Here’s the quilt so far.

Maizie Jenkins and the Tuesday Treadlers have yet another tale to tell. To purchase this months installment, woosh on over to Terry’s website and get both the Tales of the Quilt Shop and block 4 for just $2.25.

Stayed tuned for next month’s unveiling featuring a little something with a bushy tail!

Toodles,
Holly

Terry’s website: Tales of the Quilt Shop
Holly’s: glue-stick turned applique instructions

Here’s block 3 - or should I say month 3 has 3 blocks! You get to work on a row of holly, a yummy candy cane and a chubby little cardinal sitting on a fence post.

The story continues with Maizie Jenkins and the Tuesday Treadlers!

To purchase this months installment, pop on over to Terry’s website and get both the Tales of the Quilt Shop and block 3 for just $2.25.

Toodles,
Holly

Terry’s website: Tales of the Quilt Shop
Holly’s: glue-stick turned applique instructions

I’ve purchased a bunch of 12 x 12 canvas boards (as opposed to the stretched canvases) and I really like them a lot better. I like working on a more solid surface plus when I stamp it doesn’t sink in the middle. :) For The Perfect Frog canvas (above) I used all sorts of stuff in the background plus added some real ribbon (around her dress) and some paper flowers. I also was able to use some buttons from my mom’s button jar - I recolored them with Alcohol inks.

Here’s another one…

This one was fun because I don’t know about you but I get a lot of catalogs in the mail. I get one that I really like from Hancocks of Paducah and it’s all these little pictures of fabric. I cut out all the little flags from the little square pictures. For Cupcake the dog’s hat, it’s a little bit hard to tell, but for the top I crumpled up strips of book paper and decoupaged them down. While it was still wet I sprinkled in some glitter.

I don’t know where this will take me, but when I’m out in the garage waiting for stamps to cook I have fun creating these. They give me the outlet I’ve been looking for and leave me feeling so energized thinking about what I’m going to create next!

Stay tuned for more. Oh, and next Friday I’ll be revealing the next month of Sugarplums. It’ll be a group of 3 blocks - wahoo!

Toodles.
Holly

Here’s block 2 - this time it’s a little snowman on a hill of polka dots. He’s sportin’ a lovely green scarf and has his twig arms outstretched ready to catch some snowflakes.

I wanted to mention that when I use light fabrics I usually back them. I don’t like anything to show through so I lined the white. It wasn’t too bad using a creamy background but if you use something darker it’ll be more noticeable. You can either fuse another piece of fabric to the back and then turn your piece or cut out a piece the same size as the pattern and then using a glue stick, wrap the edges around that piece of fabric. I hope that makes sense.

And another great installment of  Maizie Jenkins and the Tuesday Treadlers!

You can pop on over to Terry’s website to purchase both Tales of the Quilt Shop and block 2 for just $2.25.

Toodles,
Holly

Terry’s website:  Tales of the Quilt Shop
Holly’s: glue-stick turned applique instructions

You will need:
- 8×10 stretched canvas
- Mod podge
- scraps of fabric
- pen for drawing
- embellishments: buttons, stamps, stamp pad, markers
- pattern (download PDF)

STEP 1

Paint a layer of Mod Podge over your ENTIRE canvas. Lay your fabric over the canvas and with your fingers or a brayer or whatever you have to get any wrinkles or bubbles out. Stretch the fabric over the edges as well.

STEP 2

Cut out all of your pieces ahead of time. You can wing it with your placement or you can use the background from the pattern and lay your pieces in the cutout part.

NOTE: Make sure there is no Mod Podge on the canvas when you use the paper as a template otherwise it will stick.

Once you’ve positioned the heart, lift the placement template away. Lift up part of the heart and apply a liberal amount of Mod Podge with a brush. Lay the heart back down. Do this until the entire heart is stuck down. Continue laying down your pieces and Mod Podging them on.

Don’t worry if you go outside the heart with the Mod Podge because in STEP 3 (below) you’ll coat the ENTIRE canvas with a coat.

STEP 3

This is what your canvas will look like - ick. But when it dries, it’s ever so lovely!

STEP 4

Your canvas will need to be COMPLETELY DRY for this step.

Using a pen or marker you can add detail. I cut out the letters H O M E and Mod Podged those on. I drew all of my lines and squiggles and then added stamping, paint and button embellishments.

