!!

Lacey decided to take a step out from the cotton box and tried her hand at sewing a pair of elf slippers. Seems like she may have got a bit side-tracked as only one slipper has been completed.

These are cute slippers are perfect for that youngster during the holiday season!!

We've had a lot of people looking for some quick, rather inexpensive holiday gift ideas.

We love doing tea towels.

We have a wonderful pattern by MeMe's Quilts that has lots of fun tea towel ideas that are quick to do and have small enough applique pieces that makes using up that stash work.

Our "Busy Binder" traded in her binding needles for the embroidery needle and did up these tree ornaments in a snap!
If you like to embroider, these ornaments would not only be cute hanging on your tree, or around the house, but would also make a quick gift.

She also finished up an embroidery project by Bareroots that she had done a while ago!

This quilt is oh so very fitting of her and she can't wait to get it back in her house to display.

I always have a hard time trying to end a post. I am not a big fan of "good bye" so I'll leave you with the one thing I remembered from part of the Kung Fu Panda movie we watched last night.,

There is a saying:

Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, but today is gift. That's why it is called "present".

Wishing that you all are able to take some time and enjoy your "present"!

2010-10-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

The weatherman told us last night that this is a record low pressure system that has decided to grace us with its presence in the Midwest. Here's to blowing around in fifty mile an hour winds and better hair days tomorrow. . .

Now, we typically don't have any creepy, crawly things moving around our house but last night I noticed this little fellow (aka: salamander) moving as fast a he could to get to warmer cover for the winter. Poor Darci won't be working outside in her flower bed for a long period of time after her "hee-bee-jee-bee" dance just seeing the picture of our new little friend.

And when all was said and done after hurricane life day number one I woke up to snow.
Guess only in October can we go from wearing shorts and t-shirts to grabbing the winter parkas.

October in our family is a busy time of celebration as we celebrate six birthdays!!!

We decided to all go bowling in our grand celebration and had such a wonderful time. Neither of us gals are skilled bowlers and tend to make good entertainment for those around us. One of the cutest moments of the day was the little girl next to our lane who attempted to get her ball to the pins. She dropped it a bit early and while it spun by her feet decided to give it a kick to get it to where it needed to go. . .I guess when all else fails, just kick it!

We spent some time yesterday with Phyllis antiquing a bit. All three gals have got bit by the old dish bug and all had a lot of fun looking for finds to go with their collections.

We've also been adding to our sample collection. The lap quilt above was designed by Darci and used almost a whole charm pack of origins by Basic Grey. It's being loaded on the long arm as we blog. Can't wait to share the finished product when it comes off!!! (The colors are just what we need on a day like today)

We've also blown into the direction creating candle mats.

The one above is out of the newest book by Bareroots and is all hand embroidered.

Two lovely and very quick mats featuring embroidery and wool/wool felt applique.

We got in some great new patterns this week, and one of the new patterns featured a new technique for assembling projects with charm squares. The technique is a bit tedious but does really save some time. Both Darci and Phyllis hand quilted a project and Lacey got the bug too. Hopefully the show and tell will be camera ready real soon!!

Here's to curling up with a cozy warm blanket on the couch reading a good article or book, eating something yummy, doing a little quilting or watching a good movie.

Fast & Furious. . .

2010-10-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

~Fast & Furious~

Seems to me that this how life has been in the shop this month as we've been working fast and furious to get new stuff done for the shop!

(Of course we don't mean furious as in the mad furious)

But aside from that, lots comes to mind with just those two little words. . .

. . . such as the movie "Fast & Furious" . . .

. . . or the way my keyboard looks as I do a fast & furious post before I head out . . .

. . . or maybe if you live in farm country the way farmers have been taking crops out . . .

. . . in hopes their efforts will be finished before Winter on Walden's pond arrives . . .

But what we really really have been working on so fast and furiously has been out of the book Fast & Furious: Holiday that is by G.E Designs.

Of course you've seen this little guy sneak into previous posts, but we've got some great samples for all of you thinking about that holiday season that is oh so quickly approaching.

such as these wonderful place mats

and stockings

and treat bag.

Of course there are more samples finished from this book, but those you've already seen!!

We've also been having fun doing up some new wool projects.

Of course this pattern is super fitting for our post title as the pattern is called

"Run Chicken Run!" by Primitive Gatherings.

Those of you that know chickens probably know that at some point in their short lives they run fast and furiously as not to be someones lunch.

Leaves, also seem to be falling rather quickly from our trees.

