Cupcakes, Quilt Alongs and Some Fur

If you're out and about this weekend, just wanted to let you know that some new goodies featuring some familiar designs have landed at Michaels Craft Stores! This time around, the assortment includes my new favorite thing...cute cupcake wrappers! Don't you want your cupcakes to match your quilts?!

There are also a bunch of fun stationery items like note pads, notecards, sticky notes, clothespins, chubby pens, journals and even emory boards. That's right, emory boards. You can whip one out of your handbag at your next quilt guild meeting and be the envy of all your friends (well, maybe)!

Also just wanted to let you know about the Friendship Quilt Along that Moda is hosting.

It starts this Monday the 18th and continues through March 1st. You'll have a chance to win lots of prizes while collecting a total of 28 different 9" quilt blocks. Moda's blog post on March 1st will give a setting option to make a quilt using some of the blocks. So grab a button...

... tell your friends, mark your calendar and please join us. It'll be fun and will brighten these last couple weeks of February! Here's the blogging/hopping schedule:

feb 18th

Barbara Brackman

Basic Grey

Blackbird Designs

feb 19th

Bonnie- Cotton Way

Brigitte- Zen Chic

Anne- Bunny Hill

feb 20th

Camille- Thimbleblossoms

Deb Strain

Eric & Julie Comstock

feb 21st

Jan Patek

Joanna-Fig Tree

Jenn Ski

feb 22nd

Kaari-French General

Lynne-Kansas Troubles

Me!

Whew, you'll have the weekend to rest — or sew the blocks you've collected this far!

feb 25th

Kathy Schmitz 

Edyta- Laundry Basket

Lauren & Jessi Jung 

feb 26th

Lisa- Primitive Gatherings

Malka Dubrawsky

Me & My Sister

feb 27th

Minick and Simpson

Pat Sloan

Sandy Gervais

feb 28th

Sweetwater

Stephanie Ryan

Vanessa Christenson

march 1st

The Cutting Table

For anyone following along, there is also a flickr group that you can join to share the blocks you've made! We'd love to see :)

Finally, i know i've been a little lax about Furry Friday, but that's because *every* day is a furry day on Instagram! It's a little overboard, but i can't help it. So if you need a daily dose of fur (or hourly as it may be), please join me over there.

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo,

kate

Sweet Little Surprises

I like sweet little surprises. Who doesn't! And “sweet little surprises” sum up this time of year pretty well here in our new neighborhood — crisp mornings, visits from family, friends, new neighbors, and migrating birds at the feeder. Reds, oranges and yellows are slowly coming into the landscape, and we've prettified our front porch with some happy mums and a pumpkin (or is that a gourd?). Hope you are enjoying the shift in seasons as much as we are.

Some newsy news...i recently learned that a bunch of fun gift wrap, tissue paper and gift bags i designed has finally landed at 400 select Michaels Stores! Pete and i raced over to the nearest store to check it out and take some pictures so i could share this exciting news with you. We didn't find any in our location, so maybe you'll have better luck! Here's a sampling of what it looks like:

You can always ask the store manager if they'll be getting it in or if they could order it (wink, wink). If you find it and like it, i'd be so grateful if you could leave a "thumbs up" or review on the Michaels website. Thank you!

As we were roaming the aisles at Michaels, we came across another sweet little surprise...

...my Christmas goodies have already arrived! I had no idea they'd be in the stores so soon. I don't know about you, but i'm not exactly ready to be decking the halls or making lists and checking them twice (i haven't even bought Halloween candy yet), but now i'll be prepared for when the time comes. There's all sorts of fun stuff including these note cards, magnetic list pads and chubby pens...   

...and these adorable little shaped melamine plates.

I think these plates would be perfect for some festive cookies, don't you? Fortunately, my extensive clutter of cookie cutters, colorful sprinkles, and frosting bag/nozzles made it in our recent move. I know i saw them somewhere around here, and hope to find them before Christmas! An assortment of cute holiday gift wrap should hit the shelves at Michaels some time in November, so keep your eyes peeled — for all i know, it might even be there already.

What sweet little surprises are finding you these days?

 And here is a little fur to end the week. These two are so happy that their kitty hammock was finally unpacked!

It's starting to feel like home sweet home around here at last.

Have a wonderful weekend.

xo,

kate

Field Trip

I'm a little late to post about this. Have you already seen these goodies at Michaels craft stores? If not, you might be able to catch the last wave of these cute journals, notebooks, pens, emery boards, and list pads that feature some of my designs from Terrain!

Pete and i finally got to take a field trip to the Michaels store just over the border in NY. We have been meaning to get there for some time now because it's always fun to see how each store displays things a little differently and in varying locations within the store. So we set off to find the tower baskets. Up and down the aisles...back and forth...until we spotted...???

We couldn't believe our eyes! Actually, still can't. This was quite a humbling moment for me — to say the least. Mary Engelbreit is someone who i have admired for so long. It's hard to remember a time when i didn't know of her through her art. I've owned mugs, calendars, tote bags and books with her illustrations on/in them and still miss her cute-filled and infinitely inspiring magazine, Home Companion. You too? Thankfully she has a blog and a Facebook page that i "like" — along with over 16,000 other fans! My deep appreciation and respect for Ms. Engelbreit is not only for her talents and work, but also that she was one of the pioneers in the art licensing industry. She used her magic markers and pencils to help color the way for the rest of us. I think she must have a set of real magic magic markers; wow, can she ever draw! Thank you to the Queen of Cute!

Here's a little Saturday fur.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!
Whoa, almost forgot to let you know that Kristine over at the Interweave Quilting Daily blog would like to know what you love about summer. Head on over and let her know and you could win a roll of Seascapes by Deb Strain (love her!!) or maybe a roll of Cuzco! Good luck :)
Ok, that's all (for now).

xo,
kate

New Goodies

Yesterday, i was thinking i should probably get a blog post ready to let you know about some fun new stationery items that will be arriving in Michaels Craft Stores® any day now. I'm really excited to share that the items feature some of the prints from Central Park. Fun!

So i started to snap some photos when...ding...an email came in from facebook® alerting me to a new photo someone had posted on my page. When i clicked to have a peek, i was surprised and tickled to see that Jodie of Simply Kids Ocala had beaten me to it! She spotted the goodies at her Michaels store the other day. Thanks for letting me know, Jodie. So, without further ado..here's a sampling of what you might find:

Spiral notepads, magnetic list pads, chubby pens, cute epoxy clothespins, mini paper clipboards with notepads and rubber stamps. They can be found in the big tower baskets so you might have to dig around a bit, but no matter what you'll come up with a handful of bright color and the promise of an early spring!