My Visit to Village Dry Goods

After my afternoon spent in Pie Making 101, I had the pleasure of spending the next three days doing what I love....spending the day with quilters!  

I taught my new pattern, Settler's Puzzle,  for two days, and my ever popular workshop, Practice What I Preach the other day.  

We had a great time together!  The ladies at Village Dry Goods quilt shop really know how to throw a terrific party workshop!

Each day, shop owners Fran & RoLayne surprised the workshop attendees with a little gift.  One day it was this cute little crocheted doily that sits under your spool of thread.  It twirls when you're sewing and is so sweet on this Featherweight, don't ya think?

Another day, they made an adorable coffee mug caddy for everyone!  How cute are they?  See the little pincushion on the end of the clothes pin?  

There are little pockets inside of the coffee mug for more stuff.  It's really easy to make, too! They were so nice and made all of them from an assortment of my fabrics.  Look for them on the tables in the workshop photos.  If you're interested in purchasing the pattern, give Village Dry Goods a call at 435-723-1315 (Pacific time).  The pattern is $8.50 plus postage.  

One of the most interesting things about teaching in a classroom/workshop situation is that we all get to see different versions of the same quilt.  Oh, how I love that!!  Here are some photos of the variations of Settler's Puzzle.

And more variations..... 

...from the Practice What I Preach class.

Several evenings, I got to mosey around the shop.  JOY!  Who doesn't love to shop, right?

Fran and RoLayne purchased the building and moved the shop several months ago into this light and airy setting.  

I found it quite charming with lots of samples for inspiration.

They have a large Prairie Women's Sewing Circle club at the shop.  Lucky me, I was able to sit in on their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday night, and meet their Prairie Women.  Way fun!!

As you can see, tons of good stuff!  If you're anywhere in the area in your travels, don't miss a visit to Village Dry Goods!  I promise, you won't be disappointed.  

My thanks to Fran, RoLayne, Janet O., the Village shop girls, and all the ladies I met at the Winter Retreat workshops.  Every one of you made me feel so welcome!  

Back to the real world....off to run errands, grocery shop, run to the bank, yada, yada, yada.

Enjoy your day!

Pie Making 101

Last week, when I traveled to Brigham City, UT, to give several workshops and a lecture for the wonderful folks at Village Dry Goods quilt shop, several generous and wonderful quilters gave me an afternoon I'll never forget!  A year in the making, that afternoon was spent learning to make pies!

If you remember a few weeks ago when I posted my goals for the New Year, I told you about my 2013 goal to make delicious home-made soups, and to learn to make pies from scratch.  When I posted those goals in January of 2013, I was touched and overwhelmed with many, many emails from my dear blog readers who shared their soup and pie recipes, as well as many good tips and tricks for making pie dough.  Janet O was among them (pictured above on the left).  Janet and I became email pen pals through the year, and when Janet learned of my trip to her home state,  we hatched a plan to get together so she could teach me to make pies!!  This was no small undertaking as Janet lived some distance away, and we obviously needed a kitchen!  Shop owner, Fran, generously allowed us to use her kitchen, and Janet, along with the help of her pal, Kim, hauled several large bins of pie-making kitchen needfuls and ingredients down the snowy canyon for my lesson.  What we won't do for a delicious pie!

Kim, Laurie, RoLayne & Fran & me 

Under Janet's skillful instruction, I made my first successful, tasty pie crust from scratch, and mixed berry (one of my favorites!) filling for my pie.  I'm still so excited!!  

 Janet walked me thru every step, and shared tons of pie making knowledge with us.  Honestly, she can have her own show on the Food Network, she was so professional!!

Not looking too bad!

All topped and ready to go into the oven!!  

Janet not only hauled half the equipment from her kitchen, and all the ingredients for my pie...but brought us two pies for us to eat!  Heaven!  The pie at the top of the photo is a pear pie with a lattice top crust.  The bottom photo is the same mixed berry (Janet calls Razzleberry) pie I made. Aren't they beautiful?!

While my pie baked in the oven, we all enjoyed slices of Janet's pies.  Absolutely delicious!!  

There just aren't words to properly express the generosity given to me by all of the comments & emails I've received by my blog readers.  You're all the best and you make me smile every day!!  Thank you so very much!!

