A Peak At Our Wool N' Harvest Workshop with Kathy Cardiff & Joanna Figueroa

Seeew...

This probably should be two posts, but I'm going to inundate you anyway.

I must confess...I'm in love with that wool project pictured above! Kathy Cardiff of The Cottage at Cardiff Farms designed this adorable wool project exclusively for our Wool N' Harvest Workshop which was held here at the Shoppe on Saturday.

Kathy follows our Shoppe on Instagram and when designing this year's project she wanted to pay tribute to our "squirrel friends." As the end of the season approaches, these little critters are clearly stepping up their game in the gathering department! Squirrels are everywhere!

Kathy incorporated her design into this darling decorative pillow and placed it in a gorgeous primitive Autumn basket full of her favorite projects. Kathy's designs always incorporate an element of nature which in my opinion, adds a touch of sophistication. In fact, she has a brand new book full of this "wooly sophistication" coming out in the Spring called "A Cottage Garden." Look for it here in the Shoppe Spring 2018!

Kathy will be back as the featured designer at our 9th Annual Homespun & Holly Christmas Workshop December 1 & December 2 and she just shared with me an image and name of her Christmas themed project.

It's called....are you ready for this?

"The First Day of Christmas."

It...is...stunning! Since the project cannot be unwrapped until the magical day, (just like a present folks!), I cannot show it to you. Why would I ruin the surprise for the many who signed up? That's just...poor "Christmas Manners" and I would seriously get banned from the North Pole. If you've already signed up....be prepared for some serious stitching!

If you haven't signed up yet, there are six (6) seats left for Saturday, December 2 2017. You can learn more about it and register here.

It wasn't just Kathy that kept us busy this weekend!

We also had Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts here to teach her cute Acorn Dance quilt on Friday, and then her beautiful wool project for Wool N' Harvest on Saturday.

Since Fig Tree's newest collection Hazel & Plum does not have our favorite Fig Tree oranges, those beautiful harvest gold colors of Sheri & Chelsi's Creekside create a fabulous splash of Autumn! I love that the "Mothership" is giving our "green" acorns some depth with those gorgeous prints pictured above.

If you have followed Fig Tree Quilts for as long as we have, you know her Autumn color palette is anything but traditional. With Hazel & Plum Joanna brought back some of her favorite prints with new colors. I personally look at this collection and I see Christmas projects with the reds and greens, autumn projects with the greens, yellows and browns, spring projects with the yellows, greens and aquas. But that's just how my mind works. 

Seeew many options!

P.S. I can still remember the very first collection we had in our original location was called Cornucopia and it featured a unique shade of purple. At the time Joanna said her palette was known as the "forgotten colors."

Pictured above is her wool project she designed for Wool N' Harvest. The colors are straight out of the Fig Tree autumn playbook! Enchanting.

Side Note: If it were up to me, I think that our participants should learn how to trace their designs and iron the fusible onto the wool but the Mothership insisted we do all of the tracing for our attendees.

That was fun. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart....I totally learned something new! I was given the Buttternut Squash but that was too basic seeew I went for the leaves!

Had we not done that, I don't think many would have finished this project. She saved you from the one who cracks the whip. LOL.

Seeew major kudos to the "Mothership" as most places would not have done that for you.

The thing I love about quilting is...there are no rules when it comes to creativity. Wool projects do not have to be dark and primitive as you can see by these patterns we sell here in the Shoppe called, Figs & Woolies. Aren't they cute? Every sewing space needs a dash of cute appeal and I think these seal the deal. Smaller projects like this also give us all a sense of accomplishment when looking at our day-to-day grind!

Think outside of that box kids!

Awww....I love seeing creativity and friendships happen in real-time. Don't you?

I say it often and I say it loud and proud.... you'll never get these interactions via a YouTube tutorial! Trust me, I tried to follow one recently and all I had to do was scroll to the comments to realize...yeah, not my jam.  I have anywhere from 10-40 years left on this Earth and I'm not going to live it staring into a screen in my hand.

Alright, I'm already obsessing over what I show you next (there's seeew much)! Music will be back in the next post (it's getting to be the season!) seeew until next time...stay seeew-cial!

~ Brian