I love going to the fabric store... I know women who love to shop and look at jewelry, I know some who love to shop for make-up, I know several who have shoe addictions (you know who you are!) and I know some who love to shop for clothing... for me it is fabric, I love the colors. When I walk into the fabric store it is like walking into a rainbow, all bright and cheery, different textures, shimmery, bold, and pastel all in one. No matter what my mood I am always happy in the fabric store, and I ALWAYS go over budget!
I have not been feeling well this last week, I am not "sick" no cough, or stuffy nose just a sore throat and all over body aches... Today I was finally feeling up to leaving the house, still tired but needed to pick up the backing for the Magic Hour quilt, and another that is in the works (I will be taking pictures soon and showing it off). So off to Joann's I went, had a lovely visit with Annie one of my DC moms who works there, she was shopping too! Got the backing I needed plus a couple extra yards! Oh and cutting mats were on sale so I splurged and got a new cutting mat, my old one was just about wore through on the 0 line! All in all the trip was a success, fun and I feel 100% better, lighter in the pocket book, but since everything was on sale I won't complain too much!
So with that, I will wish you all a wonderful upcoming weekend, and remember when you are feeling those winter blues... go to the fabric store and take a stroll inside a rainbow.
Happy quilting.
Ginny
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Magic hour update and a new haircut!
Good afternoon!
Oh yea it is almost FRIDAY and boy do I need a Friday this week!
I have been super busy working on the Magic Hour quilt and am down to putting on the final two boarders! I don't usually make quilts this large and now I remember why! I am excited about getting it quilted. Karen O from http://quiltsnkaboodle.com/ (this is her website) or even better, visit her blog here... http://quiltsnkaboodle.blogspot.com/ Anyhow, Karen has agreed to quilt my quilt for me. Now there are a couple of things you should know, Karen was the wonderful lady who we contacted shortly after Hurricane Ike came ashore a year and a half ago, she generously accepted and handed out many many quilts donated by quilters all over the country. Karen is also a fabulous professional longarm quilter, A-1 dealer and has been a huge inspiration for me. By reading her blog and looking at pictures of her quilting I have been able to learn enough to apply to my own quilting that I am no longer embarrassed to actually show my quilts off! Any how now, this wonderful lady will be quilting my quilt for me and I could not be happier! She did warn me that it will take about 6 months before it get it back, but that is OK, you know what they say, all good things come to those who wait!
Here is a picture of the almost finished quilt.
And another
Oh I got a new haircut too!!! Love this picture, you can't see the GREY!
Well, time to pick up the little one from school, hope you all have a wonderful productive weekend. And as always, thanks for stopping by!
Ginny
Oh yea it is almost FRIDAY and boy do I need a Friday this week!
I have been super busy working on the Magic Hour quilt and am down to putting on the final two boarders! I don't usually make quilts this large and now I remember why! I am excited about getting it quilted. Karen O from http://quiltsnkaboodle.com/ (this is her website) or even better, visit her blog here... http://quiltsnkaboodle.blogspot.com/ Anyhow, Karen has agreed to quilt my quilt for me. Now there are a couple of things you should know, Karen was the wonderful lady who we contacted shortly after Hurricane Ike came ashore a year and a half ago, she generously accepted and handed out many many quilts donated by quilters all over the country. Karen is also a fabulous professional longarm quilter, A-1 dealer and has been a huge inspiration for me. By reading her blog and looking at pictures of her quilting I have been able to learn enough to apply to my own quilting that I am no longer embarrassed to actually show my quilts off! Any how now, this wonderful lady will be quilting my quilt for me and I could not be happier! She did warn me that it will take about 6 months before it get it back, but that is OK, you know what they say, all good things come to those who wait!
Here is a picture of the almost finished quilt.
And another
Oh I got a new haircut too!!! Love this picture, you can't see the GREY!
Well, time to pick up the little one from school, hope you all have a wonderful productive weekend. And as always, thanks for stopping by!
Ginny
Friday, January 15, 2010
Magic Hour!
Good Morning, its FRIDAY!!! Oh how I love Fridays! A very busy weekend awaits, hair appointments, dog to the groomer (I love my groomer she is the best!) Grocery shopping, and I get to spend just a little time working on my latest quilt.
For ages my Darling hubby has been asking for a new quilt for our bed, the first one I made is getting rather holy, plus, it is kind of boring. Just a simple Trip Around The World, done in shades of blue.
So recently I purchased Eleanor Burns Day and Night book, oh what pretty quilt, went to Joann's got the perfect fabric, and got to work.....
