Coming Attractions

   

Soon to be available are a couple of delightful new patterns for primitive cross-stitch from Pineberry Lane. Shown above is Ann Lancaster's Needle Book with it's quilt block-like motifs, inspired by a pocket sampler stitched in an orphan asylum back in the 1800s. The second picture shows the inside of the needle book. Another design is a neat sampler titled A Faithful Friend. You'll love both. Several out of stock patterns have also been reordered so look for those two. Announcements will appear here and on my What's New page when patterns have arrived.

   

New cross-stitch designs coming soon from Notforgotten Farm include Skeleton Keys and The Good Witch Sampler. I'll also be getting the newest little design booklet in the series, Herb Tyme with artwork that can be used as needlework, rug hooking or needlepunch. Lori Brechlin's artwork has always enchanted me and it will be good to get some new designs from her back in stock!

New patterns will also be coming from Stacy Nash Primitives and I'll share sneak peeks once my order is confirmed. Two primitive-inspired sewing books and a wonderful journal cover. Awesome stuff as usual!

Well, the Camp Wool hook-in in September down in Wells, Maine is now full! Over 200 enthusiastic rug hookers will converge upon The Coastal House on September 14th for a great day of hooking, visiting and hopefully shopping with myself and the other great vendors that will be there. If you were one of the folks who got a spot I hope to see you there! I've got my thinking cap on for special goodies to bring and offer just for this event. I hate to wish the summer away but I can't wait!

Enjoy your weekend - more yard work awaits me but I'll also be dropping in down at Camp Wool to say Hello to LeAnn who runs the shop and check it out. I'm sure my husband will be thrilled! (Browsing quilt and wool shops isn't exactly his cuppa tea!)

'Til next time,

Memorial Day

I hope you've enjoyed a safe and happy Memorial Day. It's a day to remember those who have fought and died to keep us free to live the lives we've built with family and friends. I remember my dad today, a veteran of WWII who wrote the following poem titled "This Honored Day". It was published in the Westborough News, Westboro, Massachusetts on May 22, 1992.

This Honored Day

Sound the taps and dip the flag,
You honor us this day's retreat,
We feel the tremble on the ground,
From dedicated marching feet.

Wave high those little flags in hand,
Yet gaze on ours; they fly so well,
Reminders that we fought and died,
We entered into battle's hell.

Leave us now this day we've met,
For you will wait another year,
To honor us with your respect,
Though we are always near.

With faded sounds,
The bands now gone,
The high-pitched flute,
The muted horn.

In quietness you take your leave,
You came to honor,
Not to grieve,
This honored day.

Robert S. Thomas

Tweet! Tweet!

Birds do it... Lots of people do too - tweeting, that is! I've recently set up a Twitter account! Click the link under Links You'll Like and come fly with me!

Enjoy a safe and fun Memorial Day!

New Punchin' & Stitchin'

New patterns have just arrived from Country Stitches! Five for punch needle and two for cross-stitch - shown is "Feather Your Nest" with its fraktur sampler features and Brenda Gervais' style. Love this fat red-breasted robin!

I've set up a 25% off discount coupon for orders placed over Memorial Day weekend. Mal's shopping cart doesn't make the instructions very easy but I tested it out and it looks like it works! Just make sure you enter the coupon code "MEMDAY" in the Voucher section, Discount Coupon block and click on Recalculate to see your discount.

Have a very safe and relaxing holiday weekend, and please remember our troops stationed all around the world keeping us safe and free to enjoy our cook-outs with friends and family. God bless all of them!

Until next time,

Pretty Bird!

Isn't this a beautiful bird? I happened to spot something red out of the corner of my eye from the bedroom window this morning. At first I thought it might be a cardinal but it was too bright. Turns out this guy is a Scarlet Tanager. My husband grabbed the digital camera and took a couple of pictures (not the one here - don't I wish we took this one!) so we could enlarge it to have a closer look. A quick Google search turned up the answer.

We found a web site with bird songs and heard what this bird sounds like. Really cool - www.learnbirdsongs.com. It was fun to listen to different birds and recognize their songs that we hear all the time!

Preparations to do battle with our recently-discovered lawn grubs has begun! We had a few laughs today after we bought some lawn aerator shoes and walked around our property this afternoon. Tomorrow night we'll apply some grub killer on the front section and work on the rest each evening after work. Ah, the joys of yard work!

Have a great week - I'm expecting some new patterns from Country Stitches soon so stay tuned for news on that.

Totally LOST!

