marie-madeline studio

Abiah Hope Kingery

Dear Sweet Abiah,

Nineteen years ago today at exactly 9:29 am, I was welcoming my fourth daughter into my arms!  An 8 lb. 4 oz. strawberry blonde, born on my own mother's 51st birthday.  You were a blessing to me that day and you've continued to be a blessing to me each day of the last nineteen years.  What a loving and gracious God I serve to mercifully allow me to be your mother.  I am humbled.

I love you dearly, Abiah.

xoxo Mommy

Happy birthday, Budsie!  We just don't know what we'd do without you.  You officially completed the five of us girls, and we are so thankful for you.  We love your smile and your special ways with people.  We love all the fun we have together.  Sometimes it's hard for the rest of us to believe you're all grown up, because you will always be our baby (like it or not).  We're so excited to see what the Lord has in store for your life!

Love always,

Apphia, Achaia, & Abigail

A very late Happy Mother's Day.

        Mommy with her mommy - both of them the best and both of them all ours!

We hope you don't think we actually forgot about Mother's Day.  Because we didn't.  As a matter of fact, Sunday was a very good day.  Mom got flowers (two dozen red roses, to be exact) and cards and cake and everything.  But somehow the blog post in our minds never quite made it to the computer screen.  Better late than never, so here we are with our belated Happy Mother's Day post!

Happy Mother's Day, Mommy!  We are so thankful for you.  It's the best thing in the world to have a mother who is also your very best friend.  Thank you for loving us unconditionally, for always believing in us, and for never thinking our dreams are too big.  Thank you for teaching us to serve the Lord and each other, and for drying our eyes when the tears fall (as they often do).  You are the sunshine in our sky and the wind in our sails.  We love you so much!!!

xoxo,

Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, & Abiah

P.S. We'd like to add another big thanks to Nan, too.  Because it just so happens that Mom is a lot like Nan, and Nan is a lot like perfect.  We're so thankful for our special grandmother!  xoxo

Most Embarrassing Sewist Moment?

What do you do when you're sewing machine comes home from the shop with a ziploc full of the stuff that came out of your machine??? 

Could this be my most embarrassing sewist moment to date?  I think so.

xoAchaia

Happy May Sale!

We've yet to wish everyone a happy May, so we are doing it with a sale!  You'll find all Michael Miller fabrics 25% off in our store through May 11th!  That includes.....

Garden Party

Ooh La La

Prepsters

Sorbet

Enjoy!  So many of these fabrics are happy, bright, and just perfect for getting into your spring/summer sewing.

The weather here has been a bit finicky (we were having a fire just the other night...), and most of us are more than ready for warmer weather to come and stay!

Talk again soon! xoxo

memories....

It's funny how your memory can be triggered by something small and unimportant.  Last weekend Abiah was trying to get her boot box off our closet shelf (Abigail, Abiah, and I share a room) when a container of old hair things came falling down -- no surprise there.  I started going through it real quick to see if I could grab another scrunchie for my bedtime hair, and I kept coming across scrunchies that were made out of fabric I recognized......

A 9 year old Abigail's dress

Apphia's flannel pajama pants

My first sewing project (a little elastic waistband skirt)

Another Abigail dress and another pj pants flannel

A cute little outfit of Abiah's

The dress Mom made me to wear when I sang at a Church program

Plaid seersucker that was leftover from a top for Mom and matching outfits for all of us girls

Whenever we were younger almost every homemade outfit had to have a matching scrunchie.  We wore them all the time on our ponytails, or to connect our french braids.  It seems that they were the big thing in the '90s (at least they were at our house).  It was amazing how I'd forgotten most of them, and how just seeing a pile of scrunchies made me remember so many different outfits, and so many good times.  xoxAchaia

Apphia Jade

Dear sweet Apphia,

Happy Birthday, Merry Sunshine!  Sending this special greeting to you, my first born child, my longed for and prayed for baby, brings tears to my eyes.  I don't deserve your precious love and devotion, but I am so very thankful for it!  Not a day goes by that I don't praise The Lord for creating you and making me your mommy mumee.  We've been through so much together and I trust that this next year will be even better than the last.

Thank you for being so dependable and responsible, Apphia.  I trust you with my life.

Happiest of birthdays to you.  I love you, Mommy

 

Dearest Sis, Happy birthday with tons of love!  We're so thankful for you and all the many ways our lives are enriched by being with you.  Through thick and thin we have always counted on you.  Our deepest, most heartfelt prayer is that you will be abundantly blessed with the desires of your heart this coming year.

Love forever,

Achaia, Abigail, & Abiah xxxxx

The Winner!

So sorry we didn't announce our winner yesterday!  We've had a pretty hectic and stressful week, so we are feeling a little bit behind on everything.  Now, onto the winner....

