Author Archives: ginnyscraftbasket

Winter is still here

snow #2 snow

And I still see the beauty in it.  Even after having to clear about 5″ of snow off my car after getting out of work early and shoveling out the driveway so I could pull in when I got home.

And then I sat down with a nice warm, cozy cup of tea to enjoy the beautiful scenery and then I had a visit from another beauty:

Blue Jay hanging out #2

When I am not shoveling snow, I have been spending some time in my sewing room too.

Here are a couple of things that I have completed:

A set of blocks for our great-nephew’s 1st birthday a couple of weeks ago

Connor's blocks

And also a tablerunner made from the Stonehenge line of fabric by Northcott.  I used the half hexy ruler and I liked the way it came out.  So did my son which is who I made it for.

Stonehedge - tablerunner #2 Stonehedge - tablerunner

I’ve got a number of other projects that I am working on.  Cushion covers, still working on my lattice quilt and a set of three Easter tablerunners for a friend.

I wonder, will we have snow for Easter?  It’s only a month away.

Stay warm and safe.

Winter is visiting

So, what does one do when it’s just too cold to go out and about on a Sunday?  One cooks!

Hubby and I worked in the kitchen for a couple hours chopping,  slicing, browning,  caramelizing, stirring, frying and voila’  …. we had our meals all set to go for the week.

A pot of sauce and meatballs  We started with a pot of sauce and meatballs to go along with our ravioli for Sunday dinner.  Mmmmm, there’s nothing like the smell of onions and garlic sauteing in some olive oil to get those gastric juices flowing.

And since it was going to be really, really cold today, we decided that a nice pot of beef barley soup would be just the ticket.   Beef Barley Soup

And boy did that hit the spot and warm our innards.   Love the crock pot for soups.

Then it was on to the Chicken Cacciatore for tomorrow night.   Chicken Cacciatore  Can’t wait.  It’s one of my favorites.

Wednesday will be pasta primavera so there really isn’t much to do ahead of that except have the veggies ready.  And then Thursday we will have our choice of leftovers.

Of course, after all that prepping and cooking, there was a lot of clean-up but it sure is worth the time so that when we get home from work, dinner is very quickly on the table.

After cooking,  I headed up to the Sewing Studio and worked on my lattice quilt for a while

Lattice Quilt   Love the colors in this line of fabric.  It’s called Ambrosia and it just looks so summery to me.  Hubby came up and helped with some cutting for some baby blocks I am also working on.

After that, we watched Saving Mr. Banks.  Really enjoyed that movie.  I was singing “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” in my head all day today.  🙂   Rounded out the day by watching Friday’s episode of Blue Bloods and then Downton Abbey.

And so, that’s what one does when it’s too cold to go out and about on a Sunday.  At least that’s what this one does.

See you soon.

Ginny

Happy New Year!

The last couple of months of 2014 were certainly  busy and lots of fun.   Thanksgiving was wonderful and then early in December we got to spend one relaxing  weekend up at the Inn in Connecticut.  We love going up there the weekend of the Light parade and getting some relaxation time and then as a bonus, we also got a lot of Christmas shopping done.

I had a terrific Christmas. My son and daughter-in-law from California were able to be with us for Christmas.  My youngest couldn’t be with us though. 😦   Sure did miss having him and his girlfriend with us too.  So three out of my four sons were here.  It was a very active week with lots of fun and laughter.

On the sewing side of things, we got all orders done and delivered just one day past my target date of 12/15.  I had a couple of days where I was down with a nasty cold so that slowed me down a bit but we made up the time.  Hubby, as usual, is always a big help with the cutting of the fabric and, of course, the delivering of a lot of the items.  I also made a friendship quilt for someone who was retiring at work.  

 Susan's Quilt

That is the second one I made in the last few months.  Made one in August for someone who was changing jobs.

Some other things I made this season were: 

  Blue Pocket Potholders #2 Red Candlemats #2 

Potholders were a big seller this year along with the Frost zig zag tablerunners and candlemats.

The hardest thing I had to make was this memory pillow for a young girl who had lost her mom.  Her aunt approached me and asked if I could make it for her.   We decided hearts would be a good theme so that’s what I put on the front. The base material for the front was from a skirt so I sewed the hearts onto that and since I was using a denim jacket as the base for the back, I took the two pockets from the front of the jacket and added them to the back.  Maybe she can keep some special keepsakes in them.  I appliqued some flowers from another blouse onto the denim also.

