Minick & Simpson

Hearts and Love

2012-02-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

Do you have big plans? Are you making anything for people you love? No big plans here. You know, we're married and have been for awhile. There will be a small gift and cards, no doubt, but there won't be dressing up and going dancing. If I'm lucky he'll watch a romantic movie with me - or a hockey game. I'm not complaining. If I'm very lucky, there will be a romantic movie, some chocolate, and some stitching on the sofa. No, "stitching on the sofa" is not a euphemism.

I have been inundated with heart imagery. Let's all get inspired, shall we

Gary G stacked turquoise ring from Schaef Design Jewelry

19th century Pennsylvania Sandstone Trivet

Silver charm from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

I know Polly is working on a rug right now that has lots of hearts in it. I'm not working on a heart quilt - but it's a quilt with heart....

This is the Golden Retriever quilt I am making. The borders are being stitched at the moment, so it's not quite finished.

And guess what? There is a Blog Hop starting on Monday - make sure to stop by the Jolly Jabber for the start. Here is the rest of the schedule. Oh, and it's all very mysterious.

Tuesday 2/14 – Bunny Hill Designs

Wednesday 2/15 – Primitive Gatherings

Thursday 2/16 – Me and My Sister Designs

Friday 2/17 – Aneela Hoey

Monday 2/20 – Blackbird Designs

Tuesday 2/21 – Kate Spain

Wednesday 2/22 – Sandy Gervais

Thursday 2/23 – Bonnie & Camille

Friday 2/24 – Fig Tree Quilts

Monday 2/27 – Minick & Simpson

Tuesday 2/28 – Cosmo Cricket

Wed 2/29 – Sweetwater

The book American Summer is expected to land on my porch today {fingers crossed}. The pre-orders will go out immediately after that. Have a heartful weekend.

Laurie

It Helped!

2012-02-04T19:24:00.000-08:00

Thanks for everyone's tips on the dreaded taxes and spring cleaning. It helped me. I finished my part of the taxes today!!!! Everything goes to the CPA, but all my little ducks are in a row. What a relief. As for the cleaning, well, we can't be good at everything, can we.

The 3 winners of a copy of American Summer by Polly Minick and a prop are:

Jackie B

Nancy D

Marilee

Ladies, email me here and I'll get your goodies out to you.

Bathing Beauties Rug by Polly Minick - American Summer

Besides patting myself on the back because of the taxes, I did a little cooking today. Roast chicken, and this - MY NEW FAVORITE SALAD

photo from Not Without Salt Blog

This yumminess is Orange and Avocado salad. What a treat. We'll be eating this a lot this week as avocado's and naval oranges are at their peak right now.

We'll have pictures of some works in progress this week as well as news of a new Blog Hop!

Laurie

Stuff

2012-02-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

I have been less than inspired the last few days. It's that time of year. Working on taxes, and cleaning out stuff. The taxes have been broken down into smaller pieces, so I am fooling myself thinking it is less than a job than it is. I am about 80% finished with it and inventory. It's a dreaded, but very much needed chore. Along with paperwork, some of the year's excess gets moved to trash and recycle bins and other places. You know what that means.... we need to move some of the stuff from here - to your house. You're welcome!

Polly and I expect the shipment of American Summer books to be arriving on our doorstep any day. If you pre-ordered, your book will go out to you the same day it arrives here. We would like to have a give-away on the new book too! We also would like to send along a little "gift" with your new book. We have a few "props" that we used to film the book.

How about 3 winners..... each winner will get a copy of the book American Summer and one of these props. They include a vintage sand pail and shovel, a hand stitched beach ball made with Prairie Paisley II, and a vintage miniature beach chair. (It's pretty adorable). While both Polly and I love these..... there is a limit to our space. We are running out of it. Can you please find it in your hearts to make room for a book and one of these treasures??

Just make a comment below before midnight Saturday February 4th and you could be a winner. How about a comment on how you tackle the taxes or how you jump into spring cleaning. That would sure inspire me. And if you can't get enough of old stuff... we have an Ebay auction of some of the props from the Victory Girls book here. The quilt that is underneath it all.... well, it's from American Summer too.

It's called Summer Roses.

Thanks in advance for helping clean my house.

Laurie

Filling the Jane Austen Void

2012-01-24T08:29:00.000-08:00

We haven't blogged much about Downton Abbey. It seems that everyone else has - and we'll leave it at that. Big fan. Love it all, expect for the cringe worthy duet last week. But hey, you can't be perfect all the time. This anglophilia has reminded me of the master - Ms. Austen and her masterpiece.

I have read it once. I have listened to it on audiobook more times than I can count. I have seen both of the most recent films - the one with Kiera Knightly as Lizzie and the 5 1/2 hour long epic with Colin Firth. We have stated our feelings before on this blog about Mr. Firth.I won't gush on about him. We loved both versions.

But what to do when you have read the original countless times and the Pride and Prejudice dvd's are wearing a bit thin. Literally. Well, there are countless prequels, sequels, and re-imaginings out there. Have you indulged in any of them? Here are some I have watched or read.

There's the Bollywood version of it called Bride and Prejudice.

This version takes place in contemporary New Delhi. Not bad. If you like the Bollywood way of putting every story known to man with singing and dancing. I enjoyed it. Another good film is Lost in Austen.

It's both a book and a movie. The movie, I believe, is better than the book. Funny, but with real respect for Austen. Think of it as if Bridget Jones time travels back to Netherfield and Longbourn.

There are countless sequels and prequels and even murder mysteries. Some are pretty good. I liked Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler. Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife by Linda Berdoll I did not. Ugh. It's a sequel to Pride and Prejudice with all the intimate details of Lizzie's and Mr. Darcy's sex life revealed. Oh, how I wish I could erase some of the images out of my mind. I never finished it. My least favorite is The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCollough. It's Mary Bennet's story during the time of Pride and Prejudice and long after. Remember Mary, the prudish sister who lectures all on morality? Well, in this story, while she is lecturing on morality, she is wickedly deceiving all around her and well, just behaving badly. No character comes out of this unscathed. I wasn't the only one who hated it . Read the reviews.

My current read and surprising alternative take on the classic story??!! Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.Really. Who doesn't like Zombies? I had seen this advertised and avoided for quite awhile. I succumbed the last time I went to the library and I'm glad I did. Believe it or not - it is the most true to the original, yet it is completely ridiculous and fun. Imagine Lizzie and Jane trained by Shaolin Monks for the killing of Zombies? Lizzie and Jane are not the first heroines trained by Shaolin Monks in the violent arts.

Remember her?

So, if you need a bit of entertainment while stitching, try a few of the above.

Oh, and thanks to all who sent a kind note about the radio interview yesterday. You can listen to it here if you missed it.

Laurie

Repeat

2012-01-22T13:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever made the same quilt twice? A slightly different quilt the second time around. I have. Many times, and no, I don't get bored. I guess it would if all I did was the same quilt over and over, but I don't. I enjoy the process of stitching, it usually doesn't matter what, so I guess that's way it doesn't bother me much. A few years ago I made this quilt and it appeared in our first book, Folk Art Friends.

Unfortunately, Folk Art Friends is out of print. You still might be able to find it on Amazon and EBay as used. I'm doing this quilt again, as a commission, with several changes. First, it's going to be blue and gold, not red and gold and second, it's going to be a golden retriever quilt, not an Airedale. Here is a finished block.

It's good to have a project to stitch on while I am designing new quilts for our next fabric collection. Sometimes the designing process is easy and fast and I can't believe I can get all bunched up about it. Then sometimes, well it's like procrastination and dread all wrapped up in an inferiority complex. This designing binge is sort of in between.

Hope you all have something nice to stitch on.

Remember to listen to us tomorrow at 4pm EST on American Patchwork & Quilting Radio - hosted by Pat Sloan - the hardest working woman in the quilt industry.

Laurie

Monday! Monday! Monday!

2012-01-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

If you happen to be around a computer or a smart phone on Monday afternoon (or later - since you can listen after the fact) - Polly and I are going to be on Pat Sloan's radio show - American Patchwork & Quilting Radio. Just click on the icon on the left and it will take you there. We are going on at 4pm.

We're excited! We love the medium! We were born with faces that are made for radio!

We'll chat about Victory Girls, Spirit of Sacagawea, and American Summer, the new book with lots of rugs and some quilts too.

Sampler Rug from American Summer

People, you have to know..... we saw the strike-offs of our new fabric collection that will be shown to quilt shop owners in 2 months. Just know that we are very, very excited. We love it and we think you will too. When I get my hot little hands on actual, real fabric - you people will be the first to know.

Laurie

American Summer!

2012-01-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

The wind chill here is in single digits. What better time to talk of summer!

Polly has a new book coming out in a week or so..... it's called American Summer

"Take a trip seaside with Polly Minick. This book has 12 gorgeous rug patterns that will bring back memories of her home state of Michigan, the shores of Florida and Nantucket - showing good times, family times, and lazy days. The book has extensive instructions and tips about her beloved rug hooking. It also has several quilts from her most talented sister Laurie Simpson and the "coolest beach bag" ever. It is well known that Americans most often head to the shore for their family times - be it a lake, river, canal, Great Lake, or oceans - We love the shore! This book will bring back your family memories."

The book is here, on our website for pre-order right now. They should ship in about a week or so. It's a lovely book, you'll want this in your library. Thanks!

Laurie

Victory Girl Book Winner!

2012-01-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all your news of quilting and rug hooking adventures. I know we all like to hear about them. Polly and I have more than the usual amount of travel planned this year. It's good to know that we'll be seeing some of you. The one bad thing about travel...... is being away from our loved ones.

Gibby is not amused. He doesn't like it when the suitcases come out. Thankfully, we have people waiting in line to take care of him. It must be his sparkling personality. But, it won't be for awhile yet. Mr. Gibbs is happy about that.

Oh, the winner of the Victory Girls book is..... Laurie in Iowa

Laurie, email me here and we'll get the book out to you.

What do we have to tell you? I just finished a little project and used this stuff.

The neat handle is from Superbuzzy. Yeah, you know the drill..... I can't show you the finished project yet. Sorry about that. Frustrating, isn't it? Can I bribe you with more goodies? Come back tomorrow and Polly will have something great to show you. Thanks for your patience.

Laurie

Is It Winter Where You're At?

2012-01-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

It isn't here. It's rainy, muddy, and a dark, dreary day. (Muddy Winters, what a great name for a blues singer) There are rumors that we will get a small blizzard soon, but I don't think it will amount to much, as it will be in the 40's next week. My chores for the day have been done and I'm going to start a pot of soup. Hopefully tonight will find me cozily stitching on the sofa. It's it's going to snow (and it is January after all) I would love to have a real snow storm. You know, snowy and brisk, like this.

Brrrrr Park by Minick and Simpson

As you can see, when this picture was taken, it was a dreary, overcast, warm winter day also. Bah!

Enough of that. We have some more dates firmed up for the upcoming year. We will be in Iowa at Hen and Chicks June 5th, 6th and 7th.

We will be going back to Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe at the end of April - the 27th and 28th. They should be posting information on that soon.

This unseasonably temperate winter has Polly and I thinking of summer........ which brings us to this...... we will have a summertime announcement very soon! To get ready for that, let's hear about everyone's rug hooking and/or quilting plans for the summer. We have a full calendar and are wondering if any of you folks are going to travel with hooking or quilting in mind? Will you go to a show? A retreat? Maybe just a long weekend? Let us know. Comment here before midnight Saturday the 14th and you could win a copy of Victory Girls.

