We have been working on another secret project for the past few months …

A new book!

We are so proud to be included with a great group of designers in a project to benefit women’s heart disease.

The new book is a scheduled to ship this coming February and will included a blog hop featuring all the designers. Our hop day is scheduled for February 8th.

This is for a great cause so stay tuned for more details!

Barb

From Barb and Mary …

Me and My BROTHER Designs!

Ho Ho Ho!

Barb

Congratulations Pat from North Carolina!

You are the winner of the “Good Morning” fat quarter bundle!

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Enjoy!
Barb

Our friends at Stitchin Heaven were able to put together a few kits!

Since our quilt pattern was shown in the new issue of American Patchwork and Quilting we have had several requests for the kits …

They are now available! Simply visit the Stitchin Heaven website for the details.
Quantities are limited so don’t dilly dally!

Enjoy!
Barb

I had to run into my local Joann’s the other day for some elastic. I hadn’t looked thru those pattern books lined up next to the fabric section for years …

So I decided to sit for awhile, do some homework and get in touch with those pattern books that I used to bury my nose in when I was much younger.
Guess what I found?

3 pattern using our fabrics!
Now that was worth the trip down memory lane.

Thanks McCalls!
Had to have them!

Barb

But not anymore!
Mary and I have been working on a new between market fabric group over the past few months. It’s kind of different for us and we are hoping that you will like it as much as we do …

It’s an all black, white, and gray group called “Shades of Black”! We have been bugging our boss for about 3 years now to do this group. She finally gave in … probably just to shut us up!

The boxes have just started arriving!

The Moda salespersons should be showing the collection to your favorite quilt shop very soon. Make sure to tell them to order lots!

In addition to the fabrics, they will also be showing a quilt kit for this …

It’s called L7. Sounds like a spy name doesn’t it?

We were so excited about this collection arriving in the warehouse that we had our “secret Moda spy” snap some pictures of the first bolt rolled …

Her undercover work has paid of well with these never before seen “rolling the bolt shots” by specially trained operatives …

Oh no! I think she’s been spotted!

Better run for it …

Luckily she got out of the warehouse safely to spy for us another day.

Look for the Moda salespersons soon and ask for “Shades of Black” wherever you shop. We might have to support our spy entering the witness protection program!

Undercover helper … Barb

It’s time to win some free holiday stuff!

Our good friend Pat Sloan has put together a terrific holiday giveaway!

All you have to do is suffer through reading some of my holiday favorites and visit Pat to enter!

My favorite holiday food …

Whoopie Pies!

My Mom used to make these for us as far back as I can remember. We always called them “gobs” but today they are known as whoopie pies. She always made a double batch of the yummy butter cream filling and stuffed them twice as full. This is a very time consuming dessert to make and since she has gotten older, she does not bake as much as she used to … so the tradition has been picked up and carried on by Mary. I sure hope I get my holiday supply in the mail soon! (That’s a BIG hint Mary!)

My favorite holiday drink …

Hot Chocolate!

I like to make it with real whole milk and Hershey’s chocolate syrup. I also do a really strange thing with my hot chocolate. I love to dip buttered bread (has to be white bread) into the chocolatey bliss. If you have the correct proportion of butter it actually melts in the milk when you dip and makes tiny butter bubbles that float on the top. Heavenly comfort food!

My favorite holiday photo is this one of the 3 oldest girls in my family …

That’s me on the far left. Our sister Terry is on the far right and Mary is sitting on Santa’s lap sticking out her tongue. We all have on the same coat and hats. I still remember those old wool coats with the matching scarves. Who could have guessed from this picture that we would all end up quilters!

This is what you could win for reading all of this … A fat quarter bundle of our new “Good Morning” fabrics!

Hop on over to visit Pat from now until January 1st and get in on all the holiday joy! Pat will be announcing the winners on her blog so check in often for more chances to win!

Ho Ho Ho!

Barb

Have you checked out the latest issue of American Patchwork and Quilting?

Make sure that you check out pages 64 thru 72!

Mary and our quilter, Sharon Elsberry teamed up to make this smaller and different version of one of our most popular patterns, Suburban …

Mary thought up this new technique for piecing a house block awhile back and we introduced it at International Quilt Market last Spring. You piece once, cut once and get two different house blocks.

The original pattern used 10″ layer cake squares. Now she has rewritten the technique to use 5″ charm squares.

You can see a bit of the new house size on the edge of this picture showing Sharon’s quilting …

Mary calls these new smaller houses condos and stacked them on top of each other. I love how Sharon quilted laundry on the clothesline between the houses!

She even quilted a beautiful tree and a dog house for my dog baby Bella …

And her portrait …

Sharon did some wonderful free motion quilting and the patterns for them are included in the back of the issue …

So run and get your copy today!

Thanks to the great gals at APQ. We love you Elizabeth and Jennifer!

Here goes the neighborhood!

Barb

My husband suggested that we should take a last minute trip to Durango, Colorado for Thanksgiving. I had a bunch of stuff that needed to be shipped to Mary in Albuquerque and a road trip to Durango via Mary’s new house seemed to be the perfect excuse! I haven’t been there yet.

So we made some quick hotel reservations, loaded up the truck and headed to Albuquerque.

We arrived in Albuquerque the day before Thanksgiving. Mary’s new house is beautiful! Very remote, contemporary and blends into the New Mexico landscape. There are wild critters everywhere including some wild horses living down the street. This is the entrance to the front door …

I want to save the photos I took for the BIG Moda blog hop starting in February, so this is all you get to see for now.

We started out Thanksgiving Day for Durango. We drove separate cars so that we could split up for the return trip to our homes. There was not much traffic on the roads and the scenery was beautiful!

We arrived early afternoon in downtown Durango for a great Thanksgiving buffet at our hotel.

Day two … had us walking to the train station and riding the famous Durango train into Cascade Canyon. During the winter months the train only goes to this halfway point. During the summer months it goes all the way to Silverton.

All aboard!

That’s Mary’s husband Mark with his signature camera around his neck.

As soon as we got out of town we started climbing into the tall pines …

It’s a lot further down than it looks …

The engine blowing off some steam and a rainbow above the river …

Stopping along the way to fill the water tanks …

And 3 of my favorite people in the whole world on the foot bridge in Cascade Canyon …

My husband Michael is the dude in the black shirt on the left. We had a delicious sack lunch in the canyon under the trees and just relaxed for a bit until we heard the train whistle blast 4 times to signal “all aboard” for the return trip …

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The trip home was even more spectacular!

I loved riding that train! We had so much fun we plan on doing the ride again in the spring with another sister and her husband!

The third day we drove to Silverton and Ouray for lunch …

And split to return home from there …

Great trip and a fabulous way to spend Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble … Barb

I know it’s been awhile, but I am finally over my cold and ready to start blogging again!

But first, I need to back track a bit and get our quilting adventure to Florida caught up.

We recently had the wonderful opportunity to quilt with a bunch of amazing ladies from Sew Central in Cocoa Beach.

The shop was adorable! So open and inviting … with high ceilings and lots of light!

I loved these fabric flags hanging from the rafters!

We had a wonderful luncheon at the shop before the retreat started and got to know one another a bit …

Our hotel was right on the beach! I caught this ocean shot by walking down to the end of the parking lot …

We had a great time and got to see some sister friends from the past  …

More sisters with Mom …

And met a new mother and daughter quilting team, both named Yvonne!

What a FUN bunch of ladies …

The weekend flew by so fast and before we knew it … it was time to say goodbye.

Thanks Sew Central!

And a special thank you to Dionne for having us!

Can’t wait to see you all again!

Barb