Home Sweet Home!

Hi again!!! Here are the pics I took yesterday on our cross country trek....after this I won't bore you with any more travelogue!!! LOL!!!

Eastern Montana someplace.....I think that's the Yellowstone River. Doesn't it look like John Wayne should be leading the calvary across that river??? "Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon"! I'm POSITIVE this is the Yellowstone River below... can't really tell from the photos, but it's flooding a little and looks like milk chocolate (the rain was something FIERCE the day before!)

The first entrance to Yellowstone

More Montana...sorry, they're out of order

Even MORE Montana! (yes, that IS a big bug splat)

This is just minutes before heading down the hill into Butte MT.

This is a very pretty view as you head down the hills into Butte....except for the gorgeous bug splat taking up most of the picture!!! LOL!!!! Ok....we'd planned on stopping in Missoula for the night but since we were so close....we decided to drive on to Coeur de Alene (Boy, if I spelled that right I'll be amazed!!!) Idaho. THAT turned into "We're only 3 or so hours from home, so let's just go for it!!!!"

Ahhhhhhh........................... Idaho!!! Now the hills are starting to look like "OUR" hills, and the trees are getting taller and thicker like "OUR" trees!!!! HOME is so close we can TASTE it!!!

Down the hill...................and there's beautiful Lake Coeur de Alene! (yup...still think I spelled it wrong!) This is just part of the lake. It twists and turns...so pretty! Then.... here's good old Spokane in the setting sun! Two more hours and we were home!

We arrived to freshly cut alfalfa hay fields around us... a little bit of rain (unhappy hay farmers because of THAT I'll bet) and a VERY happy cat! Sixteen hours is too long to be in a car, but when home's at the other end of the drive it's worth it!

When I got in the office this morning I realized that these pics were on the blog sideways!!! Kind of hard to see, so I moved them here (they're of the booth!)

When we get a chance to unpack the trailer and take all the tags off the "trees", we'll lay out some of the "autographs" and get a picture of them to show you!!

Thanks for hanging in there with me while we drove home! I'm all junk-fooded out!!! Tonight we're having SALAD for dinner!!!

XOX Meg

OK, why i don't get to stop at quilt shpps..

...And why all my travel pics include the hood of the car or a side mirror!
My husband, tho a willing driver, refuses tp stop for shopping, views, or photo op's which is why I don't have a picture of the herd of antelope with their babies!!
Phil wouldn't stop for a flock of sasquatch by the side of the road unless they were manning gas pumps and were beckoning to him with bags of MandM's!!!!!
He should make ads for adult diapers too, because any unscheduled stops bring on heavy sighs and rolling eyes worthy of a sixteen year old!
THAT Kristinn is why I didn't get to stop at Quilting In the Country...and I'm not at ALL bitter about it...can you tell???
XOXOX. Meg (almost to Missoula for the night)

Road Food!

Just got a comment from Sandie...Yeah!!! I'm on Diet Coke intravenous drips!!! So funny about the snack-y stuff! We'd just stopped for gas and managed to walk out of there with:
Circus peanuts
Slim jim
Teriaki beef jerky
Salted cashews
MandM's

THAT should last till Missoula!! LOL!!

40 miles to Billings MT

Montana's getting prettier and prettier..lots of muddy, swollen creeks and rivers tho...undoubtedly because of the wild weather yesterday. We got off the road a little earlier than we would have liked to last night because it was raining so hard it ws hard to see and every now and then the car would hydroplane as if we were on ice. Not real safe!! The second half of North Dakota was a blur...literally!...pea soup fog, heavy rain, hailand lightning.
Today we're just enjoying being able to see off th sides of the road!LOL!! I'm taking a few scenery pics and will email them to Sheila this afternoon so she can post them. She and Cindy are hard at work in the studio shipping Quilt Market orders (that will take a few days) and Cyndy (who went with me to help in the booth) is back at her home this morning and hard at work catching up on emails. Me??? I'm driving along with nothing to stitch on because my stuff got BURIED in the boxes in the trailer when we broke down the booth....SO... I'm just boring lucky YOU to death with this constant posting!!! Sorry! Aren't you glad I'm usually too busy to do this??
OH!!! Totally forgot to tell you that I ordered really COOL reading glasses at market!!! They have SPARKLIES!!! As soon as they arrive I'll photograph them and get them up on the wesite.....that is, after I take out the ones that I fall in love with...hope I ordered enough! LOL!!!!
Someone commented on what I'd said about acting like an idiot when I met lynette Jensen...I wasn't tongue tied when I met her!....no...that would have been a blessing!!! Instead, I was struck STUPID!!! And, unfortunately words still come out of your mouth when that's your affliction!.....geez...what a dork!
Hey, what are your opinions about Transfer Eze?? I'd really like to get as many people's takes on. It as possible and I'm going to test it myself too.
Later!!

