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″.
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!
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!
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-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!
And, what great handwork while sitting in front of a fire…..
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
Have you been wanting to host an online event but don’t know where to start?
Pickle Pie Designs is here to help with their ‘Ready-to-Run Embroidered Quilt Event’! Whether your shop sells machines or not, you can host this event! Your students will use their own machines in the comfort of their sewing room. Pickle Pie has included everything to host a fun event – they will even guide you through the setup and running your easy-peasy online event on a proven platform that your customers already know how to use.Your customers will tune in to participate and watch the series of provided instructional videos you’ll post throughout the day. They’ll be able to post questions and get answers from your staff and other participants in real-time, have the opportunity to socialize with others in the group during this fun shared experience, and they’ll stay tuned in for exciting door prizes, all within the comfort of their sewing room.
To help you gain confidence to host your own event, YOU can experience the Brilliant Blooms Online Embroidered Quilt Event on Monday, August 24!
Checker will host a class for shop owners on Monday, August 24th. To attend, you need to order one Student Kit (Item #ESKBB1) by August 14. (There is no prep work for the class but this grace period gives us a chance to make sure everyone gets their kits in time! We will take care of the rest.) Simply email our Buyer, Nichole Schneider after ordering to gain access to the class.nichole.schneider@checkerdist.com.
Your customers will learn to stitch the Brilliant Blooms Table Runner during your Event.Just a reminder, you ONLY need ONE Student Kit to attend Checker’s Shop Owner Event on Monday, August 24th, BUT to host your own event you will need ONE Dealer Kit plus as many student kits as you have attendees.
BRILLIANT BLOOMS DEALER EVENT KIT Includes Marketing Video and Ad Graphics Custom Branded for your shop, access to complete instructional videos to post/play during the Event, Pickle Pie Designs USB Drive with full Embroidery Design Set for store samples, Cut-to-size and labeled Fabric and Batting Kit, Event Planning Guide PDF, Easy-to-follow Event Day Schedule PDF, Online Event Set-Up PDF, access to Pickle Pie’s Customer Service with any questions you have along the way, and Pickle Pie Door Prizes for the event when you schedule your Event Video Trunk Show with Lisa. Please note that separate Brilliant Blooms Customer Event Kits must be purchased for each customer who signs up for your event (Item#EDKBB).
BRILLIANT BLOOMS STUDENT EVENT KIT Includes the following all packed in a sweet Pickle Pie Pink box valued at over $200, Brilliant Blooms Embroidered Quilt Block Design Collection, a $59 value. Cut-to-size and labeled Fabric and Batting Kit, a $29 value, Pickle Pie Pink Tote, Pickle Pie Swag/Goodies, Free Bonus Embroidery Design Collections, and a Catalog.
Don’t own a shop? Ask your local shop to host an event!
