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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Holiday Stitching! And Giveaway Update!

Happy 4th of July! I can't believe it is July 4th already! This year is absolutely flying by...

I hope you all get to have a few moments to stitch before the busy weekend to celebrate the 4th of July! Those of you who live in the USA anyway! I got lots of prep done on my new quilt yesterday and I hope to find a few moments each morning and evening (except for during the fireworks of course!) Dont you hate it when you have some exciting stitching ready and then can't find any time to stitch!?! The weather is beautiful in the Midwest...cool, slightly breezy and pleasant temps for the last few days, so the picnickers will be thrilled with the forecast for family and friendly gatherings. The nice weather does not help me find time for stitching either...but I will steal away a few moments here and there to stitch a bit now an then.

That's what's so nice about hand stitching. I can do it on the porch, in the car, at the park, and of course all comfy cozy in my recliner! Perhaps I can show you some more snippets soon.

 

I can't seem to hold the camera still this fine day, but there's a little patriotic snippet of my next quilt! It will be a quilt using my favorite techniques...English Paper Piecing and Appliqué. I may add a little wool appliqué as well! Once you start with wool appliqué, it's a bit addictive, just like our other favorite techniques in quilting.

What's your favorite stitching technique to piece a quilt?

Don't forget to scroll down and go to my last post about my giveaway!

You could win this little sewing machine box (it's about 4" of cuteness!) if you let me know that you have added my blog to your sidebar if you are a blogger. If you are not a blogger, please copy me in on an email where you share my blog with a fellow quilter. I'm trying to grow my blog so if you are not a follower yet, please join my sight with the link titled "Join This Site" on the left sidebar of my blog. I'm planning on filling this cute little case with some small sized goodies for the winner! Maybe it will overflow just a bit!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Take care,

Missie

 

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Minnesota Quilters Show! And, A Give Away!

As you know, I did a little vending in Minnesota in the last few weeks! It was a great experience for me. I love sharing tidbits of Appliqué, English Paper Piecing and Punchneedle with others! It is so rewarding to see faces and eyes light up when they see that yes, they can do these wonderful arts! I think we need to lure in as many quilters as possible to keep these arts alive for the generations to come. Thanks to my friend Marcia for helping me once again at a show. She is a great help! I couldn't do it with out my wonderful helpers, Geri and Marcia! (And occasionally, my dear hubs, Jeff!). Ginger helps me too as you see below! She keeps me company as I am packing up for the trips to vend. Here, she KNOWS something is up and that her "mom" will be leaving again. She guarded and watched me the entire time I was bringing things upstairs. After a while she parked her caboose in the middle as she got tired of following me up and down, up and down. She stayed there like that for over an hour! Haha! Most of the time her head was laying on the step as comfy as could be. Ah, the life of a dog!

The show was filled with beautiful quilts from all over the country. Very many were absolutely stunning! Two quilting friends asked me to look for their judged quilts and let them know if they won a ribbon...low and behold, they both won ribbons! The first I came across in the aisles belonged to Karen Woten. She won a ribbon for 2nd place in the Large Appliqué category! Congratulations Karen!

Her quilt is the Emily Monroe Quilt, which she drew from a picture seen in a museum book. She is very talented, don't you think! She used wool on cotton for this quilt and quilted it with an old fashioned spider web design. It was stunning! Wool appliqué has become one of her favorite hobbies, along with hand appliqué and hand quilting.

Then, around the corner was the other friend's quilt! This one is Julee Prose's Civil War Bride Quilt. She also won a ribbon! Well, actually TWO ribbons! She won 1st Place in the Large Appliqué Category along with Best Hand Quilting! Congratulations Julee!

She used interesting cotton shirting a as her backgrounds to give her own spin on this quilt made by many. It's lovely! Her hand appliqué is stunning, and so are her hand quilting stitches!

I am so proud to know both of these ladies who continually win ribbons in large shows. The talent in the Des Moines area is so great and inspiring! There is always a reason to attend sewing groups because the inspiration is overflowing! I am blessed to have so many talented women in my life.

While I travel, I do love to stop at McDonalds for coffee or a large diet coke while I drive. I have not paid attention to the happy meal toys for quite some time, but the current toy caught my eye...the theme for the girls is American Girl and the toy that caught my eye? A darling sewing machine box! We have made a few trips lately and my dear husband so nicely stopped at McDonalds for every meal as we traveled across the country, so that I could see if they were giving away this special toy yet! FINNALLY, we found a resturant that was giving this as the Happy Meal toy! I was so excited!

