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