Autumn Splendor is Darci's newest creation for Pastthyme Patterns and

uses beautiful wool colors by Weeks Dye Works and wonderful Valdani Threads!

And last, but certainly not least is our free pattern of the month

in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Hope you all have been having a very safe and blessed fall!

2010-10-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

Old Mr. Webster's definition of "Fall" or "Autumn" is the season between summer and winter comprising the northern hemisphere usually the months of September, October, November or as the equinox to the December solstice.

I don't know about you, but none of that really seems to mean a whole lot.

Fall around here means that football.

People of all ages in big and small towns gather at the football field, all bundled up as the nights start to get colder cheering their team on.

Fall around here means farmers begin to harvest their crops from the fields.

I have to point out that photo above is the collection of beets from a field. Many hoppers on the state shop hop had never seen these types of crops before and were filled with questions. So, for those of you unfamiliar with sugar beets, their tops stay green much unlike the corn and beans that turn brownish when they dry out.

I also want to point out that with all of the rain we had received the truck in the pic above is actually being pulled thru the field with the tractor that has the tracks on it. I wish I would have stopped to have gotten the pic from the other side so you could have seen it better. . .

Fall means that hardy plants, like the mum Joe & Lace picked out for Darci's birthday continue to grow and bloom beautiful fall colors.

I couldn't help but share this one with the dog.

I laugh every time I look at it, it's amazing what happens between the push of the camera button to the time the photo is taken. Doesn't look like she's thrilled with what I'm doing or she's about to sneeze. . .

I have to point out before I show the rest of these how very excited I was to go about taking pictures around the yard as it is generally very beautiful with vibrant fall colors. I was very sad to learn that the birds beat me to the brilliant orange berries on one of the trees and that while all the people on the Meander have seen awesome fall colored trees the ones at home seem to be late turners. . .

Fall means that once green vines turn brown, and leaves on buildings shade fall colors too.

This was the good one. It's much prettier in person than in the photo.

Our evergreen by the bathrooms has the most wonderful vine hanging in the vast majority of the tree that is absolutely beautiful in reds, and orange tones.

Fall means that our rosebush finishes blooming

and the sun sets on a wonderful summer.

I hope that you all have had a chance to sneak out and check out the trees that mother nature has painted so pretty this year.

Until the leaves turn,

2010-10-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

In honor of today kicking off the month of October, which is breast cancer awareness month, I'll do our post in pink :)

Today is the start of the Art Meander and our sample sale.

We've decided that since mother nature has been so nice to us this past week we have our sample display outside in the fresh air.

We were tickled pink to see how many samples we were able to round up from the backroom. We had many hours of fun laughing and reminiscing about the samples we marked to sell.

Again, samples are sold on a first come first serve basis.

Meander hours are:

Friday: 2pm - 6pm

Saturday: 9am - 6pm

Sunday: 9am - 4pm

**We are a good starting point for those of you interested in going out and about to the various artisan sites in this region of the state. There is a large variety of artful offerings from various forms of painting and drawing, to photography, carvings, jewelry making, basket making, willow furniture, pottery, rosemaling, weaving and much, much more.

Besides the Sample Sale, we always serve wine from our favorite local vineyard

Hinterland Vineyard

which again is conveniently located just a couple miles down the road from the quilt shop.

We will serve small samples of a few of their wines including their new variety called

"Brainna"

Of course, if you like any of the samples provided you'll have to make a stop out in the vineyard to taste and see the wonderful wine collections that have been made and grown right on site!

2010-09-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful weekend, both weather wise and event wise.

We were all fortunate enough to take part in a beautiful wedding ceremony this weekend for two special people that we are blessed to call family who showed nothing but true love and appreciation for each other and their friends and family members who attended their wedding.

There would of course be more photos to show that we gals ditched our casual attire for dresses and high heeled shoes but neither of the gals seemed to have remembered to ask for a nice family shot, only did we get candids at our table!!

Come Monday morning, our beautiful weather brought us the chance to get outside and do some lot work. We are SO grateful to see the sun shine and to finally walk outside without running in between rain drops or grabbing the umbrella.
Even the dog thought raking up the leaves was fun and made sure that
the wind didn't blow any of them away on her watch.

In between getting raking and watching the rain gauge collect rain and finishing up the pew bows we have managed to sit down by our friend the sewing machine and put it to some use.

The quilt above features the holiday fabrics by BasicGrey and is called the 5 yard quilt.

