A misty moisty afternoon is great for sewing. Two small projects were accomplished today—a couple of pillow cases and a couple of placemats.
© Linda Woodward Geiger. All Rights Reserved.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=186
May 11
Quilting across North Georgia Shop Hop
There are six quilt shops in North Georgia participating in the “Shop Hop” this week (Thursday through Saturday, May 10-12, 2012). My window of opportunity to complete the circuit of shops was yesterday so I skipped my usual early morning workout at the fitness center—I needed to be in Dahlonega about 9:00 am.
1) I began the Shop Hop at Magical Threads (315 Church St., Dahlonega. A quaint old house with every nook and cranny stuffed to the gills with fabric, notions, and a selection of yarn. I found some charming fabrics, but always find this shop difficult to navigate, at least n my mind, I would organize things a lot differently. I escaped Magical Threads without opening my purse.
2) Stop number two was at The Common Thread (598 Grove Street North, in Dahlonega). Sharon, owner of the shop, always has a delicious display that greets everyone that walks through the doors. The Civil War prints were spectacular with lovely shades of muted reds and blues. If memory serves me correctly these fabrics were called “Blackbird” by Moda. This shop has a longarm-quilting machine and offers the service of machine quilting.
3) My next stop was in Blairsville at the Fabric Center & Quilt Shop (307 Cleveland St.). This large open room shop carries a large variety of fabrics and has some lovely quilts on display. The quilt by Charlotte caught my eye because it was so full of life and yet display a cool (temperature) look. Charlotte used panels, border, and over-all print from a Red Rooster Fabric collection by Sandy Lynam Clough, called Sandy’s Garden.
4) Country Stitches (30 West Main St., Blue Ridge, Georgia) was stop number four. This is another old house turned into a shop with numerous rooms, nooks, and crannies. Actually many of the small rooms would have been tight on living space in their day. The owner, Priscilla Ryan, has love fabrics and lots of quilt projects displayed, but few quilts. I can never leave this shop without a pattern and accompanying fabric for a purse, tote, or food warmer. This is not a shop where I could easily pull together fabrics for a large quilt. I personally need space to stand back away from fabrics so that I can really see how the various designs and colors will work—there is not room to easily do that in this shop.
5) The Quilt Shop on the Square (44 North Main Street, Ellijay, Georgia) is just off the main square. Pam Clark, storeowner, has a nice shop with lovely quilts and projects displayed throughout the store. The store offers lots of classes on quilting techniques and machine embroidery. A wonderfully appliquéd quilt with a county church in the mountains caught my eye, Judy, master craftsman, gave me permission to photograph her work of art. Here I purchased some fabric for a set of placemats.
6) The last stop on the circuit was in the town of Jasper—The Quilt Shop on Main. Karen Williams, owner, has more energy than I can imagine and has an eye for decorating! Like several of the shops, lovely quilts were displayed and in many instances kits were available for purchase. The shop has a longarm quilting machine. I’ve never been in the shop when it has not been humming away on someone’s special project. Both Karen, and her husband, Keith (a pilot), operate the longarm. I left the shop with a delightful Moda jellyroll.
Conclusion
The shop hop was a day well spent—full of inspiration! I even managed to stay in control of my budget—well, that is until today when I drove back to Jasper to The Quilt Shop on Main. All last evening and this morning while having my annual eye check up, I kept thinking about a wonderful quilt that would be easy (I don’t have a lot of experience with bed size quilts) and just perfect on my bed. At first I thought I’d just purchase part of the fabric, but in the long run that did not make a lot of sense. What would happen if I couldn’t find the fabrics I needed to complete the border, binding, et al. Now to make the time in my busy schedule to make the new quilting projects I have, as well as a few old projects that haven’t made it to the cutting board yet
The Common Thread
Garden Quilt by Charlotte
County Stitches
Appliquéd quilt by Judy
The Quilt Shop on Main
© Linda Woodward Geiger. All Rights Reserved.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=161
Apr 25
My Story: Birth & Early Years
This is the fourth challenge of “Your Story. Brilliant!” offered as a class by Linda Sattgast of ScrappersGuide.com. This month the focus is on “Birth and Early Years.”
© Linda Woodward Geiger. All Rights Reserved.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=146
Mar 18
My Story: My Abilities and Hobbies
After being under the gun to complete February assignment, I made time to complete not just one set for the month of March but two. This was an easier challenge, particularly since this is the time of year that I adore and allow myself the time to investigate the new growth of spring. It seemed only natural to focus a couple of layouts to spring’s beauty. My walks this year have been limited to Gibbs Gardens (daffodit page) and Amicalola Falls.