This is just a quick layout, on the dining room table, I am still ironing and sewing blocks and will be for a while. But I wanted to share with you all a sneak peek!
Now, there is a cute little story to go with this quilt, when I envisioned this quilt, I wanted something in blues, you see Stuart loves blue, as I started piecing I knew in my mind how it was going to look.
I described it to Stuart as "you know in the summer time just after the sun has set, when you look to the west and the sky is still blue, but then as you look to the east the sky changes colors to purple then dark blue, and you can see the stars coming out, what to they call that?"
His reply....Twilight.
Now, I know many of you are great fans of Stephanie Meyer.... I for one can not stand her books so there is NO WAY IN HELL I am going to name this quilt Twilight!!!!
Now Stuart, is an engineer... their minds don't work like other peoples.. He pulls out his Old Farmers Almanac and looks up twilight. There are three twilight's, the first is when the sun is from 0 to 6 degrees below the horizon, the second is called nautical twilight, when the sun is between 6 to 12 degrees below the horizon and there is astronomical twilight 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon... his suggestion... we call it "Between 12 to 18 degrees"
Lets hear a big resounding NO from you all!
So, the next day (yes we are coming to the end of the story) I am telling the Girls about the conversation with Dad... Morgen my younger daughter looks at me and say "Mom, you should name it Magic Hour"
Why Magic Hour ask I.... her reply " in the movie Reign of Fire (good movie BTW, about dragons, the end of civilization, and Matthew McConaughey all tough and buff!) Anyhow, in the movie the Matthew, tells Christian Bale that "the dragons have excellent daytime vision, and can see even better at night, But twilight is the only time they have a hard time seeing, that their vision is not as good and that is when they can fight and defeat the dragons, that is Magic Hour".
And thus a quilt was named!
Hope you all have a wonderful and productive weekend!
Gin
For ages my Darling hubby has been asking for a new quilt for our bed, the first one I made is getting rather holy, plus, it is kind of boring. Just a simple Trip Around The World, done in shades of blue.
So recently I purchased Eleanor Burns Day and Night book, oh what pretty quilt, went to Joann's got the perfect fabric, and got to work.....
This is just a quick layout, on the dining room table, I am still ironing and sewing blocks and will be for a while. But I wanted to share with you all a sneak peek!
Now, there is a cute little story to go with this quilt, when I envisioned this quilt, I wanted something in blues, you see Stuart loves blue, as I started piecing I knew in my mind how it was going to look.
I described it to Stuart as "you know in the summer time just after the sun has set, when you look to the west and the sky is still blue, but then as you look to the east the sky changes colors to purple then dark blue, and you can see the stars coming out, what to they call that?"
His reply....Twilight.
Now, I know many of you are great fans of Stephanie Meyer.... I for one can not stand her books so there is NO WAY IN HELL I am going to name this quilt Twilight!!!!
Now Stuart, is an engineer... their minds don't work like other peoples.. He pulls out his Old Farmers Almanac and looks up twilight. There are three twilight's, the first is when the sun is from 0 to 6 degrees below the horizon, the second is called nautical twilight, when the sun is between 6 to 12 degrees below the horizon and there is astronomical twilight 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon... his suggestion... we call it "Between 12 to 18 degrees"
Lets hear a big resounding NO from you all!
So, the next day (yes we are coming to the end of the story) I am telling the Girls about the conversation with Dad... Morgen my younger daughter looks at me and say "Mom, you should name it Magic Hour"
Why Magic Hour ask I.... her reply " in the movie Reign of Fire (good movie BTW, about dragons, the end of civilization, and Matthew McConaughey all tough and buff!) Anyhow, in the movie the Matthew, tells Christian Bale that "the dragons have excellent daytime vision, and can see even better at night, But twilight is the only time they have a hard time seeing, that their vision is not as good and that is when they can fight and defeat the dragons, that is Magic Hour".
And thus a quilt was named!
Hope you all have a wonderful and productive weekend!
Gin
Monday, January 4, 2010
Quilt Hanger and Christmas.
Happy New Years to all, I know I know I am a couple of days late, but better late than never!
We had a nice quiet Christmas here, just the way I like it! It was just Stuart and the Girls and I we woke up late (one plus of having teenagers, no more 6 am Christmas wake ups!) opened presents, then just hung out for the morning playing with our new toys, I made a nice rib roast for dinner... yea quiet!
Then that weekend the Girls and I went to the movies, Sherlock Holmes and Avatar.. both good movies, but I have to say I highly recommend seeing Avatar, that is a beautiful movie!