How do I begin to thank Janet for her encouragement, and for the fun, fun day I was able to spend with her making pie in Fran's kitchen?  She put a ton of effort into making this happen, and I'll never forget it.  My heartfelt thanks to you, Janet, for giving me these skills, not to mention wonderful memories.  Special thanks to Fran, for allowing us to invade her kitchen for the afternoon, and to Kim, who drove down the snowy canyon so we could all meet!  Each time I make a pie, I'll certainly be thinking of all of you!!  

I have no doubt....now, I'm going to be a pie making fool!  Yum!

I didn't travel to Village Dry Goods just to make pie!  Look for all the fun stuff we did in my workshops in my next post!!

Click here to enjoy Janet O's blog posts!

Introducing Prairie Stitches!

Ada Blaney ~ Nebraska Historical Society.  Used with permission 

For me, the lovely Ada Blaney epitomizes life on the prairie.  Ada was, no doubt, very proud of her treadle sewing machine, and wanted to show it off when her photo was taken, as she stitches away on her homestead with the open prairie behind her.  She was my inspiration for naming my newest fabric collection.....

Prairie Stitches

The fabrics in the collection are a mix of deep reds, blues, browns, golds and neutrals.....just some of my favorite colors.  I think when these colors mix together in a quilt, it makes for a warm, traditional quilt with that vintage feel!

This is the main print in the collection.  (The colors are much, much brighter in the photo than they really are!!)  I love a simple floral print as these were very simple folks.  I imagine Ada might have chosen a print like this to make cheerful curtains or a dress.  

This print is a favorite that I took directly from my oldest quilt, c1750.  I had the quilt appraised, not only for value, but to date the fabrics, and it came in nearly 80 years younger than I had thought.  It's a sweet print that's big on country charm!  (Again....colors are way, way brighter in the photo.  I'm a terrible photographer.)

I'm madly in love with these two stripes!!  Very old and vintage prints....it just says Civil War all over the place.  Can you see lots of possibilities for some fun fussy cut Lucy Boston blocks?  The sweet vine print is classic.

(Whoa....what happened to that red??  It's very cranberry in person!)  Every collection needs great coordinate prints, and aren't they the staples in our fabric stashes??

This is such a sweet little print.  It turned out great in every color, so we just had to have them all!  

Madly, madly in love with all of these.  Again...colors are wayyyy brighter (especially the red!) than in person.  One good thing about my horrible photos are at least you can really see the print!

The colors really are warm and vintage.....I promise!

Believe it or not, this print came from another very old quilt.  Just a great coordinate on a tiny scale.  A good addition to the mix!

Finally....a photo of the fabric that's most like the real thing.  (Hhmmm...I wonder what camera settings were used to take this picture.  I should do that all the time.)  Depending on the project, I can be hot and cold about stripes.  I really loved this little stripe, and it works very well in the quilt I designed using Prairie Stitches.  Stripes give a different dimension to the motion within a quilt...sometimes a good thing....sometimes not. 

Speaking of the quilt I designed for the collection, here's my EQ concept design for my quilt named Ada's Prairie Stitches.  I'm just waiting for my sample fabric to arrive and we can begin sewing.  So, so jazzed about this!  Can't wait to see the awesome blue stripe as the setting bars, and start putting the blocks together, all set with that terrific red trumpet print.  The blue floral print will do a great job of tying it all together.  L*O*V*E!!!

Click here to check out the entire collection (with much better color photos!) directly from the Marcus Fabrics website.  Prairie Stitches will be shipped to you local quilt shop in April, 2014!!

I sure hope you like it as much as I do!  

Settler's Puzzle

Early, early Wednesday morning, I'll be boarding a plane for Brigham City, UT, to spend time with lots of wonderful quilters while giving a lecture and three workshops for the Village Dry Goods quilt shop.  This is one of my most favorite things to do...I love it.  The quilt above is a new design called Settler's Puzzle, and I'll be teaching it for the first time.  I love this quilt and it seems to be very popular with all of you as well.   I'll be teaching this quilt in workshops all this year, and so it won't be available for purchase on my website until the end of the year.  The only way to get the pattern is to join me in a workshop!  There will be several opportunities spread out all over the country throughout the year, so stay tuned for more news about that.

Adding tons of loveliness to this quilt is the talent from quilter extraordinaire, Linda Hrcka of The Quilted Pineapple.   I just have to show you the creativity in stitching Linda did on my Settler's Puzzle quilt.  The following photos were taken by Linda, and I'll let her work speak for itself.  

