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Friday, December 24, 2010

Ta Da! Here's Journey Two!!

I am so happy to finally reveal the projects for Journey Two of the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle club!  The quilt on the front cover is called Remember Me, and is a Friendship quilt.  This time, I decided to print all of the quilts on two sides of the cover to be able to enlarge the size of the quilt photos. 


This is the back cover, revealing the other five quilts and the bonus pillow project!  Do you like them?  I sure hope so!  From the top left, they are The Quilting Gathering, Prairie Huswyfe, Peace Among the Flowers, Next Door Neighbor, The Mill Girls, and Olde Settler's Way

I can't wait to get back to hosting the club and spending time with the wonderful ladies who join me in our journey back in time.  If you're in the Chicagoland area and would like to join the fun, our club will begin next month at The Quilt Merchant, in Winfield, IL.  Click here for club information.

For anyone interested in information for a shop outside of the Chicago area, please email me, and I will do my best to help you find a shop near you, or one that offers the club by mail.




I want to tell you all how much I have enjoyed your emails and comments since I began writing this little blog of mine.  You have touched my heart!  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year full of time spend with the ones you love, doing what you love!
Pam












Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Peace Among the Flowers


Peace Among the Flowers is the bonus project for Journey 2.  It's a pillow embellished with wool applique (which can also be done in cotton, of course) and Yo-yos.  It was a bit of a stretch for me to create an applique design, and I love the way it turned out. 

The club pattern cover is now finished!  Stay tuned for the big reveal of all of the full sized quilts!
I can't wait to show you!

Monday, December 20, 2010

The Mill Girls


Here's the sixth preview of the Journey 2 PWSC quilts called The Mill Girls!  I'll be posting a photo of the bonus project next, and then the big unveiling of the new pattern covers which will show ya everything!  WooHoo!  I'm so excited!

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Know what else I'm excited about???  Take a look....


I am soooo proud to say that my very dear friend, Tara Lynn Darr of Sew Unique Creations, has a new and wonderful book coming out in February!  If you know of Tara's work, then you know what a treat you're in for.  If you don't know Tara, then take my word for it.  She creates wonderful, traditional quilts with an authentic vintage look.  She's been published many times in American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, among others!  Click here to visit Tara's blog, to keep informed on just when her book will be ready, order the book, and see all the other fun and creative stuff Tara's up to! 

As we countdown the days to Christmas, I hope you're finding a little time to do something fun and relaxing for yourself! 
I'm gonna try to do the same!  Merry, merry....Pam


Friday, December 17, 2010

Next Door Neighbor


Next Door Neighbor is the 5th sneak peek of the quilts for Journey 2 of the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle.  I adore the combination of pink and brown fabrics....so vintage, so warm and lovely.  When my friend, Julie Hendricksen released her newest fabric line, Miniatures, I just knew I wanted to design a quilt with it.....right away!!  Yum!

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Because our house has been somewhat torn apart (to say the least!) for a couple of months, we're not decorating for Christmas as we usually would.  We're just decorating the kitchen and family room...the two rooms we live in the most.

This tree, in the kitchen, is one of three we usually have.  You might say this is my tree.  It's really small, just a simple pencil tree, but I have all of my favorite folky ornaments on it.  Notice the red door?I chose to paint the kitchen walls a goldy tan color, but wanted some punch in the room, so...what the heck?  Let's go for a red door, and we all love it!  Did I ever mention that I'm definitely in a "red" period in my life?  I'm drawn to all things red for some reason, and I'm going with it!

When you pull out the ornaments to decorate your tree, it's like seeing old friends.  Remembering where you bought that one, or made this one.  But wait....what is that space ship ornament doing on my tree?  That is one of dear husband's favorite ornaments, and over my mild protests, said he'd really like to see it on this tree in the kitchen.  Ugh.  He doesn't ask for much.  
I must confess that this is a photo of our family room last year.  I hope it looks like this by Dec 23rd!  My kids decorate this tree with all of the ornaments that have been given to us over the years, or those they made in school.  It's definitely the centerpiece of our Christmas!

