Thursday, June 11, 2020

What's Happening Through Our Needles' Eyes

Kara and I (Teri) have been keeping pretty busy, even though all of our teaching venues in the spring were cancelled. Things tend to work themselves out for the good, and the extra stitching time has been a bonus for us. We thought we'd give you an update of what's happening through our needles' eyes.





Woolen Oak Mystery Stitch-A-Long

If you haven't checked this out yet, run—don't walk—and see what the fuss is all about! We are in Week #2, and the response has been overwhelming! The Woolen Oak Facebook group has over 5500 members, and the pictures of the first two blocks being posted by participants are fantastic! For a list of all the designers, check out our post, It's a Mystery! But take a look at the first two blocks below, and click on the captions for more information.


While our pattern is not released until week #9, we have been busy, busy, busy—Kara working with a dyer in Germany to get the wool dyed and cut, and me cutting the cotton for the acorn backgrounds to prepare our kits. Due to popular demand, we decided allow the option to reserve kits, so we can mail a couple of days before our patterns are released. Little did we imagine that the response would far exceed our expectations! All the Woolen Oak designers been restocking and cutting, so that we will be prepared for our weeks. Kara and I have already sold as many kits as we thought we would sell, and no one has even seen our block yet! Such support is truly humbling. So we keep cutting. We will be ready for you!



We've only just begun, but as you can see, we are not planning on running out of fabric. And we are developing a very close relationship with our cutting tables and rotary cutters! You can find out about reserving a wool and/or thread kit for our block on our website, by clicking here. Or, you can wait until the big reveal. We plan to have plenty to go around!

Speaking of our website...

I have been working on updating our site and improving on our web shop. What a lot of learning I have accomplished these past couple of weeks, as I prepared the shop to take preorders. My best learning takes place on a short deadline, and so I entered the cyber-world (an alien realm to me) and I am learning to navigate within it. In the process of ironing out the kinks, I realized that our product photos were sorely lacking. So I got busy taking updated photos and trying to improve the site. So while you are looking to order the Woolen Oak kit, take a look at some of our other patterns and kits.

Our In the Garden Series includes a kit for the entire quilt, as well as patterns for twelve individual block designs, which you can mix and match. All of these printed patterns include any ribbon needed to complete the block. The patterns are also available for digital download—without the ribbon, of course.

A few of the blocks featured include:
Cornflowers

Wheelbarrow of Flowers

Garden Gate

We also have full kits available for our Lovely Botanicals Quilt, which include patterns, detailed instructions, and all the ribbon necessary to make the quilt. Detail shots are on the website.

Lovely Botanicals

The Lovely Vase center medallion can also be purchased as a separate block, if you wish to only stitch this design.

  
And the Botanical Beauties blocks can also be purchased as a set of four smaller blocks, if you want only the corner blocks.

We would love for you to stop by and explore our website, which is always in a process of evolving, as I learn more about web design. Truthfully, I'd rather be designing quilts, but I try to imagine that it's just one big virtual quilt!

Conferences

We are busy preparing for Baltimore on the Prairie, which is still accepting (risk-free) registrations. In light of the COVID-19 situation, a final decision about the conference will be made on August first, but as of right now, we are planning on it going forward. Hope springs eternal! 

Baltimore Fraktur
Floral Elegance

Both Kara and I are creating quilts with the Fraktur as a center medallion. We will be ready to share our results with your soon. Patterns for both will be available.

We are thrilled to have been invited to return to The Academy of Appliqué in March of 2021 and to Baltimore of the Prairie for the September 2021 conference! So of course, our needles have been flying on those designs. 
A tiny hint...
Alsatian inspiration for a new design


Under our needles

We are working on a few new designs, which we hope to have ready to release on our website soon. These have a mixture of cotton and wool fabrics, and are embellished with embroidery. 


And finally, we are looking ahead to spring of 2021, hoping to teach a few classes in Germany, one of which will be a beginning appliqué class. Stay tuned for more details as we learn them. But for now, I'm back to the cutting table!

What's under YOUR needles?


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