Want to see what I've been up to? Lots of pics to see!

That's an ort bag/scrap bag ("stitching trash" as my husband calls it, LOL) view from the front.

Brown and blue tote/purse monogrammed...

Pink and brown tote monogrammed...

Baseball bag for a local baseball team...

Another monogrammed pink and brown bag...

Another baseball bag embroidered for a local baseball team...

Music tote...

Stitching bag, embroidered...

LOL, I love this one -- zebra stripe and hot pink "Spoiled Rotten Princess" tote...

Green quilted patchwork bag...

Can you tell I've been sewing? LOL! I've been selling these bags. If you're interested, feel free to drop me a line at loriray2003@yahoo.com or visit my Facebook page "Needlecrafts By Lori". Custom requests are welcomed!

Thanks for looking. Hope everyone in blogger-land has been doing well. :-)

Another sewing finish

After making my serger ort bag and zippered bag yesterday, I was creative in my craft room again today and made my first tote bag, woo hoo! It measures about 11" x 11" and is about 5" wide...hope that makes sense...and the handles are one inch wide.

Here are the two pictures of the bag -- the first is the outside of the bag and the second is the inside of the bag:
The bottom has a firm insert (cloth-covered plastic canvas) to help keep the rectangular shape.

Thanks for looking and for letting me share.

Hope everyone is having the type of week where it's easy to count your blessings. :-)

Sewing/serger finishes

I was a crafty sewing gal today! First, I made a large American Flag zippered bag with an aida insert:

And second, I made this cool thing that my serger sits on and has a bag attached by Velcro to collect orts and scraps:

I did most of the work on the zippered bag the other day but put some finishing touches on it tonight. The serger bag I started last night but spent most of the afternoon working on. I even learned how to make "box(ed) corners"! I do plan to make a similar bag/mat to fit the dimensions of my sewing machine.

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone is having a great week. I plan on posting more finishes Friday...stay tuned!

"O Beautiful" back from the framer

My stitching may not be perfect but the mat and frame job from my local framer is.

I love it! Sorry for the bad photo...there really isn't a light spot on the blue mat. It's just a glare.

Thanks for looking!

Now off to play in my craft room...what to do, what to do...maybe I should make more zippered cosmetic/sewing bags. I've sold quite a few already. Wanna take a peek?

http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e91/LoriRay2003/Cosmetic%20bags%20for%20sale/

The photo comments show pricing and details. Feel free to ask questions, especially if you're wanting something custom-made -- I'll see what I can do! :-)

A Hillside Samplings finish

Yesterday I decided to start the little pincushion from the Hillside Samplings/Liberty Hill kit called "Folk Art Sewing Box". Well, I was up until almost 3 AM (*gasp!*) and got it finished. I've already added it to my curio cabinet dedicated to Liberty Hill. So, here it is up close:

And from a little bit farther away so you can see a little more of the cabinet:


I did the little scissor fob last year. All that's left of the kit is to line the little oval box with the fabric provided in the kit and it'll be all finished. I LOVE Liberty Hill and Hillside Samplings!


Today I plan to stitch the March installment of the "Heart Stitchalong" and work on another WIP or two while watching NASCAR. Goooooooooo Tony Stewart!

It's done! IT'S DONE!!!

The above pictures are the top and bottom halves, up close. Below is the whole thing:

Info for those who may not know -- this was a kit by Shepherd's Bush called "O Beautiful". The chart is already spoken for.

I am so happy to have this project done. Next week I will take it to the framer's. Pictures to follow when I get it back. :-)

Stitching progress pictures

Hello to my fellow stitching addicts! Let me warn you that the past two days have been horrible with my sinus issues, bad sinus headaches, and a low-grade fever. I am feeling better today but you might not want to get too close, 'kay? ;-) *ACHOO!*

This week, I was able to work on several projects. They were...

"Tall Guys - Valentino's Three" by Holiday Sparrow:

Please pardon the wrinkles as it is still a work-in-progress (WIP) so why bother ironing it yet, right? Besides, I think ironing was something invented by Satan himself. ;-)

"O Beautiful" by Shepherd's Bush:

"Heart Stitchalong" from a blog by Sylvia (http://syku66.blogspot.com/):

Sorry for the icky picture -- the pattern is underneath the fabric and I didn't realize it would show through when I took the picture.

