Word Art Wednesday

It has been some time, but I have made a little space to make cards and this one will be going to my Sweet Daughter in Law.
This is one of my favorite verses!   I also love the freebie on the Word Art Wednesday blog!  It is a wonderful stop in your day for a beautiful devotion by Karen Letchworth

Here is my card

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

Birthday Challenge

Yesterday was my 56th Birthday, and I had a lovely day!  Lots of cards and phone calls , I felt very loved!

One of the  things I like to do every year is challenge myself to accomplish something new.  This has become more important and fun since the kids have grown up and I have more time.

This year I am going to do something pretty radical: I'm not going to purchase any of my clothes, I am going to make all of them.  I have the skill, I have the machines and I have the time.  My tastes  and life style are simple so I won't need any ball gowns or lame suits.  I need cool and comfortable for this HOT climate I live in.  I need what I have a very hard time finding, 3/4 sleeves, higher necklines and long skirts.   Steve also wants me to start making his dress shirts.  I can do this, I have 2 sergers and 4 really good sewing machines. I have been altering  everything from cammo jackets to wedding gowns for the last 14 years, I can do this.

In years past I have bought way too many clothes, most of the time I purchased things and they didn't quite fit, they weren't comfortable, so I'd just buy more till I found the right thing and then I wore it out.   Here in Texas I have found some wonderful fabric stores and I have found the fabrics I love and would want to wear.  I love Asian influence in clothing and those shapes fit me well.  I'll post as I progress through this challenge.

 The second thing I want to do is become an expert at hand embroidery, that requires practice and I intend to make the time and do it.  I have the text resources and video resources, I have basic skills so I intend to really perfect them. I'll post my learning path on this too.

Last year I challenge myself to have a completely whole foods kitchen and start grinding my own flours and come up with really good homemade bread.  I did it and I am so glad I did!

How about you?  What would you like to make happen in your Life??

Proverbs 23:7a says: "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" I want to think positive life changing things so that I can them.  I may be taking this out of context a tiny bit, but I think the principle holds true. We never do anything without thinking it first. I want to be a proverbs 31 virtuous woman, and that won't happen because I simply want to be one , it will happen because I Pray and ask for the Lords help and start thinking and seeing as he leads me on that path.  I hope you find a challenge path that will bring you joy! 

Thanks for stopping by,

Ginny M

WOYWW#369

I think the last WOYWW I participated in was 341ish , not sure but it has bee a long time!!  No cards on my desk for the last few months, I am sure they will be back when I can eek out some space and time.  But for right now My Work desk is occupied by mostly work:

This would be desk#1  and I am making 300 Zipper pouches.  I Am using my hobby machine right now, my work machine needed a new part, actually it fell through it's cabinet and when it landed the plug got crushed. So I have a new plug and new cabinet hinges coming in.  The machine is a tank of a singer 201. Lovely for work sewing.  Lesson learned: don't Micky mouse cabinet hinges!

Work Desk #2

Ahh Embroidery station and also where I prepare work sewing

and then # 3 work desk maybe I can find some room to stamp here, I just put this larger table here yesterday:

That crazy picture on my screen is my sweet crazy husband who is always making me laugh.  I was trying to take a picture of horses by a river.  

The Stamps are  waiting for me !!

I hope you enjoyed this little peek, you can go here at Jan's blog to pick up the rest of the World Wide Craft Desk Tour  Our Miss Julia is on a recovery leave after a very serious surgery, I am sure she would appreciate prayer and goodwill sent her way!

Thanks for stopping by,

Ginny M.

One of those nights

Last night I had one of those nights. you know you go to bed and your menopausal endocrine system says, 'and just why do you think you need to sleep?  Get up and enjoy those hot flashes and get something done!!   Oh Well,   I did and had a lovely time.
I got up at 1 am and made some raisin toast from the fresh bread I made during the day

Pulled out my hoop , pushed start on a Colin Frith movie and finished my section of my yellow color study:

It will be off to the next stitcher  tomorrow and then on to 4 more!!  Due back sometime around the beginning of 2017!  In the mean time I will start the wall hanging this will be the center of.

