Life Brings Changes and Life goes on...

Well, lots has happened since my last post.  My first line of fabric with Blank Quilting has been shipped to stores! YAY!  Ginger & Spice is out there in quilt shops so be sure to find out if your local quilt shop has it in stock.  It was so exciting to see it in person and have it in my hands!  The colors are rich and deep.  The fabrics feel so wonderful.  I'm so proud to have designed these and look forward to seeing them pop up in quilts out there!  If you use them, I'd love to see what you create with them!

My family has enjoyed watching our first grand son grow up a bit each time we see him.  He is just a precious boy...  We went on a vacation in late August to one of our favorite places in the Destin, Florida area and this little guy really enjoyed the sand and water!

We all had a wonderful time together enjoying each other's company and the area.  My mom was doing so well and took a turn for the worse with her health while there and unfortunately we had to say farewell to her as she passed onto her next life, back again with my father and brother and all the other family members who went before her.  We miss her terribly but find comfort that she is forever young and healthy once again.  I wouldn't normally put all this out there, but just can't let it go unmentioned.  She was such an influence in my life and in my kid's lives... I wouldn't be who I am without her having been my mom and I'm so very thankful to have had both of my parents for as long as I did!  Such a blessing...  They encouraged me to be the best I can be, to be creative and to be the parent I am to my children today.  

It's been a busy, busy time since this moment.  Life goes on and she would want us to keep on keepin' on.  She had so much spunk and energy and I hope to have as much spunk and energy as she did up into my 84th year should I be blessed enough to live that long!  

After this life changing event, life got very busy with settling things but also teaching and traveling and Quilt Market was fast approaching!  My friend Julee P offered to help me out and she kindly made one of the free quilt patterns offered at BlankQuilting.net that I designed for Ginger & Spice.  That's what I call a generous friend!  In 10 days she did most all of the applique' on this quilt shown below!  I understand a few of her quilting buddies also chipped in and helped on a few blocks.  So Big Thanks goes to Julee and also Karen, Chris and Norma as well for helping me prepare for Market and Festival!  I loved having the quilt there to show off my fabrics!  Contact your local quilt shop and make this quilt yourself~It's easy applique'!  If your local quilt shop did not happen to order the fabric line, you can find it on my website by clicking HERE!  Once again Thank You Thank You to Julee!!

One of the teaching engagements this fall was with the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild, my local guild.  It was an honor to show my quilts from the early days and share funny stories about learning to quilt.  As the quilts were shared, the ladies laid them on the pews to my left.  After it was over it took my breath away to see them all laid out.  I love sharing what I've learned along the years.  If your guild needs a lecture and workshops please have them contact me.

My time was also filled filming with The Quilt Show!  It was a great day with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims filming my episode that will be aired June 2nd.  Amazing what all goes into making a wonderful show for us quilters.  The whole team did a great job with me to make it a great experience!  The filming took place at Piece Works Quilt Shop in Winterset, IA.  A great shop!  Put it on your list of stops in Iowa if you are ever nearby.

Next up was Quilt Market in Houston.  The weather was good and we met lots of new friends and caught up with the friends met in previous years!  I was very pleased to be able to finish and show my new quilt design English Wedding featured below.  This quilt is made using my starch basting technique for English Paper Piecing as well as cotton and wool applique'.  It's scrappy and happy and a joy to make!  The pattern and kit are available on the website and you can see it by clicking HERE.

I also introduced a new wool and cotton applique' table topper called Boho Star.  This quick little project is quite easy to make and has the added interest of Primitive Boho Buttons on top of some of the pennies.  This one is proving to be very popular and the buttons are part of it's success.  They add such a cute touch to a simple little design!  Since life had been so very busy I enlisted the help of a fine seamstress I've met on FaceBook.  LaNan Eldridge did a fine job stitching this sample for me!  Thank you LaNan!  You can find the pattern and kit by clicking HERE.

There's one thing I have learned in my lifetime...life does bring changes and life does go on.  We gain strength from each event in our lives and learn to be stronger and more determined to enjoy life while we are here to enjoy it!  I will miss my original family (My parents and brother) with all my heart but I will keep on enjoying my life to the fullest!  I'm so thankful to have my own wonderful family~ My wonderful husband and daughters, son in laws and grandson~Yes...life goes on!

Thanks for visiting today and please come back again!  I have some fun news to share soon!

Take care, Missie (and Jeff, pictured above)

It's Been a Very Busy Fall...

My Goodness, time has passed once again and I finally have a few moments to get a blog post done.  The last I wrote we'd been to Spring Market and were enjoying lots of time with our new grandson.  He's still cute as a button of course and we are amazed at how fast he is growing.  He'll be crawling around any time now so I'd better get our living room area ready for a 9 month old by Christmas time!

