VERY LATE post on my drawing winner......

First of all I am sorry that this drawing is late.  I have been busy lately with my Grammy duties:)
and busy with family and Thanksgiving festivities.

The winner of the project pouch is Marilyn.

Congratulations Marilyn and if you will email me your address I will get your pouch out to you right away.

Thank you for all of your comments.

I have just publish a new page titled Mama Joan's Stitching Shoppe.  I have pouches and accessories already made and available for purchase.  These would make great Christmas gifts for your favorite stitcher or yourself.  

Happy Stitching.

It's Jennifer!!!!

While I was out shopping at JoAnn's the other day I just happened upon these NEW Gingher Designer Scissors.  They are called Jennifer.  Of course I NEEDED them.  They arrived on the heels of the last designer scissors Emily.  Not sure why we go so long without a scissors and then two are released in a row.  

 Gingher Designer Scissors--Jennifer.

Now a totally different note, as you can see I have a blogoversary coming up in 3 days!!!

I see it has been 5 years since I started this blog.

  So in celebration of my 5 year blogoversary I am having a giveaway.  I will be drawing a name for this project bag that I made.  It has a see through window and is big enough for a large pattern.

 Here is a view of the back so that you can see the fabric I used.

This picture is just to show you how it looks with a pattern and scissors in it.

THESE ITEMS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS DRAWING.

So just leave a comment and I will draw a name next Saturday.

Good Luck and Happy Stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by:)

Got Scissors?????

The long awaited arrival of Emily happened on Friday.  So our little stitching group had a mini gathering last night for the adoption.  We always wait with such anticipation every time a new scissors is released:)

This is another cute, have to have scissors!!!!

You just can't have enough scissors!!!!

I hope you are all having a great weekend.

HAPPY STITCHING.

Lost blogging Mojo and a very good day with stitching buds.

Well it has been about 2 months since my last posting!!!!  I have been busy stitching and sewing along with other things over the summer, but I just have not felt the need to blog.  I will see if I can change that.

I am doing a major HAPPY DANCE!!!!

During our 2011 retreat we decided again on a group project.  We chose With My Needle's---My Needle's Worke Box.  All the stitching was done and we had a finishing day scheduled for months.  

This last Saturday was the day, actually we started finishing on Friday night which is our usual stitching night. 

I am so glad we started on Friday because we need those hours plus the 8 or so hours we worked on Saturday.  In fact I need a couple hours today to finish up my smalls.  I only had one thread winder, the needlebook and the scissor fob to finish.

So Jill--Purple Peacock, Jackie-no blog and I worked together and got this box finished.  Our other stitching friend Chris did join us on Friday and since she had her box together was a help to us on starting our boxes.

I am so glad to have great stitching buds, it always helps so much to have the support and help when doing major finishing like we did.  As the saying goes--Many hands make light the work.

So here are the pictures of my finished box:

 This is the view of the front.  I stitched this project on 32 count Belfast Baby Lotion with DMC threads.

 Here is one side.

 The back side.

 And the other side.  

 This is the top of the box.  I just love the button.

 And of course the bottom of the box.  You can see that we used pins for the feet on the bottom.

Here is a view of the inside and the inside top of the box.  Each side of the box has a pocket if you look closely.  

These are all the smalls.  Two thread winders, a needle book and a scissors fob.  

All in all this was a fun project and made more fun because we made it a group effort.  I really enjoy

doing these kinds of projects as a group, sometimes you just need the support to get you through.

Thanks girls for a fun couple of days--even though by 5 pm on Saturday I had enough of finishing:)

We had worked about 4 1/2 hours on Friday and about 8 or so hours on Saturday.  

Can't wait until we get together to finish next years project.

Hopefully I will be posting more on what I did this summer.  

Thanks for stopping by.

It all started with this......

 sewing box from JoAnn's.  

I had just bought some fabric with this particular design on it from a local Quilt shop, when I happened upon this sewing box at JoAnn's.  

Well I got busy with my new sewing machine and created the following:

First I started with some stitching portfolio's. Which are on the top of the sewing box.

 Then one day I was visiting a quilting blog--Carol's Crafty Creations and saw these cute see through pouches.  So I had to make some to match my sewing box!!!!

 Then I made some more and also re-calculated the pattern to make some larger stitching pouches to hold bigger projects.  The original pattern is by Atkinson Designs.  

 Here is another set made from Blackbird designs fabric collection called Blueberry Crumb Cake.  

 Here's a view of the larger project pouch with a project book in it.  I think it makes it really great to be able to see what is in the project pouch.

Another view of the larger pouch with a project in it.  

If you interested in some of these project pouches for yourself, please just email me.  

Had to have it.....

 I made a run to JoAnn's today with one of my stitching buds--Chris and I didn't NEED a thing but while I was wondering around the store I came across this sewing box.  I couldn't believe the fabric that was on this box.  I had made a couple of my stitching portfolio's in this same fabric about two weeks ago.  So I had to have the box!!!!

