Moments..

As we all know, December tends to be the busiest month of them all, especially so for us women! What with the regular cooking, cleaning and shopping, then add purchasing or making gifts, baking, decorating and just plain ole making everything merry for the family. Well that has left little time for anything else but I thought I would share some of my favorite moments of the month so far! (almost none of them quilting moments!)

Bambi, our very old, very cranky cat under the tree. She decided to help decorate....


Even Stuart started to show some holiday spirit! (Wendi don't you DARE tell him I put this picture on here, he will KILL me! LOL)Baby Aidan, my newest daycare child

Rachel helping me cut circles on my GO, she is so funny any time I pull it out to use, she wants to turn the handle!
And this is what the circles were for!

I have been planning this in my head for a while now, Stuart thought it was a great idea, of course it is not finished yet, I still needed to add the border and it still needs quilted, then the ornaments hang around the tree on the border and the kids then put them on the tree, there is a pocket on the back of each ornament for little candies to go into. I can't wait to get it on the frame.
Katina showing me her quilt that she finished. I think she did a lovely job!
A close up of the center.
SNOW, I hate SNOW!!! and we have had a ton! OK so I like it the very first day, then it can go away!
I thought this was pretty!
Oh my favorite part of the month, Torrie won 2nd place for her schools refection's competition, the theme this year was "Together We Can..." by placing second she advanced to the regional judging, well she placed 1st in her school district!!! Now she is on to state! I am so proud of her, her photograph was very well done technically and her subject, "Together we can mend a broken heart" fit into the theme very well. (picture was of one set of hands holding a fabric heart while another set used needle and thread to stitch it back together!) I was thrilled when she took up photography, it was after all what I went to college for, and she managed to fit sewing in there too, yep the nut didn't fall far from the tree with that one! Anyhow I am so proud of her, even if she does not progress any farther she has still done a wonderful job! (oh and that is her best friend Julia next to her, she won 1st.)


My last and almost most favorite moment, Torrie has been getting letters from various colleges for the last 8 months, some days it is rather annoying that all the mail is hers! Scoochy decided that she does NOT get to go to Chicago University. He took this letter and ran! Sorry Chicago the dog has spoken!

Thank you for stopping by, I hope each and every one of you has a Happy Holiday and a Very Merry Christmas. Take a moment to kiss a loved one, hug a friend, and help someone who may need a helping hand this season. Bless each and every one of you.
Ginny

Finished just in time for Christmas!

And not a moment to soon! I started to wonder for a bit if I would ever get these out in the mail. So with out further ado Alindsey's quilt, finished!


A close up of the quilting, love this design.

And the minkee backing, it made for the softest quilt. I vow for next year all children's quilts will be made with minkee backings!
And this is Karen's quilt, I am happy with how it turned out, although purple and yellow will never be my favorite combination I still think it is pretty.
Both of these were queen size.
I did not have enough of the purple for the entire back so she got yellow and purple there too!
And a close up of the quilting, again this is a super cute and easy Panto.

Thanks for looking!
Ginny

Belated Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, spent in the way that makes you most happy, be it with family and friends and large groups of people, or quietly at home with those closest to you.

We never travel during the holidays, so ours was quiet and mostly peaceful (that was until I found out that my fridge had malfunctioned and turned everything in it to ICE)

A quick trip to the store restocked most of our dinner... and then all went off with out a hitch! Torrie had a friend over, Julia is from China and ask is she could come over for dinner, she wanted "an American" Thanksgiving, she is the sweetest girl so we were more than happy to have her, I just about blew her mind when I added rice to the table, I then put it back in the fridge and told her I was only joking, no rice for Thanksgiving!

On the quilting front today has been busy, I had a lady come over and she worked on a quilt, then this evening I finally pieced the backing for Karen's purple quilt, I got it on the frame and have made 4 passes on the panto I am using. The panto is called Whoopsy Daisy, and is very cute, I will edit and add pictures tomorrow! With any luck I will have that quilt finished and off the frame Sunday afternoon, Then I get to piece and quilt a couple of Daycare quilts that have been sitting idle since.. January! Nothing like a little procrastination to add spice to life!
Well I am off to bed, heading over to the shop tomorrow to do some tune up work on the Babylock, oh and a bit of shopping at Joanns, they have batting for 50% off and a 20% coupon, can't pass that one up, buying two rolls of batting, so excited I could jump!
Happy quilting!
Ginny

Bargello in the Round! Finished!