 Front of Memory Pillow Front   Back of Memory Pillow Back

I am looking forward to 2015.  I’ve got plans for learning new things:

 * some new techniques in sewingpin cushion

* learning to play the guitar — I’ve always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument and although the piano has always held a certain fascination for me, that’s not quite going to be able to happen so the next one on my list was the guitar.  I actually had registered for a class where I would get some beginners instruction many years ago but had to drop the class because of work schedule changes at that time.  I never had the chance since then but my hubby was listening and he got me an acoustic guitar for Christmas.

New guitar

* trying some new recipes and expanding our menu choices.  I already saw two recipes today that I’d like to try.cooking                                             

What’s in store for you in 2015?  Do you have plans for some new endeavor?  A trip planned?  Here’s to a wonderful year for us all.

Happy New Year!       Happy New Year

 

Busy Month

Well, we had a successful craft fair and now I’m working on orders I got from that plus Christmas gifts and a few other projects that will keep me busy for the next couple of weeks.  Here are a few of the things that flew off the table at the craft fair:

Star Candlemats Candlemats with candles (2)

Some star shaped candlemats as well as the regular  rectangle   mats.  The funny thing is, last year they didn’t sell that well and this year — poof, they were gone.

Pumpkins & Leaves  Sunflower Tablerunner Fall zig zag   Some fall-themed tablerunners.  I really like the pumpkin material and I think I’m going to make some placemats for myself.

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Here are a few  Christmas runners;  I actually did make one of the Christmas tree runners for myself.   I have seen a bit of teal and red used as Christmas decor this year so I made one using those colors and it was well-received.  I have an order for 4 more.  🙂

Kansas Troubles style zig zag tablerunners - narrow - ChristmasChristmas Tree TablerunnerChristmas TablerunnerTurquoise & Red Charm tablerunnerStockings & Holly Tablerunner

And here is a “frosty” tablerunner that I’ve got quite a few requests for:    Frost Tablerunner   I didn’t get such a great picture  and this is just the top pieced — it’s not quilted yet.  I’ll try to get a better picture when it’s all done.  I think  I need more sunlight to show it’s true “frostiness” in a picture.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to. It’s such a fun, busy time –  sewing, Christmas shopping, writing out Christmas cards, wrapping,  baking but first —- Thanksgiving.  It will be here very soon.  I’d better go set the table.  I need a tablerunner!!  

See you soon.

Ginny   pumpkin-cart

Wow, where did the time go?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  I have been busy.  Weddings, showers, birthdays, etc.   But, of course, I have gotten a bunch of sewing in.   I have been working on a column quilt for someone  for quite a while — it’s a queen size and as it got larger, it  of course, got a bit more unwieldy.  I’ve got it to the binding stage now so we are in the home stretch.  Purple & Lavendar Column Quilt

I also experimented with working with unfinished, pinked-edged 2 1/2″ squares on a few tablerunners.  Kansas Troubles Style zig zag tablerunner -wide- fall

I  made a sunflower tote bag for a birthday gift Sunflower Wedge tote   and I made myself a new purse for the fall too Batik strip purse

We took a nice trip up to Connecticut to the New England Air Museum.  They had a Quilt Show up there and so I got to enjoy my quilts while dear hubby got to look at all kinds of planes.  There were some amazing quilts there (and I’m sure there were amazing planes too).  Here is a picture of one of the quilts that they had in a special World War I Exhibition:  1917 Signature Quilt   It is a signature quilt that they raffled off as a fundraiser.  Almost 100 years old!   There was one made by a mom for her son.  It made me wonder what happened to him.  Did he make it through the war ok? It really caught my eye too because his last name was the same as my mom’s maiden name.

Well, that’s what I’ve been up to.  Getting ready for a craft fair at the beginning of November so I am in my sewing room a lot.   Bye for now.

Ginny

 

September sure is moving along

Well after fighting off some sort of virus, I am back to sewing.  Knocked me down for a bit for sure.  When I am not in my sewing room at some point during the day, you know I am sick!   But I have gotten back in there and I’m creating some fall things as well as some other things.   Here are a couple of them:

Sunflower Potholders (Copy)   Some sunflower potholders.  I also made some double-handed casserole mitts to match.

Someone asked me to make a “knitters” tote bag so here is what I came up with:

Knitters Tote Side 1 (Copy)  I put a large pocket on the outside for holding a pattern book.

And on the inside, I made a pocket with a row of tall  “channels” to hold the knitting needles  a row of shorter ones to hold small scissors, crochet hooks, row markers, etc.                                                            Inside of Knitters tote - section for knitting needles (Copy)

 

I also made some memory pillows from some shirts for a co-worker:

Memory Pillows (Copy)

 

I made these placemats for my daughter-in-laws’ shower last year and I want to make some for me now.  🙂

Reversible Fall Placemats

 

Hope the rest of your week goes well.  And I hope that nasty virus stays away from your house.  I’ll be back with more creations soon.

