From Broken Pieces

If you've been with me for the past few years, you know that the January Quilt of the Month is always the Broken Dishes Quilt.  It is so symbolic to me of what the beginning of a new year feels like.  The taking down and packing up of the previous year and the sorting all the experiences into patterns that resemble something with order and beauty from fragments and broken pieces.   I wrote a blog post about it earlier in the month that you can scroll down to.  

Our moto for Tweetle Dee is Celebrate + Dream + Create.  When I began this company, it came at a big transition time in my work.  I had dabbled in design for embroidery and quilting for a few years, worked in a couple of quilt shops, but had spent years working in finance and real estate.  I had a dream that someday I would be able to leave that steady work and make a living sharing and creating with people who loved to paint and sew.  

I had been to the International Quilt Market and had 30 wholesale embroidery accounts with shops in the US and set a goal that I would walk away from my 9 to 5 job when the wholesale monthly profits equaled my paychecks.  It took awhile, but that day came and it was a moment where I took all the pieces of a long journey and puzzle pieced them into the "pattern" I call Tweetle Dee.  

My first International Quilt Market in 2008

(yes...Tweetle Dee used to be Gigglee Designs)

There has been so much growth and so many experiences we've had since then.   If you look at the corner of the picture above in the pink frame you will see my original Celebrate Dream Create embroidery sample.  It was published in a few magazines and sold like crazy in many shops.  

The meaning of Celebrate Dream Create is set to remind me that everyday there is something we can celebrate, even if it's that we are alive and got our feet to move int he morning.  That we should always have a dream or a simpler explanation is something we are working towards.  Something we want to learn, grow through, a place to be.   And, the gift of creating has been what helped me survive in my toughest times and truly helped me to find joy in moments where I struggled to have a dream.  

Celebrate + Dream + Create has been with me my whole like and I love that I get to share it with you here.  In a way, Broken Dishes comes from the celebrating what was, the hope that there is something beautiful that can be made from the broken, and that in creating or moving our lives, our hands, our minds...we can find the patterns and beauty-joy in our own life.  

So keep at it!  January is January.  The beginning of a new year.  The Broken Dishes Mini Barn Quilt Kit is a small creative project that is so calming to paint.  The kits comes with the brush, pre-scored design board, paints and a color guide.  I love being able to have a small project I can do with my hands.  I hope you find these as fun to paint as I do.  

This month you can save 15% on your Tweetle Dee orders in our shop with code Lovey15.  Sending you a big hug!  Have a wonderful week. 

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From Broken Pieces

Paper Hearts Barn Quilt

Our newest barn quilt design is the Paper Hearts.  Inspired by the paper chains we made in elementary school to decorate the windows and chalkboards of our class rooms.  I loved making them as a child, and I loved painting this barn quilt to hang on my front porch for the month of February.  

Paper Hearts Barn Quilt
The design pictured above is a 33" framed in reclaimed cedar in a white distress which compliments the soft colors in Paper Hearts.  Painted in our Prairie Paints colors, (Homestead White, Poppy Pink, Indian Paintbrush and Lambs Ear).  Each barn quilt is sealed in our beautiful finishing wax to last for years to come.  The barn quilt already painted is available in our shop in three sizes, (22", 33" and 44") all framed in reclaimed cedar.  

Paper Hearts Barn Quilt Pattern
For those of you who love to paint our barn quilt designs, the Paper Hearts Barn Quilt Pattern released today.  The pattern includes a full color pattern, diagram, paint list, and our How to Paint a Barn Quilt instructions.  Patterns are available as a PDF download or a paper pattern that ships to you.  Either way, you get all the instructions to make one of these beautiful Paper Hearts of your own.
This week you can save 15% on your orders with code Lovey15.  We hope you have a wonderful week and find something to create that brings you joy!

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Paper Hearts Barn Quilt

Sodus Point Prairie Paint

If you were asked to close your eyes, and imagine a calming blue, my guess is that you would imagine a color very close to our newest Prairie Paint color, Sodus Point.  Our Prairie Paint Collection feels a little more complete with this beautiful color in it.  

When I saw this color, and closed my eyes to imagine where in my memory bank this soft grey-blue had been experienced before, my mind went to Ontario Lake and my childhood days on the sandy beach of Sodus Point.  The water colors range from grey to soft blue and fade into the skyline with these colors in reflection up to the clouds.  

Water has a calming sense to my soul, running and moving water even more.  As I have painted with Sodus Point, the color remains true to it's name, an old calm blue.  This past summer we had the chance to spend a day at the beach with my family, walking the beach, collecting rocks and visiting the light house.  It was a fun day, and refreshed the childhood memories of the colors and feelings I experienced there as a child.  

