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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THIS Is What It's All About!!

Do you ever get a little Ho Hum about sewing the same quilt a few times over? When I WANT to make the same quilt over and over, it's all good, but when I NEED to make a repeat, sometimes I do procrastinate a bit...

In the past few months, I have sold a few samples to stores and needed to make my own sample once again. I'm afraid I fibbed a bit when I posted that I have not been doing any sewing. I realized today, the truth is, I have not been able to make anything NEW lately. I have, however, been working on the samples mentioned...Punchneedle Mini Quilts. The one I needed to replace in my own stash is Little Brookshire Star. My goodness...when I started sewing these little squares together this morning, I did get so excited about it! And....THAT'S what it's all about!!! Getting excited about quilting, punching, stitching, etc! I'm so excited to finish this little quilt up...LOL, the day before I needed it done!

Little Brookshire Star...here she is...

12.5" in all of her glory...

Two afternoons to punch and stitch, an hour to cut strips for squares, and an hour to sew the squares together! Voila'...a sweet little mini for me to enjoy once again! I love the colors and the work that looks difficult. We all know the secret that Punchneedle, lazy daisy stitch and squares are so easy to do! If you are interested, you can have one too by clicking HERE to purchase the pattern at my store! I would LOVE to hear what YOU are excited about stitching on today! Thanks for stopping by!

Take care,

Missie

 

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Getting Back to Normal !! And...Some Big News!

Well, I have two new graduates as of a few weeks ago! The Middle Daughter has graduated from Iowa State and has already started work. The Youngest Daughter has graduated from high school and is off to volunteer at a YL camp for a month. They are both so happy well adjusted kids and I am so proud!

We are empty nesters for a while. Hubs is traveling for work and I am vending, so we'll miss each other for one of our empty nest weeks! LOL! After such a busy spring, we have vowed to do something fun together, so we'll work on that when we both get home next week!

Since we had the graduation parties in our home, the above picture shows my sewing room...a mess once again, all squished to one end of the room and hidden by a partition during the party. I was happy to rearrange last year for so many good reasons, but I sooooo look forward to putting it together and leaving it that way! I have a good start on the process, but it's all a mess again as I start to pack for my vending trip to The Minnesota Quilters Show in St. Cloud, MN. Will anyone be there? Let me know if you are coming and look me up if so! I hear it's a wonderful show and I can't wait to see it in person! If you are up for a road trip the dates of the event are June 12-14. Please introduce yourself to me if you make it to the show!

I have had to throw another iron away. This will be the third one in about 6 months. They don't make them like they used to! Of course, part of my problem may be that I am using old irons. I am one who likes an iron to stay on while I am doing my thing in the sewing room. I have not been able to find a new one that works as well as my old Rowenta...which was so old, it smelled like an electrical fire waiting to happen. Recently, I was at my local designer big box store and found a $17 iron with no auto shut off picture on the box! I couldn't believe it! It is very small compared to my old faithful, but it gets hot...and does not turn off!!!! I love it! It's the Black and Decker F210 model. It appears there are some with the auto shut off feature, so maybe they only carry this one in the store. I better go get another one to have on hand! That feature is important to me, and I have been looking for months and months. I'm so happy I found one! To make sure it is off as I leave the room, I always use a stip extension cord with a switch. I also leave a light on and plugged into the same strip cord. When I flip the switch off to turn off the light, I am assured the iron is off also. That's my safety system I have used for over 20 years. So far so good!

So, you are probably wondering what the big news is? If you've read my blog for a while, you know I love English Paper Piecing, but you also know that I have a unique way of doing this! I use EPP for hexies and diamonds, traditional shapes, but also for blocks that are not traditionally EPP patterns. I have figured out a way that works for me to shortcut the basting with thread method. I have learned that I love to use starch and thick freezer paper (double layer of special freezer paper) to baste my shapes. One issue with some customers has been that some don't have interest in making the freezer paper shapes. (It's VERY easy though!).
SO, SOME of my big news is that I can now offer my customers my EPP patterns WITH the shapes cut out and ready to go! My patterns are not traditional EPP blocks and they are blocks that I would not want to attempt by machine because they are not easy blocks by machine, and I love handwork. Using the EPP method for these blocks makes them very easy and ENJOYABLE!! These papers can be used over and over when using my method for basting. I have used them up to 20 times or more before. ( It depends on how much lint your fabric has that sticks to the waxy side of the freezer paper.) I offer pin cushion patterns and a few quilt patterns using EPP. You could easily make a bunch of pin cushions, or, make a quilt using these same papers. I'm so excited to be able to offer these to you so that you can get started right away on your EPP projects!

These papers are available in the Pincushion Patterns and the Hexie Candy Mini Quilt currently and I will have them available in the near future for Life In The Midwest and A Warm Welcome. You can also choose to make your own as in the past. You can purchase HERE at my Website, www.TraditionalPrimitives.com if you are interested.
The OTHER big news is that I will now offer ALL of my Punchneedle Patterns WITH the printed weaver's cloth. This has been a work in progress for quite a while. I am so excited to have all of them ready and available for you with the stamped weaver's cloth included in the pattern. Now, when you receive your pattern you can start punching right away! The picture below shows an example of one of the printed designs, Primitive Pineapple Welcome.

You can find these HERE at www.TraditionalPrimitives.com if you are interested! Thanks for looking! (I do have a correction here...all but ONE design is available with the printed cloth temporarily)
With these tasks finalized I am so excited to get back to stitching! I promise I won't be missing in action any longer. My life is my own once again and I'll post more often once again!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I've missed chatting with you all. Please leave a comment to say hello! If your guild or store would like a workshop on my starch method of English Paper Piecing, along with all other methods of EPP, or another class, please write to me. I would be happy to send the information!
Take care,
Missie

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