I have a few new products that we introduced at Fall Quit Market ~ The first is Premium Starch!  For those of you who have the Starch Brush, this is the easy fill solution for you!  The Traditional Primitives Premium Starch is packaged in a bottle that will squirt easily right into your Starch Brush.  Voila!  Easy fills every time!  You'll find it on the Notions Page at TraditionalPrimitives.com.  It's wonderful to have on hand.

I have also written a booklet about my Starch Basting Technique for English Paper Piecing.  It answers the questions I repeatedly get when I teach workshops.  So far it has been very well received!  It has close up pictures to show you just what you need to see to answer those questions that come up as you are learning this technique.  You'll be a master before you know it!  You will find it at the bottom of the Notions Page.  Click Here.

The most EXCITING news I have to share with you from Market is the fact that I have my first line of fabric that was introduced by Blank Quilting Corporation called Ginger & Spice!!!  SO exciting!  There are 24 fabrics in the line and of course they are my favorite colors to work with.  Here's a little tease of the folder that fabric shops are seeing now.  The pattern on the front will be one of two free patterns I designed available on the Blank Quilting website.  

You can take a look at the fabrics up close on the Blank Quilting website by clicking HERE.  Please pass the news of a new Traditional yet Primitive line of fabric on to your favorite quilt shops and have them contact their Blank Quilting reps or call the company to order.  Thanks for spreading the word!  It will be available in Quilt Shops in July '18.

It was great to see some friendly faces at Market.  It's nice to see some of the same folks year after year now that I've been a few times!  And also great to meet new friends too!  I enjoyed meeting a few ladies I know here from Blogland as well.  First is Sallieanne from the UK.  We are standing in front of Dreaming of Spring because she made a similar small quilt of a pattern I'll mention a bit later.  We met last year at Festival and have kept in touch!

Next up is Paula who brought her version of The Gardens Of A King.  So pretty in brights!!  I love it when you ladies bring your quilts to show me!  In case you have not heard, I have a FB group for those who have purchased my patterns and I invite you to share your quilts there with others.  You can join it by clicking HERE and requesting to join.  Please let me know if the link does not work!

And some new friends from down under...Margaret Mews, Judy Newman and her daughter.  Such nice ladies.  We had some nice conversation!  These ladies have books published with Quiltmania titled Quilts from The Colonies and Quilts for Life Made with Love.  Such LOVELY books!

It was wonderful to meet some of the folks from Blank Quilting Corperation too.  I have really enjoyed working with Diana who is pictured on the left side of the photo.  It's always good to put a face to the voice on the other end of the phone!  Janice, Amy and Cliff are on the Sales Rep team!  Friendly folks!!

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Heidi is another gal who worked with me on Ginger & Spice...

It's always good to see the friendly smile of Lisa Bongean from Primitive Gatherings...So many friendly folks in this business I never would have met otherwise!

And look who is at my booth interested in what I am doing!  It was an honor to show Yoko Saito my method of basting English Paper Piecing with starch.  She purchased some of my tools and I do hope she enjoys the technique.

I thank Jeff and two of my girls, Trisha and Katie for helping out during Market and Festival.  I couldn't do it without their help!  We had such a great time working together.  I am so thankful they enjoy helping us out with our little business.  We will cherish these memories in the years to come.  Trisha loves helping us as often as possible.  She is a stay at home mom and if you've purchased a Hexie Pressing Mat from us, she most likely made it.  She does a good job and loves chatting with the customers.  It's nice to hear her talking and able to answer more and more questions properly the more she joins us!  It was Katie's first time at a retail show with us and she stepped in and gave me a break from the demo now and then and that was super helpful.  It was her First time to do the starch basting technique and she did good!  We kind of blend in with the quilts, but look close and you'll see us!  Haha!  

                                

It was fun to hear the girls telling about ladies who would come in one side of the booth and speak with one daughter for a while, then progress on over to the other side of the booth and encounter the other daughter.  Often times they were surprised to see her on the other side only to realize that it was the other daughter!  They look so much alike!  We are constantly asked if they are twins, but they are 8 years apart in age.  I think that happened more than a few times at Festival!  We have another daughter, Melanie, and when she is with the other two they are asked if they are triplets.  We are constantly calling them by the wrong name!  Here they are together in August at Melanie's wedding. When they wear their hair long and straight is when most folks ask if they are triplets.   Anyway, I thank them all for their help!

After returning from Quilt Market I went to my first ever retreat!  My friends Julee, Karen, Chris and I went over to Shipshewanna, IN for a retreat where we took a class from Di Ford (who I also saw at Market).  It was so much fun to meet new people at the retreat and of course to take the workshop from Di!  Such a warm and friendly, talented quilter.  We had lots of giggles and got a wee bit of quilting done during the 4 day retreat.  Fun fun!