I can't wait for the Nashville market releases to be posted on Saturday!!! There are several things I think I cannot live without -- the new Impie, Hattie and Bea release (I don't even know what it is but I gotta have it!) and I fell in love with Shepherd Bush's "Liberty Pincushion". I have been a very good girl when it comes to not buying new stash so I think a couple of these new releases are going to be a reward for me. :)

So now I need to get started and get an ornament stitched for the monthly ornament stitchalong. Hope everyone has a great Friday and an even better weekend. :-)

Rose Sampler by Little House Needleworks

I am so excited! Just a little while ago, I finished Little House Needleworks' "Rose Sampler" and attached it to the premade Impie, Hattie, and Bea pouch. Here it is, details to follow:
This took me only 6 days to stitch, and that was with no stitching at all on one day and very little stitching on 2 other days! :-) The fabric is 28 count Navy Bean linen by Lakeside Linens and I used regular DMC floss, stitched with two strands over two threads. The pink buttons were just some I had in my sewing stash that happened to work out just perfectly! I hope Impie, Hattie, and Bea keeps producing those presewn pouches. I LOVE those things! I have them all except for the tea cozy, and that's only because I haven't gotten weak enough to buy it...yet. LOL!


I spent the day in my craft room. While my embroidery machine was running, I put the finishing touches on "Rose Sampler". Here are three freestanding lace bookmarks that I made with my embroidery machine:



In blogging news, I am finally giving in and doing the "following" instead of just listing them on the sidebar on the right side of my blog (you may have to scroll down a little). As I slowly but surely add blogs to my follower -- and I only do several at a time -- I am removing them from my sidebar. You may notice the list getting smaller but the blogs I follow are still the same. Once I've got it all changed over then I'll see about adding the list onto the sidebar again. No worries! :)


I've got a couple of new starts calling my name but I haven't given in yet. One is by My Big Toe and one is an adorable freebie stitchalong. I've also got to get my monthly ornament started. Crud, the next few days may find me with three new starts...and I've been so good about finishing lately! Oh well...it's all good!


Happy stitching! Thanks for reading and for the comments. :-)

Two new finishes and a hello to Lisa/Texan

*waving and yelling helloooooooooo to Lisa/Texan* This post is just for you. *hee hee* A little birdie told me you had a special request for me to update my blog. Happy now? Hahahahahaha! ;-)

On to stitching news...I do have two recent finishes. One is "Jingle" by Mill Hill:

I'm not happy with the backing and plan to replace it with a red felt where a small edge of the felt will show, sort of like a border. But first I have to buy a piece of red felt. LOL! I stitched this over a couple of days when we were without power during our recent ice storm.

Side note -- if you want to see pictures of our ice storm, you can find a link to my Photobucket album on the right side of this blog. You might have to scroll down a bit but it's there. :-)

My other finish was "Magic of Love" by Twisted Threads:

Brad wants me to make it into a pillow so I think that's what I'm going to do with it. I stitched it with Belle Soie silks. LOVE those silks!!!

We've become good campers when it comes to winter storms now. We have a big generator that powers our furnace, refrigerator, deep freeze, crock pot and electric skillet...not to mention the boys' video game systems, TV, and DVD player. It's frustrating to go without power but that generator sure made life good, all things considered. :-) We got out electricity back several days ago and were without for 7 days but there are still people that haven't been able to have their power restored yet. This was a horrible (yet beautiful!) ice storm that left our entire town of 30,000 people in the dark for days and days. If it weren't for our hard-working city employess and many outside agencies that came to help, our town would not have fared as good as we did. My thoughts and prayers to those who are still without power and might be without for 3 to 4 weeks still.

More stitching talk -- My latest new start is Little House Needleworks' "Rose Sampler" that I will attach to the coordinating Impie, Hattie, and Bea presewn pouch. Just about anything Impie, Hattie, and Bea makes leaves me drooling. :-) I'll have to start and finish another ornament this month to stick with the ornament stitchalong I'm a member of. There are a couple of new starts calling my name but I'm trying to be a good girl and not start anything new without a few more finishes. I'm also trying to be a good girl and not buy any new stash. (Which we all know that usually last a few weeks at most. HAHAHAHA)

Please post a comment and let me know what you're stitching, too. :-)

It's giveaway time!

I recently went through my stash to find that I am the proud owner of not one, but TWO "The Button Tree" charts by The Drawn Thread. Does that mean I buy too much stash? Noooooooooooo, it means it's time have a giveaway! LOL!

So, if you're interested, just post a comment to this thread and I will have a drawing sometime this weekend and will post the results here on my blog. I'll mail anywhere so all are welcome to enter.

