Friday, September 27, 2013

Happy Friday!

Hi Everyone!
I am over visiting one of my favorite blogs today. I am guest hosting over at Ellison Lane today for Jennifer's excellent Back To School Series. I am presenting a tutorial on Reusable Snack and Sandwich bags. These are quick, easy and oh so fun. You can use up some of those scraps that keep multiplying in your scrap basket!

Have you stopped by and checked out the all the great tutorials this week? It's not just for kids, most of the projects can easily be used by grown ups too! So cruise on over and say "Hey" and check it out!

Happy Stitching!
Ginny

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

A Little Paper Piecing you say? SewSewModern3

Do you like to paper piece?  Some call it foundation piecing. I do. I pieced a pineaple mini quilt, back in the day and remember how sharp it made the corners. In the past year I have been sharpening my skills again. In the past month I have been working on a project for my Sew Sew Modern 3 swap partner.....


Yep, it's just a bit of paper piecing. It is my large item for my SewSewModern3 swap partner. It is now finished and on it's way to my partner. I hope she likes it -- really I hope she Loves it!! I do. I used a variety of fabrics trying to bring prominence to the swirl of the star by alternating light and dark in the same color family. I used a variety of low volume fabrics for the background, and that great Ledger print from Carolyn Freidlander's Architextures for the binding.

This is called the Good Luck Star and is by Banner Creek Designs. It is available for purchase on Craftsy. Here is how it all came together:





 I thought the paper piecing would be the most time consuming, but I had more trouble picking out the borders. I actually had 3 different sets of borders on this beauty before I was happy with them. It took a whole Sunday! Who would have thought...

The problem was I wanted the focus to remain on the deeper, saturated colors of the star. To let the swirl and movement stand out. I had envisioned using HST's made up of the fabrics used in the star and a low volume counterpart. I even made all these 2 in HST's. But alas I pieced one border piece and knew it was not going to work. It competed with the design too much, too much going on.

 
So then on to plan B. I envisioned using the coral pearl bracelets as a simple 1inch border all the way around. Nope, didn't work, too dark and really grabbed your attention amidst the quiet low volume fabrics.

 Next I thought about using the teal as the 1 in border....darker... quieter,  just a bit.  No that wasn't going to make it either.

So finally I pulled all the lighter colored fabrics from the star and made a simple pieced 2 in border....and finally the borders "felt right."  Whew! Who thought borders would be the challenge on this project??
 
 
 I used a great Cloud Nine organic cotton print (available at my local JoAnn's) for the back. I loved the color but I wanted to make sure the back was busy enough that it helped hide any flaws in my quilting. And it did. Actually it almost hid the quilting too much. I used a soft pearl grey 50 wt Aurifil cotton thread for both the piecing and quilting, my favorite color and weight for this.


And I went with stitching in the ditch vs. FMQ on this piece. I wanted to outline each and every piece of this geometric wonder. It is not perfect, I did not have a master quilting plan but just went at it and actually worked from the larger outside diamonds in towards the smaller center of the star.I spray basted this with 505, which is a great product! I have never had problems when using 505 (as I have with other basting sprays). On the first border I did simple straight lines and on the second border I stenciled a chain pattern and quilted it. My curves on one side of the chains are much smoother, flowing than the other side, but again it is a learning process.

So there you have it. I must say this project pushed me in my design and  technique, and best of all it turned out just as I had envisioned. I have learned you can't make a quilt or project into something it is not. It always evolves. Sometimes you have to stand back and listen. It will tell you who it is, and  who it isn't...

Stats: 19 in x 19in
Pattern: Good Luck Star by Banner Creek Designs
Technique: Paper Piecing
Quilting: in the ditch
Thread: Aurifil 50wt cotton in soft pearl grey

Thanks for stopping by. Next time I will show you the cute journal cover that was the small item that went along with this for the swap.  UPDATE: I see my partner posted that she had received a package from me -- eek! So excited!

Happy Stitching!
Ginny

PS. Did I mention my secret swap partner was the talented and lovely Elizabeth Dackson from "Don't Call Me Betsy" ?

Edited to remove some duplicate text at the bottom of post.

























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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

UPDATE! New winner of Grandma's Lawn Chair pattern

Hi everyone! A short and sweet update. I never heard back from the original winner of the Grandma's Lawn Chair pattern from the recent blog hop.

So I had the Random Number generator redraw and the lucky winner is.....
drum roll please...
 
 


Congrats Janet! Thanks for stopping by I will be emailing your a PDF copy of the pattern. I would love to see what you make with it!
 
Happy Stitching!
Ginny
 
 
 

 
 
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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Back to School Blog Hop

Hi Everyone and Happy Sunday!

I wanted to tell you about a new Blog Hop that's happening right now. It is Ellison Lane's Back to School series.  Jennifer has lined up a great bunch of bloggers and projects for her Back To School Series. Have you checked it out? Lot's of great tutorials for handy items! Not just for kids either- lots of things for grown ups too! So stop over and check it out!


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Here is the line up, I am guest hosting on 9/27, so please stop by and say Hi! I will have a great little tutorial on something that is so handy and so easy to sew up, you will be able to make several!  But today please stop by Ellison Lane and check out the adorable Pencil Pouch from Sarah
and yesterdays great Lunch Bag tutorial by my friend Lee!

