The past few months have seemed like the time of friends and even some relatives turning 50 years old... myself included!  So I've been making "Over the Hill Pandemic Survival Kit"s to give as gifts.  They've really become a hit amongst friends and family!

Here's one I made for a friend...  it consisted of a St Patty's Day theme since the holiday was only a couple weeks away from her birthday.  

I made a cute little lunch sack style gift bag with an appliqued toilet paper on the front, and a snap closure, and a mask with adjustable elastic.

Inside the gift sack was hand sanitizer, hand sanitizing wet wipes, tissues and a roll of toilet paper (as well as the mask mentioned above).

As you can see, it all fit in the gift sack perfectly!

The green dish was not part of the gift.  It just helped prop up the mask for the photo.

Then for my boyfriend's sister, we got carried away with the gag gifts, so I made a very large gift sack for her!  I used black Kona cotton, doubled up for the outside and inside linings.  Then traced the letters and designs onto Wonder Under, using my light pad.  Ironed to the backs of the fabrics I was using for the decoration/wording, and cut them out, then ironed onto the front panel of the bag.  I did a raw edge applique to keep it all attached permanently.

We filled the bag to the brim with all sorts of fun gag gifts...

...which included a large bottle of hand sanitizer, large pkg of double roll toilet paper, pkg of adult diapers, pkg of baby wipes, box of tissues, adult-themed finger puppet book (which she read out loud for everyone to hear, LOL), bottle of Beano and a large bottle of Poo-Pourri!

OMGosh, she enjoyed it...and everyone was laughing hysterically!  Such a fun time with family and friends!

Pinky - A Baby Quilt

 

“Pinky” a baby quilt finished and gifted to a coworker/friend and her husband at their baby shower in October 2020, for baby-to-be. 

I love this quilt so much! It’s made from a pattern designed by Creative Bee Studios, which I purchased in her Etsy shop. It features a technique I’ve never used before, “Use Both Sides”... in other words, use some of the fabric’s backsides rather than the front. It mutes the colors and gives a creative effective that I just love. Four of the fabrics in this quilt were sewn in backwards, and it turned out perfect.Can you figure out which ones they are?

I'm sorry for so many photos, but it was a gorgeous fall day out and I couldn't decide which photos I liked best, so decided to use them all!
 

A huge heartfelt thank you to my friend Dorie for her long arm quilting, and for putting the binding on for me as well since I have been so far behind on sewing projects this year due to mask making. This quilt turned out beautiful!

 

Added Note 6/18/2021:
I'm linking my Pinky - A Baby Quilt post up to blog post "Show Me Something Outdoors" over at Sarah Goer Quilts.  Give her blog a look and follow for great inspiration!

More Masks

With the COVID19 pandemic still going on, I’ve been so busy making masks lately that my other sewing projects are suffering. But it’s okay...masks are important to those who need and want them, so it’s been a priority for the time being. However, it takes me a little longer to make each mask since I like to take my time and make sure each one is perfect before it gets sent off to its recipient. I want people to feel confident in knowing they are worth the extra time and effort when wearing a mask that I’ve made for them. Plus, anything I make, regardless what it is, is a reflection of me and my craftsmanship.  So I want that reflection to show the pride I have in my work, and the fact that I care about quality craftsmanship.

Anyways, the following are photos of more masks I've made, and a few of the happy recipients.  (Including myself in a couple of photos, haha)!  Descriptions will be in captions under some of the photos.

“Mod Ovals on White”
Fabric is available to purchase in my Spoonflower shop: Gina's Custom Creations

Bottom 3 masks in above pic are from my Spoonflower fabric designs,
which are available in my shop: Gina's Custom Creations

 Here are two photos are of me wearing a mask I made for myself using my Spoonflower fabric design: "COVID19 - The Battle Is On - V.2" printed on Basic Craft Cotton.  The fabric used in this mask is available for purchase in my Spoonflower Shop: Gina's Custom Creations

 And also some photos of happy mask recipients. 
(Just a note that the purple mask is not made lopsided.  It's the way he was wearing it, lol).

 

 

                      R.I.P. Rich: Nov. 15, 1968 - August 27, 2020

My mom loves her mask!

 And here are a few more masks...

Used low volume fabric for mask, and appliquéd a fussy cut rose emblem to the top center.

For the music lover...

A special request for a skull mask.
Made from: Regent Skull by Henry Alexander - OOP
I just happened to have a teeny bit of this fabric left in my stash from quite a few years ago!

Made and surprise gifted this one to a really awesome friend of mine.
He's a die-hard Kiss fan.
(You can see him wearing it farther up in one of the photos in this post).

*Before making this mask, though, I did some research to make sure I'm not
infringing on any copyright laws, since I didn't make it to sell.

"The Yearning" - A Modern Mini Quilt

I just finished my Modern Mini Quilt for the #ModernMiniQuiltChallenge at 11:30pm last night, and got some photos of it this morning. WHEW! Talk about cutting things close since the deadline is today at 5pm Central Time!