Lilacs!!

North Dakota is COVERED with lilac bushes in full bloom! Everybody has long, long, lush hedges of lilac bushes in full bloom! Every shade of lavender,purple and white...wish we could smell them...can't you just picture me whizzing down the freeway with my head hanging out the window!!?? Don't know if I'm all wound up because we're headed home at breakneck speed or if it's the half bag of Whoppers I've managed to down in the last 3 hours!!!LOLOL...probably the latter? Anyway...ND, you're gorgeous today!

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig!

Well, we're on our way home from market...halfway through South Dakota and we've already driven through 3 big thunder/lightning/sleet/heavy rain storms!! As long as there are NO tornados we'll be happy!! I'm TERRIBLY homesick!! Just got a text from Sheila telling me that she's taking her daily hour lunch "date" with Honeybunny. He just needs his daily cuddle, head rub, and company until we get home. Wish I was there!!
It was so nnice to see everybody at market...catch up, gossip and laugh until our stoaches hurt! Our last night's dinner together at the Hyatt hotel, I thought we just MIGHT get thrown out of the restaurant!!!! Between Susan's air travel stories and Jan's smuggling her TAB in and refilling her glass under the table..."POP..sssssss!" And choreographing our routine for the Crabapple Hill synchronized swimming in the lobby fountain we're lucky they didn't call security!!!LOL!!! Oh well...it's amazing what trouble you can get up to when you're so tired you're downright punchy!!!
When Sheila gets back to the office we'll see if she'll have time to load the pix I sent this morning. They're oF a few of my favorite booths (and fav people!) And a little of this and that!
See ya!...sorry for the typo's..mtired thumbs!

Quilt Market day two!!

Denise Sheehan from A Graceful Stitch in her booth ( I bought the pattern for the quilt on the table and two others that aren't shown in pic........GORGEOUS!!! And Denise is SO nice too!!!

A new Christmas BOM from Pearl at P-3 Designs (looks great here and even better in real life!!)

There's Pearl in her booth surrounded by her beautiful quilts!!

The Weeks DyeWorks booth made that entire end of the aisle GLOW!

Check out the flaminco dancer ruffled sleeves on the man in the booth above!

There are SO MANY people here!!! That's GREAT, don't you think? Really says something about the health of the quilting industry!
We have some beautiful booths directly around ours.. Michael Miller is directly across the aisle and is done all in white...white trees, white fabrics, crystal chandelier..."Ecien and Cosmo are across the aisle in a different direction. OOOoooo!! Looking at all of their floss and fabrics all weekend!!!! The Weeks Dyeworks booth is several rows down but pretty much glows with all the gorgeous color in their booth. The other booth is A Graceful Stitch (really, REALLY beautiful applique!!!
The last images are all of my own booth. The"trees" have turned out to be a lot of fun for us! We"re having everybody who comes into the booth sign a card, put down their company or shop name, a message etc... Some people have written messages,song lyrics, and even a recipe or two!! I'm going to keep each and every one!!
OH! I'm so excited because I met Robyn Pandolph last night and then met Lynette Jensen today!! (Kind of got flustered and made an absolute fool of myself!)
I'll get more booth pix tomorrow...sorry I'm not getting out and about much but I will tomorrow!!
Good night!! XOX Meg
PS...sorry about all the typos, I'm doing these from my Blackberry and the buttons are TINY!!!

We're in Minneapolis!!!

We've arrived, set up the booth,(well ALMOST finished!) And today Jan, Cyndy and Susan are shopping at the Mall of America. We're all going to meet up this afternoon to put the finishing touches on the booth. I'll take some pictures then!
Last night after setting up the booth Phil, Cyndy and I headed back to the hotel and Jan and Susan took a little detour... Let me back up a little bit. ;an drinks TAB and it's kind of hard to find so she had us bring a case of it along with us in the trailer. She was carrying her case back to the hotel the last time we saw her. ANYway... They got lost walking back to the hotel (One block away!) And ended up walking for about a mile...with that stincking case of pop!!!!! Wish I'd had my camera! Poor Jan!
I'm hoping that by the time we get over to the convention center this afternoon ther will be more booths set up so that I can get some pic's for you!
I'll keep you posted! SO EXCITED!!!
XOX. MEG

testing mobile

Let's see if this works! Then maybe I'll be able to figure ot how to add an image.

