The Madness Within

“The Madness Within"

An Improv-Pieced "crazy" quilt.

This was a quilt I started at the beginning of the covid era, taking my raw emotions out into the making of this chaotic acid-trip style of a design. All of the fabrics consisted of scraps leftover from past quilts and sewing projects, and my Spoonflower design sample pieces.

You can see that the center of the quilt starts out in a small, circular type of design, and gradually gets bigger until the outer edges where there’s less chaos but more normal shaped pieces. As time progressed, social distancing and other things in life gradually became to somewhat of a normal state again as 2021 rolled in. The anxiety & stress of covid and all the stupid crap associated with it (hoarding for example) lessened, and my nerves calmed down a bit. So it took me a year and half from start to finish, April 2020 to September 2021, to make this. With the long arm quilting skills of Quilting by David, this quilt completely represents how I felt since March 17th, 2020… the day most of Wisconsin shut down at 5pm, aka: St Patrick’s Day… also my birthday. Dinner plans with my bestie had to be canceled for after work that day… so I’ll always remember that dreaded day and when it all started…

 
One person commented on my Facebook post, prior to reading my description, that she thought my design resembled a rose.  I love her interpretation of what first came to mind when she saw the photos.  Once she said that, I couldn't help but to agree with her!  It really does resemble a rose.
 

Princess Party

 A couple of months ago I was commissioned to make some princess birthday party items... thing of which I had never made before in my life!  I was nervous, to be honest... this was completely outside of my comfort zone!  But I managed to pull it off, and the young lady whose birthday this was for, absolutely loved it!

I was asked to make a crown, birthday sash, table topper/runner and birthday girl chair back cover... all in a cupcake princess theme.  And here's what I came up with...

My friend, Dorie H., did a super cute job of long-arm quilting this table runner/topper for me!  Really made the cupcakes on it pop!

Roses, Roses: A "Treasure of Time Travel"

As someone commented on my Instagram post about this afghan, "...that's a treasure of time travel..." 

It’s rare to have a chance at seeing something I made years ago, still be in brand new, pristine condition! I was so excited to see this afghan that I gifted to a relative in 2004, and have the opportunity to take some photos of it. She kept it stored safely away all these years, rather than using it, which led to a squeal of excitement when I saw it again just a few days ago!

Back when I used to crochet, my photos weren’t the greatest, and of course I only took two (not so great) pictures of this beauty before I gifted it to her. I remember making this, and was so proud of those roses, lol!

Note: The yarn in the main body is actually an ecru color, so in some of the photos, depending on the lighting, it appears more yellowish. The day I took these photos happened to be a rainy, dreary day so it wasn’t the best day for a photo shoot, but did the best I could indoors.

Casper really wanted to snuggle up with it, haha... so I guess it's kitty approved!

I miss crocheting, but there’s just no time for it anymore. If only I could quit my day job and just stay home sewing and crocheting... now that would be living my real dream! 

 

According to this scan of the original photos in an old album, I started crocheting this in 1999 and completed it in 2001. 
 

 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!

"Birdsong" - A Quilt

This is a quilt that I started in 2019.  It wasn't being made for any specific purpose.  Mainly to use up some bird pillow panels and scrap fabrics.  Sometimes I like having an extra quilt laying around in case I need one as a last minute gift.  Well, this didn't get finished in 2019, but it did in early 2020.  

I had been invited to my ex-husband's niece's 2020 high school graduation party, so I decided to gift her this quilt.  It was very well received and I'm so glad I had it finished, to be able and give her.

I made a quilt carrying tote to gift it in, and that way I didn't have to buy a gift bag!

The long-arm quilting done on the quilt was by Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side

Here's a view of the back of the quilt... I like doing scrappy quilt backs...

A 2020 Highschool Grad Gift for My Niece...

 The year 2020 sure was one of pure chaos and craziness.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to attend my niece's high school graduation because of the pandemic.  But I did get to watch her open this gift, via Face-time.

This project took me 1-1/2 years to complete, from start to finish.  It was my mom's idea for me to make this, and we are all so happy with how it turned out. 

Name of Quilt:  Photo Memory Crazy Quilt
Techniques Used: Improv-Piecing, Raw Edge Applique, Basic Piecing

Photos were snatched off my brother's and my sister's-in-law FB pages, as well as a few from my niece's FB page.  I did a lot of fun edits to many of the photos, to take them from plain to insane, LOL!  All the photos were then uploaded to Spoonflower, then printed on fabric. 

Once all my insane piecing was finished on the top of the quilt, I took one of my Spoonflower fill-a-yard panels, featuring all of my personal designs, and added borders onto it until the panel was large enough to accommodate the long-arm quilting part of the project.

I then shipped the quilt top and back off to Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side to be long-arm quilted.  In the meantime, I also made a custom, reversible pillowcase with my parents’ handwritten notes to their granddaughter on it, which was also printed on Spoonflower fabric. And last but not least, a reversible tote bag with personalized notes to my niece from both Brian and I, also printed on Spoonflower fabric.

I used an iPhone app called Bazaart to create the fun designs featuring the notes on the pillowcase and tote bag.  And I used a plethora of different iPhone photography apps to do the numerous edits on many of the photos in the quilt itself.

This was a true labor of love.  Needless to say, now my sister-in-law wants one.  :)

I told her to start gathering the photos!

To see additional photos, please visit my Facebook Page: Gina's Custom Creations and go to the album titled 2020 Sewing & Quilting Projects.