marie-madeline studio

Come see Abigail (& us) in Rogers, Arkansas! (And get your copy of Modern Prairie Sewing signed!!)

 

HI!!!!

So sorry for the silence around here.  Apphia and I just got back from a wonderful week vacation in Austin, Texas visiting friends and family.  You can see some of the fun stuff we did on our Instagram.... the trip went by so fast!

This Saturday (from 10:00am to 2:00pm) Abigail will be in Rogers, Arkansas at The Rabbit's Lair selling, signing, and showing off Modern Prairie Sewing!!!  Us other three girls plan on tagging along and modeling some made goodies.  So come see us!

As you can see, Abi's been sewing up a storm....

Hope you can join us!

xox Achaia

Scenes of Summer.

So sorry for the silence around here these past months.  Our summer has come and is going so quickly.  We ended up with lots of memories that we want to hold onto forever.

In July we got to take our annual Indiana trip, which happened to be some of the best two weeks ever.  We were refreshed and encouraged, while we relaxed, visited lots of friends and family, went flea marketing, put up about 13 dozen ears of corn, got our hair cut, went shopping, sang, laughed, and drank quite a few Mountain Dew icies.  We were also so happy to have our brother Joe there for a few of the days!

And speaking of Joe, a few weeks ago we had the opportunity to spend a hot (humid) Saturday with him.  We watched him work (amazing - especially in that hot forge!), and fed almost the entire school with homemade pizzas.  We've spent lots of fun weekends with him, and can't believe school is almost out!  Joe's been able to meet some awesome people, and we are so thankful that we're able to call them our friends now too.

Oh, and we girls have also taken advantage of matching a couple times.  Which is funny, considering that Mom would match us ALL the time when we were little (and we didn't always like it).  Now, we have actually done it on purpose a couple of times, including a 'maxi dress' Sunday.

Some of the most exciting news this summer was the launch of Abigail's book, Modern Prairie Sewing!  It's been amazing watching her promote it and exciting to read the good reviews from happy seamstresses! 

We feel so blessed to have gotten to meet some wonderful people over this summer that have become fast friends.  We've loved getting to do things with them including a shopping day, movie + snack fest + kayak adventure, and photo shoot fun. 

We do have good news for you.... our birthday bash starts Monday!!!  We will plan on sending out newsletters so if you haven't signed up, you might want to so you can keep up to date.  Lots of inventory-ing going on around here.

Not much else has been going on, except lots of reading and watching Perry Mason before bed.  Hope your summer has been as good. xoxo

PS.... Have you spotted that badge on the top in the sidebar??  Coming soon!!

Celebrating a Life: our Grandma

97 years 11 months 23 days old.

Our Great-Grandma Conwell passed away yesterday morning.  It was a long several years, her mind leaving us, her heart staying strong.  We're thankful for the opportunity to have known her for so long, and to remember how much she loved us.  The sweet letters she sent us when we moved away, and for letting us use her middle name for our business (Madeline).   

We have to credit Grandma for the many ways we love to do stitching and sewing and crafting.  She did those kinds of things for so many years, until she couldn't hardly see, even going to the lengths of crocheting throw rugs with plastic grocery sacks.

We love you, Grandma.

Much love from your kids,

Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah

PS  We plan on traveling to Indiana for Grandma's funeral so things will be quiet and orders won't be processed until we get home. 
xo

A blurry week.

We're back from our vacation! We had a fabulous time and are so thankful that we were finally able to make it down to our Texas. Time spent with family and friends just seems to get more and more special. The time went by in a blur. So here are some pictures that prove just that. A blur.

 

And she was waiting for us.

And we admit it. We did a horrible job capturing our adventures and fun with our cameras. However, for those of you who follow us on Insagram, know that we tried to keep you lovely folks updated! We all had a super, grand time, but are glad to be back and getting things that need to be done checked off our ever-growing to-do lists! Thanks for letting us be silent here for just a little bit!