I thought it was so cute, I got a few of them! I will be doing a give away for this cute little sewing box. How cute will this be with small sized sewing supplies inside! A thimble, a few bobbins full of thread, some paper pieces ready to use, hand sewn pieced blocks ready to sew and some small embroidery scissors... What fun!

I will fill this little sewing machine box with goodies and mail it to one lucky winner. I would like to put out a request for you to share my blog with someone. If you have a blog, please consider adding me to your blog roll on your sidebar. All you need to do to be entered in the drawing is please make a comment to let me know that you've followed my request to add me to your blog roll on your side bar or that you have shared my blog with someone. If you are not a follower, I'd love to see some new faces in my "following" gadget! I will keep posting pictures of what will be added to this little box in the coming weeks. Maybe it will even overflow with goodies! Help me grow my blog by joining in the fun.

I always try to include everyone in a giveaway here at Traditional Primitives. So, everyone who participates will get a little something by email. Be sure I have access to your email address when you post so I can send you a little freebie! I'll be showing that in future posts as well.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great week ahead!

Take care,

Missie

 

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"Grow Your Blog!!!" Welcome To My Blog! And...The Winner Is....

Hello to all the new visitors who are stopping by my blog for the first time! Welcome! My name is Missie and I am so glad you have come by today. I love Quilting, doing Punchneedle Embroidery, Wool Appliqué and English Paper Piecing...these are my favorite hobbies! I have turned my hobbies into a business most of my days since I became a mother in order to stay home with the kids.

And here they are, all grown up for the most part...and I am still doing the small hobby business! I love it! That's Hubs and I in the center, surrounded by our three daughters and our son-in-law. I thought once the kids were grown I would have so much time on my hands, but you all know how that goes! Seems there is never enough time to do all the stitching that I want to do...so the list keeps growing and growing! How about you? How long is your list?

I thought I would take a moment to write a bit about my window coverings today. I have had so many questions about them recently! We moved into this house in August and it was so sunny in the mornings...we could hardly keep our eyes open! Haha! We needed something to keep the sun out and these coverings came to mind. I used to sew window treatments for the decorating store for about 9 years, but I never made curtains for circular windows. Yes, they are quilts...machine appliqué and quilted. I was really into quilts when we moved here ( and still am!) and that was the first thing that came to mind. I made the quilted panel a bit larger than the window, which is huge for a window, I might add. Each of these is 58" wide at the bottom. They are much larger than they look way up there! The quilt design was made specifically for these windows and I expanded it into a full sized quilt a few months later. That quilt is now the logo for my business and is one of my favorites. I think it's the red background I like so much! Then again, I do like stars too!

After the quilted panels were made they were ready to be mounted on something....that something took a while to figure out, but eventually we decided to see if PVC pipe would bend well enough. We got two elbow joints and flexible PVC along with some stiffer PVC. It took a while to cut the two pieces the correct length in order to bend in the shape of the window, but we started with the bendable PVC cut a bit larger than we needed and trimmed an eighth of an inch away until it bent and fit in the window just right! Basically, the PVC is joined and bent to look like a capitol "D" if it were turned on it's side. It was very simple!

Then it was time to attach the quilt to the frame that would fit into the window. I decided to cover the PVC with foam insulation built for these pipes. This allowed the frame to fit snug in the window frame and they fit perfectly after a bit more trimming. Then the quilts were trimmed the shape of the frame with about 4" extra in size. To attach the quilt to the frame, I just rolled the quilts to the backside and pinned them in place with a straight pin! Voila'! They are still keeping the sun out of our eyes just fine! We had plans of taking them down now and then to let the sunlight in. We did this for a while, but had to stand on a chair to reach them and eventually we just left them up all the time. I should also say that we added a large piece of cardboard to keep the sun from shining through the needle holes from the quilting. If I were to make another set someday, I might try it without quilting to see if this fixed the problem. That was quite the long story I just wrote! So sorry about that, but as I said, so many have been asking about them recently. Since a few have asked, I will let you know you can buy this quilt pattern on my website if you are interested. Now everyone can get some PVC and make their own! If you do, be sure to send a picture! I'd love to see your version!

 

For the first time visitors, these two mini quilts were just published in the current issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects Magazine. Bluebirds and Berries arrived home safe and sound this week from the offices of Primitive Quilts and Projects! It was so nice to have them both in my hands again. The needlepunched version is the dark one and the light version is the wool and cotton version. I will have to get them up on a wall soon so I can enjoy them! Now that they are back home, It is time to draw the name of the winner of the year subscription that Primitive Quilts and Projects has so graciously donated for the drawing!

The winner is... Ronnie! Congratulations and thanks so much for following along with my blog Ronnie! Look for an email from me so I can get your information!

