Making A List...

 That snow sure lit a fire under me yesterday! And it didn't help that I spent a little time wandering around Anderson's looking at all the pretty Christmas decorations!  It is fast approaching and I know my time for creating gifts is going to have to be carefully carved out of my busy life! Sound familiar?  I have an Open Studio this coming Wednesday - November, 14th from 10-2.  You are welcome to come over and shop, browse, or bring a project and stitch for awhile!  Fill free to bring a lunch or I will be happy to share my pot of soup with you! I'd love to see what you are working on!

 We have Gift Certificates ready to go!

Happy Stitching everyone!

Guests in the Studio

Tuesday night the studio filled up with witches, sweet treats and lots of laughter!  The Sew and Sews had their monthly meeting here and they were a delight!  This group has been together for over 25 years and they know how to have a great time together.  It was fun to share my story with them and get know them a little bit better.

 Halloween...such a fun time of year!!

***

Yesterday I realized that I left some important info off the Pleated Pillow Pattern!  I am certainly learning it is very important to someone ELSE look over the direction BEFORE I print them off.

Please note the following as you may need to know how much fabric you need to buy AND the cutting sizes of the various pieces!!

You will need 1/2 yard of a linen type fabric that will hold a pleat well.

(I found a really nice piece at JoAnn's)

I decided to have you cut the back piece 22" x 12 1/2" for a little leeway-

You can trim it to match the front before you sew the two together.

Center Front - Cut one piece 12 1/2" x 15 1/2"

Side Fronts - Cut two pieces 3 1/2" x 12 1/2"

Pleated trim - Cut two pieces 4 1/2" x 36"

Piping - Cut two pieces 1 1/2" x 12 1/2" 

Back - Cut one piece 12 1/2" x 22"

Oh Ladies, I apologize for not being more accurate.  I made two mistakes with patterns for the Open House and I chalk it up to being out of town the week before and trying to cram too much into a few days.  I'm learning a lot and appreciate your patience and support.

Happy stitching!

And the winners are....

Our very scientific drawing was held at 9:00 pm.

From a green bowl came these names:

Congratulations to:

 Judy M. winning the wool

 Julie H. winning the velvet

"J" must have been the lucky letter this time!

Many thanks to all of you for your kind words.  I just love the wonderful

people I meet in the world of wool.  (And Judy and Julie, please email

me your addresses and I will get your prizes off to you in the mail!)

I am working on choosing a few open studio days each month.  I have had many people request a designated time they could stop in without an appointment.  I have also had requests to teach classes and I am happy to teach.  I just need a little direction as to what you would like to learn or do.  Don't hesitate to call or email me about an idea or project, class, technique, etc that you would like to learn.  On open studio days you are welcome to stop by and bring a project to work on, pack a lunch, do a little shopping....whatever makes you happy.  I love it when the studio is humming with happy noise and full of creative people!  I am in the process of setting up the calender in the tab above.  I will let you know when things are a little more finalized with info about class size, class fee, etc.  Any input is appreciated and thank you for your patience while I get this all sorted out.

Hope you are finding a little time to stitch!

Admiration

A few weeks ago I got a tip from a friend who called to tell me I just had to sneak away to see one of the homes in the Historical Home Show!  "She does that really cool thing you do with wool - you know not the crocheting, but whatever that other thing you do with the little tiny strips..."  Did she mean Rug Hooking? Well let's just say that I was so happy that I dropped everything for a minute to go have a look.

It was the home of Sharon Verdine and her artist husband, Ernie.  (I had just been admiring his work in the Gallery the day before so I was thrilled to get to meet him and see Sharon again!)  I had met Sharon at a rug hooking meeting last fall. WHAT TALENT!!

 

Their home is charming and I heard over and over again comments like, "This is my very favorite of all of the homes I have seen!"  "They have really put life back into this home not only decorating, but living the beautiful, simple, artistic life that once was so long ago." I couldn't agree more! It was exquisite, every square inch! When you first walked in, you were greeted with this cute little chicken rug.  Seeing that rug on the floor - I knew this woman was not only a very accomplished rug hooker - but prolific in her work. She makes rugs for not only the art, but for the utilitarian purpose they were intended for........once upon a time!  Sharon warmly visited with everyone...she is a gem!

 Charm around every corner...and the sweet light coming through the windows.  

It was magical.

Her hooked rugs and projects are right at home in every room. 

 Her studio had such a peaceful calm to to it.  

Her collection of antique pieces were very artfully displayed and warmly and lovingly used.

 I could move into this wonderful home quite easily and be very much at home here!

What a coincidence that I had just visited the newly opened Logan Fine Arts Gallery the day before and had been admiring Ernie's work there! I love his style and the rich color pallet he paints from. He has a blog here.  I "borrowed the photos of him painting from a fairly recent article about him  in the Herald Journal.  What a delight to meet him and see his studio. 

These two are certainly living the dream.  I am very happy for them and their content lifestyle.
Hopefully we can all follow our hearts!  Thanks for opening up your beautiful home to us, Verdines!!

:: :: :: 

 So on to a little business...
I want to thank everyone for their support in the Open House we held last Saturday.  It was such a beautiful day and so fun to see everyone.  Leslie was so generous in sharing her beautiful wool projects.  I sure love all of you lovely ladies!!  In order to promote this little blog, which will soon serve as a place of updates and class schedules - we are having a little contest!  

I realize that social media isn't everyone's thing - and some of us aren't as handy on the computer as others... but we (gently persuaded by my loving daughters...) have decided it is a fun and easy way to reach a lot of people and get updates out in a colorful way.  Like us on facebook or follow us on the blog.  Leave a comment about what you love about working with wool - hand stitching - your favorite project...etc, and we will have a drawing for two delightful prizes!