Good luck.

Laurie

Color Of The Year!

2012-01-06T15:19:00.000-08:00

http://pinterest.com/

Have you heard? The color of the year, as picked by the color gurus at Pantone © is Tangerine Tango. Just so you know, we love this! Except maybe for the name. Tangerine Tango sounds more orange than it really is. It's orange/red, or red on the orange side, or tomato soup red as I call it. Okay, so it's orange. We still love it. It's the color of vintage Fiestaware.

It's also the color of the reds that Polly and I use in our rugs and quilts.

What is not to like? Sometimes, it's the reason I "pin" things on Pinterest.

Have a Tangerine Tango weekend!!!

Laurie

New Year - New Projects

2012-01-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

It's a new year and I find I'm itching for a new project. A little appliqué. A quick peruse through the scrap bin and the palette quickly emerges. The inspiration is all those many monochromatic sewing baskets, bags, boxes, made in the Japanese style. You know, kind of like these, but not nearly so well done I will wager to say.

The above picture is from the book Daily Quilt 101 (all the rest of the wording on the cover is in Japanese - so it could say a lot more - your guess is as good as mine).

Did you happen to get a new calendar as a holiday gift? Below are the appearances Polly and I will make this year.....mark on your calendar and try to stop by.

February: Polly will be in Sarasota Florida at a hook-in on February 22. Unfortunately, this is sold out, but try to make reservations for next February. This is quite the popular event.

March: Polly will be in Sebring Florida the 23rd, 24th, and the 25th. There are still openings here. Click on "Sebring" above to email the coordinator of the event. Polly raves about the accommodations!

April: On the 12th, 13th, and 14th I will be in Petoskey Michigan at the Little Traverse Bay Quilt Guild. I will do a lecture and trunk show at the guild and teach. Also in April, both Polly and I will go back to West Linn Oregon and teach at HollyHill Quilt Shoppe. Those dates have not yet been nailed down yet - but I expect within a week or so - we will have it.

May: All you shop owners and employees can find us in Moda Land at the 2012 Spring International Quilt Market. Immediately following that both Polly and I have special things planned - but they have to remain a secret for just awhile longer.

June: In June, Polly and I will travel to Iowa and join Heidi Kaisand at her shop Hen and Chicks for a retreat. Again the dates haven't been nailed down - but we should have them very soon.

July: July takes Polly back to Nantucket for her show and some classes at the Nantucket Historical Association 1800 House. It will be the last week in July. The NHA doesn't have it's 2012 classes up yet - but keep checking their website.

August: August 12th through 18th will find both Polly and I are at Sauder Village for their rug hooking week. This is a must for all you rug hookers - great show, lots of classes, and mega vending! I will even teach a class!

The rest of 2012 is still in flux. We'll post more when we know. Hope to see you all.

Laurie

Football or Movies?

2011-12-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

We have another holiday weekend before us. Polly and family are football nuts and the weekend is a marathon of games. There will be a few games on here, but not all the time. While finishing a quilt, I will do some more cooking and movie watching. We have gone out to the movies lately too. I do have a couple of recommendations.

Hugo. This was a lovely film. It's the story of an orphaned boy who lives in the train station in Paris in the 1920's. It's a movie about loving movies. I can also recommend seeing it in 3D. While most 3D movies have things hurtling at you form the screen, this movie sort of lets you enter the movie. It's great for both children and adults.

I can tell you what not to see {cough. War Horse. cough}, but I won't dwell on negativity. Just know that if you were moved to tears watching Bambi or Old Yeller, War Horse will send you straight to therapy. Don't let children anywhere near that movie.

Now, on to something more uplifting. The Artist is playing here at the Michigan Theater. The Michigan is our old, original movie house with gilt ceilings, carved pillars, and a honest to god organist who plays before all features. The Artist is about a silent movie star from Hollywood in the 1920's. Since it is about a silent movie star - the movie itself is silent and in black and white. This isn't for everyone. I was hesitant to think a silent movie could keep me interested for an hour and a half. It does! Also, it has Uggie! Uggie the dog has been seriously considered for an supporting actor award. He would get my vote, if I had one.

Have a great weekend, and we'll be back with rugs, quilts, and our upcoming 2012 calendar.

Laurie

Afterwards

2011-12-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

We hope your post holiday break is going well. I used to work in retail and Norman Rockwell pretty much sums it up, doesn't he? The last few days have been pretty uneventful here. Lots of cooking,

Thanks to all of you who recommended The Pioneer Woman's recipe for cinnamon rolls. You were right - they're terrific! On Christmas day, after our family celebration 2 days earlier, it was just Bill and I. Christmas Paella was the order of the day. What else? There's been some stitching, some designing, and lots of dog walking, and dog cuddling. Otto the wonder dog has been hanging with Gibby this week.

Santa was very, very good to us. Bill got his own laptop! Up until this time we had been sharing a computer. It was the best present I he got. What's Christmas without new books!

Isn't this wonderful?! Emma, by Jane Austen with a cover that appears hand stitched. (Penguin Threads knows it's audience, doesn't it - Austen + needlework = WIN). This is the inside cover - with all the loose threads and knots showing. LOVE!

Actually, everything is just great - except for this NEW Blogger format. Geesh. I guess I'll catch on eventually.

Laurie

Blue and White Christmas (with some greens)

2011-12-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

Polly is decorated and waiting for the big day.

It's a bit of a blue and white Christmas here too as I work on a project in the evenings.

Merry Christmas!

Laurie

Not Having a White Christmas

2011-12-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

Are you familiar with the seldom sung first stanza to White Christmas?

The sun is shining.
The grass is green.
The orange and palm trees sway.
There's never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it's December the twenty-fourth,
And I'm longing to be up north......

If you substitute Beverly Hills, L.A. with Naples Florida, you sort of know what Polly's Christmases are like. Here are the latest pics from south Florida.

Take it away, Bing, Rosemary, Vera, and Danny!

Laurie

Confessions of a Sometimes Baker

2011-12-16T13:50:00.001-08:00

If you go by the "baking" aisles in the grocery stores - it seems that a lot of us are baking right now. Our baking aisle has expanded into the concourse and kiosks of the grocery store. There is sweet, doughy stuff all over the place. In my attempt to get into the mood of the season I started baking this week. I made these Meyer Lemon Breakfast Rolls a few days ago. Basically they are much like cinnamon rolls, but instead of cinnamon, there is lemon zest liberally rolled into the dough. The sugar icing is moistened with Meyer lemon juice. When I saw a picture of these online, I thought they were genius. Who doesn't like cinnamon rolls? We are big fans of lemon here and I thought it was meant to be that I make them. "Why didn't I think of these before?" Well, probably for a good reason. While they LOOK delicious. These were an epic flop. If you see the recipe online - DO NOT MAKE. Don't waste 3 precious hours of your life laboring over them and don't, for a minute, waste a calorie on eating one.

If they were a good idea, they would have been made long ago. What was wrong?? I don't know, except they tasted of lemon and yeast. Lots of yeast. Lemon seems to bring out the worst in yeast. I had one. Bill had two (because he is a good sport), and after they sat around a few days, they were tossed. We couldn't even give them away. We wouldn't do that to anyone we know. Bill took the philosophical route and said "If you don't try anything new, you would never experience anything new." Me - I'm still a little resentful about my Sunday morning wasted for naught. I'll get over it.

I shook that bad baking experience off my back and jumped back in today. Polly sent me a precious bag of white chocolate/peppermint Hershey Kisses. They seem to be hard to come by. I know I haven't seen them locally. I vowed not to waste the precious kisses and broke out the mixing bowls.

I went with a basic, tried and true sugar cookie. Victory.

The evening will now be spent serenely quilting while watching holiday movies. Hope you all have a serene holiday experience too.

Laurie

Winners, Book Reviews, and Spooky Predictions!

2011-12-13T20:02:00.000-08:00

We're glad you like Maw Bell's blog and new book. We do too, and we're very appreciative of all the nice stuff you said. Thanks. Well, the winner of the Victory Girls book is... QuilterPattiO.

In a bizarre twist, the winner of the Center Stage kit is........

....... SheilaS, who said "I buy every one of their books as soon as they come out so I really, really, really want to win the quilt kit. I LOVE that quilt! Merry Christmas ladies! :-)"

Well done, Sheila! Your wish came true. Sheila and PattiO please email me here and I'll get the goods right out to you. Thanks Everyone!

I'm putting in a late night tonight finishing up on lots of stuff that needs to get done in the next week or so. I know I'm not alone. There never seems to be enough time, does there? Remember to enjoy the season as you deck the halls, hang the stockings, and light the figgy pudding.

If you do have a spare minute - Polly wants you to know there is a third addition to her stocking kits - this beauty right here.

You can find this kit, it's red and white brother and sister here. In other kit news, the Spirit of Sacagawea kit is down to just one left. We appreciate your business.

Laurie

Book Review and a Prize

2011-12-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

If you've been following along, we did a book review yesterday of Summer At The Lake Quilts by Maw Bell Designs. We sent you over to their blog where they were having a give-away of their book. Being the nice ladies that they are - they are returning the favor. On Sunday December 11 they will post a book review of Victory Girls.

Go over to their blog and read the review and then come back here and comment below for the prize. Comment before Midnight Tuesday December 13th and you could win a copy of Victory Girls, or the kit shown above. That Christmassy looking kit makes this.... our quilt featured in the current American Patchwork & Quilting - Center Stage.

Read more about the kit here. Thanks everyone!

Summer At The Lake Quilts!

2011-12-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Our friends Susan and Sally of Maw Bell Designs have a new book out. It's wonderful and I'm going to tell you why :)

Susan and Sally have been making great quilts for awhile and this new publication is their latest. It's filled with fun, summery projects and isn't that nice right about now. The quilt on the cover is my favorite - Alpine Lake Quilt. It's a different take on nine patch blocks. We at Minick and Simpson love blue and white, but I can see this quilt in lots of different color combinations. The Meadowsweet Basket Quilt uses my favorites shades of red/orange with just a touch of aqua.

There are more bed size quilts and lots of smaller projects too - like this sweet back pack.

The projects are tempting, but the book is lovely to look at. The photography is outstanding and the Montana scenery is inspiring. Susan and Sally have taken their childhood memories of family outings at their cabin in Idaho as the starting point of their projects. That makes perfect sense to me - as it is how Polly and I go about creating projects. We start to talk and reminisce and one thing leads to another and the ideas just keep coming. Brava, ladies!

Make sure to stop over to Susan and Sally's blog for a give-away for this book. Tell them we sent you. Plan your next picnic and make sure to invite all your friends!

Laurie

Winners!, Book Reviews, and More!

2011-12-08T15:37:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, was the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Research for our Victory Girls book had Polly and I reading up more on the era. Some of the art work made during that time was so wonderful!

But on to the winners of our Moda Designer Blog Hop Give-away.

The winner of the Prairie Paisley II Fat 1/8th Bundle is Sharon, who said "Thanks for the recipe and the block. How sweet of you to have a give a way please enter me.Happy Holidays!"

The winner of the little hooked rug is Jill F

And just for good measure, a little something will be sent to Cindi P

Thanks everyone for joining in. It was by far our most fun give-away! All you winners, email me here and we'll get the goodies out to you.