Happy stitching! :)

Another LHN Finish

Hello again! Surprised to hear from me again in less than a week? ;-)


Hot off the Q-snaps, the ironing board, and the sewing machine, I present to you my first wall-hanging:



Okay, so I guess "Repair Shop" was technically my first wallhanging but I didn't sew additional fabric on, etc. like I did with this one.


Here's the info on the piece: stitched over two on 28 count Vintage Light Examplar from Lakeside Linens with two strands of Crescent Colours hand-dyed floss. I sewed the coordinating fabric, my husband cut the dowel rod, and I made the cording with my Kreinik Custom Corder.

Overall, I am quite pleased. Not only am I pleased with my last two finishes, but also because I finished them without starting anything new. *listening to the gasps from my readers* No, nothing is wrong, I've just been on a finishing spree instead of a starting spree. I cannot guarantee how long it will last. *hearing new projects calling my name*


On a serious note, the people of Haita and all affected are in my thoughts and prayers. I cannot even begin to imagine what they have been through these past few days, what they continue to go through, and what the days/weeks/months that lie ahead hold for them.


Thanks for looking and may you all be richly blessed.

Winter Wonderland

Here in Oklahoma, we still have leftover snow from the Christmas Blizzard of '09, but that's not the Winter Wonderland that I'm referring to. Here's the one I am talking about:

That's the front. Only the left, right, and bottom sides are sewn on, so the top is open like a pocket. The "Winter Wonderland" pattern is by Little House Needleworks and the pouch is premade by Impie, Hattie, and Bea. The white floss is DMC, but the rest I converted to Valdani 6-strand colorfast hand-dyed flosses. Open the pouch up and here is what you see:

There are some assorted sizes of needles, four different silk flosses (three of which were given to me by Winifred -- thanks!!!), and a small pair of pewter Gingher scissors tied on with a ribbon.

And here is the latest pic of my crafty area:

In the center is my Christmas present -- a Singer Futura combination embroidery/sewing machine. Love it! I gotta get back into blogging and posting pictures more. Maybe when tax season is over...ewwwww, taxes...

Anyway, hope everyone is having a wonderful 2010 so far. Take care and thanks for looking. :)

Want to come stitch with me?

Hello fellow stitching/scissor/craft addicts! :-)

Next week, we will be having Thanksgiving at our house. Not only does this mean lots of family and friends coming over to eat or just visit, but it also means I have to clean the house super-duper good! Okay, so I don't really have to but my borderline OCD says I have to. Today I started with bathroom #3 (which is the smallest of the three) and my craft room (which is really a second living room but who cares, right?). Wanna see?

This is standing in the doorway of the room looking towards hubby's computer area (the desk on the left) and my computer/sewing/crafting area (the desk on the right), and the built-in bookshelves in the back (center) of the room:

The windows you see on the right are my garden/sun room. I did an excellent job of cleaning it out last week. That was one of those things that got terribly neglected while I was working. I got it all nice and neat...just in time for hubby and boys to pile firewood in there and make a mess exactly one day later. Oh well, after this post I will go sweep up the firewood bits that are on the floor. Besides, I think I'd rather have dry firewood and a nice, warm fire on a cold night when it's raining as opposed to no fire at all because the wood is outside in the rain. Don't you agree? Oh yeah - a real plus is that I didn't even have to help cut or haul the wood. So see? A little mess isn't all that bad. :)

Wait...did someone just ask a question? Ohhhhhhhh, okay...someone wants to see the shelves and cabinets up close. Well, here are the shelves:

And the cabinets below house much of my sewing stuff, like fabrics and patterns:

To the right is a doorway which leads to the little bathroom. Now isnt' that just too convenient? Ya' get all busy doing crafts and next thing ya' know...well, at least I don't have to rush all the way to the other end of the house to use the bathroom. (Note: There is a bathroom in the middle of the house but I try not to go in there because the boys use that one. Suffice it to say "eww". Trust me.) Anyway, 2 outta 3 bathrooms are always clean. Here is the one connected to my craft room:


To the left is my cross-stitch stash closet. It's a horrible mess because I've got tons of boxes piled on the floor. Shhhhhh, don't tell the boys, my mother-in-law, and my uncle because some of their Christmas gifts are hidden away in those boxes. Should the boys peek inside, they will just think it's crafty stuff. Hah! Let's keep that our little secret. *hee hee* Anyway, sorry for the mess but here it is:

Yikes! It looks awful but I promise when Christmas is over that it will look purdy darn tidy again. :) I love my stash closet.

