Thursday, August 18, 2016

The End of Summer

The extremely hot weather has finally broken here in Missouri and I am anticipating those wonderful autumn mornings in my future.  I generally get up really early and I love to go out in the wee hours of morning as the birds start singing.  Last week it was humid and you could actually break out into a sweat at 5 am.  Not this week.  We have lows in the 60's and it feels great.

Our garden has been wonderful this year.  We have tomatoes that weigh almost a pound.  I'm not talking about just a few but more than half of what we pick is bread size.  It's a BLT bonanza around here. We did use Epsom Salts three times on them and it made a huge difference.  The extreme heat and regular rain probably helped some too!

For years I have saved pickle juice once we finish a jar and cut up cucumbers to drop in.  Sweet, dill and Bread Butter all work the same.  After a few days in the brine the cucs taste like those great crunchy pickles at the Deli.  This year, instead of making our own pickles, we decided to boil and cool the brine then drop in fresh picked cucumbers and guess what?  It works too!  They are crunchy and good like the Deli pickles.  We haven't tried to actually can them to save for later but so far so good. We hate soft pickles.

My Bear Paws fabric should be in stores by now.  If you can't find a store that offers it, or want to see it up close, I put a few bundles in my Etsy Store at:
I have a couple of Bear Paw patterns almost ready, well, at the quilter anyway. I will post them soon.

I  added some new Instant Download patterns to the Craftsy Store at:

Crafty Cats fabric line will be shipping soon.
Here is the panel that goes with the line.

Here is one of the border prints that I really like- 

I am working on a few new cats patterns.  
I will post a complimentary pattern on the Facebook page when it is ready.




Monday, July 25, 2016

A Busy Year

Well it's been a busy few months.  I am a little behind here!  The snows came, the snows went.  The tulips bloomed.  The garden got plowed.  The garden was planted.   The flowers started blooming.  We used Epsom Salts in the garden and the tomatoes and peppers are humongous.  It does work.  We are now reaping the benefits.  The kitchen counter is overflowing.

I went to New York for a week in June to visit Benartex, the fabric company I design for.  I had a wonderful time all week and got a lot of designing done while I was there.  We also went to Beautiful on Broadway one night.  I loved Carole King as a teenager so really enjoyed the play.  I now have six new lines of fabric coming over the next year.  The first line coming up is called Bear Paws. Here is the panel:

It should be in stores soon.  I will have some patterns on my website using the line very soon.

I updated my website with a new look and the logo above.  I changed it up a bit and added some new graphics.  Take a look- http://prairiegrovepeddler.com/

Next month I have a new line being shown called Crafty Cats. Here is part of it...

Watch for more details soon.



Monday, January 18, 2016

More Snow

We are expecting 2"-4" of snow tomorrow so it appears winter may have finally arrived! We got a dusting the other day but it didn't cause any problems on the roads.  I am feeling under the weather tonight so I say, let it snow.

Sew in Love{with Fabric} blogged about my new fabric line, Garden Days. Click here to view it:

http://sewinlovewithfabric.blogspot.com/

Here is the line...



Saturday, January 2, 2016

An Unusual Missouri Winter

Christmas has come and gone and we still have seen no snow to speak of.  I think we got a dusting once or twice but it was gone as quickly as it came. Last week's flooding was unusual for winter time but not so unusual for Missouri.  We have two major rivers that join in St. Louis and we have seen it all before.  After all, that's how Lewis and Clark traveled west to explore.

We had a wonderful Christmas with all children and grandchildren in attendance for two days. It was like one big slumber party and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  As they say, you never know what the future might hold so cherish today!  I have had several friends pass this year and several others be diagnosed with cancer so I have a lot to pray for each day. The Lord has blessed my family and I am so thankful.

I am no longer carrying buttons on my website for patterns. I have started listing some of them on Etsy with the patterns at a reduced price and others on Ebay as 5 days auctions.

I have my new Garden Days fabric line in house now.  As soon as we have time to cut it into bundles, we will offer it in our Etsy Store.  We have several Folk Art bundles and only a couple of the Moose of the Loose bundles left on Etsy.

I listed a lot more on Craftsy. There are 80+ patterns offered as instant downloads now.

I pray each and every one of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!