the Modern Prairie Girl – PDF patterns!!!!

Howdy everyone!

I just wanted to stop by here at the marie-madeline blog and share with you that I’ve designed and am now selling 2 new PDF patterns!! I’m so excited with how they’ve turned out and I’d love to hear what you all think about them too!

The above pattern, Sophie Bags Crossbody & Clutch, is one of my favorite bag patterns. The crossbody is sturdy and perfect for long days, while still boasting of something pretty like the gathered eye-catching panel on the front of the bag. The clutch is one of my go-to bags. Not just because it is pretty, but because carrying it feels pretty!

Here are so more pictures of the Sophie bags!

The Reflections Quilt pattern is a quick and fun make for anyone that loves quilting (or at least wants to give it a try!). The pattern includes three sizes: twin, full/queen & king. So everyone can have one.

Read more and see more about my patterns over at my blog, the Modern Prairie Girl.

Reflections Quilt

Sophie Bags Crossbody & Clutch

Check out my Etsy shop, the Modern Prairie Girl!!!!

Thanks for letting me stop by and chat a spell. It’s been fun!

happy sewing, Abi

Achaia’s Etsy shop!

I’m SO excited to announce the opening of my very own Etsy Shop!!

In my shop you’ll find pillow covers hand written and hand embroidered by me! They also feature a variety of pretty backing fabrics, full lining, sturdy zippers on the bottom of the covers for easy taking on and off, and handmade tassels on the zipper pulls.

I had a lot of fun choosing sayings for each pillow, stitching on them, and putting them together. I hope you’ll find something you’ll love that puts a smile on your face, and a little extra beauty on your bed or couch!

xxx Achaia

PS The listings do not include pillow forms, but if you would like to have one of those included as well, be sure to send me a convo for pricing and a custom listing!

Needlework Thursday

Today I've been thinking about all the marvelous things you can do with a needle. Just seeing a Pinterest picture or a photo on someone's blog of something beautiful that's stitched makes me giddy.

The most recent hand project I've started on is this beauty above. Talk about LOTS and LOTS of cross stitching. I know. I bought the PDF pattern on Etsy a few months ago, and just a couple weeks ago decided I was ready to plunge in. It will be soooo exciting to see it completed!

Below I'm going to share with you some beautiful handstitched works. Some of the forms are different (crewel, most just embroidery). Enjoy the eye candy!

xx Achaia

Crewel Embroidery. I absolutely LOVE this.

I love Anna Michelle's work, and this ballerina is no exception.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head….. Simple, but packs lots of punch in all the colors, don't you think?

I bought this PDF pattern already, and am looking forward to making it. How can you resist a cute tiger??

I LOOOOVVVVE Rita Hayworth's blouse in this photo!!! All the attention to detail + the styling = magnificent. It doesn't even seem to bother me that the photo's in black and white so I can't see color. I can just imgaine…..

Anna Maria Horner put this little birdie on a sash for her daughter a few years ago. Cutest thing.

Love this piece.

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 Fabulous Friday.

Happy Friday, everyone! Since Nan left on Wednesday we are going to spend the day thinking of all the things we love (we miss her so). xx

PS All Lakehouse fabrics are 20% off through the end of the month… enjoy!

{Kristie's picks}

1. KL linen

2. I love this CD

3. my fleece lined slippers

4. Cheerios!

{Apphia's picks}

1. giant flowers make me happy

2. Yes, please

3. I'd love this Anthro jacket for chilly end-of-winter and early spring days

4. my new favorite blush (and it's on clearance!)

{Abigail's picks}

1. the perfect graphic tee!

2. my new favorite skirt! I think I'll wear it all summer long!

3. I simply adore my grandpa, Paps! I love and miss you and Nan!!

4. Snowcones! I'm ready for summer!

{Abiah's picks}

1. Bangs… I love mine! Thanks, Nan!

2. Boden is so cute! Love their florals!

3. I like this quote

4. Converse tennies… these are so cute!

{Achaia's picks}

1. I love the vintage costume designs on the wall

2. Lately I have been inspired by everything that involves handwork!

3. this is the best chocolate.EVER

4. my best flea market find ever… a framed Rocky poster!

pillow perfect.