Now when I put my back against the built-in bookshelves between the messy stash closet and the little bathroom, here is the view to the right:

The doorway on the left is the opening to the informal dining room. That is my mother-in-law's piano that she had since she was a little girl, my old National / Eldredge two-spool sewing machine, a bay window, lots of sewing goodies piled around, and a little four-legged table that belonged to my husband's maternal grandmother. They built that table together so it's extreeeeeeeeemely special. :-)

Looking to the left, here is what you see:

That's the door to the garden room / sun room, an old wooden rocking chair, my Clark's spool cabinet (NOT totally the way it's supposed to be but hey, I love it!), and a comfy couch to sit and visit on. (That's often where I go when chatting on the phone with Mom or friends. Both sides recline. Ahhhhhhhhh!) That big ol' square coffee table houses all of our CDs, board games, and family fun stuff, including photos. There are hours of great family memories and fun inside that table.

Oh, about that Clark's spool cabinet, here it is up close:

And sitting next to my comfy couch is a sign I fell in love with because it made me think of my dear firewood haulin' hubby: (Note: the carpet isn't really red...it's maroon like in the other photos. Actually, it's OU maroon. No, I didn't plan it that way. It was like that when we moved in and I think it's pretty so it stays. No college football carpet in my craft room, thankyouverymuch! LOL)

Thanks for touring my crafty area. Feel free to come sit a while, chat, and stitch with me. Wouldn't that be great?

As the holidays approach, a lot of people tend to get depressed. Not me -- I focus on what all I have to be thankful for. We are all richly blessed...sometimes we just have to search our souls to see that. Don't let the holidays get ya' down. :-)

Happy stitching, everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

"Button Tree" by The Drawn Thread

What a crafty day I have had! And it was a good crafty day, too...no frogs, no mistakes, no big headaches...everything went well. Gotta love that!


Over the last several days, I stitched The Drawn Thread's "Button Tree" for my mother-in-law. I didn't have just the right frame in my stash closet so decided to come up with another finishing idea which led me to my first flange pillow finish ever. Thanks to finishing instructions by Summer Louise Truswell in her book "Needlework from Stitch to Finish", here is the finished product:

I folded down the upper left corner for this picture so the coordinating fabric could be seen. The buttons are from a bunch of sewing stuff my mother-in-law gave to me that belonged to her deceased mother, so it has special sentimental value.

The other crafty thing I did today was make this no-sew double-sided fleece blanket for a friend's baby boy:

I made another one last week for the baby boy's twin sister but gave it to the family before I took a picture of it. Oh well, it's the same except the backing fleece is pink instead of blue.

Now I have the rest of the evening to go stitch and perhaps read a bit before going to sleep. We'll go to church in the morning for the first time in about four months so that should be refreshing. :)

Thanks for visiting and commenting. Happy stitching!

Stitching pictures galore and more!

Thanks to everyone who has welcomed me back and posted kind words about me quitting my job. It's not a big deal at all, I promise! And I'm really okay with it. Trust me...this is a good thing. :)



So while I was absent from Bloggerland the past few months, I did manage to get some stitching done here and there. Wanna see some pics? If not then you'd better leave now 'cause here comes a ton of pictures! LOL



First, I finished "Repair Shop" by Stoney Creek, woo hoo! Here it is before it was finished-finished:




And then here it is on the hanger (please pardon my hideous wall that desperately needs some TLC):



Second, I stitched a Halloween fob from a Shepherd's Bush kit. Here is the front:



And the back:



Third, I was also able to finish the Heart in Hand "Words of Wisdom" patterns that I stitched over one on 32 count Belfast Summer Khaki linen with the recommended Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Art Sampler Threads. I also used my beloved OTT light and a wonderful magnifier. *hee hee* So here is the finished piece:



And here it is inserted into a photo-frame box that I purchased at Hobby Lobby (at 50% off, of course, which made it only $10.00!):





Last but not least, I stitched a needlebook for my mother. The front cover is taken from a freebie design by Novalee02 and I charted the wording/borders myself. Here is the front cover with the needlebook tied closed with a black grosgrain ribbon:




The inside of the front cover:



The middle of the inside with two needles inserted into the plain black wool felt:



The inside of the back cover:

And the back:



And hey, guess what?!?!?! Our little Gingher family has grown by two more members! Mia and Elena have joined us. Here is the whole family (minus the plain chrome pair sitting by my stitching area as we speak):

Whew, I told you there'd be a ton of pictures! Hope you've enjoyed taking a peek at my finishes over the last few months. I promise to not be such a stranger. :)

Happy stitching and may God touch each and every one of you in a very special way. *hugs*