This quilt was very fun to sew together and quite simple to piece. In fact we had sew much fun we are working on doing another out of the Winter on Waldens Pond fabrics!!

We've also been busy preparing for the Art Meander that takes place this weekend.

Make sure you mark your calendars and stop in as this is the one time each year that we have our Sample Sale. There will be a collection of our old samples that we can no longer use that will be put up for sale in conjunction with this event. Doors open at 10:00am on Friday and all samples are sold on a first come, first serve basis.

Also, if you have not made a trip out to Hinterland Vineyard, which is conveniently located about two miles out of town along Highway 23 this would be an excellent weekend to stop by and taste their hand-made wines and tour the vineyard.

We hope you all had a wonderful weekend pray that you all stayed dry.

May many blessings fall abundantly upon you like the many leaves falling from our trees.

2010-09-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

Fall cleaning...

I guess we were in the spirit last week as we decided to make some changes in the shop to reflect the changes we are seeing outside our window.

Stop on in and check out some of our fun fall finds as we start to prepare for the fall

Art Meander on October 1, 2 and 3.

Another Quilt as you Go table runner from the Fast & Furious book by G.E Designs.

Remember those unfinished pumpkins from a post or so ago?

This is the fun finished project. The turned corners on the pumpkins were such a fun touch.

-----------------------------

Both Darci and Lacey have set aside the sewing machines (hence the small post)
Lacey left the sewing machines behind for a trip to Huron to enjoy one of the biggest Wissota dirt races of the year...the famed Wissota 100. Much like the weather back at home, Huron got about 3 1/2 inches of rain. With that came incredibly mucky pits which caused for a rubber boot shortage in the town of Huron. But, with a lot of work and a little luck that the rains held off the races got done in time. And in the end, the team they was out there with left all smiles as the driver won his 3rd Wissota 100 race by leading every lap :)

Darci stayed home while the rest of the gang was in Huron to work on a new shop newsletter and start creating the pew bows for an up-coming wedding this weekend. Speaking of the wedding Shades of the Past will be closing early on Saturday September 25th at 1:30pm so the gals can leave for the wedding.

Until the machines start singing again . . .

2010-09-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

On Thursday morning Joe and Darci headed on their annual trip to the state fair. It was such a wonderful day to be out and about and both had such a wonderful time while they were there and managed to not only get out of the fairgrounds before the big down pour of the day but also successfully made it home without car troubles like last year. Darci enjoyed some bacon on a stick, as bacon is one of her favorites to eat and Joe made sure he came home with his bucket of Sweet Martha cookies. Although Darci had her sights set on tasting some camel on a stick, they were unable to find the stand . . . They both came home with wonderful memories and truly enjoyed their day and look forward to the mom/son time again really soon!!

In light of the Minnesota State Fair trip-we decided it would be fun to do a post on a stick.

The idea was a good in theory. . . but didn't work out as well as hoped.

So....our one and only photo of the newest charms to arrive

Moda's Sentimental Studio's "Evening Mist" on a stick.

Much like the fair food, this sells for $8.00.

Much unlike the fair food, this sticks with you longer, keeps quite nice, & smells good!

Aside from racing trips and trips to the fair, we have been working "Fast & Furious" on new projects for fall. G.E Design's new "Fast & Furious Holiday" book came in this week, and the sample spread out on the cutting counter is the first we've done from the book. Look for the finished result next week along with the new monthly wool projects!!

On our post last week, Darci had been working on her Prairie Women Sewing Circle projects and the photo above is the finished quilt top for meeting #2 project. The group will begin meeting in October and the cost of the program (which has 6 projects plus 2 side projects) is $35.00.

This little guy is super quick and fun to make for fall.

This guy is "October Scare" by The Wooden Bear and can seriously be completed in one sewing days time.

We finally got our "Bliss" quilt done out of fabrics that will be arriving some time this month in quilts shops near you. The colors of this quilt are so fresh and fun and would make wonderful projects for people of any age!!

Speaking of any age, we have really enjoyed jumping on the kids clothing train and finished another cute little jumper!

This pattern is by SewBaby and is called the Petal Dress. The pattern comes to make dress sizes 6 months- 2T and also gives pattern/directions for the adorable tulip hat. (above dress)

The directions for this baby were very easy to follow and the petal dress was fun and quick to make.

And of course if you are making that cute little dress as a gift you could always add a little stuffed animal to go with it. So...meet Stanly. He's been swimming around with us this week and was sewn up out of Punctuation fabrics that arrived by Moda's American Jane. Stanly was very fun to make (a Fig Tree & Co. pattern) and would make a wonderful addition for any child's room!!

