Some Quiet Time

With much heartache, I need to have some time away from business. We lost our son, Davis this past Sunday. You can read his obituary, here.  Thank you for your understanding.

Full House!

We really enjoyed our time with all of you that came to our Fall Open House!  Thank you for your support and for your wonderful friendships!  It is so neat to see what you have been creating!  These gatherings seem to get a little bigger and better each time.  I have to smile when I look back on the first one we had in  2010.  I started this blog the following year.  {This links} to a slideshow on our family blog of our first Open House.  Take a peek at some fabulous Ronda creations!  She is a gem.  At that time I had just started designing projects and only had about a table full of wool for sale.  Our new studio has been a blessing.  Such a wonderful place to work and create as well as a sweet gathering place.

It was great to have my sister's family up for the weekend!  

They were a huge help in getting things ready and organized.

  A few of our guests!  

Shelley snapped these with her phone.  

What would we do without those little wonders!?

Suzanne and Judy shared a beautiful trunk show with us!  

What gorgeous pieces they have created.  We were all inspired.

 Christmas is just around the corner...

  Lots of eye candy!  

 Beautiful stitches.  I should have been better about some up close photos.

 Sheep and 12 months of woolie goodness!

 Pincushion Collection

 I couldn't have done it without you lovely ladies!
(Kaye...the cash register was a dream!)

 It seems there is a spot in the studio for everyone to create :)  Great job, Abbie!

Here is a link to the fabulous Raspberry Cream Cheese Bars my sister made. 

 {She adds a sprinkling of Chocolate Chips before she puts the topping on}

Hope you all enjoy stitching up those those sweet little velvet pumpkins.  

This is such a wonderful time of year!

A few apologies...

It seems we left out the green piece of wool in the kits:

Bountiful

Wool Pillow & Table Runner 

I have had one call on that.  Please let me know if you purchased one of these kits and it is missing green for the stems.   We will get that mailed right out to you!

Cold Days Kit

Will be missing 3 cream wool pieces.  We caught that late Friday night and tried to pull them.  Please let us know if you have one of these kits as well and we will mail the missing wool to you! 

Again, please accept our apologies! 
We want every single customer to be happy and satisfied with their purchase.

Last of all, I have contacted Wooly Lady and Heart to Hand to order some of their patterns.  I will let you know when they are available.  We will be kitting the Autumn Wall Hanging that Suzanne shared with us.  (Pictured in this post above) The title of this pattern is Harvest Moon. 

We would love to hear any suggestions or comments from you!  

Happy Stitching

xo 

Dye Kitchen Rockin

We are really looking forward to our fall open house!  Two talented wool gatherers from the Pocatello, Idaho area will be sharing some of their beautiful wool works.  Thank you Judy and Suzanne for being so gracious about sharing your love of wool with us!  The wool is piling up and kits are being assembled.  Here are a few teasers that you can look forward to seeing in the studio!  More to come ;)  Hope you are enjoying the change of the seasons.  Such a sweet time of year!

Save the Date

The summer has been full to the brim this year.  It's nice to be settling back into a regular routine again.  We are looking forward to our Fall Open House next month.  Details will follow.  We wanted to get the dates out so you can put them on your calender!  Hope you have all had a wonderful summer, too!

A Good Day

We sure had a great time in the studio Saturday!  My favorite quote of the day was, " I hope we all end up in the same old folks home together!"  We relished in the sweet time it is to create with other women who enjoy the same things we do.  Watching a fuzzy pipe cleaner magically form the  armature of tiny little 3" fairy was pretty exciting.  There is a lot of wrapping and sometimes a lot of starting over!   The best is part is making her clothes and dressing her.  We all agreed how we were similar to these tiny dolls; not looking to hot without any clothes on!  I failed as a photographer that afternoon, but I will share a few photos to document the day anyway.  Thanks for coming ladies!  You were so much fun to work with!

 We sure had a great time!  Sorry I couldn't focus my camera...

A few of the wee ones all finished up.

We worked from Salley Mavor's book Felt Wee Folk.  She is currently revising it and will be printing a new edition in 2015.  I understand the distributor is out but she has some copies available in her ETSY shop. Once in awhile one will come up on Amazon. I also highly recommend her newest book, Pocketful of Posies that I blogged about here.  Wonderful inspiration!

Hope your gardens will have magic all summer long!

Acorn Fairy Class

Mark and I leave again tomorrow afternoon.  All 3 oz liquids are still in their appointed ziplock baggies and our suitcases are filling up.  We are giddy with excitement to meet our newest little grand daughter, Layney. (Given name will be Kaelyn Alayna but they think they will call her Layney.)

She is a perfect little bundle of cute pinkness! 

She came into the world May 7th. 

Our kids are back in the DC area so it is always such a treat 

when we can go spend some time with them. 