I have a couple other things for you...... first of all, we are going to have a VERY LIMITED supply of Sacagawea kits available on our website.

We thought, since I have some of the fabric left over from the original quilt - we could kit this almost exactly like the original. While I can't promise all the fabrics will be the same - I can promise that they are at least 90% accurate and all the fabrics are Minick and Simpson fabrics.

So, if you are interested in the pattern and fabric kit - tell Santa to shop before they are gone.

Come back tomorrow for a book review of a great book - Summer At The Lake Quilts by Maw-Bell Designs. You'll love the book - and there will be another give-away.

Laurie

December Moda Designer Blog Hop!

2011-12-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome! Today starts the December 2011 Moda Designer Blog Hop. Today is the first day and I will be one of your hosts....... The other stops today are Anne over at Bunny Hill; Barb and Mary at Me and My Sister; and Deb over at Inside the Studio. Make sure to visit and get their goodies.

What is the theme you ask? Heck if I know. Besides giving you a free pattern and recipe.... I'm not really sure. But, it is that season, isn't it? How about a peek at Polly's holiday decorations

Things here are a little less decorated. Matter of fact - things here are a mess. This was my dining room table this morning.You see, all my quilts are stored on a bed in the guest bedroom. The one I wanted, well it was way down the pile. All the quilts came off the bed and were thrown on the dining room table. Once the quilt was discovered, they all went back on the bed - princess and the pea style. Christmas decorating is on my list this week. Way down the list, kind of like the desired quilt.

Okay, besides the quilt block - which will look like this when finished....

And the recipe for the Autumn Salad... what would be a Moda Blog Hop without a give-away? Comment on this post and you could wind a Fat 1/8th Bundle of Prairie Paisley II

Or you could be really, really lucky and win one of Polly's hooked rugs. This little charmer.....that was featured in this French Calendar

Comment here before Thursday December 8th at midnight and you could be a winner!

Oh, and make sure to visit the following blogs the next 4 days....

Tomorrow its Kansas Troubles, Fig Tree, Cosmo Cricket, Liz Scott, and Summersville.

Wednesday is Cotton Way, French General, Oliver + S, Sweetwater, and The Long Thread.

Thursday will be Thimbleblossoms, Kathy Schmitz, Laundry Basket Quilts, Kate Spain, and Primitive Gatherings.

Friday will end it all with Basic Grey, Brannock and Patek, American Jane, and Pieces From My Heart. Whew! Have fun!

Laurie

Center Stage

2011-12-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

Check your mailbox! The new American Patchwork & Quilting is starting to ship. We have a new quilt in the February 2012 issue. The cover will look like this

Yes, either the one on the left - OR the one on the right. Could be either one. Magazines do that every once in a while. Some sort of market testing, but as nice as both those covers are - it's whats inside that counts.

The quilt "Center Stage" is in it and it is made with American Banner Rose. The inspiration of course, was the Red and White quilt exhibit in New York City this past March. As a matter of fact, after walking the show, we had a wonderful dinner with Jennifer Keltner and Elizabeth Beese the women who make American Patchwork & Quilting the great magazine it is. "Send us a red and white quilt" they said, and two weeks later we did. We have the kit available on our website.

There were a couple of other big hitters in the quilt world at that dinner table in New York. Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company and Lissa Alexander, the VP of marketing of Moda Fabrics. Carrie has been popular at our house this week, not just for her quilts - but for her genius oatmeal recipe. The Simpson's have been eating steel cut, long cooking,Irish oatmeal every morning this week. The whole grain goodness of slow food, but with the ease of fast food.

What can I say about Lissa? Another genius. She is also the woman behind our Moda Design Blog Hop next week that will start on Monday, right HERE! See you then!

Polly wants me to let you know that we have 3 Stocking kits left. They probably won't last the weekend.

P.S. The link for the Center Stage kit will be working sometime today. Sorry for the delay :(

Laurie

Polly's Been Busy

2011-11-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

Yes, Polly has been busy. We are offering a Limited Number of these beautiful hooked Christmas Stocking kits. You can find them here, on our website. The stockings are not to be stuffed, but hooked. These stunners have holly, berries, candy canes, and a flag. They measure 31" long and 9" wide. You have a choice of either red or white. If you are industrious, it will be done by the 24th and Santa's visit. As if you didn't have anything else to do.......

Oh, and don't forget to put these down on your "to-do" list....

1. Wednesday's Minick and Simpson interview on the Creative Mojo radio show

2. The upcoming book review next week on this blog

3. Another great Moda Designer Blog Hop

4. Everything else you need to do to give your family a happy holiday

Polly and Laurie

Hello!!??

2011-11-26T10:07:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard.....Polly and I will be interviewed this Wednesday, November 30th on Mark Lipinski's Creative Mojo radio show. You can "tune in" online. Mark it on your calendar and go to www.toginet.com. The show is on from 3pm to 5pm eastern standard time. Hey, even if you can't make it Wednesday - go to the website and it will be available for listening after the show is over. Therefore, you can fit it in at any time. No excuses!

If you're not familiar with Mark (if not, you really need to get out more) - you are in for a treat. He's the best buddy you haven't met yet. If you do know Mark, you know why he's one of our favorites.

We are tentatively scheduled from 3:30 to 4:00. We'll be talking about Victory Girls, our collaborative process, and whatever nonsense comes up.

Actually, listen for Polly and Mark. I'm not much of a talker. If asked to tell you my life story I could convey it all in about 3-4 minutes. Thankfully, Mark is a witty, talented interviewer. If he wasn't - all you would hear is about a half hour of this....

Laurie

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T13:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Our family feast is over and good food and conversation was the topic of the day. We hope yours was just as wonderful.

Just a short note today to let you know lots of things are coming up in the next week. There will be a book review giveaway, a Moda Designer Blog Hop with several giveaways, and an upcoming kit that will be featured in the next American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. There is lots to prepare for around here.

If any of you brave the Black Friday chaos - best of luck and shop safely. Me, I'll be here sewing and doing some shopping online.

Laurie & Polly

Thanksgiving Winner!

2011-11-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions for Thursday meal. I especially take interest in the vegetables and salads, as I love to be able to make these a bit more interesting. The winner of the Prairie Paisley II Fat Eighth bundle had a great example.....

Wendy, who said..... "My family favorite is Pear Salad. My kids and grands love it! It's not Thanksgiving with out it. Blessings to you and your family!"

Wendy, email me here and I'll get the fabric out to you asap.

This is what I've been doing for the last couple of days. I'll be doing it for a few more.

Hope you have a great time with your family and friends.

Laurie

Pre-Feast

2011-11-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

Hey, it's been awhile. Sorry for the non-blogging. If only something interesting would happen and I could tell you about it...........

Basically I'm making to-do lists and shopping lists this weekend for the upcoming Thanksgiving feast. We're staying in Michigan. Polly is heading to Kansas City to see one son and his family. Her other sons??? Well, they will be here , in Baltimore watching their life long friends coach against each other on THE football game on Thanksgiving day.

Yes, Polly and her family have known all the Harbaughs since the boys all played Pop Warner football together. I went every Sunday afternoon to watch too. I also had the job as baby-sitter for the 2 Harbaugh and 3 Minick boys every now and then. I still have the scars to prove it. Oh, the stories I could tell.

They were all good kids, very good kids, but with over-active metabolisms and a bit of a competitive streak. All five of them were within 2 years of each other. Good luck to both John and Jim. We will all go crazy, hoping somehow that both teams can win.

I am in charge of pumpkin pie and possibly something else for the meal. (p.s. I have made this Sweet Potato cake with White Chocolate frosting before and it is a HIT. The poor ratings are from people who had problems with the frosting. Remember to have the melted white chocolate room temperature or cooler before folding in the whipped cream.)

What is your favorite dish to make for Thanksgiving? Just comment here (and give us all ideas!) and one person will win a Fat Eighth Bundle of Prairie Paisley II. Comment before midnight Monday, November 21st.

Laurie

Things I Learned on Pinterest

2011-11-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

I've been planning on writing this post for a couple of days, but have held off so I could also write about the Sacagawea 2012 BOM shop links. We have started the shop list on our website. If you know of a quilt shop that will be offering this quilt as a Block Of The Month - let us know and we'll add them to the list.

Now, on to my planned post. But it seems I'm too late. Moda Lissa blogged about it today also. Brilliant minds think alike. So, here goes.....

I, like many other visually stimulated people, am addicted to Pinterest. It's a great website to collect and store all your visual "pinboards". While perusing Pinterest, I have learned that people are photographing their babies in new and wonderful settings.

I've also learned that if you can imagine it ...... you can have a manicure of it.

I've also learned that I am a food snob. SNOB. I will be the first to tell you that my parmesan cheese is imported directly from Parma Italy. We have a world class bakery a mile from my house and we have fresh bread from it on a regular basis. I will also say I try to buy all my fruits and vegetables from local farmers and I try to buy organic when I can - all thanks to some great grocery stores and an excellent Farmer's Market.

So imagine my surprise when our new favorite recipe, thanks to Pinterest, is a humble throwback to the prepared foods of the 1950's. Behold, the biscuits that are taking Pinterest by storm.

These beauties, while not only the best biscuits I have ever eaten, are also the easiest to make. They have 4 ingredients and take about 2 minutes from bowl to oven.

Pinterest Biscuits

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Put a half stick of butter into a 9" x 9" baking pan and let it melt in the pan while the oven is pre-heating. In a mixing bowl add 2 cups of Bisquick baking mix. Cut in with knives or a pastry cutter 1/2 cup of sour cream. Once the sour cream is cut in, add 1/2 cup of 7-Up soda (not diet). Mix and put out onto a floured board (I used more Bisquick) and pat into an approximate 7" square mound. Cut the biscuits into 9 pieces (think 9-patch!) and put them into the buttered pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden. Enjoy.

Laurie

The Spirit of Sacagawea

2011-11-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

We are very proud to announce our quilt, The Spirit of Sacagawea as a 2012 Block Of The Month with Kansas City Star.

I designed this pieced and appliquéd quilt that tells Sacagawea's story. It was made from my scrap basket with all the red, white, and blue scraps of Minick and Simpson collections.

How the Kansas City Star Block Of The Month program works, is you can purchase right now - the 12 patterns for this quilt. If you live in the Kansas City area, one pattern per month will be published in the Kansas City Star newspaper starting in January of 2012. Also, right now quilt shops can sign up and do this quilt for their block of the month next year. Several shops purchased patterns at The International Quilt Market in Houston last week so they could start making their shop quilts. If you know of a quilt shop that will participate in the program, email me here and I will post a list of the participating shops.

Also, in the fall of 2012 this quilt, several rugs, and some more stitchery projects will be published as a Kansas City Star book.

Laurie

The Rest of Market

2011-11-05T05:34:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should have named this blog post "Random Pictures On My iPhone". I'll try to make a bit of sense of them. Remember the Just One Block thing we did earlier this year?? Well, we wanted to get 1800 blocks. Many, many, many more were sent in by you wonderful people. Hundreds of these were made....

In fact, so many were made that we completely exhausted the supply of star bunting fabric and red floral fabric. So, Susan Stiff and Lisa Christensen at Moda came up with this.... .

60 star blocks to make this charming quilt. Moda packaged up 60 blocks, the backing, and binding into a pizza box and handed out these "almost made" kits at quilt market to quilt shops. All they have to do is sew the star blocks together, layer, quilt, and bind. Then the shops get to deliver to any troop of their choice. Win-win situation. Thank you to all who took armfuls of pizza boxes back to their shops.