It has been a very hot 100+ day here in South west Texas and now a lovely storm is blowing in. it dropped 10 degrees in about 5 minutes  ahhhh

Hope you are having a great day!  Thanks for stopping by

Ginny M

Lack of funds and power tools is a mother of invention

Lack of funds and power tools is a mother of invention, I say that not because I can't afford to shell out $150 for a sewing platform, I just refuse too! I also have a garage full of power tools, only that garage is 2,000 miles away!  So this is a real hack job at creating a platform for my sewing machine.

I purchased this beautiful Vigorelli sewing machine on Ebay for 80.00 included shipping.  The machine sewed perfectly right out of the box.  The stitch system is a little different than the average sewing machine so I did need to find a manual on line ($1.00). The reason I wanted this machine was the high powered motor and it's reputation for perfect stitching, it also has the super sized L bobbin- a very important attribute for commercial sewing.  I hope to  someday put this in an industrial table with a servo motor.  These Italian made machines are basically the same machine as the Swiss made Pfaff machines.  Same metal camstack, cleated drive belt and a two belt motor system. they run like a race car!

I had one of these machines about 12 years ago and then sold it.  I have regretted selling it ever since.

It came with a case in pristine condition, but it did not come with the sewing platform/plate.  The plates aren't imperative, but if you are sewing for hours it is really helpful.

There are lots of sewing tables/platforms for sale anywhere between $100-$300 and you can make one for around $30.00.  I made mine for no cost at all.  May not look the best, but it was free and I was able to use it right away!

I used a block of firm foam, one of the pieces that was actually used in the box that the machine  was shipped in!  

I traced and carved, no technology or math involved!!

It sits just right and supports the fabric nicely

I hope to put it in a  table - when I have one and when I have room for one!  Until then this little hack job works just fine!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

Blankets of Love

I received a wonderful box yesterday form my Heart Strings (yahoo group) Friend Nikki.  This is actually the second box of "strings Nikki has sent me.  Her kind heart is helping me to help others.

This box weighed a Ton!! 

Beautiful Clean fabrics waiting to go into a quilt!

Most of these pieces were already cut in to strips - to make a string quilt! there were also many other shapes and random fabric bits.

I have a system to keep these and help me quilt them up. Odd shape pieces go into a "Bits Bib" large pieces go into my "To be Cut Bin"  The string get sorted in color order and theses stay on a shelf until I am ready to quilt.

to give you an idea what a heart string quilt looks like, here is one I made a few years ago: This is one of my first ones.  It isn't perfect but I'm not sure the guy at the Springfield rescue mission that received it cared much.  It was pretty, made with Love and Warm!!

After 30 minutes of sorting I still wasn't through this jam packed box!!

After the box was emptied my Bins were full and so weren't my string bins!!  I have a lot of fabric here and I look forward to getting these quilts done up when my friend Pam comes back from vacation!

If you would like more info on the the HeartStrings Group, what we do and how we do it, 

go here:     Heart Strings Project 

Thank you Nikki!!!

An effort of peace in your corner of the world.

I was reading in proverbs 25 today.  There is a very intriguing verse; 25:11

    A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

 (some translations use the word settings like place settings)

        A picture something like this comes to mind:

But what does it mean?  With out going into a diatribe long enough to send you into a coma.

It means a sincere word of encouragement is rare and beautiful and precious to the person who receives it.  

  Regardless of the fact that man does not record every word spoken God does and I want to speak the mercy he has so freely given me, to someone who needs it.  We all know who that person is. It the persons that we live with, work with, bump into.  It is the spouse that is having a bad day, the child that didn't get that nap., the teenager who feels the worlds colliding, the parent that can't keep up.  It is even you, look in the mirror and tell your self to breath. Tell your self , tell your family Jesus loves them, Show them by your love for them He has the whole world in His hands. Give them a golden apple, a little unexpected treasure in their day.  Like Mikey said, try it you'll like it!
Thanks for stopping by!
Ginny M

Building a house

I spent most of my day doing work sewing yesterday, re-arranging my work stations lugging boxes of paper into storage (under the bed). That under the bed space is really terrific, this bed is a little higher than the ones I have had in the past.  A case of paper slides right under!