9/21 - May Chappell (lunch bag pattern/tutorial)
9/22 - Fairy Face Designs (pencil pouch tutorial)
9/23 - Love By Hand
9/28 – Ellison Lane
 
 
 
Happy Stitching! Ginny
 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Grandma's Lawn Chair Pattern Winner

It has been a hectic week here, both at work and personally! We are starting our "busy season" at work and on the home front, my youngest son just purchased his first home - very exciting! In between I did manage quite a bit of sewing but that is for tomorrow's post!

Did you see? I was so excited!! My version of Grandma's Lawn Chair was picked up and posted on the Aurifil Facebook page! I do love Aurifil thread and use it for piecing and quilting! And it was so exciting to see the link for Katie's 100 Quilts for Kids in this post! This quilt is being donated locally as part of Katie's charity drive. Have you made your's yet?
 
Thanks for the screen shot Diane! I really do need to learn more about how to do all of that!

I hope you are enjoying the blog hop with Diane's new pattern. If you missed it here is the schedule:

Mon 9th - Diane @ from blank pages...
Tues 10th - Julie @ Jolie Maxtin
Wed 11th - Ginny @ Fishcreek Studio
Thurs 12th - Kelleigh - guest blogging at from blank pages...
Fri 13th - Sara @ Sew Sweetness

Mon 16th , Diane @ from blank pages...
Tues 17th - Hilary @ Young Texan Mama
Wed 18th - Mike @ The Amateur Quilter
Thurs 19th - Rachael @ imagine gnats
Fri 20th - Courtney @ Mon Petite Lyons

Mon 23rd - Jamie @ Sunflower Seeds
Tues 24th - Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts
Wed 25th - Krista @ Spotted Stones
Thurs 26th - Cristy @ Sew Much Like Mom
Fri 27th - Diane @ from blank pages...

Lot's of fun and quilts to make you go ohhhh...
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And if that wasn't enough Diane also has great ideas for all the different ways you can lay this pattern out with diagrams on her blog! Amazing what you can do just by changing the color placement!

So without further delay here is the winner of the PDF pattern:





I will be contacting you by email with your new pattern!

***EDIT*** ThirdMargaret please contact me no later than Sunday night at 8pm Eastern for your winning pattern.  I do not have an email address for you. My email link is in my profile.If I do not hear back from you by Sunday at 8pm I will redraw and a new winner will be announced***

Thanks for stopping by and be sure and stop by tomorrow for some sewing updates!

Happy stitiching!
Ginny

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Grandma's Lawn Chair Pattern and Blog Hop




Pin ItHi Everyone and Welcome to my stop on the Grandma's Lawn Chair Pattern Blog Hop!

This pattern is from the lovely and talented Diane Bohn who blogs over at fromblankpages    This is her first quilt pattern and I was lucky enough to be able to test the pattern for her - and Wow! I am so excited to share my results with you! And offer you a great giveaway!
 

Monday, September 2, 2013

Welcome to September with a New Pattern and Blog Hop!

Welcome to September! Wow the summer sure seemed to fly by! I hope it was a good one for you and your family - it was here in Indiana!

September is National Sewing Month and what better way to celebrate than with a new pattern?
Grandma's Lawn Chair Blog Hop


Diane Bohn who blogs over at from blank pages has written and published her first quilt pattern titled Grandma's Lawn Chair. I was lucky enough to be one of her pattern testers! And so glad that I was- this is a great pattern! It is easy, fun and fast! I am so happy with the results - although I must say - I don't think my Grandma ever had a lawn chair like this! Just sayin'......

To celebrate and introduce her new pattern, she is having a blog hop! There are some amazing people on this blog hop and I'm so excited to be included and see all the wonderful quilts made from this great pattern! It begins on Monday September 9th.

Here's the line up:

Mon 9th - Diane @ from blank pages...
Tues 10th - Julie @ Jolie Maxtin
Wed 11th - Ginny @ Fishcreek Studio
Thurs 12th - Kelleigh - guest blogging at from blank pages
Fri 13th - Sara @ Sew Sweetness

Mon 16th , Diane @ from blank pages...
Tues 17th - Hilary @ Young Texan Mama
Wed 18th - Mike @ The Amateur Quilter
Thurs 19th - Rachael @ imagine gnats
Fri 20th - Courtney @ Mon Petite Lyons

Mon 23rd - Jamie @ Sunflower Seeds
Tues 24th - Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts
Wed 25th - Krista @ Spotted Stones
Thurs 26th - Cristy @ Sew Much Like Mom
Fri 27th - Diane @ from blank pages...

The best news about this, everyone will be offering up a free PDF copy of the quilt pattern to one of their readers, on their stop of the blog hop! That is 13 chances for you win a free copy of your own! So make plans to stop back on my day - Wednesday, September 11th for a chance to win and be sure and visit each blog and take a look at the gorgeous quilts and enter for additional chances to win the pattern!

Today is Labor Day in the US - so if you are home for the holiday, enjoy a few hours of stitching, or an old movie, or a great book, or laughs and giggles with the family - you've earned it!

Happy Stitching!

Ginny

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