Featured in Fresh Style Magazine!

Are you enjoying the long weekend? I am and I don't want it to end! My husband was away on his annual fishing trip to the BWCA with his friends so I spent time with my magazines and craft supplies which have felt a bit neglected lately :) 

One of the magazines is Fresh Style and Country Mouse & I are thrilled to be featured! I spent lots of time on the phone with Country Mouse this weekend describing everything in the magazine, because she has been at the lake up North and hasn't been to the city to pick up her copy yet (she is very jealous!).

I love the layout and styling of the magazine, there are lots of diy projects and creative spaces to get you inspired. In fact two of our favorite fabric designers are featured: Amy Butler and Heather Bailey! There are lots of other talented artists and bloggers featured as well including Ashley Ann Campbell.

 

I was at Barnes & Nobel this weekend and wanted to show everyone in the magazine aisle our feature but restrained myself. So I know they carry it, but you can also order yours online here. Definitely pick one up for some easy diy projects and reading on decorating & creating! 

A special thank you to Karen who contacted us about this feature, she is a total sweetheart and joy to work with! And also to our talented friend Shanon who took the photo of Country Mouse & I; her buttons photo is next to our ironing board in the picture.

New Fabric - Tanya Whelan & Amy Butler

Delilah by Tanya Whelan

Soul Blossoms by Amy Butler

We received our shipment of new fabrics by Tanya Whelan and Amy Butler a few weeks ago and we couldn't wait to start sewing! We have new ironing board covers listed in the shop and hopefully will get more coordinating goodies sewn up soon. 

Both collections are bright and cheery, perfect for waking up our senses during our long dark winter, don't you think? 
It's snowing AGAIN today! And to think, a year ago we were soaking up the sun in Jamaica!

International Quilt Market Spring 2010

Country Mouse and I had so much fun at our first Quilt Market! Our senses were overstimulated with so much to take in...we're still recovering. There were so many people that we have talked with via email that we finally got to meet face to face and everyone was so sweet and helpful to us during our first Market experience. 

On to the big event... 

Sandi Henderson's lovely booth, so bright and cheery! We got to meet her and she signed her new book for us - Sewing Bits & Pieces. 

Speaking of books, Joel Dewberry was signing copies of his new book Sewn Spaces which we also picked up. Joel did a demonstration on making one of the cute birdies from his new book.

Amanda from The Quilted Fish has to be one of the sweetest people at Market. We asked her so many questions before Market and she always answered us and pointed us to the best resources. She has so many fun sewing patterns (our doggies are begging us to make the dog beds and my feet could have used these slippers after walking all day!) AND she is debuting her new fabric line Sweet Divinity with Riley Blake!

One of the cutest booths was by Alyssa from Penguin & Fish. Country Mouse and I are animal lovers and just adore all of her cute embroidery patterns and stuffed animals. You can find them in her Etsy shop.

We also drooled over Tina Givens booth and her new fabric collection - Opal Owl.

We met with the sweet ladies of Cloud9 fabrics. We'll tell you more exciting news about their awesome organic fabric soon.

 And last, but certainly not least is Amy Butler's booth. She has a new fabric line coming in September - Soul Blossoms.  And she has new thread, wallpaper, yarn, towels, bedding, and what else am I missing?! She is going to be at Patina in Minneapolis tonight - Monday May 24th and  we can't wait to meet her!

That's just a small sampling of the talent at Spring Quilt Market! We'll be talking more about Market and our new pattern line soon!

Sew in Love

Country Mouse and I have been sewing up a storm again and we are finally ready to list more Amy Butler items in the shop! Amy's newest line of fabric - Love - is stunning to say the least. We are in awe of the gorgeous floral patterns and rich, soulful colors. How does she do it?!

Let's take a look at what's been going on in the sewing room, shall we ...

New Ironing Board Covers...Bliss Bouquet

Water Bouquet

Tumble Roses

Sunspots
Coordinating Scissor Sleeves

These prints and colors were inspired by Amy's trips to Indonesia and England - places we have not yet visited (someday we will get there!) but can only imagine how beautiful they are from these fabrics! We'll have these lovies listed in the shop within the next few days.

Isn't it fun to know where the inspiration for a fabric or a piece of art comes from? Do you ever purchase something because it reminds you of a place you have visited? I have some shell and starfish decor in my home because it reminds me of my wedding in Jamaica. Did I tell you that we are escaping our cold Minnesota winter and going to Jamaica in less than a month?!

Amy Butler Love in the Shop

Have you checked out Amy Butler's newest collection - Love? It's absolutely stunning! I love both the floral and architectural prints as well as the colorways of Amy's new line.

We were lucky to pick up a few of these new prints while we wait for our large order to arrive - we were told it could be early January! So while we wait, let's enjoy the beauties we have available now. New ironing board covers will be added to the shop early this week.

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

Big Patches-Big Love Quilt

Isn't it fun to see this...

turn into this...

Country Mouse and I used the Big Patches-Big Love pattern from Amy Butler's software for this quilt. It was part of a wedding gift for one of my dear friends, so the name is very fitting don't you think? Fabric is from Joel Dewberry's Deer Valley collection.

We've been extremely lucky with our weather lately, nice and warm! Each nice day we have, I can't help but think is this going to be the last one before it turns cold? Soon it will be time to cozy up under a warm quilt like this one and hibernate! But until then, I'm going to spend as much time outside as possible. Wishing you a Sunday full of sunshine!

Sunday Afternoon with Amy Butler's Software

Back to school items are filling the shelves in the stores (and I even saw Christmas items out at one place! Can you believe that?) I've been trying to take in as much summer as possible these last few weeks. Time at the beach, a picnic, and lots of walking outdoors has been keeping me busy. Country Mouse and I are working on a few new projects that we hope to have ready in September. I'll let you know as soon as I can share more details!


And I'm in love. I ordered a few of the Amy Butler Softwares which finally arrived. And I must say I am swooning over them. I'm always inspired by Amy's designs and this software is no different. So I'm spending most of this Sunday afternoon playing with the software and trying to decide which project I want to do first. I am totally in love with the floor pillows on the cover of the software. I am planning to make two of them for our living room for our furbabies. I know, our dogs are spoiled!

I have a few extra softwares so I am listing them in the shop with free shipping to the US or Canada because I know you are going to want one of these as well :) Enjoy!