 I also got bit by some Texas critter, I have no idea what. I didn't see anything  - but I felt something like a paper cut in that fleshy section between my thumb and index finger on my left hand.  It swelled up, turned bright red and I had shooting burning pain in my hand for the next 14 hours.  It still hurts today and there is swelling but no mark. Benadryl insured a lovely night sleep and a groggy morning.
I think a microscopic one of these attacked me:

While Steve was checking the scores last night I pulled out my Yellow CQ study.  This needs to be in the mail in a few days so I need to finish up my section.  I look forward to receiving my first partners block - you just never know what it will be like!

Some years ago I made a needle book to keep my hand needles in and it actually made it here to
Texas:

there are several pages and my needles are kept in an order that I like to work from.

Many people new to embroidery gravitate to the spear size needle.  These larger needles have bigger eyes to thread but they make learning the stitches difficult.  Starting with a smaller needle while learning the stitches will make your sewing time easier.  Basically you are tying knots with needle and thread and a bigger needle will make that difficult.

Another no-no is long thread, using a thread longer than 18 inches is shooting your self in the foot.  You will spend more time de-tangling your thread than stitching. 

Another wonderful tool is the french curve, these come in sets and they range in price from $8.00 to $25.00 you are looking at one from the $8.00 set

You simply lay it on your fabric and trace.  You do need to use a little imagination, but this tool helps my stitching to look a little better.  With CQ much of the work is done on seams so you have that as a guide too.

Yellow is a difficult color to work with, it is difficult to get good contrasting colors, fortunately gold is considered a yellow family member. My next bit of embroidery will be flowers:  I used my french curve to draw a line to stitch on 

I have an idea of stitches to use and made these lines accordingly.  Hopefully I will have that done tonight!


I was reading in Proverbs this morning , the 24th Chapter.  So much of it speaks of the chaos going on in the world today.  I am just a small blogging house wife in south west Texas, I doubt my life will have much of a global impact or any affect in the Grand Scheme of things.  But one day I will stand before the Lord and an the book of my life will be opened and in that story I want the Lord to say to me "Well Done"!  That means I need to be accountable to Him now, every day.  Reading my bible will keep me on track.  It will keep me from all the many distractions life has to offer (including crafting)  I believe the Lord wants us to enjoy life and the gifts and talents he has given us, but it all needs to stay in balance.   As a wife and mother (and just me)  have spent the last 40 years building my house.  I started my hope chest when I was 15, I knew then my decisions would have long reaching affects. I am so glad I had that vision, I didn't do drugs, smoke or drink, I tried to stay out of trouble and made peace in my life a goal.  Of course it wasn't perfect, none of the events in our lives allow for that
.
 Proverbs 24: 1-2 says :

Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:

And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

I am privileged to be a woman in the 21st century and living here in the USA, I have unparalleled opportunity. I can worship and live with freedom ( although that is changing - but no surprise we are living in the end times and these things will happen)

I look back at my life and I am thankful for all the blessing and I look forward knowing that Wisdom will never leave me as long as I desire it - and that The Lord will never Leave me or forsake me.  

If you don't know the Lord or real Christianity, I highly encourage you to pick up a bible and start reading in the gospel of John  and Get to know Him and  the plan he has for your life!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

Texas Mornings and a humming bird

One thing I have seen in abundance here in San Antonio is Humming Birds!  I have never seen so many, it is not unusual to see 20 of them at one flowering bush!!  Because of all the rain we have had here in the last month, the country side is bursting with flowers!!

I love to watch these sweet little birds!

 I have Incorporated that into my CQ Yellow color study ; here is a little bit I have done this week:

  It is a little hard to translate this into needle work of this kind.  If I were doing Japaneses Silk embroidery  using traditional silk on silk (Think Helen Stevens) I would have a stunning smooth image

Here is one of Helen's' beautiful creations:

But for my CQ block I am taking lots of artistic license with this humming bird: I've used a rubber stamp  to stamps  my image.

I used 2 strand Floche, 2 strand DMS variegated  and 2 strand metallic

Looking at the bird after the fact, I probably should have chosen a block without flowers.  Part of the fun of doing CQ  It is very impromptu and  FUN, nothing serious going on here!

