Bird Brain Designs Gnomes and more…

Posted on March 3, 2021 by Penny Haren

Robin Kingsley of Bird Brain Designs has the most whimsical personality that shines through everything she creates. Her latest pattern: A friendly little Gnome dressed in Red standing in front of his front door to Welcome ALL who enter any time of the year!

And Gnomes in Love for Valentine’s Day or just because Gnomes are sew sweet.

Delicate flowers stitched in Heart shapes make these designs perfect for “Everyday Valentines”! RedWork flowers plus the embroidered mottos are a wonderful gift handmade with love. Enjoy the creating and the giving!

These three patterns are available in machine embroidery versions as well.

Applique Holly Leaves in 2 shades of Olive wool with rich red Berries placed around a slim Gold Oval on your Pin Cushion. What a beautiful gift for the sewer in your life! It might even be for you….

All of these patterns are due to arrive this month so order now.

New from Crabapple Hill

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Penny Haren

Hand embroidery and English Paper-Piecing are the perfect marriage – handwork at its best! Now Meg Hawkey of Crabapple Hill has designed two projects around these two favorites!

The Mystery of Enchanted Hollow is a 9 month Block of the Month series. It start off with the pattern for your first stitchery, directions for English Paper Piecing the stitchery “frames”, and instructions for a pieced mystery block or 2. The quilt assembly pattern will be included with the final stitched block, when the mystery will be solved! The quilt measures 64 1/2″ x 76 1/2″.

The Mystery of Enchanted Hollow 1 Black Cat

Then there is Winter Garden…in Meg’s words….

There’s nothing as full of hope for the future than a garden waiting beneath the snow. It’s time for seed catalogs and pages full of plans for Spring! This contains a tiny bit of colored pencil tinting, dainty little embroideries, some English Paper Piecing, and a bit of easy piecing. You’ll have so much fun stitching the fir boughs!

The detail of the embroidery and the soft colors in the English Paper-Pieced frames are so stunning, I had to show you a sample that highlights the details.

And then there is Daffodil Parade – her newest installment in the Vintage Truck pattern series. March’s flower is the daffodil. This 15-1/2” x 30-1/2” wallhanging doesn’t only have daffodils on the embroidered design… the pieced star blocks look like daffodils too!

All of these patterns are due to arrive this month so place your orders now!

Memory Lane with Crabapple Hill

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Penny Haren

I love Meg’s Memory Lane series of vintage trucks and the truck with a heart banner that will remind you that love is in the air. This pattern is due to arrive the middle of this month. – the perfect hand project to remind you of the season.

Vintage Love is the fourth in the Memory Lane series. Why not stitch them all? Snowball Delivery is a both a continuation of December… and a joyous January!

The December pattern is a happy, little snow family driving their big, beautiful Christmas tree home!

November Drive will remind you of visits to the pumpkin patch.

The patterns include instructions on tinting the embroidery – an adult’s coloring book!

Mug Rugs for Everyone

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Penny Haren

We all just did it – wanted to thank those people who touch our lives throughout the year – but wait until the last minute. Why not start early and make a few of these beauties designed by Kimberbell each month?

With twelve to choose from, why not make it a block of the month type class or project???

The perfect addition to these projects is the scissor assortment by Kimberbell.

Designed with exclusive innovations, Kimberbell’s Deluxe Embroidery Scissors & Tools feature sharp blades that cut all the way to the tip and large, double-loop rings for a comfortable grip in every hand. Protect fabric and stitches while cutting applique pieces with our 5” Duckbill Applique Scissors, then trim intricate details with Sharp Snips! Our Precision Fine Tip Tweezers With Blade have blades on all four sides, ideal for unpicking basting stitches, while our 4” Micro Tips feature a longer blade for precise clipping. Made of the finest steel, Kimberbell’s Deluxe Embroidery Scissors & Tools are a must-have for every stitching enthusiast! What a great gift!

Gift Card Ornaments

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Penny Haren

Gift-giving has never been easier! These delightful ornament bags, designed by Rachel’s of Greenfield, are just the right size for gift cards or other treasures of your choice. Each envelope-style ornament bag has a different decoration on the front and fastens on the back with an old-fashioned figure-eight closure. The kit includes woolfelt®, embroidery floss, and gold string plus precise patterns, and complete instructions to make 6 gift bags.

There are lots of kits to choose from.

These kits are a great way to keep those mask makers engaged. This is my plan:

This year I made GALLONS of Chex mix, filled quart jars, and put them in gift bags. My children and grandchildren had a ball leaving these gifts on the doorsteps of friends and on the desks of their favorite teachers. Hopefully, we will be able to celebrate the holidays this year up close and personal, but we want to continue the tradition. I drew squares the size of each woolfelt piece onto freezer paper. Then, I traced the templates for that color within the square. Since my family and friends are making multitudes of these, we can run as many copies of the template sheets as we have kits – and only have to trace them once. Now, the instructions say to trace the templates right onto the wool felt, but ironing the freezer paper onto the woolfelt with a warm iron was much faster. Why not provide a template sheet to your customers as that “value-added” bonus with the purchase of each kit?

