Sweet and Simple Block of the Month

This is the new block of the month by Geoff's Moms pattern company called Sweet and Simple! It's 16 months with 2 blocks per month and a little story each block! I'm doing the fun stitching part now! Also, I have a new rughooking block of the month all drawn out and ready to hook! HUMMMMM are we seeing a pattern here? Do you suspect I love starting a new project almost more than finishing them????? I wonder if there is a 12 step program for people like me??? Oh, I think I might not be alone........
   Here are a couple of pictures!

The rughooking block of the month will be a 5 month project, making it simple and not breaking the bank with such a large rug. It is 24" x 36" and I'll post as I hook! We are actually going to have a set day each month for local customers to work on it together this time! Of course you can do it by mail or just pick it up each month when the kits are ready! If you want details, email the shop at woolenwillow@aol.com, or call at 304-375-9665! Gretchen is hopefully getting some time to work on the newsletter for the shop while at the press check for the magazine in MI. They are on the way home, and I just heard from her. Dad is taking a turn driving and Mom is listening to her books on tape! The press check went well, and I can't wait till they print and send them to us, so we can see them in person! I can't believe this is our forth issue!! Can anyone remember when The Woolen Willow was therughookingstore.com???? Did you know we started in 1999 with our website, taking orders from Gretchens house in TX and my house here in WV? We used to talk on the phone 3 or 4 times a day, excited about orders and maybe having a real shop one day together! seems so long ago, and also so many pounds ago! LOL! Hummm, not so funny. I think I'll do something about it this year! Not a New Years resolution, but just need to take care of myself! I'm in good health and wanna keep it that way. Well, except for the Bronchitis that wouldn't go away and left me with Asthma!  And the ribs I sprained at Market pulling a dolly, not to mention pulled muscles! Getting well though, and feeling much better! Did I go on too much? Can you tell I have missed chatting to my friends??? I'll try not to stay away so long! 
   Happy New Year and Happy hooking and stitching!!!
              Love, Jeni

How am I suppose to sew or design a new block of the month rug?

This is what my sewing room looks like the day after all Christmas activities are over! Yes, it became the holding room for coats, dog crates, and mail. It is also the laundry room, a safe place for kitties to hide from the puppy(see laundry basket) and oh yes, safe place to hide shoes from puppy (top of pile on sewing table!) I think I will retreat to the dinning room table! There is an idea or two brewing in my head, so I think I'll pour some coffee and get started! I'll clean up the sewing room later! Go ahead and nap kitty!




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Chester is rearranging my fabric today! Aaaagghhh!

Growing boy!

My puppy Chester, is growing by leaps and bounds! Close to 50 pounds now! We had a fun family Christmas party last night, and he did great with a house full of family and food! What a sweetie! I'm still trying to get healed up and better, I think I'm almost there! Thanks for all the well wishes!
Jeni



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My helper

Always so helpful! The cover kitty, Gray, that was on Primitive Quilts and Projects cover, Fall Issue!



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Few days later, a little progress!

I went back to Doctor after feeling like I was relapsing.... Rib area hurting from pulling heavy dolly of magazines, and coughing aggravating it all....... this was Thursday I think, nope Wednesday. I started the Cheri Payne project night before. They said I had bronchitis, and strained ribs, possibly hairline fracture! Sheesh! So I have been resting a lot, didn't feel like sewing. Today feeling a little better, so decided to lay out wool pieces, glue down, and maybe stitch a bit after a nap! here is a picture with pieces all laid out and ready to stitch! I'm hoping to get my class gals together to work on it before the next class. Thanks for a great pattern Cheri!
Jeni



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Working on a Cheri Payne pattern for small quilts class!

I do have some pictures from Market and Festival to post still, but have just been busy with things going on at the shop. Now I'm working on a sample for class on Friday! A customer friend asked me to design a partridge in a pear tree, or twelve days of Christmas quilt, and I happened to have just recently purchased this pattern while in California! So Cheri is sending patterns for all my class ladies! Why reinvent the wheel? Very cute pattern, can't wait to get it done, because I want to do her Nativity pattern also! Hehe!



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My daughter, Kristen, is modeling Lisa Bongean's project! Too fun!


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Location:Another location shot!

I'm finally feeling better, not completely, but almost there! Since we got home from Houston, we started shooting pictures! Having fun at a beautiful home, really nice family, and lots of coffee!


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Location:On location for the Spring issue!

Look what I had to buy!

I have been really sick while at market, and spent hours in an urgent care between market and Festival! Yuck! Feeling a little better now, and had to buy this beautiful book from Quiltmania, by Yoko Sato! So pretty!


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Wow! It's hard to leave the booth to take pictures!

Hi all! I left the booth a couple times today, but forgot to take my camera out from under the table! But I was usually on a dead run for a particular booth to buy for the shop, or to talk to a designer, so my mind was not on my camera! I'll try to do better tomorrow! I did find a couple of great Block of the Month quilts to bring into the shop to offer though! And we ordered some beautiful fabrics! I can't wait to get it all in the shop! Oh! And we ordered a lot of great trims to embellish your projects! Great fun!
More later!