Let's see, what else is clogging up the iPhone.....

Elvis made an appearance at the Primitive Gatherings booth. He had everyone All Shook Up.

I'll think I will spare you any more fuzzy pictures. Thanks for all the nice things said about the mysterious 2012 Kansas City Star BOM. I will post the full picture on Monday or Tuesday. Let's give Kansas City Star a bit of time to update their website and I will be able to link you to the information. Here's another sneak peek.

Laurie

More From Market

2011-11-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'll post a few photos..... but there are better ones "out there" in blogland. Others photographers are kicking our behind in that department.

This was the Victory Girls quilt in the Kansas City Star booth. Notice the lovely wool quilt on the bed made by Maggie Bonanomi . She has a new book out too.

Oh, and His Holiness stopped by the Moda Halloween Party. Here he is with Polly

Uh, not really. That imposter is Mark Pytel, the Great Lakes area Moda sales rep.

I bought a new thimble hand made by T. J. Custom fit right on the spot. I'm going to give it a work out asap.

This is Doug Leko of Antler Quilt Designs. He has been a fixture at market for several years. He was a buyer for his family's quilt shop, but now he is an exhibitor with his pattern company. Here he is, an 18 year old businessman alone in his booth. I have a message for Doug's mom.... You will be happy to know Doug is a fine businessman and a gentleman and he had 5000 substitute Moms looking out for him last weekend.

Above is the 2012 Kansas City Star BOM quilt. I know this because I designed and made it. We are pretty excited about it. I'll post a full size picture of this tomorrow with all the info. Thanks!!

Laurie

Best Laid Plans

2011-11-01T16:29:00.001-07:00

We tried, really we did. The main obstacle was exhaustion. Once the day was over at International Quilt Market and we wandered back to our hotel room. The day was "hashed" over and then we couldn't even think about downloading, blogging and such. I know you must have followed others who were more ambitious. The Fat Quarter Shop tweeted and posted photos instantly on Twitter and Facebook. Make sure to see what happened. Here is what we have ..... just a few days late.

This is our booth just a few hours after we landed in Houston. Thanks mainly to Leigh Ann, it went together fast.

The Beach Girl rug in the foreground is a teaser for our next book that will be published in the Spring. More on that later. The quilt in the background is our Go West quilt.

After the booth went up and some Schoolhouses and socializing..... that first night was set aside for Sample Spree. That fabric melee that you all dream about. This was PART of the line outside the ballroom. Needless to say, the human pile up on the right side of the room - was Moda.

A great time was had by all. There will be more pictures and observations once I pet Gibby and unpack a few suitcases.

Laurie

Bags Are Packed

2011-10-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

We have a small corner booth this year and the packing has been pretty simple. Two boxes shipped and one suitcase of quilts. I just finished packing my clothes and the suitcase of quilts. Yippee!

For all you travelers.... we'll be in booth 468. It shouldn't be too hard to find, you know - over in Moda Land.

If you are there tomorrow, Polly and I have a Schoolhouse at 2:15 in 362B. We'll be showing the Victory Girls quilts, rugs and more!

We'll be posting more surprises, so keep in touch.

Laurie

Packing for Market

2011-10-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

The boxes have been shipped. Last minute errands will be done in the next few jam packed days. What is left is to pack my suitcases. I will need clothes for 5 days and quilts. I also will pack some hand work. Sometimes I am so busy, I never get to it, but other times it is a godsend. Hand work to keep busy and to ease anxiety. This is part of what I'm packing. It's a big, holiday appliqué. Everything right now is following me around the house in my antique wagon/portable coffee table/stash heap.

And CHEDDAR fabric, how can you not love cheddar. We'll try to post when in Houston and keep you abreast of all the newest and latest.

Laurie

Second Chance

2011-10-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

You might have remembered this quilt. It is an Irish Chain variation that I made a couple of years ago using scraps from our first two Moda Fabric collections - Nantucket, and Coming Home. I actually made two of them - one for Polly and one for myself. It wasn't an original design. I got the pattern from an issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. The article featured an antique quilt owned by Julie Hendrickson and American Patchwork & Quilting designed the pattern by studying this quilt.

When I posted this quilt on the blog while writing about hand quilting, we got many requests for the pattern. I gave the info on the magazine issue, but it soon sold out.

Now, to the good part......American Patchwork & Quilting has reprinted the pattern in their new bookazine - Sew Scrappy. This issue is on the newsstand right now. It's your chance to get the pattern. Good luck!!

Laurie

New Patterns for Prairie Paisley II

2011-10-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

The new patterns are at the printer. Here are the covers of these 2 patterns (one is appliqué and one is piecing!)

They are being added to our website tonight - so if you don't see them at first - just give it awhile. Our genius web person works nights :) You should be able to find them here by Friday morning, for sure. They will start shipping next week.

I'm so excited for Masterpiece Mystery this Sunday (yes, it's been confirmed - I am an official Nerd). The Kate Atkinson books are being produced as a mini series!!!!

I Love her books - Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News, and the new....Started Early, Took My Dog. These books feature the detective Jackson Brodie.

These "mysteries" take place in present day Edinburgh Scotland. I say "mystery" because, while there is a mystery or several mysteries solved, a whole lot more goes on. Atkinson is a wonderful writer and there is lyrical beauty, wit, romance, and much more. There is even a reoccurring girl detective character!!! Kind of a cross between Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars. How can you not love that! So, fellow stitchers who loves good mysteries - make sure to tune in on Sunday for the first installment. If it's half as good as the books - we are all in for a treat.

Laurie

Mid Week Catch Up

2011-10-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well, the weather here could not be more beautiful. We have had a spectacular fall here in the Midwest. Hope you are enjoying it where you are. While it is sunny and warm - the leaves are in full color. I'm in a fall mood today and I will I will make a pot of minestrone.

Notice the "Fregula Sarda" in the picture? It's a soup ingredient that I LOVE. It's a pasta. Instead of using orzo, or another small pasta for your soup - I use this. It's small beads of pasta that have been toasted. When they cook in your soup they are a bit denser than regular pasta and have a nutty flavor and wonderful texture. If you can find some in your grocery store - I recommend for the upcoming cool weather soups.

What else is going on?? I delivered the remaining strips of Prairie Paisley II to Quilt n Queen and she is getting a group together to make blocks for Quilts of Valor. Thanks Pauline!!!!!

The new patterns are at the printer and I will post them in a day or so. I hope you'll like them!

Polly has a message for you rug hookers.....Polly had a list of rug hookers who were interested in an upcoming workshop in Nantucket next year. Well, the list came up missing. Any of you who were on the list, or any of you that want to be on the list - email us here and Polly will contact you.

Laurie

Prairie Paisley II "Strip" Winners

2011-10-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

I have 3 Priority Mail boxes stuffed with Prairie Paisley II strips and the car is packed with the rest. They are being dropped off tomorrow to Quilt n Queen. Her post was this......

Having a box of Prairie Paisley II arrive in my mailbox would be wonderful...just like Christmas... I'm making 6 blocks and 6 pillowcases for Johna'lee. She blogs at 'The Scrappy Appleyard.blogspot.com. She is collecting blocks....she mentioned in one of her blogs how much she likes your fabric collections. I still have some Prairie Paisley and that is what I'm using. Her daughter, Tory, lost her fiance 12 days before they were to be married. Chris, was killed in Afghanistan early September and Johna'lee is making quilts for Tory and Chris' family. The scraps bag would be an awesome win. I'm using the 'Just One Star' block. Thanks to 'Moda Lissa' and 'Minick & Simpson' for the chance to win the scraps...have a great Market in Houston!!

After those quilts are made, the rest will be made into quilts for the local Veteran's hospital by Quilt N Queen. Thanks!

Well, the 3 winners are.....

Gretchen

Emmy

Zoeycat

Email me here, ladies and I'll get the strips out to you on Monday!

Laurie

This Time of Year

2011-10-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

We are in the final push to get all of our products ready to take to International Quilt Market in Houston. Sewing machines are whizzing, editors are up all night, and digital printers are pumping out patterns. It's not just us quilty bloggers - it's the the entire sewing/quilting industry. Moda is in Market mode. Things are getting finished and shipped. It seems that one of the chores they do is re-cycling. Yes, for all the good reasons, of course. And you could be the benefactor. How would you like to help Moda Fabrics and more importantly, ME - clean house?

A huge box arrived today filled with scraps of our debuting collection - Prairie Paisley II.

The strips are what are left over once the salesman samples are cut and assembled. Here are some....

When Moda (I'm talking about you Lissa) sent me a box of these same type of scraps of Charlevoix fabric - I made this....

These scraps are great for any string quilt. Most of the strips are wide enough for almost any type of piecing. Just comment on this post before Midnight Saturday October 8th and three winners will get a large priority mail box stuffed with strips. The rest will be given to a local guild who makes quilts for Quilts of Valor. See, recycling is good for all of us!

Laurie

V For Victory

2011-10-05T05:05:00.001-07:00

This is the 3rd quilt featured in our book Victory Girls. It's an abstract take on the letter "V".

It's a wonderful scrap quilt and can be quickly pieced with a 60 degree ruler. Of course, it is an homage to the "V" for victory sign that was ubiquitous during the early 1940's. Remember this guy?

Also, let's hope the "V" for victory sign can be inspirational for a certain sports team that will not be named.

Thanks everyone, for your kind notes regarding the Victory Girls publication. The books have started to drop in mailboxes, book stores, and quilt shops. It was great fun to work on and we are pleased as punch.

Laurie

Victory Girl Winner!

2011-09-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

The winner of the Victory Girls book is....

Jana

Email me here, Jana and we'll get it out to you asap.

Thanks everyone

Laurie

Cosmic Three Card Monty

2011-09-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

Are you a baseball fan? If you are, you had quite a night last night.

It's no mystery to those who stop by regularly that we are.

While there was talk at the beginning of the day that "things might change" and "a lot can happen", no one was prepared for the amazing night that baseball offered. Let's see, the following teams needed the last night to finalize either their chance at going to the play-offs, or to define exactly who they would play in the play-offs: Detroit, New York, Boston, Tampa Bay, Texas, St.Louis, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Arizona.....uh, who did I miss?

While watching my beloved Tigers, I was sucked into the drama that enfolded all over the country. I wasn't alone. This is why I love baseball....... anything can happen as long as you still are up to bat. That's a good thing to remember for a lot of things in life.

Our friend Carrie, the genius behind Miss Rosie's Quilt Company is a fan too. We have had plans several times to meet in a Major League ballpark to enjoy the game. But, as what happens with busy people, it hasn't happened yet. Carrie mentioned in her last email that wouldn't it be fun if her Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tigers met in the World Series. That is an actual possibility. What fun! There is a certain grizzled ex-player that manages the Diamondbacks.

He once was a fierce competitor for the Detroit Tigers.

A certain beloved companion might or might not be named after him.

October is looking very exciting.

Laurie and Polly

Victory Girls Hits Florida!

2011-09-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

Annie would like you all to know that she thinks Victory Girls is great - and she is much more photogenic than a certain someone in Ann Arbor. Annie, we all agree about that.

Make a comment here about what you liked about the Moda Country Fair Blog Hop and you could win a copy for yourself! Just comment here before Friday September 30th at midnight.

