Thursday Night Quilting/Sewing Class

Some of our favorite Kaffe Classics

are back in stock.

Come in and take in all the beauty

and buy a yard or two!

New Fabrics and Yarns

Hold on to your hats...

FLORAL PETS! Designed by Mia Charro

Crazy cute, right?

SEW GHASTLIE

Alexander Henry's latest addition

to the Ghastlie escapades.

We're stocked up on one of our favorites:

BABY ALPACA GRANDE

This super soft, bulky weight yarn makes wonderful

luxurious gifts that knit up fast.

Also, November is 2-fer month!

Get two boxes filled on your Frequent Shopper Cards

for each purchase of $10 or more (1 per day) 

When you fill up the six boxes you can use it as a

20% coupon on your next purchase! 

Hope to see you all soon!

Deck the Halls

The days are short, we've just stuffed ourselves silly with turkey and pies.....

 what a fine time to be rushing about in preparation for

"The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"!  Right?

Don't want to shop at the Mall?
Come visit us!

We have great gifts for kids (big and small)

Fabulous stocking stuffers too!

YES, we have burlap!

Looking for ideas?

Check our burlap board on our Pinterest page.

Making last minute-ish gifts?

 We have lots of new fabrics for your projects!

Here are a few:

 "Fox Playground"

Sweet new collection Dena Designs
Make a fun pillowcase for a girl or boy...
or a quick quilt backed with flannel.

PJs for the holidays?

Check out this sweet flannel collection from Riley Blake:

 "A Merry Little Christmas"

My personal fave this year...

"Betty the Yeti" from Robert Kaufman.

All of the flannels we carry are of superior quality.

They have a wonderful weight to them, are soft

and have very little shrinkage when washed.

Kaffe Fassett

Some new designs and more of his classics

Delicious!

No time to create?
A Franklin Mill Store
Gift Certificate is always a great gift!

If you need a reprieve from the madness,
come see us for an "other worldly" holiday experience. 

Cheers!

Field Study

Oh Anna Maria Horner, you have done it again...

 stolen my heart with your sense of style and color.

 

Her new collection "Field Study" is a delicious and daring mix of old and new.

Here it is explained in her own words:

"A sense of adventure and the idea of investigating the natural world up close and from afar was at the core of every print that I created for Field Study. Yet there were very specific inspirations as well. I got to know moths quite intimately after researching how to cure an infestation in our kitchen pantry-though the beauties that appear in "Sinister Swarm" look nothing like our household variety. Migration maps of various birds around the world started to look like lacework, and so the "Migratory Lace" print was born. Pouring over historical ink drawings of meticulously numbered and labeled plant life drawings gave birth to prints like "Specimen". And my "Cell Structure" floral, while cute and fashionable was conceived by looking through plant like DNA slides. Most of the artwork came about in less than obvious ways, and the collection itself is just the same, unexpected and entirely exciting!"  

 

In other words...fabulous!  

We have her ribbon collection too!

You rock AMH!

Mary 

Franklin Mill Store

Taking stock...

Snapped some pics of "my pond" - the one I pass daily on my way to the mill, about a 20 minute drive.  My morning routine is scarily like something out of the movie Brazil: Get in car, drive purposefully to neighborhood drive-thru coffee joint - cliff bar and fruit sitting on passenger seat awaiting completion of "optimum" breakfast food grouping.  Gulp, gulp...nibble, munch....repeat.....drive, etc.
I confess:
I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON, so this ritual is done in a semi-trance state (no, I do not talk on the phone while
I'm doing this!).  By the time I reach the pond (about 15 minutes into the drive) my brain is starting to engage.  I usually pause here to take a quick, but to me important, glance at the "world".  It clears my mind and helps me start the day with a fresh slate......at least I try.
The lily pads and loose strife have taken over the pond and I know it's not long before the leaves on the surrounding trees start their color changes.  It's all good - but the prospect of winter does take my breath away (it's all good, it's all good, it's all good...) 
The last 5 minutes are usually spent singing at the top of my lungs to something on my cd player...gettin' my self "in gear" for a day at the mill....  


So...what's happening?  

Cute little dresses by Patti's students and Nancy K.  So easy to make - just pick a fabulous fabric, trim, buttons....voila!  No one else will have one like it.

Of course, lots of super fabrics have been coming into the store.  Here are a few of my faves:

Opal Owl by Tina Givens...adorable!

Peace group from Michael Miller:

Sweet new knits from Michael Miller too...

 Mad Men (and women)...

Our friend Flora was so enamored with this Michael Miller flower print, she's making a gorgeous Vintage Vogue dress for her birthday soiree.  The vintage inspiration came from this Timeless Treasures print which reminded her of the show "Mad Men".  Hey, the muse is everywhere.....  Happy Birthday Flora!!!


Another gorgeous wool applique by Nancy K:

We're trying to talk her into giving another workshop...what do you think???

Just a small taste of new Brandon Mably, Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs designs:

super snazz!!!



And the knitters are knitting up a storm...


Maureen has socks, scarves, shawls going like crazy.  Here's her first pair of socks ever:

woohooooo! way to go Maureen.

Kirsten is working on this cute top by Norah Gaughan using Berroco Ultra Alpaca Lite.

 

 

So many more things I should share,

but I've run out of steam.

Create and enjoy!

Mary

Drawing In Thread

This past week, I went to the Nancy Crow exhibit at the Fuller Craft Museum.  If you haven't been to the Fuller, it is well worth the trip. As the name states, it's a museum devoted to crafts, a distinction I've always been a bit uncomfortable with - the whole "art vs craft" thing.  Most of their exhibits are devoted to craftmanship of some sort - textile arts, glasswork, ceramics, furniture etc., but the majority are created as works of expression and form rather than function.  Nancy Crow's exhibit is a perfect case in point.  She creates with quilts.  I wasn't very familiar with her work before my visit and my immediate impression was that these were paintings - paintings in fabric.  Unfortunately, they didn't allow photographs, but I purchased the exhibit catalog which has all of her newest pieces along with details of her process.  Click on the links above to learn more about the exhibit and Nancy Crow.

 Another exhibit on my calendar: Drawing In Thread at Mount Ida College.  This exhibit features contemporary, non-traditional embroidery artists.  Should be interesting.  Exhibit ends Sunday May 2nd.

Ok.  Back on planet Mill Store........

A blast from the past rolled into the store the other day.  A quilt with Town of Franklin landmarks made for the bicentennial (1976).  Notice what was playing at the movies that year....JAWS!  and....the Franklin Mill Store is lookin' quite cute too, doncha think?

Handbags everywhere here...

Sarah made this adorable version of the Ellen Medlock Interchangeable Bag using Kaffe Fassett's "Kirman" pattern:

and Dorothy made this little one using the Quilt Plus Petit Purse pattern.  The fabric is "Timber" by Jessica Levitt, and the handles by Inazuma .  Both these bags are super easy to make.

 mignon!

Nancy and I are brushing up on our french these days (plus, I can only say "cute" so many times on this blog).  These felted slippers, designed and made by Nancy may be the last of the felting spree she's been on.....but they are cute aren't they?

(one last cute)

Hush Puppies from Alexander Henry.....

by for now!

Mary