We'll try to be back tomorrow! (But no promises...)

love, Us

TEXAS.

We are planning to head off to Texas this week!!  We're so excited, since we have been trying to go see family and friends there since April.  Yes, it's been a craaaazzzy year.  Sigh. 

We had been thinking of when we could squeeze in this trip, and Mom & Dad decided yesterday that Sunday was THE day.  So, we've spent the day running around like nuts, throwing things into bags (along with hilariously trying on outfits.  That's always been a comedy show in our family....), and cooking.  And now someone (aka Abs) is sewing up a skirt for her to take.  Out of this new fabric line of course....

DOWRY!!

As you can imagine, we won't be sending out orders this week, but please feel free to shop away and we'll plan on shipping as soon as we get home.

Oh, and be sure and keep an eye on our Instagram feed!  You know we'll be posting there.

xoxoAchaia, etc.

Our Booth!!

We are so happy to be able to share pictures of the booth we had at International Quilt Market last weekend!  Of course, Abiah was so sweet and shared some pictures with you all last week too.

Our past two booths (here and here) both had the white beadboard walls, but this time we decided to go with curtains.  We hemmed drop cloths (that was fun) for our curtains, and went with a more poppy color-theme than our two previous booths.

We just can't thank FreeSpirit Fabrics and the ever-lovely Jennifer for sending us yardage of Jennifer's brand new Lucky Girl collection for our booth samples!!  We had the best time sewing with them (the colors are just perfect!).  And, since we received our bolts just a few days later the three of us that attended were able to have outfits to match too! 

We also used some of Jennifer's Circa fabrics, as they mix perfectly with Lucky Girl.

We were delighted to introduce our brand new patterns, angelica and charlotta, at Quilt Market!

Our trips to Indiana always require some booth talk (our brothers get so bored, just ask them).  So, naturally, last time was no exception.  After seeing the awesome ladder our Nan and Aunt Ginger hung from our aunt's beauty shop ceiling, we knew it was the thing for our booth.  We bought one while we were up in IN, and Paps and Nan brought it down when they came (aren't they the best??).  We purchased burlap and lace, and intwined it across the top of our curtains and through the ladder.  We loved it.  Of course the ladder needed to be sawed some, which reguired a bit more work, but definitely was worth the effort. 

Apphia made some darling ever-popular posies to display on a three-tiered cake stand near the front of the booth.  And of course, we can't sign off without thanking our bestest friend, Jenny, for bringing us some GORGEOUS flowers to put in three blue Ball jars.  We loved them!

We have loads of pictures on our Instagram page, so go there to see what we did every.single.day!  It's always so much fun to get to chat with old friends, and make new ones too!  (Just ask Lindsay... we stood in her book line three different times so everyone could get a signed copy...)

It goes without saying we girls had a marvelous time with Nanny and Paps, and we can never thank them enough for all they do for us!  We love you two!!!

But, of course, we did leave part of our hearts at home with Mom and Abiah.  We just can't wait for the next time we can all attend Quilt Market together!!!

xoxoxoApphia, Achaia, & Abigail

PS... We did buy some fabric too!  We can't wait to show you!

Two weeks that went by way too fast.

Our time in Indiana was the best!  So much the best that we were sad to come home.  But, work and other duties called, so we couldn't say no. 

Everyone up there is so special, and we can't say thank you enough for all that they did to make our time wonderful.  But we especially have to scream hugs, kisses, and thank yous to our most wonderful Paps and Nanny who put up with us sleeping in their upstairs, sharing their one bathroom with us, letting us leave our things strewn around their house, keeping them up late playing games, watching movies, or having a family jam session, and taking us around wherever they went.  Everything is extra wonderful because of you two.  Thanks to them we have a second home.

We hope you enjoy the sneak peek into our past two weeks.

All our love~ Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, & Abiah xoxoxox

First Beauty Shop Experience!