I was thrilled to have a few quilts published in my favorite magazines this fall.  First was Two Ole Crows in Quiltmania's Simply Vintage Autumn...  I am sold out of the magazines, but we do have the pattern which is called Vintage Friends.  This pattern contains two designs.  Two Ole Crows and A Pair Of Hares which is a cute little bunny runner.  Quick and easy projects!  Find the pattern or kits HERE.

                                      

The most recent quilt published in Primitive Quilts and Projects Winter issue is called Warm 'til Spring and was SO much fun to make!  I loved every exciting minute sewing it together!  It is made in an unusual way which avoids any tricky piecing of the background.  Makes this a fairly quick quilt for such a large size.  The wool applique can be done by machine or hand.  Notice the couched yarn for added accent.  SO fun!!  You can find the Magazine and the Kits HERE.  It's a large twin size and can easily be made larger for a bigger bed or smaller for a super warm lap quilt.  This is the quilt that Sallieanne (above) brought a picture of to show me.  She made it mini!  So cute!

Have I mentioned lately that I love my job?  I certainly do!  Thank you all for your continued support and kind words, which keep me inspired to make new goodies for you!  

As always,

Take care and thanks so much for taking time to stop by today!,

Missie

It's Been A Long, Long Time...

Hello Quilters!  Wow, how the time has passed since my last post.  Yowza! My blogging app I loved has been discontinued and I can't seem to find an easy one to use to create posts.  That's one reason I have been a lazy blogger recently!  It makes such a struggle to post these days.  If anyone uses an easy blogging app on the Ipad please let me know!

The other reason is that it seems I just don't have enough time in the day to get all things accomplished and the list keeps growing.  So much has happened this year so I'll fill you in!

My last post showed that we were expecting our first grandchild.  Our hearts are bursting with love and laughs for Paxton, our Grandson.  He's such a joy!

Both Hubs and I forgot how tiny a newborn is...so sweet!

He was long and lean.  Such serious expressions!

And then he started to grin...be still my heart!

And now he's a little ham all the time!  He is no longer a string bean and we can officially call him a Butterball (My nickname for my girls when they got the healthy baby pudge!)  His crazy hat hair gives us a glimpse of what he'll look like as a big boy!  We love our little Paxton!  

May took us to St. Louis for Quilt Market.  Somehow we ended up with a super crowded booth- SO many quilts to show.  I still feel like so many shop owners have not seen my quilts and Starch Basting Technique for EPP before so I feel like we have to show everything.  We have officially decided that a half booth is NOT big enough! Haha!

I introduced a few new patterns.  Of course they are on the website so take a peek if you are interested at Traditional Primitives on the Wool Page.  The top 3 are all Wool Applique and are quick to sew.  I love wool applique on cotton backgrounds which keep the cost down somewhat.

The last quilt introduced at Quilt Market as a pattern is Bunchberry Blooms.  It was originally published in Primitive Quilts and Projects Magazine and I do have a few copies left if you'd like one.  It's a great price and contains lots of other pretty patterns.  Of course you can buy just the pattern if you'd just like that option.  This can be found HERE on the website.

And recently Redware Bouquet has been released.  It does fit the oval trays that are so popular!

We have kits for all of these as well as the patterns of course.  It's always nice to have a kit ready to go when you are ready to sew!   I'll stop there and make another post very soon!

As always, thanks for stopping by and come back again.

Take care,

Missie

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggidy Jig!

I've been on another whirlwind vending and teaching trip and it's so fun to do those things, but so nice to get back home as well. It has been so enjoyable to meet so many women and teach them a few tips and tricks in the workshops. I love sharing those tips and tricks as well as turn the light on for something new to someone. We all enjoy getting excited about doing something new and it's so fun to share that joy! Now it's time to finalize preparation and plans for Market and Festival! Will you be attending? I'm in row 7 so be sure to come see me!

One of the things that gets ladies so excited when they see it for the first time is Punchneedle! It's exciting to see many interested in this old art because I feel like it is a dying art. Not many shops carry Punchneedle and I fear it may be gone if we don't start getting new folks to enjoy the art. It is super easy to learn and so quick to finish the project. As many of you know, I have a different way of presenting the final product and love to make mini quilts from my Punchneedle projects. Here is a new version of one of my first Punchneedle projects as an adult.

