Our Newest Patterns Out Now! AND A PRIZE GIVE-AWAY!!!

Great New Embroidery Patterns from Prairie Cottage Corner. Win one Free.....

Yes, we've been very quiet out here on the prairie! I've been drawing and drawing and drawing, which is why you haven't heard from me until now. I almost missed our February visit! See below for how to enter the give-away.

Look! Here are the results.....

First....

"Valentine Sunbonnet Sue"

Here's a close-up of one of the block patterns:

And "Prairie Pioneer Girls"......

And a detail from the patterns......

And, third, "Easter Egg Hunt"......

With a detail from the pattern set.......

These patterns are traceable and available on Etsy as physical or digital patterns and on Craftsy as digital. All are $5 each. They're good for embroidery, crewel, applique', fabric painting, needlepoint, tee-shirt art, quilt blocks and all kinds of linens.

To enter and win your choice of one of these patterns, just leave a comment and answer the question: 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT SPRING?

I think my favorite thing is warm days and daffodils....well, that's two things, isn't it? There are more, actually, but I won't bore you with them here. Contest ends Friday, March 4th at 5 PM.

Let's celebrate! I'm kicking up my heels (so to speak....I can't really kick them up anymore, but.....oh well, it's all in the mind, anyway) !!!!

A Little Magnet Fun!

Magnets, magnets, magnets. One's fridge CAN look like one big billboard. Honestly. Why should it? A few years ago, I made color prints of a lot of my quilt designs, glued them to those magnets, cut them to size, and slapped them onto the fridge.

Today, I was looking for a little gift I could make for a friend and thought about those pesky magnets. They are given away by merchants, attached to phone books and appear in the mail. I've been storing them up on my filing cabinet in my studio. I thought, maybe I could make a Christmas Sunbonnet Sue magnet for a gift. I took my "Angel Sue" design, shrunk it and printed it out. I traced it onto one of those magnets.

Then, I painted it with three coats of white acrylic craft paint.

I used a big darning needle to hold onto it while I brushed the paint on.

Then, I flipped the design and traced another one onto the remaining magnet space.

And painted it.

I cut out a heart to go in between the Sues, and colored it with a red Sharpie.

I outlined the Sue piece in preparation for coloring.

And began to put the color on.

Look! Almost done.

I wrote "Merry Christmas" in the heart and taped the magnets to a cardboard backing wrapped in clear plastic......added a ribbon and a label and......all done!

That was fun!

A New Banner Coming Your Way! February Valentine! And a Give-Away........

Prairie Cottage Corner "Banners of the Month"

We are never weary, are we? Well, yes, we are, sometimes, but Sunbonnet Sue is always there to cheer us up and help us forward. In our current campaign to get all of our promised "Banners of the Month" out on the market, we've produced our next one: February.

Here's February's Valentine Banner

Like all the banenrs, the center applique piece is a 12" block, several borders and a simple, pieced corner block. It's made to be a wall hanging, a banner to hang on the porch or to be part of a larger quilt. It's up to you.

We added 1/4" heart buttons to Sue's bonnet, pinafore, pumps and kitty. A small piece of lace trims her pinafore. She's all set for Valentine's Day. Is there a Sunhat Sam in her future? I think so. He's waiting in the wings.

The block is simple and fun to piece. This banner requires just four different fabrics but can be made from scraps, too. You can embellish it any way you wish. You can buy this pattern HERE.

And don't forget to go over to MooseStash Quilting and tell Joan what a wonderful sample of this banner she has made for us! Quilter Cum Laude, yes, indeed. We love you, Joan.

To Enter the Give-Away, just leave a comment on this post of your favorite thing about AUTUMN. The contest is open until 5 PM, Monday PDT, October 20th. The prize will be your pattern of choice from Prairie Cottage Corner.

NEW - APRIL BANNER OF THE MONTH .... Stormy Weather......and a WINNER!!!!-

A little stormy weather doesn't bother Sunbonnet Sue. She's prepared! Here she is in our latest pattern offering....soon to make its appearance in our sales room. 

April Banner of the Month

Sunbonnet Sue knows "April showers bring May flowers!" In her mind, they're already blooming. This block, basically, a log cabin, is very easy to make, as are all of the blocks we include in our applique patterns.

The rain is coming down.....raining cats and dogs....well, dogs, anyway......

....but even her pooch is protected from the deluge!

On she goes....promises to keep. 

Our banner patterns include instructions for fusible web applique but you can do them any way you please. This sample was sewn with the web and machine appliqued.

Just right for our recent stormy weather!

Again, Joan, over at Moose Stash Quilting has done herself proud, testing our patterns. Thank you so much, Joan, for another gorgeous sample.

And on another note:

A little dust storm called a Haboob came through last week. Haboob is an Arabic word originally describing sand storms in the Sudan. It is pronounced hay-boob. As was the case last week. the Haboob preceded a thunder storm. You can read more about it here. 

