marie-madeline studio

Quilt Market via Instagram!

Hitting the long road to Houston (packed into the back seat of Paps's truck)...

Crossing the Red River (hours later)...

Eating Texas-shaped waffles in Huntsville on Thursday morning before going downtown to the convention center...

The first glimpse of our booth, 1305!

Getting started (we miss Nan and Paps already!)...

Meeting up with our sweet friend Kay on the second day of set-up!

Pressing, pressing, pressing...

Sisters at Schoolhouse (we really REALLY missed our Abiah)...

We got to help out our Jennifer at her Schoolhouse!  And we love her to pieces!!

Our lunch (split two ways) and the view from our hotel (at the top floor)...

Apphia and Achaia at the Riley Blake Schoolhouse, looking very professional...

On our 7-block trudge to the convention center...

Here we are at last!

Before the floor opened (Paps, we love and miss you so much!)...

What we spent a lot of time doing with Jenny (!!!)...

The marie-madeline booth!

With beautiful Heather Bailey!  And Tasha Noel, the sweet lady responsible for a lot of the gorgeous fabrics in our booth!  We didn't get a picture with our Pam, but her fabrics were splashed all over the booth, too.  We can't wait to get our bolts of Pam Kitty Love!

Westminster Fibers had a really neat new booth layout...

With our favorite friend Jenny, at Guadalajara!!!  Love her so much!

Abs wearing her fabulous new dress, thanks to Carla and Jennifer.  Jennifer, we miss you and your hugs already!

We were given the booth award for merchandising!!!  Out of over 1000 booths, they chose ours! We about fell over when the comitee came by to give it to us...

We couldn't be more grateful for such a wonderful market trip!  The Lord continues to bless our little company beyond what we ever dreamed.  We're so thankful for all of the talented and generous people He has placed in our lives!  They have blessed us, encouraged us, laughed with us... and we're grateful for each and every one.

xo.

Apphia, Achaia, and Abigail

P.S. But we missed Mom and Abiah like crazy.  It just doesn't do to leave part of us at home, you know?

a Tuesday Report brought to you by Achaia

Samples garments made = check.  Brochures = check.  All the extra booth necessities = check.  Trailer loaded = check.  Nanny and Paps here = check.  Bags packed = almost.  Time to leave for Houston = tomorrow.

It seems that we have been sewing non-stop for the past week on all of the goodies for our Market booth.  This time around we decided to hold off on our sample sewing until the week before (we know, we know... not the best idea...) so that we could use some of the great new fabrics we wanted to include: namely, Pam Kitty Love, due out in December, designed by our wonderful, cute friend, Pam.  As you can see above, we used everything she sent us, practically down to the last scrap!  I suppose we could say 'all's well that ends well', since we sewed up the last little happy girl apron this afternoon, and everything's done and loaded!!  Yay!!!

Sadly, we have to leave our other/better half here at home: Kristie/Mom and Abiah.  We're going to be so sad without them!  Abiah has kindly loaned us her camera, so we're obligated to take some good pictures for them.  The other night at the table someone came up with the idea of carrying around a recorder so we could make sure they would stay up to date in the end and we wouldn't forget any important happenings.  I think we decided against that --- no promises though!  So, Bug will be handling the blog while we're gone.... she's so cute, she's just bound to do a good job.

Oh, and did I mention that in the past week we had the birthday party for this little hooligan + a graduation party for the other little hooligan, Abiah Hope Kingery???  Oh, yes, we squeezed those in too.  Saturday night and Sunday night, respectively.  Along with deciding to enlarge the storage space under my bed today, naturally, with 5 1/4" stands.  So, a little cleaning under the bed happened too (how does it get so dusty under a bed??  I guess I'll save that for another day.).  Did I mention that I'm a little tired?  Yes, I think I'll sleep all some on the way to Houston. 

Off we go!  We would greatly appreciate prayers as we travel, and that Market will be a big success!  We'll plan on reporting back when we get home.  Sorry to say we won't be taping it....

Hugs and kisses! 

Achaia ~for all

Oh, oh, oh, I just have to give a shout out to some new fabrics that I put up recently!!  They're just that great, and it wouldn't be fair for me to keep them all to myself ourselves.  So, what are you waiting for??  Go see Garden Party, Happy Land, Hua Hua Lu Lu, and The Simple Life!!!  They're all cute! xxx

Our vacation in pictures!

Abiah in the evening.

 

Celebrating our wonderful grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary! 

Our beautiful Paps and Nanny... what an inspiration you are to us all!

Adorable cousin!

A fun shopping day with our great friends.

Funny cousins.

A day at the zoo. (Which we happened to do the day that Indy broke a heat record set in 1937!)