A few years ago I sold my sample for the Punchneedle project titled My Primitive Baltimore. I should have never done so...I miss that special project because it was finished so uniquely. I've found time to make another one and decided to add it to my collection of mini Punchneedle Quilts. It's simple in its finish with big stitch quilting all around the design and a simple binding. Can't wait to have my mini quilt wall up in the house once the year of shows is over for a few months until they begin again! This will be a nice addition! The pattern is available for purchase on my website if you are interested HERE. (Look at the bottom of the page)

"I'm working on a Woolie version now and it's turning out nicely! It's been a while since I have been able to hand stitch and once again it's so nice to enjoy that peaceful time. It's football season so I'd better get some more stitching ready! (I stitch while my hubs is watching EVERY game! Haha! ). The fabric in this project looks like wool, right? Well it's not! It's a new Moda Line from Minick and Simpson called Cotton Works. It's thick and so nice to handle. Everyone I've shown this little project to thinks it's wool and then they get close and have to do a double take to see what the fabric is! For those of you who are allergic to wool, try to find this line at your local quilt shop and check it out! I am using Genziana wool thread and I'm taking very small stitches to cover the raw edges of the cotton Applique. I do love working with the Genziana wool thread because it is so nice to stitch with as well as it looks so nice. This wool thread also lets the beauty of the fabric show through and be the highlight of the project. Most of the time I prefer to use the whip stitch when stitching Wool Applique, but for this project I'm using a very small blanket stitch. Remember this specific project is made from cotton, so I want those edges covered well. This thread does the trick! You can find it on my website on the Notions Page HERE.

See how beautiful this fabric is up close and personal?!

This is another new pattern called Spool Candle Holder Quilt Cozy. Talk about a fast little project! It can be done in no time and the kit comes with the spool candle holder. It's about 5" tall and let me tell you these spools were hard to find. I have a limited number available while they last! You can find them HERE if interested. They would be darling in wool as well.

 

I was thrilled to see my quilt Pennies In My Garden on the cover of Simply Vintage! I never dreamed that would happen! We have a few more of these lovely magazines left if you'd like one for yourself. Inside you will find many lovely projects including one of my other small quilts, A Warm Welcome. The way the designers of this magazine present the projects is so lovely. A joy to look through again and again. You can find the order button on my home page at TraditionalPrimitives.com

New on the website along with the needles and patterns above are kits for various quilts. We are asked so often if we have kits, I've started making a few here and there when I have a moment. You will find them in the choices on the shopping buttons when they are available.

 

 

The next big project I'll be attempting is to organize my sewing room again. Remember that photo from about two years ago when we had a graduation party? We had to literally shove things back into a part of the room so we could use the basement for the party. I promised to show a photo when the room was all fixed up. If you read my blog often, you may have noticed I've not shown a photo of my nice organized room. This would be because it has NOT happened yet! I don't even know where to begin... So November is set aside for organizing my room. It will probably never be a pretty studio like I see in magazines, but my hopes are that it will be well organized. I plan to label things at least for a while so I don't have to spend a lot of time searching for specific things. Is there anyone else out there who needs a reorganization of your sewing space? Would you like to join me for a Sewing Room Oganizing Challenge to show our spaces and be inspired by organizing ideas from others? Let me know and we can link up on a certain date in November. I need some inspiration! Want to join me?

As a beginning to this Dear Hubs has taken the old ping pong table and attached it to a big long table frame we had on hand. So now I do have a large table to work on and hopefully I can figure out a way to keep the projects and piles below and break the habit of a multi project filled table. Recently I purchased a few plastic storage drawers to put under the table. I had visions of it looking beautiful, but for now I'll just use plastic drawers. Perhaps once I get organized I can transport the projects to something prettier. That's the first step in my reorganization plan...having space on my table to work from! Yay! It's a small thing to be excited about, but it's a beginning.

Well, back to work I go! Sorry if the blog seems to be a sales pitch today, but with so many new items on the site, I want to make sure you know where to find them! Don't forget to let me know if you want to join me in the Sewing Room Organizing Challenge! Thanks so much for stopping by today and as always,

Take Care,

Missie

#showmethemoda

 

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Short Threads...

This morning I found myself falling back into an old habit and decided to whip my thoughts back into shape quickly! I found myself trying to start a new piece of Applique with a 5" thread. I would have to thread that needle again because 5" wasn't enough to finish the stitching on the pieces I have left to Applique.

How many of you sew to the last inch of thread and then struggle to tie that necessary knot?! It's a hard habit to break! But after a year of doing my best to move onto another piece of thread it's coming naturally now! What is it about threading a needle that makes us try to use every last bit of our thread? Or, is it the fear that we may run out of this particular thread? I rarely run out of a thread that I can't replace if it does run out. How about you? It is kind of fun to be able to buy a new spool after so long isn't it?! Haha!

I challenge you to make stitching a bit more pleasant and go ahead and waste those last few inches of thread! It's so much less stressful to work with a piece that's long enough: easy to hang onto a longer thread, easier to tie the knot. Go for it Ladies!

I have four more pieces left on this new design and then on to the quilting! The fabrics are a mix of several lovely collections from Moda. They blend so well together to give a perfectly scrappy look!

Two weeks until Quilt Market so the focus is on finishing prep THIS week so I am not so stressed. Wish me luck!!

Thanks for stopping in today and take care,

Missie

 

#showmethemoda

 

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