Make sure to stop and visit Kate Spain today and her furry friends, and Sweetwater on Wednesday.

Laurie

Victory Girls Has Landed!

2011-09-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

Good News! Victory Girls - our new book has shipped! The boxes landed this afternoon and I just finished addressing the envelopes. If you pre-ordered, your book will go to the post office in the morning. Thanks, everyone. We are pretty excited.

Laurie

Catching Up

2011-09-22T11:39:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, are you enjoying the Moda Country Fair Blog Hop? Today is Deb Strain's day and tomorrow make sure to visit Jan Patek.

I also want you to know that the Victory Girls books is "en route". I promise to ship out same day/next day. Thanks so much for your patience

I don't know about you, but this changing seasons thing has me all up in the air. I have about a dozen things to do and I can't concentrate to do any of them. A week long headache hasn't helped, but I plan to knock a few things off the list today. Another reason why I can't get anything done..... Gibby needs a lot of attention. He is loving the dog park. Here he is running with his pal Puggles.

This is a picture of a picture since my scanner won't sync with my new computer. A new scanner is on my wish list. This guy sure is happy when he is running and playing.

What else.... we'll have a book give-away as soon as the little darlings drop on my porch. Also, we'll show our new patterns that use Prairie Paisley II.

Laurie

Moda Country Fair Blog Hop - Barb & Alma's Day

2011-09-17T11:15:00.001-07:00

Are you having a grand time visiting around the web and enjoying the fair? I know I have.

Today is Barb & Alma's Day over at Blackbird Design. They have treats.....

And more treats....

Make sure you visit Aneela tomorrow for more yummy stuff.

I am taking the day off as I was up until 2am watching The Detroit Tigers clinch the 2011 MLB American League Central Division. I know that means nothing to most of you, but it's kind of a big deal for me. Hey, I stayed up until 2am. It must have been important.

Have a great weekend!

Laurie

Winners and More of the Cupcake Scandal

2011-09-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

Wow! Thanks everyone for visiting and commenting on our day of the Moda Country Fair Blog Hop. That sure was fun. Before we get to the Prairie Paisley II winners, Polly wanted to clarify a couple of things...

" I was always envious of my friends who lived on the beautiful farms around our village. I spent many a day with them and loved it all. In summer, when I visited, they had lots of help getting in their crops and their lunches were like our Thanksgiving Dinner. The kitchen bustled with activity and great treats came from their ovens. I tried to be like them, but have to admit I was a dismal failure. The real reason for joining 4H was to go to 4H camp. Also, I was not clear with Laurie on the cupcakes, it was only 3 white cupcakes without frosting, that would have been another great disadvantage for me - as it was before frosting mix or canned frosting. That would have been a deal breaker. As it was, I only wanted to compete the best way I knew how - not to scam the judges. "

Good Job, Polly! You had a "can-do" attitude from start.

I have a little news too. Did anyone else make it to Target yesterday morning. I had a doctor's appointment at 7:45 and went immediately afterward - about 8:30. I was too late. The doors of Target opened at 8am and by the time I got there - nothing much was left except for a cloud of dust. The great Missoni for Target collection was a great success. The racks were empty.

Scavenging around the racks I did find one thing I came for. Socks.

Hey, I'm happy. They are great socks! I do wish I could have gotten some of the other goodies though. Did anyone get lucky?

Speaking of luck - here are our winners for the Prairie Paisley II pre-cuts!

The winner of the Fat 8th Bundle is - Trudy

Trudy said...

The cake story brought back memories of the way my Nan cooked too. I loved her bear paw cookies. She passed away when I was 10 and years later I asked for her recipe and the family all laughed because Nan had bought the boxed cookies and put them on a plate. Now I can enjoy "NAN'S COOKIES" still. Cute Project.

The winner of the Layer Cake is Patty K

The winner of the Jelly Roll is Laura

Laura said ~ "What a hoot that the cake mix won the prize :) Thanks for the chance to win some of your beautiful fabric."

Ladies, email me here and I will get the fabric out to asap!

And please remember to visit Joanna over at Fig Tree and see what she has prepared for you.

Laurie

It's Our Day on The Country Fair Moda Blog Hop!

2011-09-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

It's our day! What a great start we have had. There will be no pie fights though. I think the best way is to just jump right in. Lissa Alexander, our fearless leader sent us a few questions to get this ball rolling.

1. What is on your bucket list? - That's easy, I've always wanted to go to Ireland - Polly.

Well, that's a good one. I think mine would be to take a summer off and visit all the Major League Baseball parks and watch a game in each. - Laurie

2. What's would be your favorite thing "deep fried" at the fair? - Milky Way candy bar - Polly

I whole heartedly agree! - Laurie

Which brings me to this fun fact - Not all Milky Way candy bars are created equal.

You know the little Milky Way bars that you hand out at Halloween? Forget them. Barely a Milky Way. I Don't know why, but they just aren't. The regular Milky Way - Wonderful. They've been a Minick and Simpson favorite for over 50 years, but the new 2 To Go Milky Way bar - PERFECTION! It is different. Basically, there's a greater caramel to nougat ratio. Genius! Polly told me, I told Leigh Ann, and now there is a 2 To Go Milky Way stash that follows us around. I'm sure there will be some at Quilt Market. One could only imagine the sublime candy ecstasy that would be a deep fried/2 To Go Milky Way. It should be on our bucket list.

3. Your favorite Country Fair memory..... Well, I don't know about favorite, but it's a memory - for Polly. I sadly, don't have any. (Again, if you are new to the blog - Polly and I are sisters who have the same parents, but completely different childhoods due to a 16 year age difference).

Polly joined 4H when she was a pre-teen. We lived in a small rural town and we lived in town.

Most of Polly's friends were farm kids and she wanted to do what they did, so she joined. Soon after there was talk of participating in the County Fair. Animal husbandry was out of the question for obvious reasons. Next was a sewing challenge. A dish towel. With lots of help and guidance (basically her friend Mary Lee sewed it) the dish towel was completed. The baking challenge for the county fair loomed. The competition for her age group was a cupcake challenge. Bakers were to make white cupcakes with white frosting. A plate was given to the contestants so all entries would look more or less the same. Polly tackled the challenge with enthusiasm and submitted her 3 cupcakes. The 4H girls then left the baking exhibit and enjoyed the fair. When they returned they were elated as Polly had won!!! A blue ribbon! Imagine her embarrassment when her friends asked about her recipe and she said she used this.

Not everyone saw the humor in the situation. Today we think it's pretty hysterical. Sadly, our Mother was not a baker. If there was a cake in the house it came from a bakery. Just rounding up a wooden spoon, bowl, and cupcake tin was a challenge for Polly. What else was a resourceful girl to do? Polly was pretty proud of herself that she bought the BEST mix. Obviously. It did win the blue ribbon. Well done, Mr. Duncan Hines! Blue ribbon indeed.

In honor of Polly's long ago Blue Ribbon - here is our project - a Blue Ribbon pincushion. We thought our Grandfathers' award winning horses were a better subject than the infamous cupcakes.

Hey, Everyone!!! Here is where you go to download the pattern!

If you leave a comment here, you could be one of the 3 winners of Prairie Paisley II pre-cuts. Someone will win a Fat 1/8th bundle, or a Layer Cake™, or a Jelly Roll™ - The Random Number Generator will pick three winners. Make your comment before Midnight Wednesday September 14th.

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to visit Sandy of American Jane tomorrow for the next stop on the Moda Country Fair Blog Hop.

Laurie

Prairie Paisley II

2011-09-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! Have you visited Edyta? Make sure to stop over as she is the star today of the Moda Blog Hop.

We're getting ready for our day on Monday. We think we have a good prize to give-away. We just got in some pre-cuts of our new fabric from Moda - Prairie Paisley II. Look for it in your local and online quilt shop in January.

The original Prairie Paisley was a favorite of ours - and yours too I think. We get lots and lots of requests on it. We wanted to do a follow-up for awhile, but it took a bit of time to get it just right. We think you'll be happy with this. If you missed the first Prairie Paisley than this is what you've been waiting for. It you still have bits and pieces of the original, this will blend in beautifully.

On Monday - come right back here for the Blog Hop for tales of adventure and daring, a project you'll want to make, and a give-away of some Prairie Paisley II.

Laurie

Moda Country Fair Blog Hop

2011-09-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's day 2 of the Moda Country Fair Blog hop. Make sure to visit Chelsea and Anne. Tomorrow, go to see Barb and Mary - they are sure to entertain you.

I'm here working on stuff to entertain you next Monday.

On other news, make sure to mark your calendar and set your alarms to visit Target next Tuesday. That's the day that the Missoni for Target collection will be unveiled. This stuff will knock your socks off. I missed the Liberty of London collection that was done last year. I could kick myself. Look at the cool stuff I missed.

Don't make my mistake - look at what will be there next week.

LABABE: MISSONI x TARGET PREVIEW from julia k on Vimeo.

See you at the Target check out lanes.

Also - check out this link for helping the people of Texas during the wild fires.

Laurie

Septemberish

2011-09-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

It's September. Time for cool sleeping weather, kids back to school, quilts to be stitched, rugs to be hooked, and the Moda Designer Blog Hop.

Today is the first day! Make sure to visit Sandy and read her entry. Tomorrow all the action will be at Anne's place. We'll be coming at you next Monday. There are prizes, patterns, and more. The full blog list is on the post below.

I want everyone to know, all of you who have pre-ordered Victory Girls - that the book is at the printer and we haven't forgotten you! I have my labels ready to go as soon as the UPS guy drops them on the porch.

We're pretty excited that American Banner Rose is shipping to shops too! Have you seen it yet?

If you can stand any more teasing, there just might be a sneak peak of the next fabric collection next Monday on our Blog Hop tour. A sneak peak and a give-away. Some of you have heard the rumors. I am here to tell you it's true. Our next collection is called Prairie Paisley II. Until then, or until something blog worthy happens -

Laurie

Things To Come

2011-09-01T05:30:00.001-07:00

There are lots of things coming up soon.... book releases, new fabric groups, Fall International Quilt Market, just to name a few. Starting next week there will be a Moda Designer Blog Hop. Here is the schedule. Make sure to visit every day. The rug above is one of Polly's that is in Victory Girls.

September 6th Sandy Gervais

September 7th Bunny Hill

September 8th Me and My Sister Designs

September 9th Camille Roskelley

September 10th Laundry Basket Quilts

September 11th Basic Grey
September 12th Minick and Simpson

September 13th American Jane (on the Moda blog)

September 14th Oliver + S

September 15th Fig Tree and Co.