It has been a few days since I last posted! So let me fill you in on my last week.

I will start with my class I did on Saturday... It was a blast. Leanne my student was a fast learner and was really into it, I feel confident that she came away from the class with a brain stuffed full of a new skill, she even rented the machine a second day so she could come back in a practice!

One of the things I did for the class was made up some practice sheets for the students to take home, and I am sending each student home with a dry erase board that way they have something to practice on. I find the dry erase boards an excellent way to teach.

I also got Alindsey's quilt bound and the boarders on Karen's quilt.

My favorite thing I did this week was quilt Torrie's Bargello in the round... This quilt was made by my 16 year old as a graduation present for a friend, she got stalled for a while due to work and school so it lounged around not quite finished. Well she found out last week that her friend will be home for Thanksgiving, so she finished the quilt and ask me to put it on the frame... I spent about 4 hours quilting it, it is a sun rays pattern, and it turned out very very well! I should have gotten a picture of the back too!
So here it is quilted but not bound (mainly because it is hard to hang once it is cut off the backing)

I spent the evening binding it. Now it is finished and ready for her friend.

I have to say this is a beautiful quilt and I am super proud of Torrie for even attempting it!

Well time to run Rach to school.
Thanks for stopping by,
Happy quilting
Ginny

Magic Hour

Last January I pieced a king size quilt at my husbands request as he wanted a new quilt for our bed. After much time elapsed, I am proud to say that Magic Hour is now officially quilted and just needs binding!!!
This is the quilt loaded on the frame. I took me two full Saturdays to quilt!

I always love quilting at this shop for two reasons, the first Bobby the owner is one of the nicest people in the world, she always makes me laugh! Plus the rest of the crew (Darren) are great there is a lot of joking and fun, it just makes for great experience.

A back shot of the quilt on the frame. I have some pretty neat news about this machine, I will share more at the bottom of this post.

Done!!!!!! Yep 6 explanation points I feel so good that I got it done finally. This quilt really is a labor of love.

And a side shot!
One from the other side. 102 inches square... I use the entire frame for this one!


OK so for some cool news....

I mentioned before that I had been ask to teach an intro to quilting class. Well the pictures above were taken at the shop that I taught the class at, and the Jewel in the picture is the machine I am teaching....

Well, news got out that Bobby is now renting her machine, and that we are offering the into class, in the last week we have booked 4, yep 4 classes!!! I am pretty darn excited, after all to be ask to teach was a huge honor, to be ask to teach on a regular basis...pretty darn cool. To make money doing it, well that is a dream come true. I was ask this weekend why I still do daycare, it was suggested that I should quilt and teach full time.... I told her that my long term goal and plans are just that, in 4 years when my youngest graduates high school I plan on closing my daycare and quilting full time. That has been the plan for a few years... looks like it my just come true!

So today I am on Cloud Nine feeling like I am one step closer to my future.
Thanks for stopping by today.
Happy quilting,
Ginny

Oh, and please don't be shy... leave a comment. I don't always get a chance to reply but I do read each and every one and appreciated all who take time to read my little blog.

My Beauty!

What do I have on my frame?

I promised a peek and here it is! This is the butterfly quilt for Alindsey, I am really liking how this quilt is turning out. I used Minkee for the backing and the butterfly quilting is showing beautifully!
While I was taking pictures last night I got to thinking that I don't have any pictures of my beautiful machine, I have pictures from the lady I purchased it from but none of my own. So I took the time to take some good pictures of my beauty. The Homesteader is not a very common machine so I am hoping this will be of interest.

I use my Beauty on a Suzy Q frame, with a Grace carriage, you can see in this picture where Stuart added a go switch for me to do Panto's with. You can also see the panto I am using for this quilt, it is a great pattern and super easy to stitch out.

Another front shot of the machine. The quilt roll is getting pretty large, but so far so not a problem given that this is a queen size quilt with minkee and I am almost at the end of the quilt I am not worried about running out of space.

A nice side shot of the head, the red box on the top is the speed control. When I teach I jokingly tell my students that the trick to quilting with out a regulator is simply much like the sleep number commercials... finding your stitch number I stitch at about a 6 to a 6.5 doing free motion and a pretty solid 5.5 when doing a panto.

Ok, just plain silly but I LOVE how pretty my machine is! Not only does it stitch like a dream, takes any thread I throw at it, but is looks good doing it!