Well . . . Lacey was able to put the metal ball purse aside and finish the table runner. She also dove into the adorable Frenchy handbag from Amy Butler.

Lacey sometimes tends to be a critic of patterns, especially bag patterns, and would tell you that this was one of the best written bag patterns she's sewn and although she always wondered if they were worth the $13 investment and would say they were certainly were. This pattern can be made in 2 different sizes, and takes a day to sew and be able to use.

Aside from quilting, we took a little trip to the movie theatre to view the movie Eat, Pray, Love last weekend as Darci had read part of the book, and both gals love Julia Roberts' acting. Although the movie was quite different than they were expecting they had a good time enjoying the scenery of the 3 countries (Italy, India & Bali) and each other's company in a theatre with a mere four people!!

But, in light of the movie title, we both hope that over this long Labor Day weekend you are able to spend some time eating with those people whom you love and we pray that you all have a safe and wonderful weekend!!

French Lesson

2010-08-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

We've been having such a fun week here in the shop with new fabric arrivals and the wonderful opportunity to sit down and sew up some new shop samples which were are very excited to share! So let's begin with a trip to France.

During the hop we got in this unique chicken fabric titled "Le Poulet" (pronounced like: lay- poo-lay)

Now...how much fun is that word to say?! Le Poulet, a word that rolls off the tongue rather nicely and for the way it sounds must have some exquisite meaning. . . but the word Le Poulet means. . .

...chicken...

A fun and pretty sounding word to say a chicken. I guess French really is a Romantic language!

Aside from having a lot of fun saying "Le Poulet" we have had equal amounts of fun sewing with it.

The above is an apron pattern that we jazzed up with the fun chicken pockets on the bottom and chicken patch and "Le Poulet" title on the top. This apron was really quite simple to make and has absolutely wonderful draw strings (one long string) that gives you a lot of freedom for adjusting the neck and waist bands to fit any person

Now, leaving our French lesson on chicken for the day, we head back here where Summer is coming to an end and the school year is upon us . . . so the arrival of Punctuation by Moda's American Jane was perfect and festive. The above shows our coordinating pieces as well as one focal of the ABC's . . .

. . .and this is also the other focal that would make a wonderful strip quilt.

Speaking of Summer's End . . .

The new Kansas Troubles fabrics came in and is called- as you could have guessed-

Summer's End

We have beautiful coordinates as well as honey buns and charm packs.

Darci has been very busy working with her favorite designers fabrics and stepped out of the box and sewed with a honey bun. (for those of you unfamiliar with that term a honey bun is one 1 1/2" strip of each fabric in the line)

The sample above (although not quite finished) is part of Darci's upcoming monthly program called "Prairie Women's Sewing Circle" which features wonderful projects that get you making do with the fabrics you have at home each month. More samples are in the works so more info will be shared later. . .

The "bag lady" also dipped her toes into the Summer's End fabric and sewed up a new bag using the Steel Ball handles. If you haven't seen these before they are kind of unique and clever in that you can buy one set of steel ball handles, and sew different bag bottoms to change for any occasion. The bag was fun and quite easy to do.

Also in, is the new fabrics by BasicGrey called Origins featuring wonderful browns, blacks and yellows.

Lacey has had her eye on making the "Frenchy Bag" by Amy Butler (pattern in photo above) out of some of these fabrics. But until the pattern arrived she settled for sewing on a table runner . . .

. . .and by the looks of it has just the quilting left in the border to do before it's finished.

Guess she must have gotten side-tracked with the steel ball bag . . .

Luna Notte, a quaint and beautiful new line by Moda's 3 Sisters has also arrived this month.

The bag lady was also out pickin' berries and came home with a new kind!

This cute bag has 3-D leaves and wool felt flower and was created by Fig Tree & Co.

It's a very quick bag to sew up and would be perfect for a little girl or big girls who are young at heart!

While we were out hopping with our bus of ladies during the hop we defiantly noticed that kids clothing is a big deal. We continue to slowly but surly add more ideas for ya'll and this is the newest called "Pokadots & Summer" and too is by Fig Tree & Co.

If you are interested in sewing that special little one something I would suggest Fig Tree's patterns. I will be honest in that this is really one of the few and only companies I've sewed with but like the simplicity and good directions that Joanna gives.

Until next time~ Au Revoir ~ Good Bye!