Here I am to jabber about the pillow that I showed some snippets of in December. You see, it just wouldn't have been fair to talk TOO much about it, since it was Ashley's Christmas present, and no one wants a spoiled present, do they??

Mom spotted the Anchor wool needlepoint (some times it's also called 'tapestry') kit on eBay awhile back, and I knew it was just the thing for Ash's present. It took me a few months to do, since I had to set it down sometimes to stitch for our Market booth. This was the second needlepoint I've completed, but I'd never finished one completely — blocking and making it into something.

I just had in my mind that I wanted to back the pillow with velveteen. The mix of textures seemed perfect. Apphia had some leftover burgandy velveteen from a sewing project, so she was sweet enough to give it to me. I sewed a zipper into the back as well, to make dry cleaning the case (if necessary) more easily possible.

It was SO much fun to stitch. Now I've already taken my first needlepoint and made it into a pillowcase. I just need to purchase a form, and I'm set! Stitching always seems like a good thing to do on a pillow, doesn't it? (Remember this one?) Let's just say, that I think I'll always be pillow-rich.

Happy Monday to all of you! xoxAchaia

PS Ash loved the pillow and said it was her in a pillow! Yay!

snow.stitch.snow.stitch.snow.stitch.snow

Brr! It's cold outside. We received our first snow of the year Thursday, more Friday, and more yesterday. So, you might say we're snowed in. Abiah and I went out Saturday for a little fresh (chilly) air, and I did get talked into sledding (which dressed for I was not) on a plastic trash can lid shaped thingy. Now I have proof of it — big bruises on my shins. Ahh.

So, while being stuck inside we've watched quite a few movies and listened to loads of music, especially Christmas-y ones, decorated our tree, and I've been stitching, stitching, stitching by the fire.

Keep Warm! xoxo Achaia

Expensive Inspiration: French Knot Sweater

Mine.

Theirs.

I admired J.Crew's beautiful French Knot Sweater as soon as I saw it in the catalog a few months ago. Really, you all probably know me pretty well by now, right? How in the world can I resist anything with handwork attached to it? Of course, the price tag stopped me from scrambling to scoop it up. But then I got an idea. I'm always up for something that I have to do with a needle and thread so why not try making my own version? I decided to give it a whirl.

J.Crew's sweater is merino wool, so I wanted to try and find a merino wool one for myself. I went on eBay and in about 10 minutes found a brand new with tags Banana Republic one (for a fraction of the price, naturally). Score!

I decided against doing the sleeves as well (even though the J.Crew one has their sleeves done), as they would just be too tight to work with. Overall, I'm extremely happy and satisfied with my version. I even used two different colors of pearl cotton to get 'the look'.

I got the opportunity to wear it while we were down in Texas a few weeks ago. It's amazing for me to look at these pictures today… there I am perfectly comfortable in my outfit, and today it's snowing outside. Just a few weeks can change everything! Maybe tomorrow we'll go roll around in the snow.

xoxoxoxo Achaia

Preparations.

So. We received our sample fabric for International Quilt Market last week. Market is next week. This is probably needless to say, but our hands and sewing machines have been running wild! We decided to go with a different look than our previous two booths. We can't wait to share more with you!

Nan and Paps are here now, and we're making final decisions on the last outfits that need to be sewn. In the past day I've stitched on three t-shirts… one more to go.

Apphia, Nanny, and Abiah had to run some errands to pick up last minute things (like the quilt that needs to be bound before we go….), so Mom, Abi, and I are home. Abs is making a nice, loooong stack of cut out clothes that need to be sewn. I'd better get going.

One last thing, if anyone is planning on being at Market, please be sure and stop by our booth, #1408! We really want to meet you!!

xoxox Achaia

Light Peasantries

I am happy to say that my embroidery adventures (starting here and here) have blossomed onto a peasant top!!!

While Nan was here in February, we did some closet cleaning and I came across this white peasant blouse. The fabric feels wonderful, but I just didn't have much use for a plain white shirt like this. So, we pulled it out, used my light box and some embroidery transfers from the 70s, and I got stitching! I had the best time working on it. I'm a huge fan of embroidered garments, and it's exciting to think that I can make my own! I already have plans for something else…. I can't wait to share.

xxx Achaia

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 — 24×24 — (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