Another shot with Gretchen!

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More market booth pictures!

Here are a few more!



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Picture of our booth!

Here is a picture of our booth!


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First morning of Market!

The first morning of Market! About time to pull myself out of motel bed and start getting ready! I will take some pictures today and see about getting them posted! We got here Thursday evening, set up the booth yesterday, and it is a little crowded, but looks really nice! We will have a larger booth for Festival. We walked most of the show room floor last night, just to peek at the other booths! Really nice! My honey is flying home today after driving our booth out here for us and helping to set the booth up. He should be boarding his plane in a little while, hope he has a good flight! He'll be back next Sunday to help undo booth after Festival and drive it all back home! Thanks honey!



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Saltbox and Willow Trees progress!

I've been working on this the past three Open Craft Nights at the shop, and I think two more Thursdays and I'll have the border done. It will be on to the background, then somewhere in my house where the puppy can't reach it! LOL! As a matter of fact, all my rugs are rolled up and placed up high! I forget how long the biting and chewing lasts, since it has been 14+ years since I had a puppy! But the rugs are all safe for now!  Here is the picture of my progress! I have been working on it off and on for years, but am determined to get it done once and for all!
        Have a great weekend!
                    Jeni

Not much sewing going on!

I've been doing a lot of playing and sitting on the floor though, and walking my little Chester! My sewing room is blocked by baby gates, and there are a lot of shoes protected in there also! Haha! Tonight when I got home from a busy day at the shop,I played interference with the puppy for my husband while he worked on clearing out the flower beds. We were out all evening playing and working, and now have a very tired pup!
I did a bit of rug hooking at open craft night last night at the shop though, and it felt great to get a nice chunk done on my Saltbox and Willows rug by Emma Lou Lais! One day soon it will be done! It's been long time coming, always putting it on the back burner! Now every Thursday night, I plan to hook on it till it is done! I'll try to remember to take a picture of my progress soon!
I'm going to try to post a picture of growing Chester now from my I-pad... Hubby bought it for my Birthday and I'm trying to learn how to use it! Here goes!
Okay, no luck! I will look at the manual now! If all else fails... Right?

New sewing kit, Crazy quilt style! And Chester!

Good morning! I have a few pictures of my puppy boy, and a new sewing kit, made the Crazy quilt way with wool!   We did kits for them, and they are so fun to make! I might make one in bright colors for our customers who like "bright!" 

It's been a busy week working with Chester, trying to house train him! It started out wonderful, and we couldn't believe how good he was! No accidents for three or four days, sleeping all night in the crate! Then the "good puppy drugs" the breeder MUST have given him (haha) wore off! LOL!  So far there has been one accident per day, and a lot of biting on things! Oh, yes, I knew it would be this way when I wanted a puppy! I had one a long time ago when I was much younger and had a lot more energy and was home every day! LOL! He is still sleeping all night in the crate, which I love! I don't know how good I would do getting up in the middle of the night being older than I was with first puppy, and I could take naps back then! So I'm very happy about his sleeping habits! He is so sweet and loving, that we will look past his potty habits and just keep working on it! After all, it is usually a humans fault that he was able to go in the house! He loves to go for walks, and I love that it wears him out! Maybe it will help me shed some unwanted pounds too! So here are some pictures! One is of my daughters kitty Gray looking down at him while he sleeps! The kitties are letting him get closer to them, but not too close!

Look what I got for my Birthday!!!

His name is Chester! Isn't he sweet?!!!! I have been wanting a new little furry friend for so long, since our sweet Taffy left this world a little over a year ago. He is perfect and loves his new home! (And Dad!)

"What's been going on," you ask?

I have been a very busy gal!  I know, I know, aren't we all these days??
   My daughter and I vended at a quilt show in GA last week, and even though it was a lot of driving, we had a really great time!  Those Cobb County quilt guild ladies really know how to throw a nice quilt show!!  Then this past week, we were busy putting everything back in the shop that we took with us, and then I had Small Quilts club to get ready for! Here I will post a picture of my newest design that we made on Friday in class!  We made lots of extra kits! I'm also posting pictures of open craft night a few weeks ago, where one lady was making a needle felted bird, and our Carolyn was hooking a rug we did for a block of the month!  I still haven't made mine! Geesh! Also, I'm posting the picture of my Hexagon quilt all quilted! I kept forgetting to take a picture! That quilt is from Kathleen Tracy's "Civil War Sewing Circle" book!
   Thanks for all the nice comments on my last post! I'm looking forward for you all to see the Winter issue of the next Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine! It is close to being printed soon!  We are also working on a quicker method of shipping, and have a new permit pending! So hopefully by the time the Spring issue ships, it will be very quick! No more waiting forever!
    If you are wondering what ever happened to that challenge quilt, fear not! I have not forgotten! Now that the quilt show is out of the way, and you know how much work it is getting ready for one of those, I can get back to that challenge quilt! Yay!  Stay tuned!  Enjoy the pictures, and have a great week!
       Jeni

New little project by Simply Put!