This contest will run for one week...Drawing will be held at 9 pm October 9th! 
(I'll post the winners Wednesday morning)

 Eighteen 6" x 8" pieces of yummy fall wool pieces ~ perfect for small projects and applique!

and

Three strips (8" x 16") of the gorgeous new hand dyed silk/rayon velvet!  Great to add into wool projects for beautiful shimmer and a pretty texture...not to mention the amazing silky hand it has!

 Also, if you purchased a pattern/kit for Stacked Jacks - you may have gotten one with out an important piece of the pattern.  A few were missing the page for the larger stacked jacks pillow pattern pieces.  I can that to you if you email me your address.  Sorry for the error and inconvenience. 

We had dye cut pieces for you to take home and create a cute little Pinterst-Inspired bookmark.  For your reference and inspiration...here is the photo we were inspired by.  Hope to see everyone soon!  we'd love to see what YOU have created!  Happy Stitching!

Fall Open House

Fall Open House....TOMORROW!

10:00 - 5:00 at the Studio

1015 East 100 North

435-755-5906

We have been busy bees getting everything ready and there never seems to be

enough time to do what you'd like to do - especially when you have been

slowed down with traveling and a cold!

But it is what is and we are excited to see everyone!

We have a few new patterns and lots of wool.  We also have

some beautiful pieces of hand dyed Silk/Rayon Velvet!

It is the perfect texture to add some real spark to your applique projects!

Hope you can stop by and help us eat some the goodies piling up on the counters!

M I A

Yep.  Missing in action for the entire summer!  My excuse is a good one though and something I am pretty passionate about.  Family.  Sometimes you just need to simplify...so I did.  We have had a wonderful (despite the wild ride life and family can give you) summer. I am finally spending time back in the studio again so happy to be here!

Fall Open House is scheduled for Saturday, September 29th.

I'd love a little input.  We have done  Friday evening and  Saturday daytime hours in the past.
It seems that our first day is always the busiest and then things slow down a little the second day.  We aren't sure if this is because night time hours are better or if people are just excited to come visit. Let us know what you think in the comment section before we set things in stone. Two days is certainly an option.  We have some fun things up our sleeves and are looking forward to sharing with you.  Please be sure to bring in some of the things you have been working on.  We'd love to see what you have been up to.

We are also hoping to f i n a l l y have a Calender with a few things scheduled on it soon!

::  for a bit of inspiration  ::

 I came across this blog months and months ago and I keep thinking about this woman's creativity and resourcefulness.  I just have to share it.  Vicki took a thrifted wool blanket and created 40 of the most beautiful items!  It was a two year process and definitely worth peeking at. She even wrote a book that includes many of the projects she created entitled, Blanket Statement. It is available at Amazon

So clever and pretty. 

Feel the need to go hunt down an old wool blanket?

Click here to view her blog post.
Her blog is called Turkey Feathers.  Hope you enjoy her as much I do!

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!
It will be over in a blink.

Thrifting and Thank You's

It is such a treat to spend time wandering around in one of the sweet little antique shops in town or perusing a consignment store!  We have plenty of them to poke around in here in our lovely little valley.  (I've yet to attend a flea market, as we don't have any around here, but that adventure will come someday down the road!)

This adorable little striped apron begged to come home with me.  Look at the itty bity ric rac. And it's a Fruit of the Loom!  Remember those funny commercials with the men dressed up in their fruit costumes?

Collecting papers for a fabric journal in the works...

***

I have met the sweetest women through this business.

A friend gave me this beautiful stack of hand knitted dish cloths last week with the nicest little note. They are my favorite things right now!

Our guild president handmade this sweet little sewing kit

just for me! It is a gem. 

I love seeing some scraps from our pillow projects!

Thank you, thank you!  

Love certainly makes the world go round!

Trunk Show

Yesterday I was invited to share a trunk show at My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe in their newly opened Attic.  What fun it was!  The store is adorable and they have done such a beautiful job with the space upstairs in "The Attic".  It will be a great place for them to host events and functions and I'm really happy for them. After jibber-jabbing for a while about how I became interested in wool, a little chat about dying and felting wool, and showing a few of my creations, we got to work making some cute little mason jar lid covers. The ladies are a blast to be with! As much as I enjoyed the morning, the big treat for me was stepping in the room next door to see the group of rug hookers from the valley and some of their beautiful rugs! Rug hooking was my first love affair with wool and seeing all of their amazing rugs gave me a shot in the arm! I can't wait to pull out my frame and start stripping and hooking again!

I hope your spring is as beautiful as ours is here in Cache Valley!

Thank You!

Karen was the lucky winner of my jar contest! Her prize is this sweet little birdie. I made her from a soft creamy piece of wool and cotton script fabric and I embellished her with buttons and trim from the jar.  The spool she is perched on was also from the jar.

Hope you enjoy her, Karen!

Our Spring Open House was a success!  Thanks to everyone who came by for a visit.  It was so fun to chat and hear about your latest projects. What a beautiful time of year! I just love stitching in the backyard listening to the birds chirp.

 New threads and ribbons...

 Everyone who came got to take home a little kit to make their own

bird on a spool.  Here is a photo for reference.  They are quick and super fun to create!

(OOPS! Please note that the body piece should be cut on the fold

I forgot to notate that on the pattern piece - sorry about that!)

 My cute friend Lisa shared a few projects she has done and is currently working on. 

Her stitching and embellished work are beautiful!

 Enjoy your Spring, feathering your nest, and creating!