marie-madeline studio

where we've been

We really haven't meant to stay away so long.  Last week felt like a whirlwind... something (big things) to do EVERY day.  This week has been slow and somewhat sad (with good things thrown in).

Our brother Joe started farrier school Monday.  The drive was too far to make every day, so we spent all last week getting his little rental house in order.  Saturday we took him up and had to come home earlier than planned, since snow was on the way. 

Oh dear.  We girls miss him SO much.  It's almost crazy how one person leaving can throw you off so much.  It has been hard to adjust -- and we haven't really wanted to either.  We have talked to him every night, which helps ease the pain (we think).  If plans go well, we girls are hoping to go spend the weekend with him.  We can't wait!

So, we've been trying to drown our sorrows out with other things.  Mom taught Abi and Abiah to cross stitch earlier this week, and yesterday we went out with a friend from Church to pick out our Easter program music.  Last night we stayed up to watch a favorite movie.  It doesn't bring Joe back, but it sure gets our minds busy.

Now, we should say that we are sorry for ourselves, but happy for Joe.  He's got a goal, and he's following his dream.  So, maybe it's worth the heartache. 

xoxo Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah

PS  We got some fabulous new Riley Blake buttons in, if you're interested in fancying up a new garment.  We're dreaming of spring sewing!

A new Ironing Board cover {a tutorial}

We use our iron + ironing board a lot. We mean. A lot. So it's no wonder that after three + years we needed a new one! (We're too embarrassed to show you a picture of the old one. Really. You could hardly tell what it was made of!)

Mommy and Abi got together and in an afternoon whipped up this new ironing board cover. They took step by step pictures. Measurements will depend entirely on your own special ironing board. Ours is old and dips (just a little bit) in the middle, so we needed extra padding. We'll explain more below!

So -- are you ready??! 

Ironing Board cover {a tutorial}

1. Choose your fabrics! Fun! Since our ironing board sits by the one red wall in our studio, we wanted to have red in our cover to make our board pop. (Mommy's favorite color choice.)

2. Cut and arrange your patches. This can be one of the most enjoyable parts, so have fun mixing and matching your favorite pieces! You'll want it to be 6" to 8" bigger than your ironing board (so that you have several inches left-over on all sides of your board).

What you'll Need:

Putting it Together!

1. Layer sheet, batting, and patched top. Use large safety pins to pin it together.

2. Sew through all layers. We chose one of our favorite (and sturdy) stitches on Mommy's machine.

3. Lay your ironing board face down on top of your Insul-Fleece. Use a permanant marker to draw the shape of your board onto the fleece. (NOTE! if your board is not like ours (dipped), than you are more than welcome to skip the batting when your quilting your cover. Use the Insul-Fleece in place of the batting. We're also hoping that once we wear this cover out we can replace it and the insul-fleece will still be good).

4. Our Insul-Fleece was shorter than our board, so we pieced it.

(Continuing) 4. Pieced.

5. Cut out the board shape and lay the Insul-Fleece right on the board!

6. Lay your ironing board face down on top of your patched top and prepare to cut around the board shape.  Be careful to leave several extra inches all the way around the board!!!! Do a finishing stitch (we did a zigzag stitch) around the edge of your cover after you've cut out the board shape.

7. Working from the top of your cover and at the middle back-end, fold back a little end of the raw end of the extra wide double fold bias tape. Sew on at 1/4".

(Showing) 7. See?

8. Finish sewing on the bias tape just like you started. Do not overlap the pieces, but only meet them up together.

9. Fold the bias tape completely over to the back. Stitch in place.

10. Use a large safety pin to run your 1/4" elastic through your "casing". We cut approximantly 122" of elastic because this was the measurement around the under side of our ironing board.  We ended up cutting plenty of elastic off, but we want you to have plenty too. Put your smashingly adorable cover onto your board and pull and tug, working the gathers to fit around your board. After your elastic is just perfect, knot and knot your elastic ends. Cut off extra elastic. (And save the rest of another project!)

11. Grab your Scotch Gard and head outside! Follow the instructions on the bottle. (We gave ours plenty of spray-layers.)

(continued) 11. Cute dog not required. (But helpful.)

And your ironing board cover is finished!!!!!

Let us know what you think!  And happy ironing.

xoxo  Kristie & Abi (for all)

A Fabulous Friday.

