What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Vanessa will be going LIVE to show you tell you all about the Essentials Wallet Sew Along that starts tomorrow, April 4, 2024. She will also be answering questions live about the wallet & course.

She will also share what she’s been making with her new laser cutting & engraving machine. Lots of fun crafts to chat about on today’s show! Join us!

Essentials Wallet Course on sale: https://craftygemini.com/shop/essentials-wallet/

Laser cutting machine I use to make wooden earrings (affiliate link): https://shrsl.com/4grfb

Easter earring cut file I used (affiliate link): https://www.creativefabrica.com ...

Shop here: https://craftygemini.com/product-category/featured/

Join us for the Crafty Gemini Clean Out Sale- Day 2 of 3!

We’ve significantly dropped the prices on several products in our online shop. Once the items in your cart total $50 or more you will automatically get FREE SHIPPING in the U.S. You can combine physical and digital products to meet that $50 minimum to qualify for the free shipping.

Help us clear out old inventory to make room for new goodies!

Vanessa will be going LIVE to show you the products that are a part of the spring ...

Welcome to WIP Wednesday! The weekly LIVE show where Vanessa shares what projects she’s working, and answers your questions!

In this show Vanessa is answering pre-submitted questions on:

• if she finished the table topper she started in last week’s episode
• if her Stand Up Pencil Pouch course would be for sale individually
• what is the difference between a #3 and #5 zipper
• how to get get zipper pulls back on zipper teeth
• is the Cricut Joy big enough to cut out vinyl t-shirt designs
• how to use the HTVront auto heat press to apply heat transfer vinyl on ...

In this show Vanessa has lots to share including:

• a super quick and easy, no waste table runner demo with her 10” Slicer ruler
• machine embroidery projects she’s been making (Trigger warning: Roaches!)
• a fun sublimated mug she made with a new auto heat press machine she got
• the clapper story continues (from last episode- WIP Wednesday #123)

• Sign up for email updates: https://craftygemini.com/newsletter/

• Get your FREE Beginner Garment Sewing Tips & Tricks PDF here: https://craftygemini.com/op/garment-sewing-freebie/

What we’re covering:

0:24 – Welcome to WIP Wednesday #124!

1:53 – The clapper fiasco update ...

Tuesday is Mardi Gras, and this year I managed to remember it far enough in advance to change my header to Mardi Gras. I have some fun ideas for you today, for your home, and my plans for this year. Let’s start by setting a festive table. Pull out everything you can find around the house in purple, gold and green and mix them up to create a carnival table. This table for two from a couple of years ago could be for breakfast, as we have a Mardi Gras party to attend this year for dinner.

This party ...

Every year, during our Appalachian Mountain MINIs Christmas party, we have a silent auction to raise money for charity and have some fun. This year, I decided to make some Christmas cards in addition to a quilted item. I found these clip art images online, and printed off several pages of them. I colored them in before cutting them apart.

Then, I dug out some cardstock in colors to coordinate, and began layering elements. I began with mounting each image on cardstock to be a frame. Then I put elements together on larger folded cardstock to create the card.

Every ...

Fall wreaths adorn the wall outside our front door, and also in the garage at the door coming into the house. I like that bit of Autumn color welcoming me home, and greeting guests no matter which door we use. Because our garage was added to the home sometime after it was built, there is a nice door and brick wall at that entrance. This was an Autumn Jubilee wreath from a previous year, and because it never hangs outside, it is still looking nice with its ribbons and pine cones.

Today, let’s make a new wreath for the ...

I’ve been playing in the craft room and there are lots of ideas on today’s post for using Mason jars in new ways. We’ll start simple, and go a bit more involved later on. I have shown these jar votive holders in the past, but I have new readers that may not have seen them. While at a big box store some years ago, I noticed some votive holders that had flared tops. Around the corner was a Mason jar display. I wondered, would those votives fit the jars? Yes, they did. Setting the votive holder on ...

August is the time to get out the glue gun and do some crafting for the fair. This division of the exhibits has been thin in participants since covid shut down the fair in 2020. In 2021, there were so few entries, practically every entry got a ribbon. In 2022, it was a bit better, but still not as many entries as there is space to display them, so it looked sparse. I plan to do my part this year to help this division have more items to display, entering 10 categories. I hope more competitors will do the same ...

My Sweet Babboo managed to get the pole for the bird feeder straightened, but we didn’t want to put the feeder back on it yet. Still, he wanted the birds to have some food available, so he rigged up a feeder to hang high off the ground from a tree limb. The birds found that quickly, and this titmouse grabbed a seed to eat while sitting on a limb. They like to hold a seed between their toes and peck at it.

Jasper came by for a sandwich, and was happy with the service at this bistro. He grabbed ...

This past Sunday was the New Member Picnic for our car club, and we were in charge of it. It took a few months and a lot of work to plan, and it is good to have it done. For the meal, we were having it catered instead of it being a potluck as in years past. The choice of roast beef sandwich, turkey sandwich or strawberry pecan salad was made when folks signed up for the event. So, I needed lunch tickets. I pulled three colors of card stock, and stamped them. The yellow has a turkey on it ...

This week has been a bit busy, with some personal issues taking up the first three days. I finally got back to the blue and yellow table topper, and was able to get a couple more rows done with the curve ruler.

One thing I have to remember, the foot will keep the stitches about 1/4-inch away from the ruler edge. This means I have to estimate where to place the ruler so the stitching line will come out at the corners like I want.

Sometimes I am getting it right, and sometimes not. I have found that I ...

It was a rainy day on Friday, and I needed to do a bit of baking for My Sweet Babboo. I had some fresh blueberries, and decided to use up a pound cake mix I’d purchased for the Mountain State Fair competition last year but didn’t use. Ridiculously easy, I just mixed the 16-ounce pound cake mix, with a pint of fresh blueberries and the zest of a lemon. Baked in a bundt pan, it came out tender and tasty.

While the oven was hot, I mixed up a batter for Lemon Poppy Seed bread. I had talked ...

The past few nights we have been doing a little binge watching on Netflix. Who doesn’t do a little binge watching these days? The show we have been watching is one that I didn’t think I would really enjoy. Thanks to the preview they play, I was curious to see what it was about and ended up watching the entire first episode. I had originally thought that I would view enough to satisfy my curiosity and move on to the things I normally like to watch. I was wrong.

I know you’re totally dying right now to ...

It’s been a busy week, with something going on every day. It hasn’t left a lot of time for sewing on my own projects, but I have made good progress on a free quilt along I’ve designed just for you coming in March for National Quilting Month – more on that below. I also took a class, painted some rocks, and made progress in the garden. Settle in for a long and chatty post as we catch up. Let’s start in the garden, shall we? The daffodils are coming up and just beginning to bloom. These white ...

This year was our neighborhood group’s turn to host the guild’s Holiday party, and we have been working on it for months. We set the theme last spring and began looking for the materials we needed. Settle in for a long and picture heavy post, as I catch you up on all the prep and secret projects, and show you the final result. We had a wonderful time, and the guild was delighted.

The first thing we decided was to make it an afternoon tea rather than a meal. We decided to make teacup pincushions for all the ...

Eeek! Where has the time gone! I want to say that I’m over here killing it and knocking out all kinds of UFOs and there are a lot of pictures so get ready.

That would be a lie. I haven’t done anything on those UFO’s.

Why not? That’s a great question. The shop has been a bit on the busy side. We have had more folks express interest in our beginning longarm class (yay!) as well as quilters bringing in quilts that need quilting or repairing. Combine all of that with kids going back to school ...

The jacket was done, and I just could not bring myself to throw away the bits left over from the pattern cutting step. This doesn’t look like much, but I just had to figure out something to do with these. Settle in for a long and picture heavy post as I finish everything left. Now, note that all these pieces are quilted already, so sewing them together in the traditional way would be problematic. But ever one to relish a challenge, I had an idea.

I straightened the edges, leaving the angles, and placed the pieces up against each ...

This past weekend was an annual event for one of our car clubs, a picnic to welcome new members to the club. My Sweet Babboo and I were in charge of the event, and it has been several months in the planning. It is a potluck event, with the club providing the venue and the fried chicken. After a week of record heat, a cool front came through the night before the event, bringing lower temperatures and drying out the humidity to create a lovely day. Temps were in the low 80s, with low humidity, and a breeze that at ...

Once again, we’ve had a busy week with yet one more quick trip to Atlanta among appointments and planning a big event that was held yesterday. I’ll have more on that for you in a day or so. In the heat this week, my daylilies decided it was time to start their show. I got out early one morning before the heat hit to get a few photos. This peach one with the yellow throat is huge. I like the ruffled edges of the petals.

Nearby, a dark purple one is blooming.

I thought I had pulled up ...