Happy Fall!

Ginny

Fall is coming

It didn’t feel very summery in my last post but summer sure did make an appearance a couple days ago.   But I see cooler temps in the future and before we know it, there will be a nip in the air, leaves on the ground and ghosts, goblins, witches and princesses knocking on our doors.   So, in preparation for adding fall color to the house,  I put together a couple of tablerunners:

Fall Tablerunner (Copy)                                   Halloween tablerunner (Copy)

 

I also put together  a memory quilt for someone leaving at work.   While in Lancaster I gave dh the assignment of finding some Ladybug fabric to use for the sashing on the blocks and he found some great material.   I think she liked it.

Friendship Quilt (2) (Copy)

So, what’s on my cutting table and sewing machine now?  Well, more tablerunners for the November craft fair — there will be Christmas material involved as well as fall.  Wine bottle carriers, microwave potato bags, tortilla warmers, probably some mug rugs and ……. well the list goes on and on.  So many things running around in my brain.  I am also working on two different quilts.

Oh, and before I forget — are you ready for some Football?!!  It starts tomorrow night and hubby gets to see his Super Bowl Champ Seahawks open the season.   Which reminds me, I have some Jets and Giants material in my stash.  More ideas popping into my head.

I’d better get to work.

See you soon.

Ginny

 

Where is summer going?

I was sitting outside this evening and looked up at the tree and it looks like the leaves are starting to change color already! I know that this will not make my sister happy at all.  I guess fall is really on it’s way and I’d better get moving on my fall items.Apple Potholders 001     DSC00454

 I see some apple and pumpkin potholders maybe on my cutting table soon? 

But I hope to have a few more trips to the beach         Jones Beach in Oct. 2011 - #3

 

Enjoy the week.  The weather looks pretty good even if it isn’t very August-like.

Ginny 

 

The fruits (and veggies) of our labors

Veggies  We had a wonderful vacation in Lancaster, PA.  When we returned we  were able to pick some delicious tomatoes (technically a fruit), zucchini, green beans, a few different kinds of peppers and some strawberries that didn’t make it into the picture because they went straight into my mouth. 🙂  Thanks to my sister for watering our garden while we were away so the plants wouldn’t get parched.

Here are the “fruits of my shopping” while we were there:

Christmas  Some Christmas fabric — of course,

 

Fall and Halloween   Fall and Halloween fabric,  and

 

some cute Fat Quarters and Charm Packs   Charm Pack and Fat Quarters

We didn’t just do fabric-y stuff.  There were some things on the agenda of interest to hubby too (although he was very helpful in finding specific fabrics I was looking for).

We took a tour of the Martin Guitar Factory :

005

and we visited President Buchanan’s house: 013   He is the only President from Pennsylvania so far.  We both like history – I especially enjoy American History – so this was a great way to spend one of our mornings.

We also went to the Model Train Museum and the National Christmas Museum.   We stayed in a very nice B & B (New Beginnings).  The Innkeepers, Denise and Al, were wonderful.  The room was very comfortable and the breakfasts were delicious. We had great weather and had a real terrific vacation.

So what am I up to now you may ask?  Well, I am getting some Fall and Halloween things made with the new fabric I acquired and will be starting on Christmas shortly.  I am also working on a few quilts which are in various stages of completion.  I will post pictures of the “fruits of my labor” as they are finished. So come back and see what’s new.

Bye for now.

Ginny

What I’ve been up to this week

A little while back I saw a tutorial (M*QC) for a purse made with the dresden plate ruler.  I have the ruler because I want to make a dresden plate quilt — haven’t gotten to it yet.  So, I thought, why not use the ruler to make something a bit smaller.   I made these two purses and they weren’t hard to do at all.  The original tutorial did not incorporate any kind of closure at all so I just added a tab with some velcro to close it.  I think I would like to put magnetic closures in but since I didn’t have any on hand, I went with the velcro.

Here they are:

Dresden Purse made with Downton Abbey fabric (Lydia)

Dresden Purse made with Downton Abbey fabric (Lydia)

 and a black and grey version: Black & Grey Dresden Purse

Maybe now that I’ve used the ruler, I’ll get to the quilt.  I know what colors I want and I have been collecting fabric for it for a couple of years now.   It’s on my ever-increasing list of “Things I Want to Make”.  

Have a Happy Friday everyone.

Ginny