I truely appreciate all of my followers and wish I could give you each a year's subscription to the magazine. Since Ronnie is the only winner of the subscription, why don't the rest of you newcomers please find your way to my website if you wish, and find two free patterns on the Wool Pattern Page that you can download. The link to my website is just under the button for this Blog Hop on the right side bar. (While you are at the sidebar, notice I have a former blog...be sure to check that one out. It has many more posts!) For those of you who have followed for a while now, look for a new freebie pincushion on the wool page next week! I will be posting about it next.

 

One of the freebie patterns is a Valentine Pincushion that you can see peeking from inside the basket above. The other freebie is a block called Woolie Tree. I have challenged my blogging buddies, and that includes those who don't blog but like to follow along, to make this block using up those tiny wool scraps we all seem to have a bag of laying around. I have been so busy I've hardly started mine, but it is on my list I mentioned earlier. Have any of you long time followers started this yet? Let's keep it on our lists and see what we can get done in the coming weeks.

Thanks so much for stopping to read the blog today. If you are here with the hop, I'd love to have you join my site as a follower. After all we are trying to grow our blogs! If you sign up to follow, please let me know you've done so and by which method you will be following. It's hard to tell how many followers we really have these days since Google has changed the reader. I like to use my dashboard to keep updated, as I have always done...keeps it simple for me. My preferred way to follow is by clicking "join this site". Then I can keep up on things by accessing my dashboard. How about you?

The organizer of this blog hop will have a list of the blogs joining in posted on her own blog, 2 Bags Full. Thank you Vicki! Be sure to stop by her blog to find a few more blogs to follow. Again, Welcome and Thanks for stopping by today! I hope to see you all here again soon!

Take Care,

Missie

 

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It was a great workshop with Pat Sloan and the next one is coming Fast!

The workshop with Pat Sloan was really great! She is such a fun, genuine person. We heard lots of fun stories and learned lots of great info! It's so fun when you take a class from a professional...they always teach us little tidbits that are helpful to know! She taught us all about different threads, needles, and a darling appliqué stitch I'd never seen before. It was a quick and easy way to do some appliqué, plus a bit artistic with the contrasting thread. Great fun! Here's a bit of show and tell from the day!

 

 

If you ever have a chance be sure to take a workshop from Pat. You will learn so much and enjoy yourself!

It won't be long until the event with the store in Omaha gets here! If any of you live nearby, be sure to check out www.moresewforyou.com and see the details about the workshops available from The Quilted Crow Girls! The classes are just about full! I am so flattered to get to meet them and introduce my designs to the area by vending in the back of the room....fun fun! Can't wait to see what I learn from these fun ladies!

Take care,

Missie

 

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It's A Gatherin'!

Well, I did my first vending gig last Friday and Saturday! It was in Stover, Mo...a cute little town in central Missouri. The name of the vending show is It's A Gatherin', and boy did the shoppers come! Great attendance and nice people. Here's a few pics of my booth...

It was great to visit with quilters from the area! There is always a friendly person when you go to a quilting event. Lots of happy ladies admiring and having fun at all of the booths!

Julie, from Me and My Stitches talked me into getting into this show, and I'm so glad she did! We had a blast! Now I can't wait to find another one to attend...

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Take care,

Missie

 

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Happy Easter!

Have a Blessed Easter!

Take care,

Missie

 

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Creativity...

All of us quilters are creative weather we design or follow a pattern. It is so interesting how the same quilt pattern can produce such different and creative interpretations. The fabric choices, the way we sew it together and the quilting style all feed our creative needs.

This week I decided to get creative with the starch from the laundry closet. Usually when I use starch I am ironing my hubs' shirts...but this week I have kidnapped the starch from the closet and will never return it there!! I think I'll keep it for quilting from now on.

I've been doggysitting Ginger this week, (Thankfully she is healing well so far!) doing some sketching and prepping while staying in one room with her as she is to walk as little as possible. My hexies are done for the next quilt and now I need to finalize what it will look like. I started these hexies last night and worked on them a few hours more tonight. I am really liking this starch method of prep for English Paper Piecing. Over 100 hexies ready to stitch in a small amount of time. I'll start stitching tomorrow!

 

I am going to keep these little hexies organized in my new sandwich box which was sent to my by Taryn of Reproduction and Antique Lover blog. She posted about how she keeps organized when taking her projects along with her. I commented on how my sharp scissors cut through my purse once when I tried to take my quilting along with me. She was sweet enough to send me this extra plastic sandwich box of hers and these tiny little glassine envelopes! Thank you Taryn! What a creative way to store our stitching. I'm excited to give it a try. Every 4 days I go get three allergy shots and must wait for 30 minutes afterwards in the waiting room. This will be the perfect take along to put in my purse and keep me busy while waiting! My scissors will be safe and sound and won't be able to get into any trouble in this little box!

