What is on Your Wishlist?

Wishlist:

1. A place to just stitch for a time.

2. Learn a new stitching skill.

3. Relax with no chores to do.

4. Spend time with old friends.

5. Make new friends.

6. Have someone else cook my meals.

7. Be surrounded by like-minded stitchers.

Are any of these things on your wishlist for this year? If you need something to tell friends and family what they can get you that will make your wishlist come true, we have just the thing! Going to the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg, Virginia, or Baltimore on the Prairie in Nebraska City, Nebraska, will be a great suggestion to those who want to give you just what you want this holiday. We will be teaching in both places, and we would love to have you join us!

Academy of Appliqué

We have two classes this coming year—2022—at the Academy. The first session will be two blocks from our Woodland Reverie project—Cascading Creek and Butterfly and Trillium. Both blocks will cover exciting, new techniques with texture and appliqué, and you will have fun while you are learning.

For Session 2, we will be doing the final two projects from our Village Wanderings quilt—the center medallion and the corner trees. These two projects will be in wool (but could be done in cotton,) and your wool appliqué will be enhanced with threads, ribbons, and even a bit of wool roving.

Both of these classes still have a few openings left, so that you can get in before it fills up. Williamsburg, Virginia is a beautiful place to stay, and there are plenty of things to do in the area for spouses who might want to come along but not stitch.

Baltimore on the Prairie

Last year was our first year teaching at Baltimore on the Prairie, and we had a fabulous time. This event is a little smaller, and it is a wonderful place to immerse yourself in a great, learning environment! Our offerings for 2022 include two sessions, the first being Session A: Woodland Reverie in Wool.

Our Session B class will be our Baltimore Fraktur. The class will focus on the center medallion, but each student will be given the entire pattern for the wallhanging or the quilt as part of the class fee. This quilt can be done in wool or cotton, and we have used a mix of both in the quilt. Both of these classes still have spaces for you.

So we hope you have some new items to put on your wishlist now. You can't go wrong with either event, and you might even want to attend both! If you have any questions, check our website, and please feel free to email us or comment below. 

A Prairie Posting

Last week, Teri and I (Kara) experienced Baltimore on the Prairie for the first time, and we were hooked. From the moment we walked in the door of Lied Lodge, we knew that it was going to be a great week.

This is the view that greeted us!

We taught two classes, Alsatian Urn and Village Wanderings–Shops. Both classes were filled with the best students, and we had a wonderful time full of stitching and laughter—what more could you ask for?! Here are a few pics from our fun-filled week.

Our store ready to go.

Village Wanderings and Alsatian Urn on the right and Baltimore Fraktur on the left.

Pretty soon this will be off to the quilter after another class
in Charlottesville, VA.

Our diligent Alsatian Urn students

Teri giving a lesson on the familial relationship of the chain, feather, and 
fly stitches.

The second session had our students working a bit in miniature.

Building a shop.

Quilt making

Tweezers were helpful in assembly.

How many times can you say you built a shop and
made a quilt in just one day?

One of our students quilted her 1" quilt.

Showing off their baby quilts.

Last night show and tell.

If you have never been to Baltimore on the Prairie, we highly recommend it! The setting is beautiful, the class sizes are not too big, and the people are some of the friendliest you will ever meet. Tresa Jones and her phenomenal support staff anticipate every need and are constantly checking to make sure everything is just so. If you would like to join us for 2022, registration is open now for our two classes—Woodland Reverie in Wool, and Baltimore Fraktur.

Woodland Reverie in Wool

Baltimore Fraktur Quilt

Baltimore Fraktur Wallhanging

These two classes will take wool appliqué to a whole new level with lavish embellishment and a large variety of unique fibers that will bring these projects to life. Our Woodland Reverie in Wool quilt uses wool roving, velvet, and silk ribbon (just to name a few) to create four whimsical and dimensional blocks. Our Baltimore Fraktur Quilt and Wallhanging will give you options to create multiple projects with one pattern even though we will be focusing mostly on the medallion in class.

We would love to see you next year on the Prairie but sign up soon as classes will fill quickly!

P.S. Teri and I are still away until September 20th, so we ask for you patience in our slower response times with orders and questions.

Village Wanderings—Homes

Last year, Kara and I (Teri) had designed these four little homes with the plan to teach them at our local wool shop, Primitive Homespuns Wool and Needleworks. Initially, they were to be finished as individual little projects to fit in a frame, which could be switched out with the seasons. Then life happened and a pandemic hit. No classes. 

The houses were complete, and we were ready to write the patterns, but we had so many requests to teach them at the Academy of Appliqué that we decided to put the pattern release on hold until that event was finished. And indeed, we had a lovely class of house builders, which you can read about in our post from last week. And as promised, we have the pattern listed on our website for purchase, along with kits to complete all four houses.

Let's wander through our village and take a look at the four homes, all of which are included in the pattern.

The spring cottage has climbing wisteria and a flower box of pansies,
surrounded by swags of forget-me-nots.

The summer house has a potted rose bush with flower boxes filled
with geraniums and sweet alyssum; the swags are black-eyed Susans.

The autumn home includes topiaries and flower boxes of mums, pansies,
and ivy; asters bedeck the surrounding swag.

The winter house has wreaths in the windows and a box of evergreens in the 
dormer, and it is flanked by swags of mistletoe.

We thought it would be fun to try our hand at stitching these up in cotton,
to see how it would work for those who don't care for wool.
We think they turned out pretty cute, albeit a bit more challenging. 

Our plan changed as we stitched our way through the pandemic. The separate framed houses became the basis for a new quilt—Village Wanderings—and we added a set of shops (which we will be teaching at Baltimore on the Prairie in September), a center medallion, and seasonal trees in the corners. As we have posted pictures of this project on our social media, we have had many requests for the patterns and kits. And now, we are ready to release Set 1: Homes. 

Patterns are available in printed format or as a digital PDF download.

The wool kit is comprised of 13 different textured, solid, and hand-dyed wools—enough to complete all four of the houses. You will need to provide your background, and perhaps a batik for the windows, if desired. You can purchase the wool kit alone, or with a printed pattern for a savings. 

The ribbon kit includes 7 spools of River Silks hand-dyed silk ribbon in two sizes—4mm and 7mm—to complete all of the leaves and flowers on the swags.

The thread kit consists of 12 skeins of hand-dyed threads by Weeks DyeWorks, a variety of crewel wool, pearl cotton (sizes #3, 5, 8), and six-stranded floss. The included threads will be sufficient to embroider and embellish all four of the Homes. 

Of course, if you buy the whole kit and caboodle, you'll save!

These patterns and kits have been listed in our website shop for less than a week and are going faster than we would have dreamed. I think we will be restocking ribbon and thread soon! Thanks to those who have already purchased our Village Wanderings—Homes patterns and kits. We are humbled by your interest and support and hope you have as much fun stitching them as we did.

Please stay tuned, as we will be releasing the rest of this quilt over the next year. And perhaps you'd like to join us in Nebraska while we stitch up some shops!

Village Wanderings quilt top, by Through the Needle's Eye

To order, click HERE.