Did you sit there with your jaw dropped open like I did?  Needless to say, I'm thrilled with how the entire quilt turned out.  Please visit Linda's blog for the details on how she chose the quilting designs and what batting she used.  She'll be posting about Settler's Puzzle soon, and it's a real treat to see all of the quilts she does.

A Great Start to the Year

I managed to find some "me" time yesterday to finish a project I've been working on for awhile now.  I adore tumbler quilts, and this little one is from my pal Tara Lynn Darr's (Sew Unique Creations)  Simply Charming book.  I'm so hooked on these little cuties, that I'll be making a much bigger one.  At least a queen size.  On second thought, it may just grow to a king size, given how much I LOVE scrappy quilts, and how many scraps I actually have.  We'll see.  No rush...just wanna enjoy the process.  For now, I'll be preparing this one to send off to my quilter pal, Ronda.  Feels so good to have this one completed.

The year begins with a whole lot going on.  UPS has been here several days picking up lots of boxes of goodies I'm sending to the Village Dry Goods quilt shop in Brigham City, UT.  I'll be there for four days next week giving workshops, and a very special event on Friday evening.  Not sure if there's even on spot open for my workshops, and I think they can accommodate lots of people for the Friday night event, so if you're interested in either event, please call the folks at Village Dry Goods for info.  The phone number is 435-723-1315....we'd love to have you join us!

My newest fabric line, called Prairie Stitches will be introduced any day now, and I'll have some photos of the fabric and links to the Marcus website when it's up.  So excited to share my thoughts and new pattern designs with you on this line.  

Oh, and my good pal, Lynne Hagmeier (Kansas Troubles) and I are almost ready to give you all the news and info on our September Great Girlfriend Get-Away to historic Mackinaw City, Michigan!!  Truth is, we're starting to pack and prepare for out trip to St. Augustine, FL in just a few weeks.  So, so excited.

It's snowing, and snowing, and snowing here for the last couple of days.  A beautiful winter wonderland.  Getting me in the mood for the snowy mountains in Utah.  Hope you get some time to stitch and enjoy yourself.....

Wishing You All The Best in 2014!!

Here we are about to say good-bye to another year and welcome a new one.  2013 wasn't really a bad year for my family, but honestly, it could have been better.  That said, it depends on what criteria you're using for judging a year.  If I'm really taking stock, we were all together and healthy through the year, and as my Gram always said, "if you have your health, you have everything!"  Here, here, Gram.....then 2013 was a good year, indeed.

My New Years post from January, 2013 spoke of how I don't make resolutions so much as set goals.  Every year I decide on some things I've always wanted to do, and try to make those goals a reality.  Last year, I wanted to focus on making delicious soups, becoming a scratch pie maker, and to be a more gracious person to others.  I guess my 2013 goals were heard loud and clear by my family and friends as I received these cookbooks for Christmas!  L*O*V*E!!!  I did pretty good on the soup front, and not as well on the making-pies-from-scratch front...but that's about to change, so stay tuned!  (Fun story you won't want to miss!!)  As for being gracious...well....we don't hit the "I'm gracious enough" mark ever, so that's just something I'll always be working on. This world can always use more grace from everyone.

So, here we are with a New Year and new goals.  I've been thinking about this for a couple of months now.  I'd really love to learn to speak Italian, but honestly, I don't have the time to really devote to it right now.  Maybe another year.  I've always wanted to learn to drive a stick shift, which my husband tried heroically to help me with for my last birthday, but we just couldn't make that happen then.  Hhmmm.....what to do?  

Then, it hit me....what I really, really want to do is......find more time to do.....

What Makes Me Happy!

What Makes Me Joyful!

Now, I know this sounds kinda dumb, but honestly, most of the time, I get caught up in the "must do's" of life, and not nearly enough time to do the things that make my heart sing.  I love my work, but it feels like work a lot of the time.  I'm talking about sewing more, planting flowers, reading more, playing....just playing.  So...that's my main goal for 2014.....to.... 

MAKE time to play and enjoy myself!

I'm also gonna try to explore Instagram to see what that's all about.  Well, who knows what else my playtime will bring?  

So, I hope this New Year brings you good health, much happiness, and lots of time to do the things you love and that make you happy.  And, thank you so much for visiting my blog.  I enjoy it so very much, and you, dear reader, are the reason why.