***

I have scheduled a class on the Tiny Acorn Fairies that I have sitting in my window sill. 

Please leave a comment or email me if you are interested in the class.  

There will be room for about 10 participants.   

Lunch will be be furnished as well as a few drawings for fabulous prizes :)

June 8th

10:00 am - 2:30 pm

$30.00 (includes kit for 2 Fairy's )

I will be back in town and back to normal life on May 28th.

Spring Projects

I have not been great at posting very often.  I have been tweaking my book and preparing for two really special trips! The book went back to the printer on Tuesday so I am hopeful it will be finished before I leave so I can get some copies to some very patient stitchers!

If you bought a copy at our Spring Open House, 
please contact us so we can get you a 
fresh new copy with ALL the patterns in it ;)

This past week I got to teach at Peace By Piece Quilt Guild's retreat.  They are the happiest group of ladies in the valley!  Such a treat to hang with them.  The retreat theme was scrappy so we worked

on projects with our wool scraps.  I brought this little Wool Crazy Sewing Kit for the girls to create.  Everyone had their own inspiration and I can't wait to see what they do!!

The front cover is the one with the beehive and the back cover is the one with the owl.  The photos don't do this little piece much justice.  It really turned out cute!  I love the buttons above the pocket.  You can keep your assorted threads organized by wrapping them around the buttons!  So handy when you are stitching in the car!  Wool crazies are a blast to do and  such a fun way to use up all your bitty scraps that seem to multiply by the day!!  Try one!  I have seen pincushions and other little projects all over Pinterest.  There is a great tutorial on The Painted Quilt blog. Her blog is really fun to visit!

I also found this adorable pillow pattern in this publication:

It was so much fun to work on and possibilities are endless.  

It looks absolutely adorable on the couch or tucked in a chair! 

Picasa has not been opening for my on my computer.  I like doing collages and so I went searching for something new. I found Ribbet!  You can also download the app to your tablet or phone.  It is so fun and easy to use!!  Try it out and see for yourself :)

We will soon be leaving to visit far away lands.  My cute hubby and I are  taking my mom to her Motherland, Poland and then we are going to visit his sister and brother-in-law in Vienna with side trips to Prague and Budapest.  We are giddy with excitement!  It will be so incredible to visit the towns where my mom's grandparents come from.  We will be  home a week and then it will be off to the the East Coast to spend time celebrating the birth of our new grand baby!  They have on e of each so baby #3's gender is a surprise and we can hardly stand the suspense!  I will be around May 9-15 between these two trips...and then home to stay after Memorial Day.  You can contact me via email.  We will have our girls here keeping the home fires burning, if you have a wool emergency while I am away.

I wanted to take some little woolie gifts in case we meet a distant relative or meet a new friend along our journey.  I decided to make some little pocket size journal covers.  They are delightful to stitch up and won't take up precious cargo space.  They are all constructed by hand so I can take some to stitch on the plane.  (Sorry the photos are a little dark.)

I made the beehive first and then remembered I had pinned some adorable needle cases.  I'm taking inspiration from those to make some cheerful covers.  I cut my background 11 1/2 x 4 1/2 to cover the small composition books.  (Purchased at Staples) Everything is blanket stitched with Valdani thread after I applique the front motif on.  The journal is just as snug as a bug in it's woolie cover.  I may or may not add a button closure.

Inspiration Photo:

If you haven't visited mmmcrafts, you really need to!  

She is overflowing with creativity! 

Enjoy your Spring, whatever you are doing! 

We expect to come home to luscious 

green and flowers in bloom!!

Our Dreams

One of my very most favorite things to do is visiting

antique stores and cool thrift shops. We have a few in our

valley that supply me with great finds every now and again.

A few weeks ago I found this beautiful Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt

wooden spools, old buttons, a large pinecone, beautiful old scissors and tweezers

that were part of an old medical kit and....

A sewing machine identical to the one that I received as

a little girl, eight years old! The $15 price tag thrilled me.

The photo below is the year I got my little Singer, as well as the

Flying Nun Doll and new box of fresh crayons!

Oh, was I a happy girl! 

 I cannot tell you of all of the happy hours I spent sewing tiny little doll clothes and dreaming of the day I would be able to sew real clothes on my mom's big machine.  It was the beginning of my love of fabric and creating.

I feel so fortunate to get to work in such a creative atmosphere and associate with the most amazing people that come in and out of my studio.  It is a blessing.  I had a cute wool gatherer stop by this morning who is sending her talented brother little snips and scraps of wool.  He lives in CA and is creating beautiful works of art in the way of hooked rugs.  I hope to be able to share his story one day with you.  It is very sweet, like she is.  We talked about our lives and how we spend our time...or better yet, how we wonder how we should spend our time.  I have been thinking about the amount of "good" years I have left on this earth.  Will I get 10 more?   How should I be spending my days?  She said something that really made me think.  I understand exactly what you mean, I think of this everyday.  What should I do with my time?  I know there are only so many days left...but I have dreams of 50 years!  Wow!  We do have dreams and it only makes sense to make these dreams realities...because we never know when our time will be up. Thank you E.R. for your sweet visit this morning....and I wish you and your brother all the best!


