Category Archives: quilts

Quilters Stand For Ukraine

We are all horrified at what is happening across the globe to the Ukrainian people. The images of the destruction, the families being torn apart as men are escorting their families to borders to flee to safety and then turning back to defend and fight for their country will be forever seared into my mind and onto my heart.

I was feeling so many emotions…..heartbreak, horror, helplessness and so much anger. I needed to channel all those emotions into something positive and useful. Pat Sloan designed this block and made the block pattern available for quilters to make either a single block to use as a wallhanging as I did or a tabletopper. She also had instructions for making a full quilt. She offered this as a free pattern but provided a link to donate to help the Ukrainian relief effort. I donated to the relief effort, downloaded the pattern and spent the weekend putting this wallhanging together in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. If you are a quilter and would like to make one of these blocks (or even a quilt) here is the link to Pat’s You Tube posting about the Quilters Stand for Ukraine block.

Bonnie Hunter is also doing something similar and designing a Hearts of Hope quilt. Here is the link to her post about the sew along. I will be gathering my blue, yellow and neutral scraps while I await her introductory post next Friday, 3/18.

I just thought I’d share just a couple of the fundraising efforts I have come across within the quilting community that I follow. I am sure there are many, many others happening. Just be careful as you hear of organizations soliciting funds for Ukrainian relief. Sadly there will be bad players crawling out of wherever they usually reside to take advantage of the situation and line their own pockets.

Stay well.

Bye for now.

Ginny

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Scrappy and Semi- Scrappy Quilts

Scrappy quilts are the perfect way to use up all the leftover fabric from all my other projects.  Let’s face it, fabric is not a cheap investment and I don’t like just throwing my money into the trash.  Not to mention adding to landfills.  I am trying to be more mindful of being good to the planet and  would prefer to have the leftovers re-purposed into something useful and be more eco-conscience.  I have made a more controlled version of a scrappy quilt in this lattice quilt

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I used a layer cake by Benartex called Ambrosia.  I wanted to make a lightweight, summer quilt and this line said “summer” to me.  There were so many cheery colors in the line and the quilt came out great and had a very scrappy look.   Now I want to try and be brave and make a true scrappy quilt.  I am going to make a scrap quilt using Bonnie Hunter’s pattern, Happily Scrappily Irish from her book “Adventures with Leaders & Enders” .  Using Bonnie’s leader/ender method, I can be working on getting my units ready for this quilt while working on other projects.   Multi-tasking!  I was thinking about using scraps in autumn colors but I actually  have so much more Christmas fabric scraps (just ask my BFF) that I am going to head in that direction instead.   I do like the Irish Chain pattern.  I made one about 10 years ago in blues. I actually hand-quilted that one.  Please don’t look too closely at the stitching.  But it has held up for 10 years so I guess it wasn’t too bad.   I enjoyed quilting it by hand but won’t be doing that for the Christmas one.  Not if I want to have any chance of using it this year.

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In fact, now that I think about it, I have made two other versions of the Irish chain quilt; one in burgundy,  forest green and white and the other one in green and white – a true “Irish” chain quilt I suppose.   I guess I really do like that pattern.

I will be pulling out the bin with my Christmas scraps sometime over Memorial Day weekend and work on getting the fabric ready for this project.  Ok, maybe it might be two bins of Christmas scraps.    What do you think the chances are of me getting this quilt ready to be used for this holiday season?   I’m going to give it a good try.   Of course, before I left for our 2-week trip to California I did pull out the fabric for my guest bedroom quilt too which is going to be a log cabin quilt in shades of black to grey with the center square being red.  It sat on my cutting table patiently waiting for me to return so I do need to give that some attention too. Looks like I am going to be pretty busy.   Do I really need to sleep?

I should go get some sleep now since I am going to be so busy in the sewing room.   Maybe I’ll just be a midnight quilter like Angela Walters.  I can always watch her videos while working on my projects at midnight.  Quilters love company.

Be well.  I’ll be back 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.

Gardening and My craft basket

Memorial Day weekend was a bit of mixed bag as far as the weather was concerned.   It was definitely too chilly to head to the beach for the Air Show so we opted to stay home and plant, mow, trim etc.  Made some good progress and we are almost at the point of just needing to “maintain”.   Hubby doesn’t necessarily believe that I am finished buying new plants yet though.  🙂

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But I think we are almost there…..  until it’s time to think about adding stuff for the fall.  A few more plants left to get into the ground once it gets to be a little nicer again out there.

So Saturday and Sunday was spent outside and then Monday I was able to spend some time in my sewing room.   And here is what is in my Craft Basket this week:

20170529_140859  It being Memorial Day and all, I decided to take out this American Flag wall hanging kit that I bought a couple years ago.   I am no Betsy Ross, but I am going to try and get a good start on this by 4th of July.  Dare I hope to finish it?  We’ll see.    I have something else in my Craft Basket that I will be working on this week too.   20170529_141202

I will be making a small quilt with these solids and the stripe material.  Loved the bright colors in the stripes and so I just pulled the solids to go along with it and started cutting this morning.    I think it will make a very happy little quilt.  I’ll post some pics when it’s done.  Well, actually after it is delivered to it’s destination.  Wouldn’t want to give it away before it arrives at it’s new home.

Hope you had a good weekend.   See you soon.

Ginny

 

May is here

“Back in the day” as they say, May used to be ushered in with May baskets hung on doors.  I had been wanting to make one of these cone-shaped wall sconces for a while so I decided to make one for myself for May Day but I made it from red, white and blue fabric so I can use it through the whole summer. 20170507_180148  I think I am going to make a smaller version of it to take to my office too .   It makes me smile.

And speaking of smiling,  I found a picture of the blocks I made for my grandson with my embroidery machine.   Somehow I lost the picture that I had taken of them but thanks to my sweet daughter-in-law,  I’ve got one now.

Stuffed Blocks for EJ

And I finally finished the quilt with the Chenille-it.   It fluffed up nicely.  20170511_200943

I would definitely make something with the Chenille-It again.

That’s what I’ve been up to the last few weeks.  I’m starting some new projects and also starting some Christmas presents. Christmas tree clip art       It’s never too early to get started.

Have a good weekend everyone.  See you soon.

Ginny

 

What’s in my craft basket?

I’ve been spending a lot more time with my embroidery machine the last couple of weeks and since it is springtime (although not quite feeling like it today), what else would I have in my basket but………

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  ….. a bunch of bunnies!

It’s been a lot of fun making the stuffie bunnies.   Next I will be attempting to embroider names onto the ears of the larger bunnies.   Wish me luck.

This is also in my basket:

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I will be adding the Chenille-It this week.   I was hoping to have it done already but things just kept pushing it to the back of my list.

So, that’s a couple things I’ll be up to.   What things are  in your craft baskets?

Have a good weekend.  See you soon.

Ginny