September 16th Kansas Troubles

September 17th Blackbird Designs

September 18th Aneela Hoey

September 19th Barbara Brackman

September 20th Bonnie Olaveson

September 21st Cabbages and Roses

September 22nd Deb Strain

September 23rd Brannock and Patek

September 24th Lauren and Jessi Jung

September 25th Lily Ashbury

September 26th Cosmo Cricket

September 27th Kate Spain

September 28th Sweetwater

September 29th French General

September 30th Primitive Gatherings

October 1st Kathy Schmitz

October 2nd Liz Scott

Laurie

PATIENCE

2011-08-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Oh My! If you only knew how long it took me to post this picture. You would all feel very sorry for me. It's started last Wednesday when my 8 year old, decrepit computer caught a virus. If you are in my email contacts, you probably already know this. Everyone got a lovely spam advertising male enhancement pills. I am so sorry. If it makes you feel better, that computer is now sitting in lots of little pieces in the back of my car, waiting to go to the recycle center. I am now blogging on my new iMac! It's wonderful, except for a few glitches. Like all my photos got transferred over into separate files instead of my well used, well known PC files. It took only about an hour to find this. No fear, lots of iMac classes are scheduled, so I should be up to snuff shortly. Anyways, this is from another quilt in the Victory Girls book. Polly found some vintage embroidered kitchen towels with kitty images on them. All of them referred to the home front during WWII. Since gas was rationed, biking was a necessity. The original towels were in a group of seven - like days of the week. We came up with 2 more images and reworked them into this quilt

Glenn, from Yarn + Needle did the stitching for us. Thanks, Glenn! I then put them together with some string pieced blocks, (Very recycle friendly that string piecing!) and came up with this.

Oh, and have you heard about a Moda Designer Blog Hop that will be starting soon? I'll have more later. After my class, when I learn how find photos.

Laurie

Victory Girls!

2011-08-22T14:42:00.001-07:00

We've heard that the book is being printed as I type this. That means it will start shipping shortly! Pre-orders are now being accepted on our website. Remember that we can autograph copies if you like - just note it on the order.

The Victory Girls quilt was a joy to make. I enjoyed every stitch. We wanted to do right by our mothers, aunts, grandmothers and neighbors. Every block had a theme and, if I had to choose, this one was my favorite.The inspiration for this was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. You know, the REAL baseball league that was started during WWII. Since many of the other pro players (Men) were serving - baseball was in danger of collapsing during the war. It started in Chicago and was a small league in the Midwest. Living close by I have heard tales of it and even met a few of the veterans. Besides, isn't this movie one of your favorites?A League Of Their Own

If you think you would like to make the Victory Girls quilt, Polly and I will be at Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe in West Linn Oregon in November. Polly will teach a hooked purse, and I will teach a portion of this quilt. We can't wait!

Laurie

Visits, Quiltmania, and Other Stuff

2011-08-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was not turning out well. I won't go into all of it, but one of the factors was that the expected delivery of our next fabric collection did not happen. (Top Secret for a couple more days!!) It's looking good for Monday, though. So, because of that, other things on the schedule got changed. In the midst of all the hubbub, I got a phone call. It was Barb and Mary of Me and My Sister fame! They were 45 miles away and we NEEDED to get together for lunch. Of course we did! This is outside of Zingerman's Roadhouse. That's good eating, people. Here is Mary with one of the robots that are starting to materialize downtown.I'd tell you more, but soon Barb will blog about it on their blog - and it will be funnier and have better pictures, so if I were you, I'd just wait.

What else? We had a bit of a thrill this week. I got my issue of Quiltmania!I have been a rabid fan of this magazine since I picked up a copy a few years ago. This glorious French publication is a never ending source of inspiration. This issue just happened to have a Minick and Simpson favorite - the Chippewa Nine Patch. Thanks Quiltmania!

Since the new fabric isn't here I have been working on the Hawaiian quilt. It is going pretty fast actually. I'm about 1/3 done. I have some of the flower buds on (but not the flowers yet)Next week look for some sneak peeks of the new fabric line and some more Victory Girls!

Laurie

Late Night Catch Up

2011-08-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

Well, it's about midnight and I'm posting the American Banner Rose fabric winners. We'll have more info and stuff this weekend. We might even have a little sneak peak of our next collection - as long as Mr. UPS man cooperates.

So, here goes.... the American Banner Rose Fat 1/8 Bundle goes to Becky S. The Jelly Roll™ goes to Emma, and surprise gift goes to Hildy in Germany! Email me here and I'll get the goods to you. Thanks for all your terrific recycling tips. While we also put out paper, cardboard, plastic, and glass each week for the city to pick up - some of you make us look pretty lame. Inspiring! I also use my fabric selvages for utilitarian string and gift wrap ribbon. There is lots of room for improvement, though.

More later.....

Laurie

Victory Girls and More

2011-08-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

(Scrap drive in the 1940's. Everyone pitched in. )

It's feast or famine here at M&S. Day or weeks with nothing except pictures of my groceries, and then everything kind of hits at once. I'll probably have a few more posts this week.

First of all here are a couple more sneak peeks at Victory Girls...

I'll post some more later this week. This quilt, the rugs and several more quilts will be in the Kansas City Star booth at International Quilt Market in Houston in 2 months. Seems like a long time doesn't it? I guess it does unless of course you have to make things to show there - then it's all about time management from now until then. We have just started CRUNCH time here as we just heard our new fabric is on it's way. The new patterns are being designed and proofread. But - more about that later, too. Oh, there will be a Moda Designer Blog Hop coming up shortly too.

Right now we are awaiting the delivery of American Banner Rose fabric to all your favorite quilt shops. I am hearing that it will be very early in September that the yardage will start shipping.

In anticipation of that we have some pre-cuts that will get you started......

(Thanks Camille Roskelley for this photo!)

Just comment here on your favorite recycling tips, be it paper drives, canning, or whatever. We all could stand to recycle more. Make your comment before Midnight, Thursday August 18th and you could get a fat 1/8 bundle, a Jelly Roll™ or other goodies. Thanks!

Laurie

Victory Girls

2011-08-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

In a few weeks our new book will be out - Victory Girls. The idea for the book came about in a round about way. Lissa Alexander, a VP of Marketing at Moda Fabrics, suggested we do a BOM. An Americana one of course. We tossed around a few ideas and knew we wanted to honor women. At first we tried to encompass lots of American women, but we narrowed it down to the women of the 1940's who sacrificed quite a bit for our country. Thus, Victory Girls came about.

We wanted to honor the women who entered the workforce - Rosie the Riveters they became known as.This was the block we used to represent her - a factory lunch pail. The "WR" on the pail represents Willow Run, the bomber plant outside of Ypsilanti Michigan. It's practically a stone's throw from where we grew up.
Let's not forget that everyone became a farmer and planted a Victory Garden.
There's a lot more. Here it is all together.
We had so much fun making these quilts and rugs. We hope you like them. We'll have more about this book when it comes back from the printer.

Polly wants me to remind you that there are only 4 of the Semper Fi - Watering Can rug kits left. You can find it on the homepage of our website.
Have a great weekend.

Laurie

Hawaiian Quilt Making

2011-08-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

I've made several Hawaiian quilts - or in the Hawaiian style. Making them is the best part about them. I know for the next several months, I will have a hand work project to work on. First, all the applique - and then the quilting. Over 25 years ago I took a class with Roxanne McElroy; She wrote the book That Perfect Stitch about her love of the genre and her version of them - Tahitian quilts. AND, That Perfect Stitch is a great book for hand quilters. It's always THE book I recommend. Sadly, Roxanne has passed away, but her daughter Dierdra McElroy had added to the book and it has now been re-printed.The first step was to make an original pattern. Once I got over all my hesitations and procrastinations and put pencil to paper - it went pretty fast. I copied that pattern (you only have to draw 1/8th of the design - much like a paper cut snowflake) onto tissue and then marked it on my snowflake folded fabric. This is my fabric folded 4 times (8 layers). I stapled through it every few inches to keep it in place as I cut. Yes, stapled. Roxanne said so and it works great. The only stapler I had in the house was a tiny desk stapler so off I went to Staples and found this.A regular desk stapler with a super deep throat. I don't know what the supposed use is for this stapler, but I can tell you - I stapled my fabric layers in a hot minute using it. You can't really see the staples, but take my word for it - it's stapled all over. Now, I cut. A good set of seamstress scissors - I used Gingher - went through these 8 layers like a hot knife through butter.My background fabric is folded the same way, it's just a few inches bigger all the way around than my cut fabric. OH, and make sure to press well after each fold. You want to see those creases really well.
At first I tried to do the basting of the two layers together on a table. Basting is easy, but takes a couple hours. Sitting in a chair while doing it seemed like the nicest way to tackle it. Alas, it didn't work out. My table was just too small and the working area just didn't take up enough of the surface area, but I tried. So now I knew I needed to work on the floor. NOT a fan of floor basting anymore. I cracked my patella a couple of years ago and there is just no way to get comfortable. You might remember the cracked knee story. It was when Bill and I refinished the floor and I chased a cat and fell and ruined my knee and the smooth shiny floor all in one motion. Anyway....Here is the backing laid out and taped to the floor. You can still see the creases that were ironed in. That blue mess is the top all cut out, staples removed.
It looks impossible, but it will work. All you have to do is line up the fold lines. There were fold lines ironed into the blue fabric too. Here is what it looks like after a few minutes. I am slowly unfolding and lining up the top and the bottom - fold lines matching.
Here it is a few minutes later. Lots of breaks were needed to accommodate the cracked knee.
Ater an hour and a half - this is what the "snowflake" cut top looks like unfolded onto the backing.

Now I needed to baste it. This is the easy part. I used Roxanne's Baste-It glue. Notice the ingenious bottle. The needle thin applicator lets me put the tip of the bottle underneath the edge of the the applique about 1" in. No picking up the fabric - no moving it at all. Just place the tip under the edge and squeeze a dot of glue. I put one dot every couple of inches. This glue basting of this queen size quilt top took under an hour. I starting stitching last night. It's all downhill now.

As for my pattern.... it's just something I drew that was inspired from antique Hawaiian quilts, and has a little Jane Sassaman thrown in for good measure. This is the foliage of the quilt top. There will be a few flowers on top of this, once this is sewn. Thanks for stopping by.

Laurie

Hello, Anybody Here?

2011-08-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

We're still here. We have never taken this long of a blog break before. It won't happen again. Things are just a bit busy here. There were family get-togethers and summer celebrations and even some work.

Thursday Bill, myself, and Rachel and Michael went to a Tiger's game. Rachel and Michael are my my great niece and nephew and Polly's grandkids.Don't ask about the game. I think we went to the only loss they had this week. What else..... A package arrived with some goodies from the Moda warehouse. If I were you, I would expect a giveaway very soon.

I have been writing - a lot. That will be for some future posts. I also started a little project for a gift. It's an Hawaiian style quilt. I have made several before and I love to make them as it is all hand applique and hand quilting - the perfect travel project. You do need a window of several days for the prep work. When my current writing project is done in the next 2 days, I hope to baste this thing. All I need is a very large flat surface, a bottle of Roxanne's applique glue, and maybe a good movie playing in the background.More on the Hawaiian quilt later.......

The good news is that our next book is getting very close to it's publication date. So close, that we have been given the go-ahead to let you have a few peeks. The book is called Victory Girls: Patriotic Quilts and Rugs of WWII. It will be published by Kansas City Star books. Here is one of Polly's wonderful rugs....
Polly's rug is her interpretation of the border of my quilt - which you can see a bit here.Thanks for stopping by. There will be more posts of Hawaiian quilt basting, more peeks at Victory Girls, and even some give-aways.

Laurie

Dear Prudence

2011-07-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

I know that you probably get emails like this all the time .......

This was the start of an email we received yesterday. Actually, no, we don't get emails like this all the time. Who does? But I'm sure glad we did. It was from Linda White from just outside of Simpson Australia (how sweet!). She had spent the last year working on a quilt using our Wiscasset fabric collection. It is a reproproduction of an antique Australian quilt. A hexagon quilt. Love hexagons! But... this was an ambitious project. Here are Linda's hexagons.This was the start of her project....Just over 12 months later, this is what she had.
Notice the Best Quilt ribbon and the Best of Show ribbon. Congratulations Linda! We are beaming that this masterpiece was made with our fabric. Thanks so much for letting us know. Oh, and go here and here to read about the quilt show and Linda's journey in making Dear Prudence.