This Gypsy Quilter Appliqué Freezer Paper is over-sized and worked well!

Gypsy Quilter Freezer Paper 12in x 15in Heavy Weight 40ct

And, what great handwork while sitting in front of a fire…..

Cross-Stitch Samplers

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Penny Haren

Cross-stitch is returning in a big way. All of those homebound souls who have tried making something from scratch – be it masks or homemade bread – have experienced the sheer joy of creating something with your own hands! These samplers by Artful Offerings have just the right amount of nostalgia to stir memories of days gone by…

In Honey Hill, a newly crowned queen bee holds court in the magical hamlet of Honey Hill. Red picket fences surround a pair of clapboard houses and twin bee skeps mounted on pedestals mark the center of this quaint neighborhood. Honeybees buzz to-and-fro sipping nectar from bordering flowers to craft their golden honeycomb. A unique alphabet and numbers 0-9 complete this sweet sampler.

Rocking Horse Holiday harkens back to holidays-gone-by with a sweet rocking horse nestled in the holiday greens. Softly falling snow, adjustable bottle-brush trees, a lovely alphabet and numerals 0-10 complete this festive miniature sampler

Cranberry Christmas features a petite pinstripe house, a pair of red birds, pine boughs and a blanket of new-fallen snow, add charm to this winter scene. Simple numerals from 0-9 complete this festive miniature sampler in the count down to Christmas!

Welcome to Folly Farmstead, an enchanting barnyard where a menagerie of cows, pigs and chickens are actually whimsical topiaries.

Some of these patterns are in stock now, others are due to arrive this month. Why not order your patterns now and set up a display? Who wouldn’t want to sit in front of a fire and see these pictures come to life with a needle and thread!

Noah’s Journey Block of the Month

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Penny Haren

Meg Hawkey of Crabapple Hill Studio has released the next two installments of her 12 month BOM ark series which will finish to 66 1/2″ x 78 1/2″. Meg releases these as a mystery quilt – you have to trust that you will love the final quilt as you stitch each month – and we ALWAYS do!

I love Meg’s descriptions of the blocks and will incorporate them into the story I tell my grandchildren:

The pigs were a little bit leery about getting out on the water! Noah’s crew has outfitted them with floatation rings, so they’re happy now, and hopefully they’ll take them off at some point during the journey! The Canada Geese can’t wait for the rains to start, and the turtles and snails are bringing up the rear…slowly! Three blocks in this single pattern!

Noah's Journey #3 Pigs Geese and Turtles

The monkeys decided to hitch a ride to the ark, and the camels were happy to oblige! They’re expecting rain, but it’s sunny right now, so this pretty lady is wearing her favorite hat so that her cheeks don’t get overly pink.

These two additions will be released in the next few weeks. The original blocks follow:

Let’s all get started with the large 24”x 24” Ark block! Almost every floss and colored pencil used in the quilt are used in this block! The colored pencil tinting is easy and fun, and the stitching isn’t anything a confident beginner couldn’t easily handle. Jump on board, we’re almost ready to sail!

A lovely little Kangaroo couple with baby in tow! The bunnies have had to wait in line quite a while… so here are a few more!

It is the perfect season for handwork! Who doesn’t love to pick up a needle and thread and sit in front of a fire! Order your patterns today!

Noah Meets CrabApple Hill

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Penny Haren

I love everything that Meg Hawkey designs – and this new series is truly special!

In her words:

The animals are lining up to board the Ark! This whimsical 12 month BOM of the ark and it’s sometimes silly animals, all comes together in an enchanting 66 1/2” x 78 1/2” quilt. We’ll start with the large Ark block, and then move on to months where there will be 1 to 3 blocks given in one pattern, ending with the quilt assembly pattern. Most of the embroidery floss colors needed for the entire quilt are used in the Ark block, with a few more being added later.
The embroidery on all of these blocks would be very easy for a confident beginner. The piecing in the quilt is the same… easy, but impressive looking! Instructions for cutting all of the embroidered blocks are given in the Ark pattern so you can have all of your stitching fabric ready to go!

I can’t wait to see this quilt as it emerges each month! The first patterns are due in any day!

New by Sew Cherished

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Penny Haren

I love these wool designs by Dawn Shuck. The height is an added bonus since you can still display pictures, etc. beneath them. And the magnets make it easy to change out the designs.

These are great projects for those newbies that came from knitting or cross-stitch. These newest additions to the line are expected at the beginning of October. And, don’t forget to order your stand! From Kraft Klub, Black Round Stand# KK8864-B.