You know that your vacation was absolutely fabulous when you were there for two whole weeks, and it seemed about 3 days long.  These pictures really just touch the tip of the iceberg... everyday was full and busy, so we didn't have much time for picture taking!!

xoxo! the Long ladies

Hugs & Kisses

We're popping in from our vacation right now to say 'hey'!  As might be expected, we're having a grand vacation, and are sorry to see the time slipping away so fast.  We've gone shopping with great friends, singing, hosting an anniversary party, gone flea marketing, played with cousins, played family games, watched old TV shows, more shopping, and today we went to the zoo.  The rest of our days here aren't empty either.  There's still plenty more to do!  So, we'll plan on filling in all the details for you once we get home.  By the way, we caved in now and are on Instagram under thelongladies if you want to follow!  We've been too busy having fun to post many pictures, but hope to have some up more frequently soon.

Oh, and that ADORABLE picture above??  Well, we decided to raid Nan's pictures since we didn't have any on hand.  And, naturally, this cutie was a favorite, so we had to use it.  That's Nan's parents - Grandpa and Grandma Conwell.  It was probably taken in the mid-to-late thirties.  Isn't it darling?!  We love our family!!

Hope you all had a great Independence Day!

More later.  Hugs & kisses --- xoxox Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, & Abiah

fabrics.sale.quilts.show.exclamation points.

FABRICS:: First off, we have some great new fabrics --- Antique Flower in Pastel (above made up in a rosa lea), a pretty-sweet new line from Lecien and a few pieces of SuperFly, Jennifer Paganelli's newest line that coordinates so happily with the popular Crazy Love!

SALE:: This week all of Tanya Whelan's fabrics are 30% off through June 22nd!  That includes Delilah, Sugar Hill, Sugar Hill flannel, and Barefoot Roses.... happy shopping!

QUILTS:: The Joplin quilt project page has been updated, so go check it out.  There's exciting news there, and thanks once again to everyone who had a hand in it!

SHOW:: Next weekend a couple of us will be at the Wichita Quilt Show taking care of our booth where we'll have patterns for sale -- and Lord willing that will include our brand new rosa lea dress and improved little chic sisters apron!!  So, if you're in the area and want some patterns, or just want to come and chat, please do.  We'd love to see you!

EXCLAMATION POINTS:: We noticed we may have overused exclamation points in this post (or do you ever over-use them??).  We could possibly be doing that because its Friday and we're having pizza!

Happy weekend to all of you! xox Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, & Abiah

The scoop on Quilt Market!

First off, here it is -- Kansas City in all it's glory, from our hotel window.  Nan and Paps drove down from Indiana just for Market!  We couldn't have done it without them.  Nan designed and Paps constructed our lovely booth walls (white bead board) and also masterminded the packing of our stuff into our Suburban and their mini van.  When we made it the convention center on Wednesday, this is what we saw (minus the flooring)...

And in just a few short minutes, it looked like THIS...

But we worked really hard, and pretty soon it was looking more like this...

We were blessed to have our booth surrounded by the nicest people ever.  Ever!  Especially Pam and her daughter Frankie.  They are SO cute and sweet and gobs of fun -- it was nice to get to visit with them during the weekend.  And ours booths looked like they were made to go together.

See what we mean?  We can't wait to get Pam Kitty Love in the store.

Here we are with Nan and Paps!  (Abs must've taken this one.)

The sweet girls at Violette Field Threads!  We talked about patterns and blogging and transforming thrift-store coffee tables into ottomans.

Julie and Connee from Bits n' Pieces, our neighbors across the aisle.  They kept us in stitches (pun intended) and let us borrow their stapler (which was the only thing we forgot to pack).  We shared giggles and Cracker Jacks.

The sweet folks at Shabby Fabrics, who tried to talk us into having a booth in Houston this fall (it didn't take much to convince us)...

And a group shot with Pam and Frankie over at Lakehouse!

Finally, some more shots of the marie-madeline studio booth.  It's still hard for us to believe that we actually did it!!!  Check out the sneak peek of our upcoming pattern.  (Formal introduction coming soon!)

And of course, here are the obligatory Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner photos!  We're so excited to receive bolts of Amy's Cameo and Anna Maria's Field Study (coming in July and August respectively).

So there you have it all in a nutshell!  We were blessed with an all-around awesome trip.  Thanks for all your prayers -- Quilt Market was a huge success.

xoxo, the Long ladies

PS. We can't wail till you see all the lovely fabrics we have coming in later this year.  Some fabulous solid pique, gorgeous (and fun) new goodies from Lecien, stunning stuff from Liberty Art London...!

Titanic 100

The Titanic 100 was a perfectly wonderful experience in every way!  We still haven't stopped talking about it yet.  We gathered with a little under 600 people in Branson, Missouri, to remember and honor the heroism displayed on Titanic's decks as she went down.

There were lots of wonderful events that we were so happy to be a part of including a special trip to the amazing Titanic Museum, visiting with many reenactors, wonderful lectures by some of our favorite speakers, a screening of A Night to Remember (which you really need to see!), a special children's play  commemorating 'women and children first', music by Charlie Zahm, the San Antonio Darlings, Paddy Walsh and the Boilermakers & the boys from Third Class, and many more!