This color brings the total in our Prairie Paint Collection to sixty four.  It has become a collection of vintage inspired colors that have been inspired by the colors and memories of my home in Upstate New York.  We have painted with these paints for three years now, using them in classes and workshops in all four corners of the country.  I am very proud of this collection and the formula that makes our gel-chalk paint so smooth with amazing coverage.  

We have used the Prairie Paints on interiors, exteriors, furniture, fabric and of course our extensive barn quilt collection.  It is my preferred paint, and I can say that our customers have loved it too.  There is nothing like it, in composition and in color.  
We hope that you will find the colors that speak to you in your soul, in your color memory bank, in our Prairie Paint Collection.  They are all available in our shop. 

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Sodus Point Prairie Paint

Flying Swallow and Fellowship Star Patterns

Two of our most requested barn quilt designs are now available at Tweetle Dee. The Fellowship Star and the Flying Swallow are in the shop as both a PDF download and a paper pattern to ship.  Our patterns allow you to paint your own barn quilts on any surface in any size.

The Flying Swallow

All of our patterns include color diagrams, Prairie Paint color suggestions, a black and white design grid and our How To Paint a Barn Quilt instructions.  Our instructions include board selection and paint/finishing instructions to get the very closest you can get to our design looks.

Flying Swallow & Fellowship Star 

Barn Quilt Patterns

The Flying Swallow is a traditional quilt design, which we designed as a colorful rainbow prism with white and black as an anchor.  We have painted many of these and shipped them all over the US and Europe.  It is one of my all time favorites.  

The Fellowship Star

The Fellowship Star is also a traditional quilt block that we designed to encourage community and gathering.   The points of light on the tips bringing in all under it's light.  Now, you can paint your very own.  

This week we are sharing the love with our annual Lovey Heart Sale with 15% off all orders.  Use code Lovey15 to save on patterns, kits, ready-to-paint barn quilt boards, embroidery kits and all of our painted quilts.

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Flying Swallow and Fellowship Star Patterns

Broken Dishes Barn Quilt

Happy New Year!  We are so excited for a new year.  You know how you just get those feeling sometimes that tell you something so good is headed your way?  Those feelings come once in a while to me, and I feel this about 2023.  It feels like the beginning of a new adventure, and like all adventures, there are all kinds of experiences we have.   So, as this new beginning is here, I am feeling all the hope that this will be a good adventure we will celebrate together.

Broken Dishes Barn Quilt

As we head into January I love to hang my Broken Dishes quilt.  It is a daily reminder there is beauty in things that are broken.  When I think about the previous year, there are good days and challenging days that when summed up, become a part of the beautiful adventure of the previous year.   
How I came to love this design was looking in an old trunk in a Pennsylvania Dutch farmhouse.  In that trunk, we found an old hand stitched quilt with a note attached saying "Broken Dishes".  The origins of the Broken Dishes pattern date back to the 1790's and is one of the earliest recorded designs in quilt history.  Half-square triangles are arranged to form the pattern of this simple design.  We aren't sure of the dates the quilt we found was sewn, but it was evident with with hand stitching throughout that many hands worked this together to make one special quilt.

Broken Dishes Hand Stitched Quilt

Many of us have broken pieces from the previous year that are left in a swept up pile.  When a new year begins, we all look back at our experiences of the previous year and make plans or goals for the new.  For me, what has been so helpful through therapy is to look clearly at what was "broken" and place it in healthy frames to heal and make something good again.  

Broken Dishes Blue Willow 

Barn Quilt

We have the Broken Dishes Ready-to-Paint Barn Quilt Kits available in two gorgeous color-ways.  We have both the Geranium with all the gorgeous reds and pinks and the Blue Willow inspired by the old Blue Willow dish collection.  All of the colors used come from our Prairie Paint Collection and are available in paint sets in our shop.  

In Our Shop this week we have the painted Broken Dishes Barn Quilt with kits, patterns, paints, frames, and already painted barn quilts in Geranium and Blue Willow . 

In addition to the painted barn quilt, we also have a live class available for this design on Saturday, January 28th.  To register for this class go to Our Shop and sign up.  Our vision statement for Tweetle Dee is to Celebrate + Dream & Create together.  We hope you will jump into this new year creating with us in our online classes.  

To celebrate this new year use code CelebrateDreamCreate and save 23% on all orders this week.   We hope you had a beautiful holiday season with your family and friends & best wishes for an amazing year.  Let's make it a year to celebrate and create a little more joy in our lives in 2023!

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Broken Dishes Barn Quilt