 

Official preparation has begun for my Dear Jane Quilt! Jane Stickle really had an imagination to come up with all these intricate block and triangle designs! I can just imagine her sitting in her beautiful antique clothes with perfect posture at a fancy ladies desk drawing these blocks, while overlooking the farm where she lived, then stitching in the evenings by the fireplace...just like in a novel set the past. I have no idea if that is what Jane Stickle's life was like, but that's how I imagine it being. I admire her creativity to make this beautiful quilt. We all know what a commitment it is to reproduce it! Just imagine what it took to create the original!

Take care and thanks for checking in on Miss Ginger so often,

Missie

 

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Fastest Finish Ever! Charmed Beginnings

Less than a week and this baby is finished and ready for the show! A week and a half is a record for me!

I am a good last minute worker. Every year I seem to do this to myself...I sign up quilts for our quilt show that are not quite done. Usually they have been started when I enter them...but this one was not even started! I've done so much traveling this summer, it kept getting put on the back burner. It was a thrill to get 'er done so quickly. I felt like I was at a quilting retreat for a few days!

This is the quilt that I designed for Blackberry Primitives using 100% wool fabrics. They got to keep the original, so I needed to make one for me to keep. I used cotton and wool in my version. (The pic above is a horrid picture, but the camera batteries are dead, so iPad pic it is for today!). I used Steam A Seam 2 and did machine appliqué.

Below, you can see the wool version that Blackberry owns.

And this is how my new version looks when it was stuffed in the quilting machine. Small enough to be easy to quilt at 45" square.

This quilt is machine quilted on my Sunshine 16 longarm. It's a great little machine and I was glad to have something to quilt on! This machine fits in my room without taking over my sewing room. It was very economical in price and I'm so glad I made the decision to purchase it! You can find info about it here.

The problem I have is deciding what designs to quilt in the empty areas. I hope to make better decisions as I do more quilting. This one was challenging as there were some areas that were very empty and some that were not so empty, but still needed filling. I didn't want to do very small quilting in these areas because the charm center had not so small quilting. See where my mind goes?!? Around in circles! My goal is to get to the point where I just KNOW what each quilt needs, rather than spend days and days thinking about it! Am I alone with this? Do you have problems deciding what designs to quilt?

Take Care,

Missie

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A Warm Welcome is done!

Here it is...all finished. Quilted and bound! Whew. For a little quilt at 24" square, it sure was a challenge! but it's good to have a challenge now and then.

I hope you can see the quilting if you are able to zoom in on the picture. It is not perfect, but I am learning new things on my quilting machine each time I quilt another quilt. If you have ideas of something else I could have quilted into the border area, I would love to hear about them. I was stumped and all I could think of was feathers...
VOTE FOR THIS QUILT HERE FOR THE SCRAP QUILT CATEGORY IN THE 5th BLOGGERS FESTIVAL!!

This is the backside. Again, not perfect, but if I squint, it looks good! LOL. I may consider no sleeve on this one for displaying both sides.

If you notice, I finished the back side the same as the front for the binding. Since I was using the english paper piecing method, I wanted to bind it as I have seen antique quilts bound with this shape. It was difficult at first, but ended up getting easier as I went around.
I started by sewing on a matching color paper piece (thanks to Mary Helen for that color suggestion). I stitched two sides of the piece. This pic below is from my phone, so it is a bit blurry, but I think you can see the new paper piece I am stitching on to the border. 

Then after an entire side of pieces were sewn on, I flipped them to the backside of the quilt.

The backing fabric was trimmed and folded under so that no raw edges showed at the intersection area that is very narrow. (See that right under my thumb.) Then I pinned the piece in place at the point and the narrow intersection where both sides are touching.

The edges were stitched in place as shown above and I took an extra stitch at the narrow area as seen below.

I used wool batting and it was quite puffy until I gave it a good steamy press. Now that it is completed, I think I like the look. It's a different way to bind and I do have great appreciation for our grandmothers of the past who used this method to finish their quilts. This was a common way to finish a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. Many times they would just fold the backing under instead of adding the colored piece like I did.
This quilt will hang in the Des Moines show the first weekend in October. I just got started on another quilt for the show! Yes, I am doing this at the last minute, but I do this every year to myself! I have posted Charmed Beginnings that I designed as a pattern for Blackberry Primitives. It looks quite different in cotton fabric this time around! The stems and grass are wool.

Now I am trying to decide on the border color...have to think on it for a while. Not too long though! It needs to be completed by Sept 21st!!
Thanks for stopping by today, take care,
Missie

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