Category Archives: machine embroidery

What day is it today?

I find myself asking that question each morning.   Everyday seems a lot like the day before, and the day before,  on and on.    Sigh.   How are you all dealing with the sameness?

When it is nice outside, we try to get outside for walks or a bit of yardwork.  We are really enjoying all the spring blooming that’s happening.  This forsythia makes me smile every morning when I see it.    wp-1586210392181.jpg

Inside we keep ourselves busy with chores,  small projects and coming up with some twists on dinner to try to change things up a bit.   How many ways are there to make chicken?  Apparently,  quite a few.   Did a bit of decorating for Easter.

The sewing room has been getting a bit of use too.  Not everyday.  I must admit it is sometimes difficult to get my motivation in gear.  But I have gotten some things done.

There is a thing going on about putting teddy bears in your windows or somewhere prominent for kids to see when they are out taking a walk with their parents.  It’s like they are going on a Bear Hunt.   So, I put one of my teddy bears in an upstairs window waving to any little hunters that may be passing by.wp-1586210436035.jpg

And I made a little teddy bear on my embroidery machine to sit in my kitchen window.

I am working on some bunnies for Easter baskets.  The hardest part is getting the ears pinned onto the hoop in just the right place.  The stitching only takes about 3-5 minutes.    Since I couldn’t get out to do shopping for bunnies, I just went with bunnies I had left from last year’s Easter orders.  Luckily I had enough for all 6 grandkids.

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This one was made for the newest addition.  Shhhh!  Don’t tell Aviendha she is getting a yellow bunny for her first Easter.

 

There have also been some masks being made.  Some with ties and some with elastic. I have a bunch more cut now and I’ll get to sewing on them over the next couple of days . wp-1586211571149.jpg

At night I have been making progress on the hand sewn hexis.  I’ve got 24 done, with 18 more waiting to be stitched.

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I work on them while watching tv at night.   I got a few more done last night while watching two really great Country music shows.   I enjoyed that night of music so much.

That’s what I’ve been up to the last couple weeks.  What have you been doing during this time of quarantine, sheltering in place, staying home… whatever the words are that you want to use to describe it?

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.  Take care.  Stay home.  Stay safe.

Bye for now.  See you soon.

Ginny

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What was in my craft basket last week?

After returning from vacation, I felt the need to get into my sewing room and create something.   I knew I couldn’t get a quilt finished in a week and I wanted to have something that I could say was “done”.   So I looked around for some UFO’s, gathered three together with the supplies needed to complete them and set to work.   The first thing I worked on was a wall hanging that my BFF in California and I worked on together while I was out there.  20190519_140909.jpg

I added the thimble borders to the top and bottom and a hanging sleeve on the back and it was  ready to hang on my wall.

Next I decided to finish a heart shaped potholder for another friend.  I needed to add the binding and the hanging loop and then this could be considered done too. 20190519_140849.jpg  Boy do I love those binder clips.  Sure saves a lot of pokes in my fingers when I was using pins.  They are especially helpful when you are trying to put binding on something with a lot of curves like this.

OK, two UFO’s down, one to go.   This one is actually a project gone wrong.  Someone, whose name I won’t mention,   was attempting to make a couple of microwave cozies but something happened with the placement of the darts or something and they came out more like little boxes with wings.  20190519_140702.jpg   She was going to just toss them but I said I’d take them and see what I could do with them.   So, here is what I decided to do:

First,  I stitched the sides a bit more closed, then I  grabbed my jar of buttons and picked out four buttons for each “cozy” to use to sew down the wings, pinned the wings down                                             and voila’!      20190528_214207.jpg   UFO #3 finished.

Maybe they could be binder clip cozies?      20190528_214334.jpg  Or maybe chocolate candy cozies?    Whatever they wind up being, I’m glad they made their way out of my UFO pile and into my basket last week.

And for now, my basket is empty      20190528_214444.jpg   I will let you know what I fill it up with.   I have so many things on my “to do” list.   Maybe it will be filled with the Christmas scraps for the scrappy Irish chain quilt.  Or maybe with the pieces for the log cabin quilt.  Or maybe with the two rag quilts I need to make.   Actually, maybe I just need more baskets.

Bye for now.  Be well.

Ginny

 

Sneak Peek

I pulled out my bin of cuddle fabric the other day to sort through and see what I have and what I might need for a project I am going to be working on in a week or two.

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Anyone care to guess what I might be making?   Only one hint…. it’s an In-the-Hoop (ITH) project.   I’ve made some before but this is a different pattern.

Stay tuned for updates.

Bye for now.  See you soon.

Ginny

 

Quilts, Adventures in Embroidery & Scraps

Well here we are in July already.  Wasn’t it just Memorial Day?  I had a wonderful trip to California to visit with my grandson, son and daughter-in-law.  Oh yes, my sister came along too.  🙂    I  brought the quilt and now that it isn’t a surprise anymore, I can share some pictures of it:

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As soon as I returned, I started thinking about his first 4th of July coming up and made him this onesie and bib:       20170626_233137   I got a picture of him wearing it today.   🙂

Before we left for California my tiger lily stalks were looking pretty ready to bloom and I was afraid I would miss their first week of flowering.

But I didn’t miss them; they waited for me and welcomed me home.  20170620_084911

I did a craft show last week and added some embroidery items to my set up.  I did a few onesies and also some kitchen towels which were very popular.

 

The day after the show, I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up my sewing studio.  I must admit, I am a bit of a messy creative person.   I have a number of projects on my “To Do” list for sure but first I spent a bit of time pressing and cutting up the scraps from the last round of projects.  A few of the projects on that To do list are scrap quilts from a couple of  Bonnie Hunter books.  I have so many scraps!  So I am going to work on disciplining myself and cutting the scraps after I finish each project into usable sizes.

I am a bit scrap challenged.  I tend to overthink putting pieces together.   Watching the beautiful quilts Bonnie Hunter puts together using scraps is inspiring me.  I think I will start with “Happily Scrappily Irish” from her book Adventures with Leaders and Enders  I might use my tons of Christmas scraps for that and work on a new Christmas quilt while working on other projects using her leader/ender system.  Check it out if you’ve got scraps.  You put together the units for the scrap quilt while completing other projects.  It’s two projects in one!

And speaking of Christmas  ……… 20170703_213106-1   …….. My trusty snowman is telling me it’s less than 6 months until Christmas.  🙂  Just sayin’   It will be here before we know it.   Better get busy.  Now, where’s my Christmas music?

Happy 4th of July everyone.  I hope you had a great day.  Enjoy the fireworks . American Flag 04

Bye for now. See you soon.

Ginny.