Happy Friday, everyone!  We'll plan on being back Monday! xox

{Abigail's picks}

1. Lands' End Canvas!  I love their style.

2. Westward the Women.  One of my favorite movies of all-time.

3. How great are these pillows?!  Love 'em!

4. This is terrific!

{Apphia's picks}

1. Twirl by Kate Spade -- my new favorite scent

2. A fun idea for a fall skirt -- add a beaded brocade band at the hem!

3. pink peonies... I love them!

4. I love dainty gold jewelry like this pineapple pendant.

{Kristie's picks}

 
 

Fabulous not just on Friday, but everyday!!  My daughters...

1. Apphia Jade

2. Achaia Victoria

3. Abigail American

4. Abiah Hope Kingery

{Abiah's picks}

1. I really want to do this one day!!

2. I love long hair.

3.  What a pretty outfit...

4. This gold dipped bowl is so pretty.

{Achaia's picks}

1. What a perfect summer day looks like

2. These tennies are on my wish list

3.  I love these big fringe decorations!

4. Great embroidered top!

The cutest little zip pouches ever!

We were super thrilled to receive an email from one of our customers with this gorgeous photo attached.  Carrie had purchased some of the Sugar Hill and Delilah fabrics from our shop (now in the $6-a-yard section!) to create these fabulous little zipping pouches for a Mother Daughter Tea.  Have you ever seen anything so adorable?!  (To tell the truth, we were just a tiny bit jealous.  We all wanted one too.)  Check out more of Carrie's lovely work over here.  (We have our eyes on the oilcloth zipping totes!)

We hope you all have a blessed Sunday!

Lots of love from here, xoxo

Applique + Embroidery

Most of the time, when it comes to little girl clothes, we just can't help adding more to them.  We bought these cute denim jackets at Target for some girls we love with the direct intention of fancy-ing them up a bit.







We were actually sort of pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to do the appliqueing and hand embroidery on the denim.  The flower is an applique included in our own rosa lea dress pattern --- we just downsized it a bit via our printer/scanner.  Since the jackets are different sizes we opted to make the flowers different sizes too, since we didn't want Emerson's jacket dwarfed by an extra huge flower.  We chose to splash it up a bit by choosing colors (pink and lime green) instead of one specific fabric line.

Apphia wrote the names directly on the jackets with a water soluble quilt marking pen, and Achaia just did a simple back stitch with all 6 strands of floss (Lecien's Cosmo floss is some of our very favorite!).  Ta-da! 

We hope our girls love them!  They are on the studio counter ready to be Christmas wrapped along with some yummy Lip Smackers (and we just saw that Lip Smackers is celebrating their 40th anniversary {since 1973}... how fun is that??)

Happy Thursday! xox

Send Me The Pillow You Dream On.

I did it!  I finished my embroidered pillow AND I have pictures to share!  (Remember, I mentioned it in passing here?)

Back in February my fingers were literally itching to start on another handwork project.  And, it had to be more than just a simple towel.  As much as I like that (and think it's a good start), it just didn't have enough pow! anymore.  I needed something bigger.  I decided to embark on making a cover for a grand size pillow --- 24x24 --- (I love big pillows). 

I used some of my favorite velveteen (hah!  What do you know?  You can get it here.  Imagine that.), embroidering around and inside as many of the flowers as my heart desired.  I also tried to make it a point to try out several different stitches.  Lots of french knots found their way in there (they are some of my favorites), just simple running stitches, and satin stitch, plus a cute 'puffy' design that I found via Anna Maria Horner.  My Nan was so taken with it that she recommended I had to make some more of them, as it was just that cute.

It took me about 4 months to stitch it all, which isn't too bad, since I didn't do it non-stop, and I was determind to make sure that it didn't look skimpy.  In fact, Mom and the girls kept saying, "Aren't you done??", since I kept telling them I was almost done, and then changing my mind again. 

When Nan was down here in February, and we were shopping in Springfield for our Titanic dress fabrics, I found my pillowform + that orange fringe that I put around the edges.  It took me a long time to decide which color of fringe to choose, but I just kept going back to the orange.  I love the color of it, and the way it makes the orange tones in the velveteen pop out.  Then, I backed it in a fun stockings print that also boasted the orange with blues.