Some fun products:
Alcohol Inks (Ranger Inc) - All of my buttons were white, but I sponged on Ranger Alcohol Inks to change their color.
Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush Artist Pens - I use these all the time! I used them for all of the shading and the grass. I like them best OVER a layer of Mod Podge. You can use your finger to blend them or water and a brush. Once they dry they are permanent.
Pilot Permaball - my FAVORITE drawing pen for these types of projects. The tip is a ball so it won’t loose its shape. And if you clog it with paint or Mod Podge you can just scribble on a piece of paper and its fine. I took a workshop with Christy Tomlinson and these are the ones she recommended and they are great.

Once you finish with all your writing, painting, stamping and what-not apply one last coat of Mod Podge over your entire project.

Hope you have fun creating your project!
Toodles.
Holly

This is a monthly download in which you will receive a pattern for a quilt block and a story about the Stitches in Time quilt shop. As you work on your quilt, you’ll be able to follow the adventures of Maizie Jenkins, the owner, and the Tuesday Treadlers, five quilts who sew at the shop.

Terri and I have different styles, so you’ll be able to check out each of them. She’s doing fusible applique while I’m doing my favorite glue-stick turned applique. And our color palettes are totally different as well.

Since this is the first time we’ve done something like this we’ll probably be fine tuning things as we go. I’d really appreciate any comments that you have - again this is uncharted territory.

I will try to stay on our current schedule of posting here the first Friday of each month. The cost will be $2.25 per month and you’ll need to go to Terri’s website to make the purchase. This will be in digital format only during the course of the 8 months. At the end of the year I will be releasing the pattern in its entirety (no stories though).

So again, please let me know what you think. Wahoo! So lets get started!

Toodles,
Holly

So now that I am over the half-way mark do I sit and contemplate life or do I start looking for wrinkle creams, a good “nightly repair” lotion and up the Metamucil intake. I’m starting to see a few more gray hairs - I think I shall call this a “highlighting opportunity”. I am an artist and we take creative licenses all the time, why not with myself?

It was a very nice birthday weekend. I received a box of homemade persimmon cookies from my parents (yum). My husband and I hung out and went to the movies - twice (we haven’t done that in ages) and then we went out to a simple dinner. We topped it off at my favorite store - Barnes and Noble, the magazine section to be specific. The newest issue of Mollie Makes was in so I was happy to peruse the pages with a cup of hot chocolate.

Life is good.

Toodles.
Holly
=^..^=

Anyway, I subscribe to the Shabby Fabrics newsletter - a shop that I love (well online shop anyway, I’ve never actually visited them). So today when I got their newsletter they said they were having a sale on all their patterns and as I scrolled down I saw my most recent quilt. It was so exciting to see it! Sometimes it’s the little things that make one smile and today this was the little thing for me.

I hope you all had a great weekend and maybe it was a long one if you got Martin Luther King day off. If not, then I hope you have a happy Tuesday and rest of the week.

Toodles.
Holly

Also while at the quilt shop we got in some cute doggie fabric - Squeaky is showing it off here. I haven’t had time to make a quilt of just dog fabric yet, but I was able to make this little jacket. I hope you don’t get sick of hearing about my pets, but they bring so much happiness I just can’t help it.

Otherwise, I was thrilled to be able to pick a new design team for my stamp business. I can’t wait to see what they create! It’s always a thrill because in the past they’ve come up with wonderful things! I think one of the goals this year is to figure out how to let people post projects that are sparked from the ideas of the design team or just ideas they have themselves. I’d like to have a much more interactive site, but am not totally sure how to do that yet. Any thoughts from you out there?

On another note, I can’t remember if I mentioned it before, but I teamed up with author Terri Thayer again. This time we’re doing a block-of-the-month quilt! It’s adorable to say the least (but then I might be a wee bit biased). The details will follow in a couple weeks. So stay tuned!!

Toodles for now.
Holly

This little picture is of our dog Squeaky. He got a santa hat in his stocking (thanks to his grandma and grandpa). He sat still for just a moment and I snapped this photo. I think he looks quite dapper, but then I am a little biased. :)

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a safe new year. Here’s to 2012!!

Toodles.
Holly