The handle assembly, I will at sometime in the future be adding a set of removable micro handles, but that is some time way down the road. I am going to send my beauty back to the maker in January for a complete retrofit. This is a first generation machine and there have been some upgrades made since she rolled off the line, Jennifer had offered to bring my Beauty up to "new" for a very reasonable amount.

Almost done! Another side shot, you can see the handle for the carriage, I don't use the handle but we did run the thumb switch wire along it, plus it gives me a nice handle for doing pantos.

Last one! I totally and truly love my machine. If you are considering a smaller longarm machine, please consider looking at this machine, mine is a 19" machine, they also make a 22" and if computers are your thing, you can get the side saddle option.
Either way, for a home machine this meets my needs very well. The only reason I rent time on the machine in town is because of my frame limitations. I have a queen size frame and so I rent time when I have a king size to do.

More on that later... I will be finishing Stuarts quilt tomorrow.... stay tuned pictures to follow!
Happy quilting
Ginny

A 5 minute check in! More later I promise.

Sorry I haven't checked in lately, I have been working on three different quilts!
I have been piecing the purple quilt for my step mother, and I have the butterfly quilt on the frame here at home, been quilting butterflies every evening and am almost done. Sorry no pictures I will get some tonight before I pull it off the frame. I have also been working on Stuarts king size quilt at our local shop, they have a king size frame where as I only have a queen size (that will be fixed come my birthday!) So, my Saturdays have been taken up either teaching or working on Magic Hour (Stuarts quilt) I will get a few pictures of it before I take it off the rental frame!

Well, that was it my 5 minute check in! Now off to the chiropractor to get my neck unkinked!

Happy quilting
Ginny

Awesome weekend! I need a better picture of Wendi!

This weekend I did not do this...

nor did I do this.....

I didn't even do this...I did get to see this....And I was delighted that I got to get to spend some time with this...
(Torrie is in the black, Julia in teal, Hannah in pink and Renna in gold)


I did do this...


I got to spent some time with...
(we had ice cream!)

And I did this...
I got to introduce someone to my Homesteader, she is interested in purchasing a mid range machine and wanted to test drive my baby!

But the coolest thing I did was this....
You might wonder what is cool about this... I was ask to teach a beginner class on the Jewel, basic machine use, and intro to quilting, I guess I did a good job because I have been ask back to teach two more classes!

Oh and, I made some....

$$$

I had an awesome weekend!
How was yours?

Another Go Giveaway

So, you all know that I am in love, in love with my Accuquilt GO, well I wanted to let you know that Micki from Irish Muses is giving one away! I have been pretty impressed with Accuquilt and how generious they are, not only have they been giving them away all over blogland, but if you follow along on their facebook page you have the chance every Friday to enter into their Friday Giveaway drawing, how cool is that. So you facebook folks head on over to Accuquilt and hit the like button, then look for the Friday Giveaway, it usually ends at 4 p.m. central time.

Anyhow if you are interested in yet another way to win a GO, Click HERE.... to GO to Micki's blog. Her giveaway ends on Nov. 5th, while you are there, read her posts, she is a very nice and interesting person!

Oh and Good Luck!
Happy Quilting
Ginny

Progress and Pumpkins!

MY FAVORITE PHOTO OF THE WEEKEND!!!

Say HI to Wendi's Daughter Jessica!

Wow, what a great weekend! How could it get better, got some quilting done, went to the pumpkin patch with friends and family, got lost in a corn maze and got to watch my daughter do a little sword fighting demonstration! Yep great weekend!




This is Morgen, a few weeks ago she had the opportunity to take a Stage Fighting class. Friday and Saturday she was part of a group that got to demo what they learned during intermission at her high school play.

The whole gang, right after we "escaped" from the corn maze!

Stuart with his perfect pumpkin!

Torrie, was very thrilled that mom was taking her picture.

Morgen, got her "perfect pumpkin"


On our way out of the patch, I get sad when I think that this will probably be our last year going to the pumpkin patch, makes me sad.

Morgen and Me.

I have been working hard on Alindsey's quilt, and finally got the top done last night, The butterflies are all one and stitched down, now to finish Karen's and then both will go on the frame.And a close up of the butterflies, or at least this little one trying to fly right off the quilt!

So, another weekend come and gone, did you get any quilting done?
feel free to share!
Happy quilting,
Ginny

Oh I almost forgot! I got my little Halloween wall hanging done too!