Then, the rest of the week I just lounged around, did some quilting but am having problems with my stitch regulator so not as much quilting done as I would have liked :(
I did want to make this post about something other than just our Holidays... and after my last post and Christine's questions about my quilt hanger I thought I would share a little about how I hang my quilts.
You see I hate and I mean HATE making hanging pockets for quilts, and one of my daycare parents has the best hanging system ever so I thought I would share (after I used the idea myself of course). :)
First a picture....
As you can see, it is just simply a curtain rod (purchased for less than ten dollars at Walmart) and curtain rings, the rings have little clamps on them that I use to hold the quilt. The rings come in a pack of 7 for $5.00 So for about 15 dollars you have a nice quilt hanger.The thing I like about this system is the fact that the rod is adjustable in length so if I have a larger quilt I can extend the rod to accommodate the size. Plus you can get just about any finish you want to suit your decor!
I really do love the fact that I can now hang any quilt I want and I don't have to have a sewn in pocket!!!
Full credit and thanks goes to Kim my wonderful daycare mom who showed me her hanger!
Well, I guess that is it for today, time to get to work... Thanks for stopping by and feel free to ask any questions you many have!
Ginny
Monday, December 14, 2009
Putting the new quilt frame to good use!
Good Monday to all!
My friend Wendi yelled at me last night about my total lack of blogging! So I thought I would get with it today and play a little catch up.
First of all though.... a warning or two, this post contains a lot of pictures... second.... IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY DAYCARE PARENTS OR A FAMILY MEMBER STOP NOW READ NO FURTHER AS THIS POST CONTAINS PICTURES OF YOU CHRISTMAS PRESENT!
OK now that we have taken care of that.. on to the eye candy!
And the back, perfectly pieced!
I have also been working on a quilt for my sister in law, the original coffee queen! I found this fabric back in October, and thought it would make a great quilt, I purchased what I thought was enough, well I got down to three blocks left and discovered I was about a yard short of the light brown fabric, I went back to the store but of course they were out and this is a discontinued fabric... so on to the Internet, found one place that had it, ordered a yard and viola, here it is, Ruth's coffee quilt! I really like it, I think it is fun.
Here are a couple of close up shots, you can see the different fabrics used. I wish I could get more of these fabric as I would love to make another like this. Oh well, I guess I should have bought more when I had the chance!
Another close up shot... I really did like making this one, it was simple but cute.
When I was the "I Believe" panels at my local Craft Warehouse I fell in love, these are the cutest, so I purchased enough to make a wall hanging for each of my daycare families, I made a total of 5. 4 to give to my families and one I donated to my daughters school for their winter fest. silent auction, the last bid I saw was for $35.00 not bad for a little $6 dollar panel!
Yet another coffee quilt. I actually made this one this last summer it has been in line for it's turn on the frame, I quilted it with coffee words all over, think it turned out great. This is a gift for my friends.... Won't say her name because she knows who she is and she reads my blog and yells at me when I don't post ;)
Yes this is me, yes I am in my pajamas and yes it is hard to bind a quilt when you have not one but two helpers!
And this is the quilt I was binding, This is for one of my Daycare kiddo's Emma. Emma, is a fish girl, she loves marine animals "her words" and adores Nemo... so I made her a Nemo quilt, The black squares were machine embroidered with line are marine animals, we have Bruce the shark, Dude Crush, The Whale, Gill, Peach the Starfish, Dory and of course Nemo!
Here is a little close up of the line work, you can see there are even Jelly fish on the printed fabric!
My favorite, I quilted it all in waves! And it totally makes this quilt, I have to say this is probably my favorite quilt I have made this year, it was fun and turned out exactly as I had planned, now it was no piecing challenge but sometimes that is OK. And I know that the little girl who is getting this quilt will love it!
Well, that is all for now, I have more to show but must needs get to work.
Thank you for stopping by, and feel free to say hi.
Ginny
My friend Wendi yelled at me last night about my total lack of blogging! So I thought I would get with it today and play a little catch up.
First of all though.... a warning or two, this post contains a lot of pictures... second.... IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY DAYCARE PARENTS OR A FAMILY MEMBER STOP NOW READ NO FURTHER AS THIS POST CONTAINS PICTURES OF YOU CHRISTMAS PRESENT!
OK now that we have taken care of that.. on to the eye candy!
