Parades, Dresses, and Confusion

Hope you all had a wonderful long holiday weekend.  We sure did.  We even managed to go to a parade.

There were marching bands...

And even a quilt…..

We missed seeing our family at the parade, but we quickly received this photo in a text.

It's our grandniece Kayce in a stunning summer dress made with our Bar Harbor cheater cloth.  Well done Kayce!!

I hesitated to post this.  First of all I didn't want to intrude on Kayce's privacy (but she gave us the ok).  Second, I didn't want the flurry of emails asking where you could purchase this fabric.  Bar Harbor is several years old.  It's scarce.  I don't have any more.  I did a little search on www.quiltshops.com and found this same fabric in black and cream.  If you hurry, you can find it HERE.

I also did a search on Ebay - and if you type in "Minick and Simpson, Bar Harbor" into the search engine - there is one shop that still has it in red and cream.  You have been warned. It's scarce, and the speedy online shopper gets the rewards.

I'm not sure what pattern Kayce's grandmother used - but many, many little girl dress patterns would be applicable.  Ready, Set, Hit your keyboards……

As for the confusion…. Let me try to explain.  POLLY is retiring from lectures, workshops and rug hooking kits.  This is to lessen travel and ease into general retirement.  Polly is still one half of Minick and Simpson and will continue to design fabric with me.  I am not retiring.  Not yet.  I am lessening my teaching travels, but will continue in all capacities.  Whew… 

That's all the news I have right now.  Everything is hunky dory - except for a certain baseball team that is trying to self destruct. I'm coping the best way I know how. I'm stitching.

Laurie

In Tribute

I am retiring from workshops, lectures and KITS  - and I am offering for sale, the very few remaining kits in my inventory.  We are going to donate all profits of each kit to Semper Fi Injured Marine Fund - so here is a chance this weekend to find a kit you may like and all the profit - is going to the injured!

Some of the kits - there are only one left and some there are a few, none more than four of any design left

So hurry and chose before they disappear.

I will still be one half of Minick and Simpson and we will still offer our fabric collections with Moda Fabrics. That doesn't change.

Three of the kits have sold out.  Only one each of the kits remain for the following….. 

Sold Out

Sold Out

Sold Out

Sold Out

Sold Out

Sold Out

Sold Out

Sold Out

 .

Sold Out

If you buy more than one, they will come packed in the great totes we had in France - limited supply of the totes also.

Happy Decoration Day - boy that dates me

 All the rug hooking kits are sold out - Thanks So Much for helping Minick and Simpson help injured troops!!  You are the best! - Polly

Memorial Day Weekend

Pledge of Allegiance Rug by Polly Minick - featured in The Americana Collection by Polly Minick

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone! The weather here in Michigan is absolutely perfect.  We have plans for a cook-out, a parade viewing, plus lots of stitching.  Hope you can enjoy the holiday too.

Thanks for all the "help" I had unpacking.  The quilt market goodies are on their way to their new homes.

Here is another little treasure I found at International Quilt Market.  It's from our friend Karen Styles of Somerset Patchwork in Australia.  She is also the pattern designer for the Mrs. Billings Coverlet that I am working on (and a few of you too!).  I saw this little beauty and thought of you all.  It has the same great instructions, the wonderful acrylic templates, but this quilt might be a little bit less intimidating than Mrs. Billings…….

Cherry Ripe by Somerset Designs

Cherry Ripe is a lovely quilt made with diamonds and it finishes to 60" x 70" and the templates are great (and a bit bigger than the Mrs. Billings templates).  It would look great as an antique reproduction, a scrap quilt, or a contemporary stunner.  You can find the pattern and templates HERE in our Etsy shop.

These hand piecing kits are wonderful to have for travel.  A small bag of sewing notions, the cut pieces, and you are on your way.

Look for more hand piecing and hand quilting tools to arrive in our Etsy store this summer.

Have a great holiday

Laurie

Lexington Quilt Winners

The winner of the bag of goodies (patterns, template, needles, etc…) is marie.  

The winner of the Lexington Layer Cake ™quilt is Robyn

Email me HERE ladies, and I'll get the goodies right out to you.

Thanks everyone!