These tables are in our family room, too.  I love these red tables!  This is one of my favorite vignette areas to change up every couple of months.  This photo is from last year also.  It looks like this right now, except I haven't gotten the quilts out yet.  There's been too much dust.  Hopefully this weekend, I can finish up.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Another peek ~ Olde Settler's Way




Here's the next peek at another PWSC Journey 2 quilt. 
I love simple patchwork.  Nine patches, four patches, checker boards...there's just something great about it.  This quilt is done in blacks and browns with a few "make-do" blues in there for good measure.  It won't be long now, that the full collection will be revealed.  The quilts have all been professionally photographed and the cover artwork is being created as we speak.  I'm anxious to show the whole kit and kaboodle!

At long last the folks working on the house said their last good-bye on Tuesday.  They were all wonderful people who did a great job, but I don't think they'd mind me saying I'm glad they've moved on to their next client. Oh, for a normal, boring day at home!

Now, we'll be doing a final clean-up and giving our full attention to Christmas!  One of my favorite times of year is coming!  More about that next time. 
Stay cozy......Pam

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

So Proud!

Our son, Ryan, has been in the local Fire Fighter cadet program for the past 4 1/2 years.  We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful program, run by outstanding mentors of the fire department, whom are very dedicated to training young men and women for careers in fire service and emergency medicine.

Ryan, at age 15, took to fire fighting like a duck to water, and it's been wonderful these past 4 years to see him enjoy his chosen career.  Now that he's 19, he's working as an EMT, and is continuing his training and community service with the FF cadet program.  

Brian (Cadet Advisor) & Ryan









Last night, we attended the cadet Christmas party.  We were so proud when Ryan was honored with Cadet of the Year! 









We were also surprised that he was promoted to Cadet Assistant Chief!


Ryan will attend the Fire Academy in January.





Thanks, dear readers, for allowing me to share our happiness with you!

Monday, December 6, 2010

The Quilting Gathering

Time for another sneak peek of a new quilt coming in Journey 2 of my Prairie Women's Sewing Circle club!





This is one block from my quilt called The Quilting Gathering.  This particular block is a favorite of mine.  It's commonly known as a square-in-a-square-in-a-square, but it's real name is "Humility" for good reason!  The more layers, or squares to add on, the harder it is to be accurate. Fear not, dear readers!  I have a paper piecing pattern for you!  It is very easy and oh so accurate to paper piece this treasure.  I promise!

(In case you were wondering about the fabrics I used in this block, the pink is from the Miniatures collection by Julie Hendricksen for Windham, and the black is from the Civil War Chronicles collection by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Bros.)

I thought you might enjoy seeing what some of the Prairie Women from around the country are creating in their club.  The next three photos are from the PWSC club held at Adel Quilting & Dry Goods shop in Adel, IA. 


These ladies all made the first quilt, called Leap of Faith.  Don't you love how differently they all turned out!  Great job!

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Next are a few of the creations from the club held at Back Door Quilts located in Greenwood, IN.

This Leap of Faith was made by club member, Gracie, and was made exactly the way I made mine.  Love your choice of fabrics, Gracie!

This is a quilt called Heartland Crossing.  Gotta love a traditional & scrappy Log Cabin block!


Here is a closeup of the scrappy fabrics used in this quilt.

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The photo above, of Heartland Crossing, was sent to me by Prairie Woman Karen Wood.  She told me that she had leftover scraps from making the original quilt, and made four additional Log Cabin blocks.  She didn't have enough fabric to make them full sized, so she just Make-do with what she had, and made the blocks smaller!  Then she used the throw away scraps (of the connector corners) from the Flying Geese border to make the little Half Square Triangles seen in the sawtooth border.  Don't you just love it!  It's soooo cute!  Great job, Karen!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Deck The Halls Winner

We have a winner!  The random number generator chose number 6.....Angie!!!  Congratulations, Angie!  Please email me with your name and address, and I'll send the decoration to you mucho pronto! 

Yesterday, I braved the crowds at the mall and started my Christmas shopping.  It actually wasn't too bad!  I made a pretty good dent, too.  Tomorrow, we'll start to decorate the house, which shouldn't take too long, 'cause we're only decorating the kitchen and family room this year.  When our two rooms are done, I'll show you photos.  I love seeing other people's homes, at Christmas and any day!  You never know when you can borrow a great idea, right?

Happy shopping and decorating!
Pam