My head is still spinning after watching all three delicious hours of the LOST season finale last night! Today the blogs, articles and forums are blazing with theories and predictions based on new characters and even more questions about what turn the sixth and final season will take next year. And yes, that's right - next year!! We have to wait an agonizing nine months (geez, I could have a kid!) before getting another serving of beefcake and intrigue! By beefcake I'm of course talking about "Sawyer", played by Josh Holloway and Matthew Fox's "Jack". "Sayid" isn't too bad himself, although I'd be a bit scared of him. These guys are worth the price of admission alone!

As much as I'd love to speculate about the finale myself I don't want to be a spoiler if you didn't get to see it! I plan to watch it a second time on ABC's web site so I can concentrate on some of the little "Easter eggs" those clever writers sprinkled into the scenes like the seasoning on a gourmet dish. One thing I hope at the end of next season is that someone writes all this down in a book or plots the whole storyline out on a flowchart or something. I just can't keep all this time travel straight!

Staying up 'til 11pm didn't make for a very productive day at work today but I'll crawl under the covers after watching the Hell's Kitchen finale on Fox soon. My money's on Paula but my husband thinks Danny will prevail. I've heard Gordon Ramsay likes the ladies so I'm holding fast on my bet. With all the finales going on I guess summer must really be coming - then we'll have the mindless summer programming like "Wipe Out!" on ABC.

I'd rather spend my summer LOST on a tropical island somewhere in time... with Sawyer!!

Good night!

Inspiration

If you're itching to create and need some great inspiration check out Sue Spargo's blog - link below in my More Fun Reads column. For those not yet familiar with Sue Spargo she is an internationally known quilter and designer. Born in South Africa her work is heavily influenced by African folk art. She is very multi-textural in her work and her quilts, combining bold, colorful cotton fabrics with wool, needlefelting and other textiles and uses lots of embellishments as well. She teaches all over the world at various handwork retreats and is a very sweet, soft-spoken woman. If you ever get a chance to take a workshop with her you'll have a blast!

Sue has inspired me to rummage around in my craft bin this afternoon and I've pulled out things I forgot I had. This is why I need to have all my stuff out in the open! Like they say, "Out of sight, out of mind." I need to read Pat Sloan's blog for all her creative space organizing tips.

Hope all the Moms had a great Mother's Day and that someone else did the cooking!

Ciao,

Happy Mother's Day

"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother."
-Abraham Lincoln

We have the toughest, most rewarding job on earth! What greater joy and challenge can there be than in raising children? From the time they are born until they're old enough to leave our nest we love, nurture and worry and hope that the values we've tried to instill in these human beings that we've created will carry them through their lives.

To all the Moms out there, a very Happy Mother's Day wish to you!

We Came... And We Shopped!

What a fun weekend! My friend Jackie came to visit me in Maine up from Massachusetts this weekend and we did the Mainely Fun Quilt Shop Hop! We visited eight great quilt shops from Cape Neddick to Jefferson - quite a hike - and bought things we "had" to have at each shop. The southern Maine shops we visited on Friday, saving the midcoast shops for Saturday. That turned out to be a really good plan because there's no way we could have hit them all in one day. Well, technically it would have been doable but we were exhausted Saturday night after just the ones we did that day. I'd never visited most of these shops before and was very pleasantly surprised at what is out there! Each shop had it's own distinct personality and there was fabric aplenty as well as wool, needlepunch and the most yummy yarns at Quiltessentials in Auburn, Maine. Even though the Hop is now history, check out the link to it's web site under Links You'll Like to see the list of shops that participated, some pictures to whet your appetite and directions. When you stop in tell them I sent you! The quilted shopper pictured here is a design by Amy Butler called Every Day is a Shopping Day.

Jackie's visit made my husband and I a little homesick and we found ourselves reminiscing about past times with family and friends. It was so much fun to have a house guest and I really do miss hosting the get-togethers like we used to. I'll try to coax Jackie back this summer and am working on a few family members to see if they'll come for visits as well. I know Jackie will be back in September when we attend Camp Wool's (Wells, Maine) hook-in in September - me as a vendor and she as a participant. See my previous post "It's Show Time" for details or leave me a Comment here if you'd like more info.

I'll be seeing some of my kin in July when my brother and sister-in-law welcome their new baby girl Jade Truong Thomas to our family! I really need to get that baby quilt started that I'm planning to make. Think it'll be a nine-patch using 1930s pastels. I'll try to post some pictures in-progress as I go along. I'd also love to make them a hanging organizer, bought the pattern at one of the shops on the Hop this weekend.

It's really looking like spring around here now! All along the highway we could see drifts of white, like a dusting of snow on the grass. Jackie says these teeny little blooms are "May flowers" but we're not 100% sure. Anyone know what they are? The lupines will be making their annual show soon and they are always stunning. Will try to get some pictures of them as well.

'Til next time,