Before signing off, I have to show you two of my favorites!  These little guys turned out so cute (if I do say so myself)!  For the top one I just did a satin stitch on all the orange portions and used all 6 strands to make the french knots, so they really stand up.  The orange matched so perfectly that you can almost miss it!  For the bottom butterfly I just did blue running stitches on the wings, kind of curving it out, and trying to stay with the same shape as the wings themselves.  I hadn't really intended for it to look like that, but I love the finished product!

There!  A happy pillow + happy girl = success!

Oh, and by the way, anyone gets extra brownie points (you deserve some after hearing me chat on about stitching, right?) with me if they can tell me where the title of this post came from (no cheating)!

xox~ Achaia

 

PS... By the way, Folk Heart is 50% off through the 27th, so run and get some! xx

30-Minute Doll Clothes

We were so delighted when Nancy Ziemman invited us to join her 30-Minute Doll Clothes blog tour!!  She generously sent us a copy of her new book - 30-Minute Doll Clothes - and we had lots of fun pouring over all of her adorable designs.  We have admired Nancy's talent for many years, so we were excited to get started on our own interpretation of her "Speedy Sundress"... especially since Darison received a new American Girl doll for her birthday.  We loved getting to make them coordinating outfits!  The Speedy Sundress goes beautifully with our rosa lea dress.

Abigail is our biggest doll lover, so she had the honor of sewing up the sundress.  It couldn't have been simpler to whip up!  But it looks absolutely precious.  Achaia added hand embroidered blanket stitches around the tiny flower appliques on both dresses for an extra-special finish!  Seeing Darison's excitement over their matching dresses was the best thing of all.  We all LOVE 30-Minute Doll Clothes!!

Be sure to finish the blog tour with...

July 19    Ingrid Pinto  (freddiesfriendsblog.blogspot.com)

July 20    Page Hill  (rileyblakedesigns.com/blog)

July 21    Joan Hinds & Nancy Zieman  (nancyzieman.com/blog)

But of course, you really should start at the beginning!  We have been amazed at the lovely creations these gals have come up with!  Also be sure to enter the 30-Minute Doll Clothes giveaway.  Prizes include...

• $25 Nancy’s Notions Gift Certificate from Nancy’s Notions
• 30-Minute Doll Clothes book by Nancy Zieman with Joan Hinds from Nancy’s Notions
• Dress Up Days Fat Quarter Fabric Pack and Panel from Riley Blake Designs
• Dress Up Days Fat Quarter Fabric Pack from Riley Blake Designs

Run over here to sign up.

Enjoy!

a handmade Christmas

These days, with Christmas only days away, there are so many things we all want to do for each other... buy for someone, bake for someone, sew for someone.  As can be guessed, sewing has always played a big part in our Christmas gift giving.  We have fond memories of the matching flannel pajama + quilts sets lovingly made by Mom, blankets (for us and baby dolls), outfits (always).  For some reason the pj, quilt sets are extra well-remembered.  They made such an impression --- everyone had their own special floral flannel.  They all went together, yet none of them matched.  And, Mom remembers sweetly the life-size (well, it was life-size then) doll with blonde yarn hair and the cozy alligator sleeping bags (seen above - Mom's on the left, Aunt Karrie on the right), complete with white ric rac teeth, felt eyes, and lined in red perfect-for-the-inside-of-an-alligator's-mouth flannel.

Sadly, we can't make as many handmade Christmas gifts as we'd like, but stitching up love for someone else is still close to our hearts.  We love to see others make something special for someone that's special to them.  There's nothing like it. 

So, we wanted to come up with a few ideas to give all of you.  Ways to make some of our how-tos stretch even farther--- right into Christmas.

1. Braid a rug (Round, long, small, large.  Anyway--- they're pretty.)

2. Make a messenger bag (They can be perfectly "specialized" with different fabrics.)

3. Bake cinnamon rolls (These look so cute in round foil pans with ribbon wrapped around them.)

4. Make a set of coasters (C'mon.  Everybody loves pretty coasters.)

5. Sew up a Christmas-y skirt (Pretty perfection.)

6. You could always do some handstitching to brighten up a shirt. (It would even look good matching the Christmas skirt!)