And on a final note:

  It's time for a drawing and someone has won their choice of a Prairie Cottage Corner pattern!

And the winner is:  Linda H.

Congratulations, Linda

!!!!Christmas in July - AGAIN, Please!!!! AND A GIVE-AWAY

Patriotic Sunbonnet Sue has Arrived.....along with Christmas Sue.....

Joan, over at Moose-Stash Quilting has done it again....and again (see below). It truly is Christmas in July around here because our July and Christmas banner samples arrived just this past week Here's Sue with her patriotic banner, all decked out in red, white and blue.

I AM late with these, I admit it. But do you understand the CREATIVE PROCESS? Artists are famous for statements about the creative process, i.e., it can't be forced; it only happens late at night; it can't be interrupted; it can't be....this and that. Really great artists, however, MUST be disciplined. Yes, yes, all that is true. Truth to tell, though, I just DIDN'T FEEL LIKE finishing the July pattern until the end of June, see?

And, now, it's finished and available on our Etsy page as a physical pattern or a PDF Download.

My partner, Erin, and I design and write the patterns for Prairie Cottage Corner. We've been doing this since 2003. When the pattern is ready, we send it to one of our pattern testers, along with fabric, etc., and they make a sample of it, suggesting corrections and changes along the way.

Joan does our samples for us in ALL machine applique'. (Our instructions, in our patterns, include fusible web applique', hand stitched. If you want to do machine applique', use the instructions that come with your machine. I suggest using the button hole stitch, about 1/8" to 1/4" wide for the edges of the fusible. You could also make any of our applique' patterns using Needle Turn and Freezer Paper techniques.)

Here's the pattern cover for July's patriotic Sue.

When finished, the first sample belongs to the pattern tester, but we take it back for a while to photograph it and show it, where possible, in the first year after it's done. After that, the pattern testers get the samples to keep. That's how it works with pattern testers. If you would like to try pattern testing, please write to me, Kathie, direct: prairiestitcher at centurytel dot net and ask about it.

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And here's the sample for our December Christmas Sue, below.

Stars abound!

The block is easy (as are ALL of our blocks in these banner patterns)....Guaranteed no "Y" seams!

Here's the pattern cover.....

....and our Christmas Eve Pooch!

You can add lace and eyelet to our Sue's dresses easy as pie....

TO ENTER THE GIVE-AWAY TO   WIN THE PATTERN OF YOUR CHOICE    FROM PRAIRIE COTTAGE CORNER:

Just write a comment before Wednesday, July 30th 2014, at 5 PM PDT, answering this question: 

What's your favorite summer fun?

Thanks for stopping by. See you again, soon, I hope.

New Pattern - Winter Sports Wall Hanging

 Take advantage of all the Christmas In July fabrics now and make this cute little wall hanging.

It's simple, easy and quick with instructions for fusible web applique.

And an easy, old, snowball block. What could be more simple? 

Sue and her puppy out for a skate.

Easy shapes and pieces. Sounds great, doesn't it, when the temperature is reading 90 degrees in the shade!

"Stay cool", says Sue.

You can buy this pattern as a pdf download or a physical pattern on my Etsy site.

And, when you have a moment, go on over and tell Joan, at Moose Stash Quilting, she did a great job for us on our first sample of this pattern! We love you, Joan. You're the best! Thank you.

New Quilt Patterns for Christmas and Winter

"Dashing" is one of our newest quilt wall hanging patterns for winter and Christmas. It's fun to decorate these little projects. With this one, I found some lovely brass bells for the harness of the horse. They really jingle.

These models were machine quilted by Lise Ott at Experience Quilts! quilt shop in Odessa, WA.

This is a pattern for the less-experienced quilter wanting to learn applique' techniques and a little piecing. The directions in all these new patterns are complete for one wanting to learn. These are good patterns for classes in quilting. The projects are small, usually under a yard in dimension, and the shapes are quite simple. The patterns even include the embroidery stitches needed to do the embellishments.

These patterns include instructions for fusible web applique' and freezer paper applique'.

The corner of the blanket is blowing out behind as the pony trots swiftly on, weighted with a little bead and some stem stitching. Below, is the center block for "Midnight Feast", a small wall hanging done in violet batiks, for the most part.

Winter is a hard time for some of our little forest friends. On this frigid night, some bunnies receive a present from Mr. Snowman! He's all decked out for the season.

Here's some of the detail work, below, and a complete picture of the center block with borders and snowballs (above).

We used some sequin-like leaves for Mr. Snowman's decorations.

"Twas the Night" is the name of our third winter decorative quilt. The pattern includes the words to Clement Moore's poem as well as a recipe for old-fashioned Sugar Plums (seen dancing over the child's head).

Mom reads to her daughter, warm and cozy.

Here's the whole piece. The blocks for these quilts are simple and the patterns include all the directions needed to assemble them. We hope you enjoyed this preview. You can purchase these 

patterns at Pattern Peddlers. The model for "Dashing" will be at the Fall Market.