The wonderful event culminated in a fabulous White Star dinner on the Branson Belle showboat as we cruised around Tablerock Lake, at the exact moment Titanic struck the iceberg that sent her down.  Most of us in early 1900s-inspired clothing, naturally.  We girls were so happy to have the opportunity to make our dresses for the occasion, and pull out some of our vintage rhinestone jewelry.  And, Mom got to wear her paternal grandmother's haircomb and maternal grandmother's rhinestone pin.  Dressing for the occasion was just icing on the cake!

As we said earlier, the whole experience was beyond wonderful, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to have joined in.  It was definitely a few days to remember always!

Hope you enjoyed a peek at it! Hugs-- xoUs

our spring break!

Our spring break a couple weeks ago can surely be labeled as "refreshing".  Although we absolutely LOVE what we do (and, naturally, there's always so much to do), it's always great to get to step away from everything and just laugh, chat, see family and friends, eat yummy food, stare at beautiful wildflowers (evidence: above), snap pictures, shop, play Mexican Train Dominos, watch a movie with friends, relax, stay up late, eat donuts and coke for "brunch", and swim in the hotel pool. (Which we did precisely twice, because once was just not enough.)

Oh, and we got to make pizza with this little sweetheart! A very happy break indeed.

hugs! xo US

P.S.~ Oh, oh, oh!  We almost forgot to mention here on the blog that you'll find all marie-madeline studio fabrics 20% off through April 6th.... happy sewing! xox

the Market post.

Downtown Houston.

Market is one of those great, inspiring, tiring, fun, full, long weekends!  There are so many things to see, people to chat with, fabric to touch, and aisles to walk.  Since all of us couldn't go (boo hoo), as Abs mentioned, Apphia & I struck out with Paps, Nanny, and our wonderful friend Robbi to Houston and International Quilt Market.

 

Rachel Ashwell's Schoolhouse, where she showed some lovely inspirational photos and her new linen fabric.  We already have some of her cotton fabrics, Shabby Chic Treasures, and enjoyed getting to meet her, and get signed copies of her new book!

The lovely Anna Maria Horner's Schoolhouse, where she showed all of her new goodies, including Loulouthi Velveteens!  We have 3 bolts of them expected at our studio in December and we are so excited!  The velveteen is such a fabulous substrate, and we're looking forward to talking more about it once it arrives (woo hoo!).

Lecien's Schoolhouse is always informative, where each designer discusses their new fabric lines.  Here's a quilt made up in some of the sugary-sweet Folk Heart fabrics, by Rosalie Quinlan, coming to marie-madeline! 

We adore Pillow & Maxfield, and were so happy to get our picture taken with Val!  We're standing in their booth, where they were highlighting their up-and-coming Ooh la la fabric collection, coming to marie-madeline in January 2012.

Amy Butler's newest line, Lark.  It has some really fabulous colors in it, and we're looking forward to stocking some in December! 

Anna Maria Horner's booth (my personal favorite!), featuring a velveteen couch!  How fabulous is that?? 

Michael Miller fabrics always does such a cute job with their booths, and this year was no exception.  What a great car!  Oh, and they had flavored water which was so yummy.  We sipped on it while we ordered fabric.

Dear Stella!  We are so excited about this new fabric company.  So many wonderful prints... we could hardly choose which ones we wanted. 

Calypso was probably one of our very favorite buys from this market.  Take a look at all of those bright, vibrant colors!  It's due here in January, and we can hardly wait!  We orginally just bought a bundle mid-morning, thinking we'd take it back to the hotel room that night, open it all out, and see if we wanted it.  What's the use.... we went back and bought it that afternoon.

Market wouldn't have been complete without supper with Jenny!  We laughed and talked over yummy Mexican food (and we sat in one of those wonderful round booths!).  A great time!

Oh, and we loved the food so much-- and it was conveniently only two blocks away from our hotel--- we ate it again the next night with Robbi.  And we can't forget getting to meet Melissa P in person!  We loved getting to chat with her... she's so sweet!

There were so many pictures that there was no way I could post them all.  SO!  Hopefully I'll put together a group of photos on our facebook page....

xxx Achaia -for all

PS... Did anyone else go to Market??

She sure is a honey.

Is this great or what??!  We hinted at our recent photo shoot a while ago, and now we're happy to share it with you all.  Meet this beautiful 1959 convertible!  When Paps told us that one of his (therefore, our) good friends owned this lovely, we KNEW a photo-taking-extravaganza was in order.  It was bought brand spankin' new in '59, and the color is original (it was called 'geranium').  Isn't it beautiful?  All of us are complete vintage-car nuts -- and convertibles make the problem even worse.  Are we the only ones?  We must come by it honestly... our Paps is a whiz at spotting and naming off any (and we mean ANY) car name, model, colors it came in, and the year it came out.  Reminds us of hearing about when Mom was a girl-- Paps would re-do cars and sometimes Nan would come over and do some neat-o pinstriping on the side.  Now that's talent!

Enjoy!  xx the Long ladies