Handwork - it's not a chore - it's a delight. Thanks for reminding me Linda.

Laurie

Breaking News! Water is Still Wet!

2011-07-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Yeah, not much of a surprise is it? Neither was my salad recipe from the last post. A few hours after I posted it, I remembered that I blogged about that recipe last summer. Oy! Sorry for the repeat. To make up for it, here is the salad recipe we are going to be having today. I just got back from the market and it was an abundance of riches, people! Everything is coming into season. What a good problem to have.

Pumpernickel Salad

4 cups torn Boston lettuce
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3 slices of red onion, sliced thin and separated into rings
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1 cup diced cucumber
2 tbls. crumbled blue cheese
1/2 loaf pumpernickel bread, cut into 3/4" cubes

Balsamic Vinaigrette

1 1/2 tbls. red wine vinegar
1 tbls. balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Assemble lettuce, tomato, and cucumber onto 4 plates. Toast pumpernickel croutons in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, or until crispy outside and still chewy inside. Toss warm croutons with vinaigrette and mound on top of lettuce. Add onion rings, almonds, and blue cheese. Enjoy!

This is a bread lovers salad! Kind of like a panzanella, but even heartier.

Look what else was at the market!
This is the result of a new app I found for my phone called ColorSnap. You take a picture of something and touch on 3 places on the picture and up comes the Sherwin Williams paint chip to match. Awesome!! It's a free app. Have fun with it.

Promise there will be some rug and quilt stuff soon.

Laurie

Cooling Down

2011-07-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

It was refreshing just reading all your suggestions. Popsicles are popular here too, and now I have a craving for a root beer float! Yesterday we had watermelon salad for dinner, along with some corn on the cob. It was great. So great, that we had eaten almost all of it before I remembered I wanted to get a picture of it. So, the above picture is googled. It's very, very close to what we had.....

Watermelon Salad

3 cups cubed, seedless watermelon
1 large bunch watercress
1/2 red onion, sliced thin and separated into rings
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
3 tbls. white wine vinegar
6 tbls. vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk the vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Pour over tossed watermelon, watercress, red onion rings, and pine nuts. Serve immediately. Enough for 6 small salads or 3 large dinner salads.

Thanks everyone!

Oh, and the winner of the American Banner Rose woven bundle is....

Heather - who makes raspberry smoothies. Heather, email me here and your bundle will go out asap.

Laurie

Just Normal "Hot"

2011-07-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

We are back from DC with great memories. Congratulations to John and Sharon. There won't be pictures for a couple of reasons. One, I was always a bit late to get the camera in focus, and Two, no one at the Apple Store has a solution yet to my photo uploading problem. We'll keep working on it. The cool kids at the Apple store don't sync well with old, out-of-date PC's and an older out-of-date PC user. I expect that as all the gadgets die here at Chez Simpson - they will be replaced with Apple products that will talk and sync with my iPhone like magic. Until then, it's uncharted territory.

This was waiting for us when we got back. The wovens and tickings from American Banner Rose. These are really nice, people. Woven lovers will, well.... love them.

Wovens go well with Fall and Winter. I anticipate lots of homey, soft quilts made with them. We must use our imagination to think of cool Fall days right now. Thankfully, it is just normally hot right now here in Michigan. Not obscenely hot like it was last weekend. I hope you folks down in Texas and Arizona get some relief soon also. We all swapped "keeping cool" tips at the wedding. We were quite comfortable at our indoor noon reception, but we had sympathy for the folks setting up their afternoon ceremony OUTSIDE at the same country club. I hope that bride and groom were toasted with Gatorade.

What do you do to stay cool? What is your favorite hot weather treat? Just make a comment here about that before midnight, Wednesday the 27th and the American Banner Rose Woven Fat Quarter Bundle™ could be yours.

Speaking of HOT, hope you like this. Poor Tiger Don Kelly is HOT, but not because of weather, because of his teammates.

Laurie

Hot! Hot! Hot!

2011-07-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

Let's think of cool water breezes and cold bathroom tile today, shall we?

Polly is in Nantucket and I am getting ready to drive to Washington DC for a family wedding. Uh, the computer tells me the DC will have a heat index of 110 today. And if the chance of running into elected officials wasn't a deterrent enough......Hey, it's not as if everywhere we will be won't be air conditioned. Enough with the heat whining. Our main concern is that here in Michigan - we'll get through the hottest day today - with power on. This little chunk of Ann Arbor is notorious for going without power during high energy demand days. Keep your fingers crossed for our house-sitter and Gibby and Roscoe. It looks like we'll get a little break on the weekend.

So, posts for the next few days will probably be non-existent. We still have kits for Polly's last Semper Fi kit and probably will until I get back on Monday. Until then, keep cool!

Laurie

4th and Final Semper Fi Kit

2011-07-19T04:48:00.001-07:00

I know a lot of you have been patiently waiting.... so here it is - the 4th and final kit in Polly's Semper Fi kit collection. Like the 3 previous kits, this is 17" x 24" and has a patriotic theme. The sand pail and flags rug is available now. The kit includes the drawn linen, ticking tape to bind your rug, all the wool to hook it, all packaged in a Minick and Simpson sand pail. Go here to place your order.

Supplies are limited. We have the last of the Minick and Simpson sand pails and once they're gone - they're gone.

Keep cool, everyone!

Quilting Stencils

2011-07-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

My stash of quilting stencils is one of my most valuable tools for making a quilt. I have several hundred that I have collected for over 35 years of quilting. My rule now is if I see it, I buy it. Sooner or later it will be just the thing I need to finish off the quilt I am working on. Here are a few.Notice that the fan stencil at the top has been used so much it is permanently stained from the carbon in pencils. Some of these stencils are hand made by me. No matter how big my stash, it seems in almost every quilt I have an area that needs some special attention and no stencil quite fits it. In this case, it means I have to get creative. Recently I had such an area. It was a wide, short triangle space(or - in this photo sequence - tall and skinny) that just cried out for some special feathers. I drew the triangle onto paper and after much erasing, got a feather design I liked to fill the space.(after an hour and a half..... I can't get these photos to rotate!!??. I can change them in my photo file and in Flickr - but when I upload they go back. Help! Please forgive all these pictures on their sides)

Now to transfer this feather design onto the quilt means I have to make a stencil for it. I make 2 stencils to transfer a feather design. First an outline of the entire shape, and then a stencil of half of the feathers (the bottom half) and the spine.

I then take these stencils and, pretending I'm drawing on fabric instead of paper, I make my feather design. First I mark the outline.

Next I mark the spine using the bottom stencil.
The next step is to mark the center plumes of the feather. Using the curve in the outline, I just continue these down to the spine.
Now using the outside curves as a guide, I fill in all the above plumes.....Finally I fill in the bottom plumes. Feathers are very forgiving. You think that each needs to be perfect, but they don't. Feathers just look good, no matter how much you try to screw them up. With very little practice you can make great feathers.Making 2 feather stencils (outline shape and half with spine shape) gets me away from the tedious technique of cutting slots into my template plastic to replicate the factory made templates. You've only had to cut one of those kind of templates, to try to figure out a better way.

If you think hand quilting is going to be a part of your life I strongly urge you to get a few reference books on the subject. I have 4 that I go back to again and again. I love these books. Sadly, they are now all out of print - but thanks to Amazon, Ebay and Alibris - you can own used copies for a fraction of the original price.They are clockwise.... Quilting With Style by Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham; Quilting by Diana Lodge; Encyclopedia of Designs for Quilting by Phyllis D. Miller; and Infinite Feathers by Anita Shackleford.

Oh, and if anyone knows why my Iphone pictures revert back to the original lay-out - no matter how much I edit them in my photo file and Flickr - then please email me here. This never happened with my Fuji camera or my Blackberry. Sigh.

Laurie

Break In The Action

2011-07-12T10:29:00.001-07:00

These pics are just a nod to the MLB All-Star game tonight - a theoretical "half-point" in the baseball season and 4 days off so the sports talking heads can blab non-stop. It's kind of a break in the action for us too. I am finishing up a hand quilting project this week (fingers crossed) and Polly is getting ready for her trip to Nantucket.
There is no cooking here today as it's just too darn hot. I picked up a salad at the local produce store and we'll have that and ice cream. It's a Maurice salad. Does anyone outside of the metro-Detroit area know what a Maurice salad is? The original Maurice was served in the restaurant of J. L. Hudson's department store, which is now sadly, gone. It is certainly a fond memory for us here in Michigan. The salad seemed so sophisticated and exotic at the time and now just seems like a dated mid-century meal. But, a delicious dated mid-century meal. Here is the recipe if you want to make it yourself. Sweet gherkins and sliced pimento olives......yum.

There were some good questions about quilt stencils and marking on the last post - and I'll cover some of that in the next post. Until then, keep cool.

Laurie

Summer Saturday

2011-07-09T09:16:00.001-07:00

It's a beautiful day here in Ann Arbor. Early this morning I went to the Farmer's Market and then over to Zingerman's for an iced espresso and cream. Heaven. It was my lucky day as the bread special was Green Olive Paesano bread - a rustic Italian loaf studded with chunks of green olives. This is only available a couple days a year and today was one of them! We'll have that and salad for dinner.

Next we took our house guest Otto and his best pal Gibby to the dog park. They spent an hour or so exploring the place.Lucky dogs!

After all the dog and people chores I will settle down with my hand quilting. This is the Kansas City Star BOM for 2012, which will be revealed in January. For now - here is a tiny peek.
Thanks for all the iPhone app suggestions in the last post! I have already downloaded several of them. The photos today (and probably from now on) were taken with the iPhone. Not Ansel Adams, but I'm happy. Very user friendly moving from phone to blog, I must say. And.... I noticed on Google Reader this week that we lost two followers after the iPhone post - "Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Blackberry. Please forgive me".

No worries, we picked up those and a few more since then. The more the merrier!

Laurie

idon't know what I'm idoing

2011-07-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hope you all had a good holiday. I can't complain. Or, I shouldn't complain, but I will. It all started Saturday night when we went to the ballgame. That only lasted about an hour before the deluge rolled in. Long story - short.....my blackberry died when the skies opened up and the exits were blocked. We were in the upper deck of Comerica Park and we proceeded to get drenched. I wish I could think of a word that is more water logged than "drenched". My shoes didn't survive either.

How could I manage with a dead blackberry? I Can't. The next morning found me at the phone store. It seems my blackberry is now obsolete. I wandered over to the iphones. My, aren't they intoxicating? Sleek, sophisticated, with all the bells and whistles. I bought one.

It's sort of mind boggling how amazing it is. It can do EVERYTHING. Sort of. Assuming the owner is capable of grasping it's brilliance. That seems to be the sticking point. I mastered emails, messages, maps, even downloaded apps. Not a problem. What I have spent a day and a half on is trying to get my audio books onto the thing. It's not a problem with the phone - it's a problem with my sadly screwed up itunes account. It kind of has my audio books all over the darn place. They sort of got put into "music" and then all the chapters got "shuffled". Oy.
I think I'll just give it a rest and then enlist the next 8 year old I see to fix it.