The first quilt I would like to share with you is actually not one of my own. This quilt was made by my friend Wendi for her Husband, a little back story, Wendi's Darling hubby is a car sales man, so naturally he love the movie Cars... thus inspired the theme for his quilt. Now Wendi is nothing if not a perfectionist! And this quilt is probably one of the most perfectly pieced quilts I have ever seen! What makes this quilt so special was that Wendi got it done just in time for her husbands quadruple bypass surgery!
Cars, Cars, Cars, Cars, Cars!
Cars, Cars, Cars, Cars, Cars!
This is the center of the quilt, each square was fussy cut to show on of the characters from the movie!
And the back, perfectly pieced!
I have also been working on a quilt for my sister in law, the original coffee queen! I found this fabric back in October, and thought it would make a great quilt, I purchased what I thought was enough, well I got down to three blocks left and discovered I was about a yard short of the light brown fabric, I went back to the store but of course they were out and this is a discontinued fabric... so on to the Internet, found one place that had it, ordered a yard and viola, here it is, Ruth's coffee quilt! I really like it, I think it is fun.
Here are a couple of close up shots, you can see the different fabrics used. I wish I could get more of these fabric as I would love to make another like this. Oh well, I guess I should have bought more when I had the chance!
Another close up shot... I really did like making this one, it was simple but cute.
When I was the "I Believe" panels at my local Craft Warehouse I fell in love, these are the cutest, so I purchased enough to make a wall hanging for each of my daycare families, I made a total of 5. 4 to give to my families and one I donated to my daughters school for their winter fest. silent auction, the last bid I saw was for $35.00 not bad for a little $6 dollar panel!
Yet another coffee quilt. I actually made this one this last summer it has been in line for it's turn on the frame, I quilted it with coffee words all over, think it turned out great. This is a gift for my friends.... Won't say her name because she knows who she is and she reads my blog and yells at me when I don't post ;)
A close up of the coffee quilt.
Yes this is me, yes I am in my pajamas and yes it is hard to bind a quilt when you have not one but two helpers!
And this is the quilt I was binding, This is for one of my Daycare kiddo's Emma. Emma, is a fish girl, she loves marine animals "her words" and adores Nemo... so I made her a Nemo quilt, The black squares were machine embroidered with line are marine animals, we have Bruce the shark, Dude Crush, The Whale, Gill, Peach the Starfish, Dory and of course Nemo!
Here is a little close up of the line work, you can see there are even Jelly fish on the printed fabric!
My favorite, I quilted it all in waves! And it totally makes this quilt, I have to say this is probably my favorite quilt I have made this year, it was fun and turned out exactly as I had planned, now it was no piecing challenge but sometimes that is OK. And I know that the little girl who is getting this quilt will love it!Well, that is all for now, I have more to show but must needs get to work.
Thank you for stopping by, and feel free to say hi.
Ginny
Sunday, November 15, 2009
What a weekend! Got a new quilt frame!
Oh I am so very very tired so will keep this short! I had an awesome quilty weekend, yesterday I started work on the Christmas panels I am making up into wall hangings for all of my Daycare families! I cannot show pictures because some of them read my blog!
Today was the best. Last week I answered an online ad from a nice lady in Idaho who wanted to sell her Suzy Q quilt frame for an AWESOME price! Well, she lives about 8 hours away, so we agreed to meet half way. Today was the day! Torrie got to drive most of the way, with Stuart taking over in the worst snow areas... So, drove 4 hours there, picked up the frame (it is almost new, not a mark on ding on it!) and then 4 hours back, we all went as a "fun family outing" and really did have a nice trip. This is the longest that Torrie has ever driven and she did an excellent job, she drove through snow, ice rain, up mountain passes, and down again, and she got some night time driving too!
We made it home, unloaded, put the seats back in the van and are now all ready to head to bed.
I just had to share my excitement, now all I have to do is find a buyer for my old Grace frame...
Wish me luck.
Ginny
Today was the best. Last week I answered an online ad from a nice lady in Idaho who wanted to sell her Suzy Q quilt frame for an AWESOME price! Well, she lives about 8 hours away, so we agreed to meet half way. Today was the day! Torrie got to drive most of the way, with Stuart taking over in the worst snow areas... So, drove 4 hours there, picked up the frame (it is almost new, not a mark on ding on it!) and then 4 hours back, we all went as a "fun family outing" and really did have a nice trip. This is the longest that Torrie has ever driven and she did an excellent job, she drove through snow, ice rain, up mountain passes, and down again, and she got some night time driving too!
We made it home, unloaded, put the seats back in the van and are now all ready to head to bed.