Good morning!  I finished stitching on a little project by one of our upcoming designers for the magazine!  You will love what she made for the Summer issue, but you will have to wait to see that! Her name is Laural Arestad (hope I got the spelling right!) and her pattern website is www.simplyputplus.com. She has really nice things, so go check them out! Here is a picture of one of my favorites, all ready to quilt! I think I'll quilt it by hand! This one is called "Count your Blessings."

Oh, speaking of hand quilting, I finished quilting and binding my little hexagons quilt, but then accidentally erased the picture I was going to post! I'll try to remember to take another today. 

Remember I was talking about the changes at the Woolen Willow?  WELL, I have sweet talked my honey into painting for us! Here he is!.....

He is a keeper!!!  He hates to paint, but does such a good job! No drop cloth or tape! Makes my wrist hurt just thinking about how big this place is! LOL! here are more pictures, some walls have the quilts back up again, and of course, in different spots than they were before! Why not move things around while you can, right???

I am loving the new color! It is called Paprika!  I'm thinking I might have to paint my sewing room this color too!  Two walls to go, and then I'm gonna try and sweet talk honey into doing two walls in the wool room! Wish me luck!!!
    Have a great day everyone! Hope you all get in some sewing time!
           Jeni

Hexagon quilt ready to quilt!!

A little break from the challenge quilt yesterday during small quilts club, I finished putting together my little hexagon quilt! It is from "Civil War Sewing Circle" by Kathleen Tracy.  I just love it, and have had so much fun doing the English paper piecing.  I plan on hand quilting it, and may  just get started this morning before heading to the shop! 

Yesterday we got in the new Patek and Brannock line of fabric! Wow! So pretty! I will have to get a little off each bolt and play with it tomorrow! Also just in, is some of the new Primitive Gatherings line of fabrics!  And of course, I need a little piece off each of those bolts too!  Hummmmm..... what to make????

Progress on Challenge quilt!

Hello! I worked on the blocks more today and got them all sewn together. Now I'm just thinking about putting a border on or not.  I plan on adding some wool applique and we'll see how that looks! We all think it is looking pretty! Just not primitive! LOL! I'll keep plugging along, and keep you posted too!

       Have a great evening! If you are near, come by for open craft night tonight, 6-9pm!

               

Challenge blocks!

Here they are so far! After a few strips, I was thinking oh brother, YIKES!  But after a few more, it's not looking too bad, but not at all primitive!  I worked on them at open craft night at the shop tonight, and included a few pictures of our group this evening having fun!  Stay tuned for more!!!

      Jeni

Fabric challenge!

Today two of our helpers, Kim and Chelsea, at the shop picked out 16 fabrics they thought I would not likely pick out for one of my projects to make a quilt with! I plan on doing a log cabin pattern, so lets see what I can do with it! Yikes! I can over dye them, and I can add to them, but I have to use all of them! Yikes again!  Some have been on the shelves for months, and a few are new. Here they are....

Looking at the picture, I like several of them, but  wouldn't pair them with the others, so here goes! I guess I really have to do it, now that it is out there in blog land!! Haha!
       Have a great evening! I'll post my  progress!
                Jeni

Fun at the Woolen Willow!

Hello!  Just wanted to share what has been going on the past few days at The Woolen Willow!  We have been very busy moving things around, hanging quilts and getting the new room ready for lots of stitching things!  We have a lot of new threads coming in, as well as patterns and kits!  We plan for mostly fun, quick, make and take type things!  There is more wool and fabric coming in also!  Speaking of wool........ we had some fun ladies from out of town in the shop yesterday. Some of them had been in the shop before, and they like to go through our wool scrap bin, where you fill a bag for a steal of a deal!  Usually they are on the floor with it spilled out way up front in the small wool room. Well, it is really cramped and usually warm up there when the sun is coming in the big windows in the afternoon, so I offered to carry it back to the cooler part of the shop and spill it out on the carpet for them to sit! They were really happy about that idea, but I felt like there just weren't enough "Good" scraps in the bin!  While they were having fun going through it, I went into the room where we keep stuff set aside for kit making and found some great wool scraps for them in bigger pieces! I threw them into the middle of the ladies sitting on the floor and they CHEERED and had so much fun!  Still feeling that there wasn't enough for them all to find what they would want, I cut  up some fat quarters of wool and threw them into the middle! More cheering of course! It was a lot of fun!  So here are pictures of the ladies and the quilts all over the shop in their new spots!  More to come, because we are going to paint all the walls in the shop and my husband is re-making the fabric cabinets!  Yay to Glen!

This area above, will be our class room area!

These above are the projects in Fall issue of magazine!

That's me, cutting wool in the wool room! LOL!

More Fall issue projects! (above)

     Hope you are all having a nice weekend!