Congratulations, Helen!  You are now the happy owner of Nancy Zieman's Sew Knits with Confidence book + 4 awesome especially-designed-for-knit sewing patterns!  Please drop us an email with your mailing address and we'll get everything headed your way.  We're sad we can't give a copy to each and every one of you!  The book and patterns are really a wonderful addition to any lady's sewing library, and we'd heartily recommend picking up your own copy here on Nancy's website.  Your knit clothes will thank you, trust us.

Thanks so much for the enthusiasm about our rendering of the Santa Fe Dress!  It was wonderful to hear what everything thought.  Did we mention the comfort level?  As most knit items, it's a dream to wear!

Happy Thursday, all! xoxo Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah

Nancy Zieman's Sew With Knits Blog Tour + Giveaway!

Hello everyone!  We had so much fun last summer when we participated in Nancy's 30-minute Doll Clothes blog tour, that we were absolutely thrilled when she invited us to be a part of Sewing With Knits.  To be perfectly honest with you, knits have always scared (some of) us just a tiny bit.  It's funny that the thing we love wearing most is also the most intimidating to sew!  But Nancy has officially changed that.  Her book, Sew Knits With Confidence, is a must-have for every seamstress!  (Stick with us, we'll be giving away a copy in a little bit...)

So without further ado, here is our own interpretation of the Santa Fe Dress!

We opted to make dress view 1, but added 16" to the length in order to get a good maxi. 

We LOVE this pattern.  The clever neckline facing makes wearing a camisole unnecessary, and the bodice goes together in a flash.  Best of all, it really looks store-bought when finished!  We chose a novelty red pique knit from JoAnn's to make our Santa Fe dress.  And then we got the idea to draw up one side in a big rose-like knot to add a fun touch!

Now are you ready to hear about the giveaway?  One winner will receive a copy of Nancy's book, Sew Knits with Confidence, along with the four beautiful patterns we showed you earlier this week!!!  Just leave a comment on this post that includes your name and email address, and tell us how you feel about knit.  We will choose our winner on Wednesday (April 24th) and ship out your box of goodies the next day!

Have fun!

P.S. Don't forget to take a look at the rest of the tour!

April 21, 2013 Stitchin' Jenny's

April 22, 2013 Amy Lou Who Sews 

April 23, 2013 Sew News

April 24, 2013 Designs in Machine Embroidery  

April 25, 2013 Riley Blake Designs 

April 26, 2013 The Sewing Loft Blog 

April 27, 2013 Nancy Zieman the Blog 

A Fabulous Friday

{apphia's picks}

1. these fabulous loafers from Anthropologie

2. I want to throw an outdoor party that looks like this!

3. missing Texas and wishing for another tour of the capitol building

4. love me some big sunnies

{abiah's picks}

1. adorable summer dresses like this one...

2. I love old patterns, like this jumpsuit one from 1977

3. time spent with awesome friends... we always have such a blast and laugh til our sides ache

4. I can't resist cotton candy!

{kristie's picks}

1. this lovely raspberry button brooch

2. I can't say no to beautiful Japanese fabrics!

3. a Cosmo embroidery floss chart is so handy

4. the pillow I just finished making and stitching

{abigail's picks}

1. one of my favorite Richard Widmark movies!  It's so great.

2. long, healthy hair.  This picture reminds me of Abiah and all the fun things we do together.

3. the colors. the art.

4. the mud fight in McLintock!  No matter how many times we watch it, I always think it looks like so much fun.

{achaia's picks}

1. I love the all-over embroidery on this top... it's amazing!  The peplum is great too.

2. the bookshelves all through the hallway.  I also love the color scheme.

3. a Jaguar

4. I'm on the look out for a great summery floppy hat

And, we couldn't pass up throwing in a collective favorite....

Lawrence of Arabia

What are you especially enjoying this week??  We'll plan on being back tomorrow!

Happy Friday, xox

Sew Knits with Confidence blog tour is here!

Did you catch our hint from yesterday?  We are thrilled to be joining in Nancy Zieman's Sew Knits with Confidence Blog Tour (we'll be showing off ours on April 20th)!  Here's the schedule, so you can keep up with all the happy-sewy-knit goodness all the way through....

April 16, 2013 Nancy Zieman the Blog

April 17, 2013 Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing

April 18, 2013 Totally Stitchin 

April 19, 2013 Sew Beautiful Magazine 

April 20, 2013 Marie Madeline Studio 

April 21, 2013 Stitchin Jenny’s

April 22, 2013 Amy Lou Who Sews 

April 23, 2013 Sew News

April 24, 2013 Designs in Machine Embroidery  

April 25, 2013 Riley Blake Designs 

April 26, 2013 The Sewing Loft Blog 

April 27, 2013 Nancy Zieman the Blog 

We're looking forward to gabbing more about sewing with knits and Nancy's patterns and knits book (and a giveaway!) on Saturday!  Hope you can all join us.....

xox Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah