Category Archives: Sewing/Quilting

Springtime is Here

We’ve got  hyacinths and daffodils and pansies blooming too.

 

 

And we have our seedlings sprouted on the windowsill.

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Yes, we did have some frost the other morning but I am confident that spring is here.  While we didn’t have the winter I would have liked …. more snow…… I am embracing the change of seasons and ready to focus on springtime projects.   In my last post I challenged you to guess what my minky was going to become.   If you didn’t guess, the answer is in the picture at the top of this post.  Easter Bunnies! I love this ITH (In-the Hoop) project.   Of course, I needed to add just one more cut of minky for a  bunny I need to make for a special little girl.

20190329_134544.jpg   I love this swirly pink minky.

I’ve also got some of these bunnies ready for personalizing this year too 20180331_211751.jpg                                                                                                                                               as well as these cute little baskets                                                                                                                                        Easter Baskets

 

 

 

 

 

My sewing room is full of bright, spring colors and I am loving it.   Are you ready for the change.  I am guessing that is a resounding YES!

And, how are you doing on the de-cluttering?   I must admit I have slowed down a bit but I have had a clothing donation pick-up so I’ve made progress there but not so much on my craft items.   I think I’m going to schedule in 30 minutes a week to go through something craft supply related and make some progress. Slowly but surely will get me to my goal.   My house needs to feel lighter.

That’s all for today.  I hope you are enjoying this change in the weather.

Be well.  See you soon.

Ginny

How have you been?

Happy New Year!  Yes, I know, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here.  No, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth and no, I haven’t stopped making things.   I have kept very busy doing that.    Life did throw a few extra things into the mix that kept me occupied elsewhere.   I am back here now and getting back into the swing of things.

One of the biggest things that happened was that I retired from my full time job last summer.  I took some time to just adjust to my new “normal”,  took a trip out to the Denver area in September and had a wonderful time at a wedding we attended and also a terrific visit with my brother and sister-in-law.  Then, poof, it was “get ready for the holidays” time and now here we are in the second month of 2019.

I am working on getting a website up and running as well as  business Pinterest and Facebook pages so stay tuned.   I will post here when each of them have gone live.  There are a couple of new things I have added to my product lines.  Just click on the tabs above to see what has been added.   I have enjoyed being able to spend more time in my studio since retiring and I am looking forward to being able to share my work with a larger audience.

Bye for now.   I’ll be back soon.  I promise.  Enjoy your day.

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

 

I think I’m ready for spring

Those of you who know me know that I love snow.  Yes, most of my friends and family think I’m a little weird but I just think it’s beautiful.  And I also love having to stay home and sew or watch a movie, read and maybe even cook.  Having said that, I think I am ready for Spring to arrive.   After the last snow that we had melted away I took a walk around the front and back yards  and lo and behold, there were daffodils and tiger lilies popping up! daffodils

It’s still too cold and damp to go out and do much in the flower beds, etc. but it got me to thinking about flowers and veggies and just being outdoors and enjoying the dirt.  Some of my friends and family think I’m a little weird about enjoying dirt too.  🙂    It’s almost time to go out and trim back the Knock Out Roses and, of course, seedlings can be started indoors.  I will get a taste of spring next weekend when we go to the Spring Flower & Garden Show at Hicks Nursery.    Love the smell of all the flowers, the beautiful colors, the ideas and inspiration I get and yes, even the warm humid feel there (yes, again, maybe a little weird).

In the meantime, I have been keeping myself busy by having new floors put in two rooms and rearranging another room.  I haven’t done too much sewing or embroidering but I did recover my sister’s vanity bench seat while she was away on vacation.  It is actually from one of our aunts and we aren’t quite sure how old the set  is but it seemed to me that Downton Abbey fabric would fit the period quite well.  I chose this one from the Lady Mary line

vanity-bench     My sis was very happy with it when she came home and saw it.

I am finished with the projects around the house for while so I will be making my sewing machines and embroidery machine hum again this week.  I even have a space to use my Featherweight in my living room now so I can do some straight stitching projects while spending time with the hubster and watching tv with him.   So, stay tuned for some pictures of maybe a quick St. Patrick’s day project and some Easter things for sure.  I am hoping to try to embroider some names on some bunny ears.  Seems to be a very popular item and I’m going to try my hand at them.

Have a good week everyone.  See you soon.

Ginny

 

 

Snow Day = UFO Day

Yay!!!  A snow day!    This is what the view was from my sewing room window this morning. snow-day

So, I got to spend time inside in my sewing room.  I decided to make this a UFO day — UnFinished Object .   I went to the bin where I keep projects I have started but they aren’t yet completed.  Some have only been waiting for me to finish them for a short time and others, well, they have been waiting quite a while.    The first one I chose to work on was a Christmas Tree skirt that I made waaayyyy back in the ’90’s.  I came across it this last summer when we were going through things in the Brooklyn house before selling it.   I had made it out of 6 wedge pieces of material and I used it for a number of years but I never quilted it.   christmas-tree-skirt    I actually forgot that I had made a trim for it by braiding red and green ric rac together for around the edge.  braided-ric-rac   I decided to just use a serpentine stitch in rows on each wedge.  The batting inside had already begun to shift around but I figure maybe I can get a couple more years use from it with a bit of stitching.   I will now wash and dry it and pack it away for next Christmas.  I better put it someplace where I will remember that I have it so it doesn’t disappear for another decade.

Next I worked on a small quilt that I had begun a few months ago.  pink-green-charm-pack-quilt

I had sewn the charm squares into rows so I needed to sew the rows together.  Then I added my first border – pink.    I am going to add another border of green and I have some Chenille-It that I think I will add to it.  This isn’t going back into the UFO bin.  I’m keeping it out so that I will finish it.  I don’t have far to go.  I do have to pick my backing fabric for it yet though.

Lastly, since Valentine’s Day is only a few days away,  I pulled out a heart shaped potholder that I cut out about a year ago but never finished.                                                        heart-potholder     I just need to put the binding around the outside and the loop on and it is done!

All in all, a good day in the sewing room.   And I got to watch some old westerns on tv with hubby — Wyatt Earp and Wagon Train.  I enjoyed them even if they were in black and white. 🙂

We are very lucky to have some wonderful boys who live on our block that we call our Snow Elves.  They showed up when the snow flakes slowed down  and took care of the 11″ of snow that needed shoveling          snow-elves-gift

It snowed for a bit more after we went out to clear off our cars.  As soon as they saw us out there, they came back over and shoveled some more.   Great neighbors.

I will be finishing up the potholder and the quilt top this weekend and I also have rearranging the living room a bit on my To Do list.  I want to carve out a small space to set up my Featherweight down there so I can sometimes  do some stitching in the evenings while watching tv with the hubs.  Should be a fun weekend.  Wish me luck.

Have a good night all.  See you soon.

Ginny

The Cutting Edge

I was rearranging and re-organizing my sewing room recently and started gathering up my scissors to decide which ones would hang on my pegboard, which ones would sit by my sewing machines, etc.   Now I know someone who has this thing for scissors.  I won’t mention any names but you know who you are.     Image result for clip art

As I put them onto my cutting table I realized that I had a whole LOT more scissors and rotary cutters than I realized.   I said to myself “Holy Cow, I’m getting like Sharon!” (ooops, I mentioned a name)   Here are some of my many cutting utensils:

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I looked at them and realized I really do use them for different things.  There are my fabric cutting scissors (don’t EVEN think about using them for anything else), my batting cutting scissors — and I have the same two categories for my rotary cutters.  I have a special rotary cutter to use with my circle cutting template too.  There are my little snip scissors that I keep hanging by my Pfaff and the ones I keep by my Featherweight.  Then there are the ones I use for my crochet or knit projects and the little teeny ones for applique.  There is the pair of scissors that I use for snipping around curves or into corners and that I will use for snipping the edges in the rag quilt if I ever get around to actually making it.  Of course, there are the pink scissors with the flowers on them (small and large – they came in a set) .  No real reason to have them except that they are pretty and I like them.  I have my mother-in-law’s pinking shears, my Aunt Anna’s pinking shears and I now have my grandmother’s pinking shears.  Truth be told, I never use them.  They hurt my hands to use.   I also have a couple pair of scissors that I honestly don’t remember where they came from but they are part of the family now.

Now, I am not so sure that I have as many pair of scissors as my bestest friend does but after looking at all the scissors and reflecting back on my thought of  “Holy Cow, I’m getting like Sharon!”  I realized that’s not a bad thing at all.  She is the best friend anyone could ever have and if I am like her even in this one little way, well that is a very good thing.

Happy sewing everyone.  And BFF, keep those scissors sharp so when I come to visit, we can cut things up and then sew them back together.

Bye for now all.

Ginny

 

 

 

Hot August Days

 

We are in the middle of a heat wave for sure so what does one do to keep themselves busy while being inside all day.   This is what was in my craft basket today:

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I have put the last row on my lattice quilt and now on to adding the borders.  My first border will be  1 1/2″ white strips, then I will put a 3″ border of the tangerine and finally, a 4″ border of the green.  I was trying to decide what to do as far as batting.  I want this to be a “summer” quilt so I don’t really want warmth.  Just a light cover on a cool summer night— which would NOT be tonight for sure.  🙂   After  a bit of research,  I finally came to the  decision that  I would not be using any batting.   I’m just going to put the top and the backing together,  “quilt” it with some straight line diagonal stitching following the lines of the lattice strips.   I will use the Ambrosia Jelly Role for the binding.    And what will I be using for the backing?  I am going to experiment and use Seersucker.  Seersucker just screams summer to me.  Not sure how it will work but since it’s not a gift  I’m going to try it.

There are a number of  quilts on my list that need to be done before Christmas so I will be quite busy over the next few months.  I also have lots of other projects to work on so the workroom will be buzzing starting in a few weeks.  The first thing on my To Do list was to decide what patterns I wanted to use for each of the quilts.  The decisions have been made, most of the material has been gotten and now on to the cutting.  But, not until I finish my lattice quilt!  That has been in my “craft basket” for quite some time and was in the category of UFO (Unfinished Object).  But no longer.  It will be finished!

Keep cool everyone.   See you soon.

Ginny

 

 

August already!

I’ve been keeping busy but not a ton of time in my sewing room.  That seems to happen in the summertime.  I did have time to add a “new” bookshelf to my sewing room.  It is now home to my solid color fabric, some fat quarters and my quilting magazines.

Jpeg

Jpeg

I actually have made a few small things and got back to work on my lattice quilt.  Four more rows to go on that and it will be time to add the borders.  It was actually supposed to be my “summer quilt” for this year but that didn’t happen.  It will make it onto the bed next spring for sure though.

And what else is in my craft basket you might ask?  Well I’ve been collecting the license plates for the row x row experience this summer.  DSC03154

Here are three of them and a pattern for showing them off.   No, I didn’t get to actually go to visit Missouri Star Quilt Company but I was able to order their license plate.  I’ve got a few more to collect this year.    I am sure that these license plates will not be made into the wallhanging until winter is in full swing.   You see I have my usual “got to make by the holidays” list and I also have a different list this year too.  My “want to make before my grandbaby arrives” list!  That event will also take place in December so those sewing machines will be humming away.

For now, I’ll continue to enjoy the summertime and spend lots of time outdoors and organize my ideas and lists.  I think that maybe I need to get into some hand appliqueing so that I can be working on projects while enjoying the beach, the backyard or the front porch.   Of course the occasional rainstorm is welcome too…. especially if the aftermath is something as beautiful as this:

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Now I am going to settle down with the my M*QC catalog which came in the mail today.

Happy August.

See you soon.

Ginny