Just another test.....how to add an image....let's see if a pic off my new phone is good enough quality. Maybe I won't have to lug around my big, heavy camera at market! OH! turned out rather well if I do say so! That's the hostas and bleeding hearts right outside the front door of the studio.

Oh...answering questions!

Spring International Quilt Market (yes, it's a wholesale only trade show) is in Minneapolis this time. Minnesota is really pretty at this time of year by the way!

.........wow!..........that's all the time it took for me to forget the other question!.........thinking.........thinking..........................uh................OH!!!! I remember! The new patterns are out RIGHT NOW!!!

xox Meg

October 2010 Retreat

Hi everybody!

Boy!!! What a great response for the retreats!!!! Our October 2010 retreat is full, though we have a waiting list if you'd like to be put on it just in case! The 2011 retreats all have spaces available...(Well... I should HOPE SO!!!!... it was just posted YESTERDAY!!! LOL!!!)

Our Cosmo "Seasons" variegated floss arrived yesterday morning and Cindy and I worked ALL DAY getting floss kits for the new patterns ready to go. They're up on the website without pictures (that's the next thing on MY agenda for the day....take floss kit pics!)

We got the booth for Quilt Market mocked up (that's what's in the picture above, one vignette minus the patterns that will go in the baskets) photographed (so we'll know where to put everything) ...taken down...packed and ready to load onto the trailer (we're driving it to market this time instead of shipping it) and we're pretty much ready to go! Sheila and Cindy will stay in studio this time instead of coming with us, so they will be here to fill orders, ship, and answer phone/emails and stuff. I wish they were able to go with us, I'll miss them SO MUCH!!!! They'll be here watching "the Middle" on Thursday eating pizza without me!!! (We do that every Thursday for lunch...so if you call & don't get an answer around noon....you'll know that we're stuffing ourselves and laughing our heads off!)................sigh!

I'm going to have to figure out how to blog from my phone so I can send you pictures from market!! OOOooooo!!!!!!.................. I'll do that today!!!! bye!

Stitchery Sojourn Announcement!

Market Mayhem!

Well.... here are the new patterns!!! They're all written and printed and ready to go! We'll get them up on the website within the week! Above is Snow Days (I LOVE the way this turned out!!!! It uses between 14 and 16 skeins of one color of the new Cosmo "Seasons" variegated floss...100% colorfast !!!! I just have to keep repeating that...it makes my heart happy!!!) The floss ranges through charcoal, taupe, golden brown, blue-green and back again...GORGEOUS!!! You could sure do it in other colorways tho!..........blues would be SO beautiful!!!!

This is Vintage Postcard....kind of speaks for itself!!! These samples are going in the house with me and I'm not going to let anybody pry them out of my hands!!!!! They were worked on a linen background fabric and can be crayon tinted or left plain. The floss I used is from the same new "Seasons" line. This time it's 4?...5?... different colors (can't remember...too lazy to swivel in my chair and look in the file or heaven forbid click...click and bring up the file on the computer! LOL!!!) ANYWAY..... they're all the softly variegated flosses....the "writing" looks for all the world like faded old ink!!! COOL!!!! You can use the old message I put on the pattern or use an address and message of your own to personalize the postcard... Lots of fun....

This is called Nesting Time (there'd a bird's nest in the pot snuggled down amid the flowers) Love the word "amid"...it's so Victoria Magazine!!! Kind of like "hence" and "hey nonny, nonny"!!! Do you ever read the letters to the editor? They're so full of flowery language...so cute! But I digress....I was talking about Nesting Time!!! This one is done in Cosmo floss (I used all colors that we have in spools) and you just use one section after another of all the floss colors called for to achieve a mock variegated look. Once again....use a different colorway & you could complement any deco!!! This stitchery is BIG!!! I'm mounting mine in a 22"x28" frame...no mat. I'm putting this one in my house!!! Another one nobody will be able to pry out of my hands!!!

This is Fondest Regards... I LOVE the way Jill Therriault quilted it!!!! Look at the feathers she did in the borders!! This pattern also uses the "Seasons" floss. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE working with the hand dyed look floss... the way it gives movement to the petals of flowers... some look as if they're back lit by the sun, others in shadow... It gives shading to everything without even trying!!!! Anyway, it's really nice to be able to use that beautiful type of floss without having to worry about the color bleeding. I'm just thrilled with the watercolor-y look it gives...hope you'll try it, but if you don't care to, I've put conversions to DMC on the pattern backs.........but that means you're a party pooper!!! : o)

Well, we're getting ready to go to International Quilt Market in Minneapolis in a week or so, so I'd better get back to work on our booth mock-up!

Bye! xox Meg