 This is really a nice size box to take on stitching events.  Plus it can double as a foot rest.

 Here are the two portfolio's that I made. That match so wonderfully.

 A view of the inside, a nice tray to hold the essentials and room for my stitching projects.  I just love it

.

 So while I was out today I also made a stop at Walmart for my Whitman's box.  I will be stitching With thy Needle and Threads new pattern--Strawberry Hill Sampler designed for this box.  I can hardly wait to get the pattern and stitch it. 

I hope everyone is having a great week.  I sure have had a great couple of days as I was stitching with friends all day yesterday--from 9 am until 10 pm, thanks to Chris who put it all together and then having lunch with Chris and doing some shopping for stitchy goodies today:)

Thanks for all the fun Chris.

Two framed finishes and stitching pouches

 I did a little framing over the weekend.  I had these two Blackbird Designs pieces stitched and I needed to get them framed.  Of course I first tried to find some frames in my stash but no luck.  I had a coupon for 50% off plus another $25 off so it was a trip to JoAnn's.

 This piece is from BBD Loose Feathers Spring 2012 book Mary Ann Blackburn.  As I mentioned in a previous post I put my paternal grandmother's name and date of when she would have been 8 years old as that was the age of Mary Ann herself when she stitched this sampler.  I think this will be a very nice heirloom of my grandmother.  It makes the sampler just that much more special to personalize it with my grandmothers birth date.  I was happy to spend the money on this frame as I think the sampler deserves it:) besides I did use that coupon!!!

 

 This piece is from BBD A Schoolgirl's Work book.  It is Ann's Sewing Tray.  Again I could not find the right frame in my stash so I ordered this frame from JoAnn's.  I so love the saying on this piece. 

 

  And lastly I ordered this Blackbird Designs quilt fabric last winter and finally got around to making some pouches with it.  I really like having my projects in these stitching pouches.  And of course I really enjoyed sewing them with my new sewing machine!!!

I hope everyone is enjoying the weather and having a great week.

 

 

I LOVE my new sewing machine.....

I was out today garage saling with my daughter and while we were out we stopped at a quilt shop.

I spotted this very cute fabric and knew I needed to make myself a set of stitching pouches.

Here is my set of stitching pouches.  Since getting my new sewing machine I have been trying out all of it's stitches. I have made these pouches before and would sew snaps on them well since I have a really nice automatic buttonhole maker with my new machine I decided I would put buttonhole's in these pouches. 

.  Boy let me tell you the buttonhole worked excellently.  I am so excited.  

Here is a view of the inside.  I just love this fabric.  Nice sewing theme. 

A close up of the inside fabric.

Here I am with my new sewing machine.  It is a Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 875.  It has been worth every penny I spent on it!!!!

I made an extra set of pouches to put up for sale.  If you are interested please email me.  I will sell this set for $45 plus shipping.  If you would like just the larger pouch it would be $30 plus shipping and the smaller version is $20 plus shipping.  These pouches are made with quality quilt fabric and have a button hole--not snaps.

 I only have one set of these pouches right now but if you would like to order either size or a set just let me know and I will make them for you.

 

  Here is a picture with to show that the larger pouch is big enough for a regular size pattern.

 

The smaller version will hold this type of pattern.  

 I bought this cute reusable craft bag from JoAnn's the other day.  Now I really like the bag, it is very cute but can you spot the problem????

Someone must have been asleep when checking the spelling---Caft???? 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  

 

I love dying on a sunny day

Jill (Purple Peacock) and I decided to do some thread dying.  Now we did do some thread dying about a month or so ago but wanted to do it again with another method Jill had found on Calico Rabbits blog.

Here are some of our threads pre-dying. 

Here of course are some of our dyes.

Need those pans.  Also had some cups but I didn't get any pictures of them.

 

Here is our drying process.  Gotta love the sun:)

I am going to be doing BBD Mother's Gardens so I bought all of the DMC's and dyed them. I bought 3 skeins of each color--maybe a little over kill but then I know I will have enough.  I am so excited in how they turned out and can't wait to stitch with them.  Also notice our wonderful tags.  Thanks to Jill, she did all the work on them.  They are a very nice touch.  

Thanks Jill:)

 These are some other threads I dyed.  I really tried to get some variation in the threads.  It is a guessing game, but the more you dye the more you learn. 

 The next few photo's are some close ups of the threads.  I am hoping that you will be able to see some of the variations in the dying.  I am not to good at photography.

 DMC 666

 DMC 3012

 DMC 3052

 

DMC 3053

Here are some threads that I want to redo.  I would like them to have some more variance in them.  As I said before it's a guessing game.  So I will try some different dyes.  

I also think that when I do my dying from now on I will choose my projects and then dye the threads.  Although you do need to practice so sometimes doing random threads is good. 

Well I had a great day with Jill and I love the results!!!