I love the Mornings here in Texas, they are so peaceful.  We've settled in to a very healthy rhythm of life  and we are feeling very blessed.  Morning for me  is the time to get things done, it is just to hot after 3 to think about anything other than winding the day up - for me at least.

My mornings are up early, time in the Word and prayer, the little bit of house work required here and then I walk three miles with my sweet friend Pam. Generally I work from 10-3. Time for a swim and dinner.  I feel very fortunate in that I am living a life I have actually dreamed of.  Of course I miss my family and friends back east that goes without saying but I am grateful since we had to move for work and for calling, we moved to the south west and love it!

I read this morning in Proverbs 22:

'He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor'

I don't want my eyes to ever stop seeing need , I always want to have that drink and that food and that cloak and that visit  for the person who needs. 

I know I shall always be in need of the Love and Mercy of the Lord and I do not want to deny those which The lord brings into my life. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Ginny M

The Alamo in the morning.

Strawberry moon and my family

Although a lot of friends and family  read my blog, my main group of readers are overseas. I try to keep the blog informative and fun.  Unfortunately I have someone reading my blog that has a great deal of ill will toward me and my family. In an effort to protect my family I will not be posting about my kids or grand kids. I love them and they are much more important to me than any of the things I am involved in and if anyone that wants to have a relationship with any of us, they need to do so and not troll my blog and then send things in a mysterious manner - this is not the day and age to do that.  So if you and I are friends you will be in the know and will not need to keep up with the personal details on my blog.   I hope this is clear enough.  Enough said .


On to more pleasant things!  Tonight I am working on a new to me embroidery tool:, the punch needle, I am planning on doing a humming bird body  for my Yellow Color study.

And snapping a few pictures of the Strawberry moon!

Thanks for stopping by and for all of you that leave me sweet comments and emails that encourage, Thank you I really appreciate it!!

Ginny M

A Happy Surprise!

 Saturdays are a great kick back and relax day for us, today we did some tag sailing - nothing like the tag sales back East.  After about an hour I got car sick and we decided to go downtown to a fun little shop called yarn barn. We had a lovely conversation with an owner and I picked up a few yummy things for my CQ in Yellow Project

Beautiful Tapestry wool!

After that Steve brought me to a discount fabric warehouse called Fabrictopia, What a happy surprise- a discount fabric house!!!  The is a pretty amazing place 7 miles from my house!

Then lunch at a great local restaurant called Barrio Bistro, wonderful Artsy Organic  food  plus the owner chef stops by the table to chat!

All that and it was 101 here today!!



I hope you are having a great weekend!
Thanks for stopping by,
Ginny M

Crazy

Quilting, I think I love Crazy quilting  Art quilts, Contemporary quilts and type of quilting that does not require perfect piecing!  My sister Robin is a master quilter, and her skills are amazing! When I try to do a traditional quilt I get very frustrated!  I knew how to sew, I am a contract sewer and have do all kinds of things from very simple to very complicated.  I think Robin got all the DNA coding for traditional quilting!

I'm at the very beginning of a "Round Robin" crazy quilt color study (Yellow) with the group CQforNewbies on Yahoo!  I will turn this finished block into the center of a wall hanging for my bedroom which is gray and yellow.

Crazy quilting is a wonderful media to use up bits of fabrics,

I'm assembling yellows to make my patch work block.  I will have 4-6 partners in this round robin, each will sew their bit and mail it on, in the end I will have a very beautiful and unique block

I also have to gather yellows for my work on my partners blocks

Yes, I use rubber stamps to stamp an image on the fabric and then embroider!

I am doing a humming bird on mine

Sewing the patches on the foundation

This is my Vigorelli 'Amica' sewing machine.  Made in Italy this is a very fine machine and it sews like a race car!!

Here is the block before I sew on margins (makes it easier to hoop).

I re read the rules and discovered my block was three inches to large so I had to cut it down a bit!

This is referred to as the naked block, well almost, I added a daisy!

I 'll show you the bits as I do them, I was able to do a beak and a few feathers tonight!

If you are interested in surface embroidery and CQ, Here are two of my favorite sites:

Needle and Thread by Mary Corbitt

and 

Pin Tangle by Sharon Boggin

Take a peek, lot of eye candy and inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M