The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show

My entry is called, "The Yearning"

It features an image of my son, surrounded by dark, modern fabrics with a pop of golden sunshine seeping through. The dark colors represent depression and sadness in missing my son throughout the stay at home orders of Covid19. As well as the loss of one of my beloved cats, Jasper, who passed away one week ago today, after being a part of my family for 14 years. The improv-piecing represents the chaos and upheaval in life these days. The zipper pull represents the unzipping of the dark and dreary, to let the sun finally shine in and bring forth happiness and contentment to my soul. So in short, The Yearning stands for my desire to have things go back to normal... to be released from the depression and anxiety... to once again be happy.

I mainly improv-pieced this mini quilt, which measures 12.5 inches wide x 13.5 inches high, using a mixture of scrap fabrics leftover from previous projects. Some of the fabrics used are from Northcott's Stonehenge collection. The sun and burst of golden pieces that are appliqued on top of my quilt, are fussy cut from two of my own personal surface designs on Spoonflower, called "Blazing Sun" and "Hypnotic Sunflowers, Large Scale". 

I machine quilted this, which is not my forte! I usually pay someone else to machine quilt my projects... so I am quite proud of myself for being able to pull this off!

Watching The Voice on Hulu while sewing.

Tree Blocks for a Cause

A few months ago the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild in New South Wales, Australia had reached out to the world of quilters through their website and social media groups, requesting tree blocks in their effort to make quilts for the affected families of the #bushfires in their communities.  You can read their original post here: Australia is Burning. 

I love the meaning/purpose behind the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild's request for tree blocks, and think it would be an excellent paragraph of symbolism to add to a quilt label:
"...The tree is a symbol of growth and nourishment. A tree symbolizes the generations of a family; a tree sprouts from a seed, the roots provide strength and stability, and whilst the new sapling is young and vulnerable they are protected by the other trees until they grow and flourish. In time the branches spread and then create new fruit that gives life to the next generation."

So in light of the above, I started collecting tree patterns.  I now have a pretty big stack of them.  But due to the limited time I had available for working on them, I was never able to finish and send more than 5 blocks. 😩  I did have a 6th block under the sewing needle, but couldn't get it done on time.  (Deadline to ship was February 29th). 

Due to the fact that I have accumulated so many tree patterns, I still hope and plan to make each one of them at some point in the near future.  And since there is a worthy cause and need for donated quilts and quilt tops here in the United States, I will make and donate a quilt/quilt top to my favorite charity, Quilts of Compassion.  They travel the states, hand delivering quilts to victims of natural disasters.  I've donated quilts and quilt tops to them in the past, but it's been a couple of years since I've had any to send their way.  This will be an excellent way to use those tree block patterns for another very good cause!

Well anyway...  below are photos of the 5 blocks I sent over to WMQG... hoping they will make whomever gets the quilt(s) they will end up being sewn into, happy.  That's all that matters to me!
Pattern credits are on each photo.

More Fun on the Farm Blocks!

Fun on the Farm with Quilt In A Day...

For those of you who love BOM programs...especially FREE BOM's, then this is definitely one you should look into.  It started a few months ago, but it's never too late to jump in.  I participate through the Facebook Group page: Fun on the Farm with Quilt In A Day (click to go to the group page)

I’ve fallen behind on my #funonthefarmbom by a few months due to having too many sewing projects going on at the same time, but here's some more blocks I did manage to get made since my last post on this particular BOM subject...

Here's my “Matt the Sheep” quilt block.  However, I decided to make this block my own way, rather than following the sheep pattern provided for April’s block. Instead, I made the #folkartsheep using a #paperpiecedpattern purchased online. Then raw-edge appliquéd all the rest to complete the #quirky look I wanted. I do wish I had used a different shade of sky fabric for the background, though, so the sheep would stand out better. But it’s too late now!
Note: Here’s where the pattern can be purchased for the Folk Art sheep:

 http://equiltpatterns.com/folk-art-sheep-paper-pieced-quilt-pattern/

Love me some quirky, paper-pieced, #farmanimal #quiltblocks,

with added #appliqué embellishments, LOL!

Just had to get a photo of these two blocks, side by side!

My #sheep is bigger than my #horse 🤣🤣🤣 LOL!

 Next, here’s my #chicken block, which of course, I did my own way

rather than following the pattern that was provided for this BOM.

(Lighting is not the best since it was night time when I took the photo,

and the ceiling lights always tend to make photos seem yellowish).

Anyways, I love #quirky and #wonky so my chicken is quirky,

and my bale of hay is wonky, LOL! 🤣🥴😂

The chicken is paper-pieced, and her name is Lotta.

I purchased the pattern for Lotta from Regina Grewe a few months ago at

http://www.reginagrewe.de/04muster/0439petrillafreunde_e.html

 

And most recently, I made a second

paper-pieced / appliqué Lotta the Chicken block...

this time for someone else, though.

After sharing my photo in the Fun on the Farm Facebook group
of the first Lotta block I made,

another group member jokingly commented she wanted one, LOL!

I told her I would make her one if she really wants one, so I did!

Now that it’s finished and mailed, I can share a photo of it. I hope she likes it! 

 (I love how much better this photo looks than my first Lotta block...

I'll have to retake the other one outside in the daylight to get a brighter shot)!

Fun on the Farm with Quilt In A Day

For those of you who love BOM programs...especially FREE BOM's, then this is definitely one you should look into.  It started a few months ago, but it's never too late to jump in.  I participate through the Facebook Group page: Fun on the Farm with Quilt In A Day (click to go to the group page).

Here's my completed blocks so far...