Credits—Spring Flowers
Photographs: Linda Woodward Geiger; paper: Your Story Backgrounds and Clusters. © 2012 by Digital Scrapper; journaling cluster—elements from Jenny Binder, English Garden; Krystal Hartley, Ever After; and Joanne Brisebois, Recollection; and font: Monotype Corsiva
Credits—Quilting
Photographs: Linda Woodward Geiger; paper: “Every After” Kit, © 2010 by Krystal Hartley; stitching element—Happy Harvest Kit by Susan Bartollini; frame cluster—”English Garden” kit by Jenny Binder; “Ever After” kit by Krystal Hartley; “Recollection” kit Joanne Brisebois; and font: Kendric
© Linda Woodward Geiger. All Rights Reserved
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=137
Mar 18
My Story: My Personality & Quirks
During February, the Scrapper’s Guide challenge was to create at least two pages that might illustrate the scrapper’s personality and quirks.
Admittedly, February was a very hectic month for me and at the 11th hour, I frantically worked on the challenge. I’m not very happy with the results, but to be fair I’ve finally decided to post them on this blog to continue the saga.
Credits for papers & some elements: Ever After Kit copyright 2010 by Sweet Shoppe Designs; Cluster: design by Linda Sattgast: “Recess” kit and elements © 2009 by Heather Roselli; and family tree: adapted from “Heritage Album” kit by Jessica Sprague
© Linda Woodward Geiger. All Rights Reserved.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=132
Jan 21
My Story: People I Love
Digital Scrapper is one of my favorite places to learn about digital scrapbooking techniques. I’ve been a premium member for many years and really enjoy the monthly theme kits (papers, elements, and even quick pages) as well as their weekly scrapbooking tips. Linda Sattgast has recently begun adding structured classes.
“Your Story. Brillant” is her newest offering which particularly appealed to me for two reasons—the theme easily relates to family history, and the goal is to produce two pages a month (more if one has time time and resources). At the end of the year each student should have a book to publish with a minimum of twenty four pages. Each month has a different focus. This month the focus is “People I Love” and I’m sharing the two pages that I have created.
These pages were created using my photographs, elements and papers from “Ever After” kit by Sweet Shoppe Designs, and paper by Krystal Hartley from “Ever After” kit, copyright 2010 by Sweet Shoppe Designs.
I’m already thinking about what I will do for next month’s project—”Through My Eyes.”
© Linda Woodward Geiger. All Rights Reserved.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=127
Jan 17
My First Quilt
1975
The first quilt I made was for my son, Marc. He loved mice, ladybugs, and all small creatures.
I cringe when I think of all the things I didn’t know about quilting when I constructed this quilt on a dime. Instead of batting (I didn’t even know what batting was—but no matter, I wouldn’t have have been able to find the money to purchase it with anyway), I used two old sheets for the filler. The top was completely made from scrapes left over from clothing construction for myself and my son. The only purchase was the checkered fabric I found on sale at Weintraubs in Worcester. At the time, we were residing in our little “Cape Cod” house at 5 Granger Road, Westborough, Massachusetts.
Although the quilt has seen a lot of use over the years and is a little worse for wear, I wouldn’t part with it for the world.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=122
Dec 04
Family History Scrapbook
Combining a love for digital scrapbooking with a love for family history.
To see more information on these scrapbook pages, I invite you to visit my blog on my family history.
© Linda Geiger. All rights Reserved.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=114
Nov 20
Quilt Shop on Main
In this day and age (particularly the age) I don’t have a huge desire to hand quilt—perhaps it is the old finger syndrome.
I found it easy to quilt fabrics using the traditional grid, but I was not comfortable with the free hand quilting or stippling using my sewing machine. We are so lucky to have a relatively new quilt shop and Jasper and when they offered a three hour couse in machine quilting I jumped at the opportunity. We had a nice experience with several different options, styles, and batting textures. Now all I need to do is find the time to do more practicing here at home.
© Linda Woodward Geiger. All rights reserved.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=110
Nov 14
Cabo Bucket Tote & Heavenly Textured Handbag
It is always such a pleasure to complete a sewing project. Today I have double satisfaction as I completed two purses that were in progress. In the photograph, the bag on the left is the Cabo Bucket Tote made with a cheerful winter scene of cardinals and other winter birds. On the right is the Heavenly Textured Handbag (I adapted the pattern a little bit as I did not have any Texture Magic™ on hand).
Which do I like best? The Cabo Bucket Tote wins hands down and not just because I love the patten on the fabric. The Cabo has more pocket, it has a nice little magnet mechanism to give the purse a nice shape, and it uses D-rings to attach the handles which are a nice touch.
© Linda Woodward Geiger. All Rights Reserved
Permanent link to this article: http://www.musingsbylinda.com/CraftyLady/?p=102