7. Give a batch of yummy hot chocolate mix (So good and simple as pie!)

8. Make pillowcases (Everybody uses them, right?)

9. Try extra-fun pillowcases (If plain ones don't suit your fancy.)

10. Stitch up a pretty fabric flower (They look lovely in groups of three too!)

Of course, if none of these seem quite right, we'll forever recommend an alligator sleeping bag.  We can all say that, since every single one of us has slept in one at some time.  There's nothing like them. 

Happy sewing and lots of love from our cozy home~

xoxo us

hat check.

My pillbox hat.  As I mentioned earlier, yes, I did make it.  It was a lot of fun to put together, and not too complicated or time consuming.  Some of you asked for recommendations on making your own.  Sadly, I didn't take any during-the-process-pictures, so you all will just have to be satisfied with some very rough and sketchy ideas!

When I hatched the idea of making my own hat, I fumbled around on what style.  However, since I'm no milliner, a simple style was very crucial.  When Paps and Nanny were down here visiting, I got this sudden urge to make my hat.  I must have been thinking of Jackie O or something... the pillbox style was calling my name.  So, with lots of help from Nanny, and (naturally) some input from Mom, Apphia, Abigail, and Abiah I started cutting, stitching, hand sewing, & glueing.

I chose an Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush velveteen from my stash for the main part of the hat, and a coordinating quilting cotton for lining.  I love both little & big prints alike, but I just liked the idea of this larger scale piece, with the main design purposely centered on the crown.  Also, I thought it seemed nice that I could possibly mix and match it with even more of my outfits!

I measured roughly around my head, making sure not to measure too far down, as I wanted my pillbox to stay propped more up on my head.  I took some heavy duty craft interfacing and cut a piece the measurement of my head.  I also messed around a little with it, sticking it on my head, and testing how tall I wanted my hat to be.  I whipped the craft interfacing ends together, so I ended up with a circle -- the "sides" of the hat.  I made the crown out of the same craft interfacing, and whipped it to the circular band.  Now I had the bare bones of my hat.  I took a strip of cotton batting and glued it to the sides of the hat, as I wanted a little poof.  I did the same with the crown --- In fact, I did that three times, graduating the sizes a little bit (from smaller to larger), so I'd get the desired look.

After that I cut my piece of velveteen into a circle, and did a long machine stitch around the edge.  Wrapping it neatly around the hat, I pulled up the gathering stitches (with a little help!), pinned them in place, and stitched around it by hand.  This is one of those extra things I'm so glad I did.  I love the result of the slight gathers around my pillbox!  To make the lining I simply cut a little-bit-bigger-circle and band, then pressed the raw edges in.  I chose to just glue the lining in, and I'm quite happy with that.  Though, technically I could have used a little more glue.  But, since it's inside the hat I'm not losing any sleep over it!

Viola!  My first millinery experience.  I loved it, and hope to continue to venture out more in the future.  I have this idea swirling in my head for another hat.  It's a bit over-the-top maybe, but it's sooo cute!! We'll see...

Hope this was helpful to any of you aspiring hat makers!  By the way, if you give it a try I'd would LOVE to see the finished product!

xxx Achaia

PS  By the way... Nanny informed me I really needed a hat pin, so I found mine via Etsy.  They have a gazillion to choose from!

one colorful month

September has been a very interesting-good-full month.  It seems like every day we've had about 47 things to do. 

(-Note- Using the specific number 47.  It's an unspoken Mom rule to always use the number 47 when talking about several things.  And, if you happen to be talking about an extra lot of things, you just jump to 1000.  Just a little explanation.... we love our Mom!)

This month was filled with a two week vacation, Mom's birthday, the birthday bash (we just recooperated from that one), the pouring in of so many lovely quilt tops for Joplin (update soon, hopefully!), and the launch of two new patterns, along with some other exciting, lots of work, pattern happenings.  Hopefully we'll get our act together and share all of that soon!  We aren't even going to mention all the regular day-to-day things that have kept us busy.  Including a scenario that strangely resembles my thumb incident from earlier this summer.  Abigail insists I can't have all the fun by myself.  She's a good sister.  

We can hardly believe September is over, and we're looking forward to seeing what The Lord has in store for us in October!

And, you are probably wondering about these pictures.  Well, it's my first official completed embroidery project.  I started on inexpensive flour sack dishtowels (that way I wasn't making a complete mess of something really nice).  Now I'm ready to move on to something even more exciting--- clothes!

We're off to celebrate the end of the month with pizza and movies!

xxx the Long ladies