We're back from spending a lovely weekend in Park City with our kids. I won't lie and say it was a relaxing vacation, because between the swimming, hiking, shopping, game playing and the ridiculous amount of eating that took place, we kept pretty busy. However, it was nice to not worry about work, laundry, extracurricular activities or cleaning house for a few days.

We loved walking down historic Main Street and visiting many of the artistic shops along the way. At one point a couple from New York stopped to marvel over our children and to "bless" us for having so many. Joel was walking with our four children and our friends' five, and I think this couple thought they all belonged to us. Blessings upon us would certainly be in order if this were indeed the case.

While all nine of the kids were well-behaved, I thought Joel was crazy when he decided we should all visit a few of the art galleries. But the kids, especially our artistic seven-year-old loved seeing all of the inspiring artwork. Hopefully she continues to follow in the footsteps of her artistic daddy and grandma.

We also enjoyed an easy hike on a trail just outside of the city and couldn't help but take a few photos of this beautiful white barn. It's definitely an iconic landmark in the area and we saw it as the subject of quite a few photographs and paintings as we strolled along Main Street.

But, I'm sure you didn't visit this blog just to get a recap of our weekend, so I will go ahead and announce the winners of our giveaway. We used Random.org to help us select the three lucky numbers: #95 — Lucia, #23 — Alisa and #273 — Moira. Congratulations ladies! We hope you enjoy your fabric and birds. We'll be sending John over at Quilt Dad another fat quarter pack to give away as well to help celebrate his second year blogging anniversary and thank him for helping spread the word of our new blog. It's so rewarding to be involved in this blogging community!
eclecticmodern

eclecticmodern

Of course, to anyone who is reading this post, the announcement of Joel’s new line, Modern Meadow, being available is not new information. We’re running a little late. Again. To be honest, we were caught a little off guard when the collection started shipping in February because we thought it wasn’t going to be ready until May. Oops.

So, being that we are embarrassingly late in sharing the news of Modern Meadow and that we have obviously neglected this blog since it’s feeble introduction almost seven months ago, we would like to redeem ourselves with some new patterns and a giveaway, with the hope that you will continue to visit our now truly functioning blog.

The “Picnic Throw” pictured below is so cute (my word, not Joel’s) that I couldn’t wait to start working on it. And, just as I imagined, making this throw was sewing bliss for someone who doesn’t quite consider herself a “quilter” just yet. However, my bliss ended when Joel asked if I could hand-quilt it to give it more of a vintage look. I laughed because I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. (After 13 years of marriage, you would think I might know when he’s joking and when he’s not, but he still surprises me.)


After I had written off Joel’s ridiculous request, I decided that maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. Let me assure you, IT WAS. Had it not been for the ridiculous amount of time I logged watching T.V. in the month of February, I would never have finished. So, if you get the hair-brained idea to hand quilt this throw as I did, remember my warning and just let the machine do the work.

Time did not allow for me to take on the much more intricate “Sunny Day Quilt”, so we are grateful for Ellen Maxwell who did, and who did an amazing job! This quilt makes me happy, but then so does everything about the entire Modern Meadow collection. We hope it makes you happy too.

Speaking of happiness, we think a give-away, or three might just make a few people’s day. How about a collection of fat quarters of Modern Meadow in each color-way? And, hey, while we’re at it we’ll send each of the lucky winners one of the fabric birds that are featured in Joel’s new book “Sewn Spaces”, which hits stores in May.

Ahhhh, we can feel spring just right around the corner. Or at least we thought we could until it snowed this past weekend and flared our spring fever even more dramatically. After having lived in Florida for seven years, we are accustomed to preparing idyllic Easter egg hunts for our children in bright, sunny, warm weather. It was a bit of an adjustment for us to sprint through the yard in the freezing cold on Saturday to help the kids find the eggs as quickly as possible and retreat inside 10 minutes later.

So, until it warms up here, we’re hoping you are experiencing a much warmer spring. Regardless of the weather though, Modern Meadow is sure to brighten your day, especially if you get some of it for free, right? Just leave us a comment about your favorite part of spring and we’ll announce the winners next week!
eclecticmodern