Help Me Unpack Give-away!!

We're back from lovely Pittsburgh and we are inspired and refreshed.  I'd post all my bad photographs, but you have seen better versions of them in other blogs and on instagram the past couple of days.  Let's leave those photos to those more capable.  Let's do what we do best! Let's have a give-away!

Our luggage also weighs much more than when we started.  Can you help us?  First off - we have a lovely Moda apron and coordinating tote bag…..

 

The tote bag is filled with goodies……

 A group of Lexington quilt patterns….

 Some Moda Candy and a package of Hiroshima milliner needles…...

And this handy-dandy quilt marking template.  Looks confusing? It's not.  It's a set of acrylic templates to mark a fan pattern on your quilt top. These are made by Lisa Bongean at Primitive Gatherings.  You can find these on her website and shops can order them from United Notions. I'm getting a lot of use out of mine.

Oh wait….. There's ANOTHER Moda apron and tote bag…….. and what is inside this one?

It's our Moda Schoolhouse quilt made using a Lexington Layer Cake™!!

All you have to do is comment on this post before midnight Thursday May 22nd and you could win one of these tote bag prizes.

Help me unpack, people!

Laurie

Happy Mother's Day

Breaking story here in Ann Arbor this weekend….. baby ducklings reunited with Mama Duck.  You can read about it HERE.  Hope you all have as nice a Mother's Day as Mama Duck.

So that's good news.  Other than that it's been kind of slow here. Nothing exciting to report.

Leigh Ann and I are getting ready to hit the road for Pittsburgh in a couple of days.  That's always fun.  It's kind of like Thelma and Louise, except without the drinking and the men, and that downer ending.  So, basically not like Thelma and Louise at all.  Never mind...

We'll have great things to report, no doubt.

We've been working on a new project that we hope to show you next month.  We're very excited about it.

Here's a sneak peak.

Laurie

Friday Catch-up

Hello All! We hope all is well with you.  Let's see…. what have we to report….

Gibby wants you to know that he is on duty.  The squirrel patrol is a never-ending thankless job, but he is ON IT.

Polly is back in the states and packing and getting ready for another trip.  Family calls this time as a visit to Kansas will encompass son Jim's retirement from the USMC and 3 grandchildren graduating from High School. Busy, busy, busy.

I'm getting ready myself for Pittsburgh in 2 weeks for International Quilt Market.  Yes, it's that time again.  Everything is mostly done except for a quilt that I am hand quilting.  I am also going to demonstrate Big Stitch hand quilting at market using this quilt - 2 birds - one stone.

So, in a bit of a change for my usual hand quilting….. I am quilting the border first.  I will then sew on the binding - then finish the Big Stitch hand quilting in the middle while demonstrating at Quilt Market.  I know. Breaking all the quilting rules.  It is true what they say - once you know the rules, you then know when you can break them.

This is the strange melange of quilting here……. the flying geese in the middle of the hoop is the border/outer edge of the quilt.  The busy fabric on the bottom of the hoop is the backing.  Once the quilt is trimmed to the outside edge of the quilt - the excess backing will be cut away.

True Blue

This is how the finished quilt will look.

Why do I do it this way?  Well, because I quilt in a hoop.  If I have the extra batting and backing - this is what I do….  I cut the batting 5" bigger all the way around.  The top is 48" square, so the batting is 58" square.  Then I cut the backing 10" bigger all the way around - so the backing is 68" square.   Once I baste the quilt top - especially all around the outer edge (this is important).  I fold the backing up over the excess batting which gives me a fabric covered batting that is 5" bigger all the way around the basted quilt.

This lets me put the quilt - all the way to the very edge - in the hoop that I like to use.  Easy peasy.

Once the quilt is quilted and the excess batting and backing cut away - the extra backing goes into my scrap box.  This is another example of why my scrap box will never empty.

What else…. I'm sitting here this afternoon, stitching and waiting for a delivery truck.  Yes, today is New Sofa Day!! New Sofa Day is a wonderful holiday that we celebrate here every once in awhile.

Have a great weekend.

Gee, it almost seems like …..well, 19 years since the last New Sofa Day.  Time flies.

Laurie