I just had to share my excitement, now all I have to do is find a buyer for my old Grace frame...
Wish me luck.
Ginny
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
New quilt photos to share
My sincerest apologies...
Here is a couple of close ups of the blocks. Now please remember I am NOT a professional long arm quilter! I am a daycare provider!!! So no judgments on the quality of quilting! please.
These are two of my favorite, the kitty shoe and the flame shoe, Morgen has a lunch bag made from the flame fabric that she carries every day so this was perfect for the quilt, and the kitty, well we own 5 so needed at least one shoe with a cat on it.
Now for something a little different! The story goes like this. I promised to make a quilt for one of my DC moms.. like a year and a half ago! I never quite got to it.. I know BAD Ginny! So last months block lotto at Craft Warehouse was this pretty nine patch maple leaf.. I loved the leaf and made a small 9x9 wall hanging for myself. Kim, the DC mom LOVED it so I offered to make her one. ( I am sure she was thinking yea right!!!) Well I got to work on it the very next day and had the top done with in three days! Then quilted it that weekend, did the binding over the course of the next week, and was able to give the wall hanging to her yesterday! She was thrilled. I still need to put on a label, but will do that once Thanksgiving is over. Now I just need to surprise her with a pretty spring quilt for after the holidays. (BTW, this quilt will hang right in the entry way to her house, it is the first thing you see when you walk in the door!) 
Last but not least... I thought I would share with you all a picture of my darling husband and myself. I don't often publish photos of myself because I am vain and don't like to see pictures of me because it reminds me that I am fat. BUT, I like this picture so here it is. Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch! .JPG)
I have been absent for the last two months, all I can say is life got really really busy during that time and one of the things I let go was my blog, and the other that got put on the back burner was my quilting. As a matter of fact, when I finally made it back out to my sewing room I discovered my calender still said August, and is was really October.
Nothing bad happened during that time, just the usual craziness that is life. We did get the house completely done, the kids went back to school, my work schedule picked up, and of course I got sick, spent 3 weeks fighting the Super Crud, one very nasty cold bug that knocked me on my A**!
Finally about two weeks ago was able to wander out to my room and spend a day getting caught up on projects. I got Morgen's birthday quilt finished! And I was able to start quilting some of the tops that I had done but not yet quilted. One day I locked the doors and quilted 5 wall hangings!
If feels nice to finally get to spend some time on my hobby again. And to be blogging, I have missed you all and will try not to disappear like that again.
I do have a ton of pictures to share, a few of my most recently quilted projects, I will only be able to put up a couple of pictures today as I have not photographed all of them yet.
I will also be sharing our Halloween pictures soon too.
So, enough ramble.. on the the quilts!
This is Morgen's Birthday Quilt! It is truly a Diva quilt! And I love it! This was also my first attempt at applique' I had never done applique' before because I was terrified of it. Well it did not turn out perfect. But it turned out well enough. And the most important thing. Morgen loves it too.
Here is a couple of close ups of the blocks. Now please remember I am NOT a professional long arm quilter! I am a daycare provider!!! So no judgments on the quality of quilting! please.These are two of my favorite, the kitty shoe and the flame shoe, Morgen has a lunch bag made from the flame fabric that she carries every day so this was perfect for the quilt, and the kitty, well we own 5 so needed at least one shoe with a cat on it.Now for something a little different! The story goes like this. I promised to make a quilt for one of my DC moms.. like a year and a half ago! I never quite got to it.. I know BAD Ginny! So last months block lotto at Craft Warehouse was this pretty nine patch maple leaf.. I loved the leaf and made a small 9x9 wall hanging for myself. Kim, the DC mom LOVED it so I offered to make her one. ( I am sure she was thinking yea right!!!) Well I got to work on it the very next day and had the top done with in three days! Then quilted it that weekend, did the binding over the course of the next week, and was able to give the wall hanging to her yesterday! She was thrilled. I still need to put on a label, but will do that once Thanksgiving is over. Now I just need to surprise her with a pretty spring quilt for after the holidays. (BTW, this quilt will hang right in the entry way to her house, it is the first thing you see when you walk in the door!) Last but not least... I thought I would share with you all a picture of my darling husband and myself. I don't often publish photos of myself because I am vain and don't like to see pictures of me because it reminds me that I am fat. BUT, I like this picture so here it is. Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch! Hope you all have enjoyed my latest offerings. I will try to be better about blogging. Thank you all who emailed to ask if everything was OK. I am honored that so many read and worry when I disappear.
Happy Quilting,
Ginny
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