Here is to making our dreams...real!

Oh, Ladies!

Oh, Ladies!  What a weekend we had!  I am still trying wrap my brain around Friday night.  It was quite unbelievable to us.  We want to thank everyone that came and helped celebrate our 10 year anniversary of our business. I say "our" because it truly is a family endeavor and I could never do what I do without the incredible support I receive from my sweet family.

I wish I would have been able to visit more with everyone!  It was easier to do on Saturday as things were at a much more quiet pace.  But let me just say that the energy in this studio on Friday night would have propelled us all to the moon and back if we could have bottled it up! You ladies are the best and I appreciate your love, support, encouragement and enthusiasm so very much! Thank you for your patience as you waited in line for a very long time, for sharing your one dollar bills when we ran out and for any prayers that went up silently, in behalf of a future cash register!  (There may just be one in our future!)   We sold out of all of our little wool bundles and so many kits.  When it was all over I looked at Lindsey and said - we don't have enough to sell tomorrow! Our coolest-ever-husbands stepped up to the plate and helped us put together more kits, bundles and favors.  We worked until the wee hours of the morning.

 Thank you Thank you Thank you ~ to EVERYONE!

We are so very sorry that some of the kits we "set aside" for earlier orders were unknowingly swept up by others.  We are working our hardest to get every kit ordered to its rightful-owner!

After nearly two years,  I got my Pillow Cover Patterns into a book!  We printed 50 copies and sold most of them.  That was very exciting!!  However...I am quickly learning how much work it is to put a book together and how difficult it is to catch the many errors that have been popping up despite the many proof readings we have done!  I will be linking some specific corrections soon on the blog.  If one of these errors has given you heartache,  I apologize from the bottom of my heart.  Come see me and I will give you a woolie hug!

I received an email from a cute customer on Friday.  Here is a portion of it:
Hi Lisa.  I am so looking forward to coming to your open house tonight.  I am bringing another friend from Layton and picking up Loraine and Julie from Brigham on the way....then hooking up with the Hyde Park girls.  Amazing how wool gathers us all together!  You are probably in a frenzy today and may not even see this email before we all descend on you ...

I share this because it is so very true how our desire to create and be with others who love to create is such a need in so many of us!

This is inspiring.  This is a video of a portion of a talk given at an LDS general conference 4 or 5 years ago.  I am not on a religious soapbox of any kind, but I do believe he is speaking to all of us. He is one of my favorites!
Have a look HERE - it's only about 2 minutes in length.


It is a beautiful thing to share our talents and ideas with each other.   I love seeing the projects you are creating!  Last week some friends brought by their Pennies From Heaven Quilts which are almost completed.  Wow!  You could sit and look at them all day long. What treasure they will be.

We are listening to your comments and suggestions. I would love to have a couple of scheduled days or nights each month to have an Open Studio where we can gather to stitch and share what we are working on.  Watch the calender above.  We have had many requests for classes too so we will get right on that as well.  Thanks for your patience and suggestions.  Please keep the comments and emails coming!


We were far too busy to pick up the camera during the open house.  Saturday afternoon I took some photos so you can see some of the beautiful projects that Mariann Golich shared with us.

The one and only, Mariann Golich.  

Her work is just beautiful and she is such a treasure!!

 Thank you Mariann!!

Lots of eye candy in the studio.

Everyone got to pick an egg for a fun prize or extra percent off.

Our favors this year were Pea Pod Pin Cushion Kits

honoring the color of the year - Emerald Green

and celebrating that Spring is just around the corner

with yummy felted wool balls in this adorable little pin cushion!

 If you are wishing for a fun wool project to stitch up for the Spring...come on over!

Just give me a ring to make sure I am home.

Orange Citrus Punch

(from my cute Mom, Joan!)

Make a simple syrup by bringing to boil two cups of water & 2 cups sugar.

Let this cool. Add the following to the cooled syrup and mix together in a pitcher:
1 large can orange juice

1 large can lemonade

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

To a large punch bowl with ice, pour half of the orange juice mixture and add one bottle of soda.

Reserve the other half for a second round with the 2nd bottle of soda

Two 2 Liter Bottles of Sprite, Ginger Ale, Club Soda... whatever you like.

(Mariann said a little Rum sounded great to her ;) 

Slice some oranges to make it pretty.
Everyone who tries this LOVES it!

Happy Spring everyone!
And thanks again for a very memorable weekend!

We really treasure your friendship!