I'm kind of afraid to ask.... but what's the one iphone app that you can't live without?

That's about all the news here. I'm quilting and working on the next fabric group. Polly is expecting kids and grand kids later this week and we are expecting a house guest too. Otto is coming for his annual vacation with Gibby.

Laurie

4th of July

2011-07-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

Are you having a family filled, fun holiday weekend? We sure hope you are.Are you working on a red, white and blue project? Are you decorating with flags and things?
Here's a teaser.... this is one block from our newest quilt - which will be published in our new book in several weeks!

Polly is never at a loss for flags and such...
I wanted to post a video of James Cagney dancing to Yankee Doodle Dandy, but I couldn't find a video that wasn't all fuzzy. But I did find this and it made me smile, hope you like it too.

Happy 4th, Everyone!

Polly and Laurie

Oregon, Part II

2011-07-01T05:00:00.001-07:00

After leaving the Best Quilt Shoppe In The World, we headed south. Polly had a little gig in Eagle Point Oregon with some rug hooking chums and I went along as driver and teaching assistant. While Portland Oregon might be named Rose City - this little town of Jacksonville Oregon had some lovely roses going on too. We stopped there for a coca-cola break and to do a little shopping. When at our destination in Eagle Point, we could see Mt. Hood from our hotel parking lot. (can you believe the photographic brilliance of this shot?)
After a little drive, we seemed to be on a mountain too! This was the view from the workshop window.We had a lovely day with charming and talented rug hookers. We also had a little visitor.This was taken through the screened window of a deer just hangin' out in the driveway.

What else can we say about the trip? It was grand! Oh, and as official driver of the Minick and Simpson team, I can say that Oregon drivers are the best. You fellow Michigan drivers who must traverse 275 and 696 on a regular basis will appreciate this...... Oregon drivers stay at 65 miles per hour or under and don't drive diagonally from lane to lane. Craziness!!

Laurie

Oregon!

2011-06-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

Polly and I are back from our trip west. We had a fabulous time despite our very long travel day yesterday, which had delayed flights, sick infants, and last but not least..... a matronly seat companion who sang, talked to herself, and clapped all through the flight. Yes, travel isn't quite as glamorous as you would hope.

Oh, enough of the travel whining. Let's start talking about Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe! At the risk of upsetting many, many wonderful quilt shop owners - I will take a risk here and state that Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe is the best shop I have EVER visited. Ever. Make sure to stop there if you are ever in the area. You can lose yourself for hours, and while you are at it, make sure to take a class there. You will be treated wonderfully. Here are a couple of photos of the classroom (not the shoppe).Look at the happy applique students. Yes, "happy" and "applique" in the same sentence. We did one day of needle turn applique and then one day of rug hooking and the 3rd day we just worked on our choice. It was fun, relaxed and just a great workshop. Speaking of being treated very well, here is the gift basket that greeted each student.

Jan and Brian and their extremely competent staff went all out.

I didn't get any pictures of the shoppe as I, er....well.... I am not competent. Check out some more pictures on Holly Hill's blog here.

Thanks to everyone involved, staff and students. We would go back in a heart beat - and it looks like we will. Keep checking the blog for an announcement.

We like our students and they seem to like us. They gave us great tips - the most important one was where to stop for ice cream on our drive down through Oregon. They were right! Peggy's at the Rice Hill exit was THE place for ice cream.
More tales of Oregon tomorrow. Now on to unpacking, laundry, and opening tons of mail.

Laurie

Strip Smart Quilt Book Winner!!

2011-06-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

Go on over to Kathy's blog and see who won books and rulers! Thanks for visiting!!

Laurie and Polly

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

We hope you are spending it with your Dad, or your spouse and children. It's a beautiful day here in Ann Arbor and we just got back from a Father's Day Brunch at Zingerman's Roadhouse. Zingerman's won the James Beard Award AGAIN this year. Well deserved. If you are ever in the area- make sure to give yourself a treat and go.

Polly and I are getting ready for our trip to Oregon in a few days. We both will teach at Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe in West Linn Oregon and then I will assist Polly at a rug hooking workshop in Eagle Point Oregon. I am teaching a block from our soon to be published book. Don't worry - I will post lots of info on that as soon as I can.Hint... the book is the quilt that is in the lower left hand picture and you will remember it as the one with all the berries that I worked on last summer.

Speaking of Father's Day, it reminds me of kids. Which reminds me of a conversation Polly and I had a few months ago. Basically the nature of kids and their intrinsic personalities. We were discussing kids and their different personalities and how their "nature"is pretty clear, even as toddlers. You can educate, discipline, nurture kids all in the best possible way and that will ensure them the skills for life, but their basic nature is what it is. A worrier is a worrier. A free spirit is a free spirit. All you parents know this to be true.

What does this say about Polly and I?? Well, all I will say is that once Polly got her first job as a teenager, her first purchases were home dec items for her bedroom. Once a decorator - always a decorator. Me?? All I will tell you is that my favorite toy as a kid were paper dolls. Loved them!My favorite thing was cutting them out, more than actually playing with them. Cutting out the clothes and organizing them. Sometime during my childhood, "punch out" clothes for paper dolls came into being. THAT was a sad day. Remember Betsy McCall??I came across this picture yesterday on Pinterest. That picture yesterday took me on a sentimental journey, aided by the internet, trying to find my favorite paper doll. I found her here.Wendy and Her Wardrobe!! Wendy was a bit different than other paper dolls. Instead of clothing to cut out - there were pages and pages of fabric swatches printed onto paper and you used a clothing template (the blue shapes above) to MAKE her clothes. There were pages of wool tweeds and cotton calicoes. I bought every Wendy Paper Doll book at the local drug store and spent the next couple years looking for more in every store I went into. I was obsessive about fabric way back when. I'm so glad that my parents put up with my Wendy and Her Wardrobe obsession. Who knew.....

Laurie

Winner!!!

2011-06-17T21:03:00.001-07:00

Thanks everyone for playing along. The winner of the American Banner Rose Fatquarter™ bundle is Alicia

Alicia - email me here and I will get it out to you asap!

Laurie

Glorious June

2011-06-15T08:12:00.001-07:00

Pay attention, people.....we have a lot of material to cover today. Lets start out with a picture from Gibby's and my walk this morning.It's peony season here in Michigan. My favorite flower. Yard after yard had jaw dropping blossoms on display. The pale pink, heck all of the pink, are my favorite. After our walk I went to the Ann Arbor's Farmers Market. It's also strawberry season.Some of these went home with us. We are going to have strawberry shortcake tonight for dinner. What else you ask? Nothing else. Just strawberry shortcake. We'll have protein and vegetables tomorrow. These babies are ripe and ready right now, and these are the real deal. Not like the beautiful strawberries found at the supermarket (that are lovely outside and bitter and white inside) - these are ruby red all the way through. The season is short and I must take advantage.

These were also in abundant supply at the market, but alas, I have no green thumb.What else?? oh the Detroit Tigers are in first place and what else?? Take a look at this.Yes, 100 quilts in 100 days. Read about it here.

Oh, and if you happen to gander over on the left - it seems we have passed the 500 mark on our followers. Thanks everyone! In honor of that, make a comment here before June 17th, midnight and you could win a fat quarter collection of American Banner Rose.
That's not much time. We'll get this out to you before Polly and I fly out for a trip to the west coast.

Laurie

Strip Smart Blog Hop!

2011-06-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

It's been an odd week, filled with inconveniences and frustrating starts and stops. It started with a 4 hour delay on the tarmac in Fort Myers, Florida. There was an afternoon spent in the hospital awaiting tests that proved, that despite a few scares, that everything was A-ok. A quilt top that was sent to the machine quilter was found to be, well.... a bit WRONG once we studied the pictures. We are awaiting it's return so it can be corrected. There were a couple of good things: Bill got to spend a day on the set of The 5 Year Engagement, a movie shooting here in Ann Arbor, and he was paid to do it; and we were asked to join the Strip Smart Blog Hop.
Today is our day! Thank you Kathy, for asking us. How could we not be delighted! Our Clermont Farms fabric is looking pretty good on the front cover. Kathy named this quilt Fat Man's Squeeze. You'll have to get this book to know why. You will want this book no matter what. It uses the Quarter-Square Triangle ruler and makes quick work of Jelly Roll™ strips into quarter square triangles.

Just sew two Jelly Roll™ strips together, press to the dark, and use this handy ruler.
In no time, you will have enough to make Fat Man's Squeeze and lots of other quilts.
It just so happens that I designed a quilt independently of this book, and my quilt uses quarter square triangles. Our dedicated assistant Leigh Ann used this ruler and it sped up the process. Look for this quilt in an upcoming issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. Thanks, Kathy for the ruler and the book.

Make a comment on this post and Kathy will pick a winner for your own copy of the book and ruler. AND...... there will be a grand prize drawing, so make sure to visit all the blogs on the hop.

June 10 - Pam Vieirra McGinnis - PamKittyMorning!
June 11 - Laurie Simpson - Minick and Simpson - Right Here!
June 12 - Tara Darr - Sew Unique Creations
June 13 - Joan Ford - Hummingbird Highway
June 14 - Linda Lum De Bono - Linda Lum De Bono
June 15 - Elizabeth Scott - Late Bloomer Quilts
June 16- Lissa Alexander - Moda Lissa
June 17 - Vickie Eapen - Spun Sugar Quilts

June 18 - Camille Roskelley - Simplify
June 19 - Debbie Field - Granola Girl Designs

Thanks!!

Just One Star Update

2011-06-08T07:51:00.000-07:00

Remember when we asked you to make some star blocks for the Just One Star Project?

We made lots of these....
And then we all mailed them to Moda Fabrics to be made into these.....
Well, boy did we! Moda asked for 1800 blocks to make 100 quilts. At last count, they received over 12000 blocks with many more packages not even opened up yet. The best guess is that instead of the planned for 100 quilts - it's going to be closer to 1000 quilts. Uh, they all won't be made for the Flag Day deadline, that's for sure, but they will all be made eventually.

Thank you everyone! Thanks especially to Moda Fabrics who donated the fabric and especially to Lissa Alexander and Susan Stiff who spearheaded this project. Some blocks and accompanying fabric is making it's way to me and I will do my part putting some of these tops together.

Thanks everyone!

Polly and Laurie

It's Been Awhile

2011-06-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Time flies. Especially when your sister puts you to work. I just got back from South Florida. Polly and I were working on several things. This was a photo shoot on the beach in Naples. Not of me, or my feet - thank the lord - but some pictures of our stuff for an upcoming book. How hot was it? Hot! Damn hot. So hot that Polly, myself, and the photographer were hopping around on the sand. And we were wearing sandals. I quickly ran into the water to cool the piggies off. Maria, our photographer got some great shots before we all burst into flames.

What else did we do? We discussed, doodled and tried to figure out our next fabric collection by studying antique fabric scraps. I think we're almost there. Just a few more finishing touches. Caffeine proves to be invaluable in this endeavor. We also ate out each night. That is how we reward ourselves. This was what we saw when we ate in Old Naples Sunday night. We were tempted to borrow it for a joyride, but good sense prevailed. Now that we are back in the home/work mode - look for more frequent blog posts. In fact, I am scheduled for a blog hop on Saturday.....The Strip Smart Blog Hop

June 18 - Camille Roskelley - Simplify
June 19 - Debbie Field - Granola Girl Designs

Nice fabric for the cover quilt, eh?

Laurie