Here we are, having fun in Indiana, and on top of that, I got to get my haircut at a beauty shop for the first time in my life!  Since the day I first needed a haircut Mom has always done it for me, at home.  In the bathroom.  Outside.  And, yes, over the trash can too.  It's been the same for the other girls too.  So imagine our excitement when we first came up with a plan to visit our great Aunt Ginger's real beauty shop!

Getting excited to do new things with hair must run in the family.  After two great aunts + one mom that went to beauty school + one grandmother that can do just about anything with hair must have ruined us.

 

What made it extra fun was that our Nanny and Aunt Ginger had just re-done the beauty shop --- let's just say it's gorgeous. (We wish we would have gotten more pictures....)  Complete with a darling round table for goodies.  And, of course, before Aunt Gin started cutting we had to eat some yummies and chat.  (Plus see all the neat things they'd been doing to the rest of the house!)

Mom was the shampooer.... we were so excited to get to have our hair shampooed in a real shampoo bowl!  See, we are easily amused. 

Apphia got some bangs and a trim, I got some layers (especially on the front), Abigail got some slight layering at the bottom, and Abiah got a trim.

While we were getting our hair done we chatted about this and that, sipped Coke, and asked Aunt Ginger some hair questions.  You all know how I feel about a proper hair poof, right?  Well, I just had to ask Aunt Gin if she had any techniques for getting a really good one.  Oh yes, she said... in fact, she could guarantee that she could make my hair poof.  Above are the results.  I was just thrilled!  Imagine a real poof!  Aunt Ginger told us that in the early 70s when she would go see our Paps and his band perform she would wear her hair poofed high with a big bow right in front of the poof (the bow matched her dress, naturally)... how cute is that? 

Our first beauty shop experience was just perfect.  We hope we can do it again next time!  Thanks, Aunt Ginger, for everything!

xoxo Achaia  aka the poof girl

Summer Wear

Abiah~ {dress - Boden-birthday gift} {vintage boots - Etsy} {green satchel - TJMaxx} {sparkle bracelet - CrewCuts} {sunglasses - Walgreens} {friendship bracelets - handmade with friends}

Abigail ~ {racer-back jumper - made by me} {pink tee - American Eagle} {flip flops - Old Navy} {straw bag - Target} {sunglasses - Dooley's in Fredericksburg, TX} {camera - Christmas gift}

Achaia~ {Odille skirt - eBay} {melon tee - TJMaxx} {embroidered shoes - Anthropologie-sale} {bicycle tote - Anthropologie-sale}

We realized it had been so long since we last had some fun laying out outfits that we liked!  Since Mom and Apphia were out this morning running errands we took the time to do it. It's always fun to come up with new outfit ideas.  They might just come in handy for our upcoming trip!

So, out of the three cast your vote... which one best suits your taste?  Which one would YOU wear first? (No hurt feelings over here, promise.)

xoxo Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah

Long Weekend Getaway

This past week we had the opportunity to make a trip down to Texas, spend a long weekend with our best friends and attend the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival for a day!!  It was somewhat spur of the moment (we decided to go last Sunday, ran errands Monday, packed Tuesday, and left Wednesday).  If you follow our Instagram you probably got to see some pictures from our trip!

The day spent at the Festival was wonderful (it was our first time attending).  Some of our friends came with us so in between watching movies and listening to some wonderful speakers we ate at Casa Rio on the Riverwalk (first picture above) and were serenaded by a mariachi band.

The rest of our long weekend was filled with late nights (we stayed up til after 1 o'clock every night except one), playing games --- which was too hilarious, watching a couple of movies, worshipping together on Sunday, singing, visiting a couple of antique shops, and cooking together.  We talked and laughed the entire time, and are so grateful to our best friends for putting up with us!! 

We got home last night to a cold Missouri and a few snowflakes.  Now it's back to work.  So, how have you been??

xoxo! Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah