Good Grief Girdie's blog

needle books........

Several years ago we were to head out on vacation and since I wanted to sew in the car and that meant  I needed to keep my needles, scissors and pins in a safe place....as you all know there are so many variations of needle books but this one was something that worked for me (mine is on the left).......so I thought why not make more for gifts and to sell........some of them have the same punch needle work and others have felt motifs on the front.  They all are made out of an old cutter quilt and felt......there are places for the needles, pins and something to hold a small pair of scissors, plus a little pocket for miscellaneous things

 

I am still working on these and hope to finish them this week........

Hope you all had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend........today is monday so like always "do something creative today".........

tag with reinforced colored holes.......

Instead of plain white reinforcement holes on your handmade tags you can brighten them up with  a little color........as you can see by the photos above you can use copic markers, spectrum markers gold leaf pens and even sharpie markers.....this just adds a little pop.......

Just a fun little something on this holiday sunday afternoon.........

Happy 4th weekend........

Wishing all a safe and wonderful weekend........be safe and enjoy!

thursday JULY 2...........

I am still celebrating with these gorgeous flowers I received from someone very dear and special............absolutely the most gorgeous colors! Thank You!

How is it already the second of July........I mean really .......let's slow down this summer, and not get in a hurry! 

Wishing all is well in your neck of the woods on this week before the holiday......Happy Thursday to all of you.  

thank you family and friends.............

Well as you can see I have been spoiled by all of my friends and family once again........I just wanted to say a huge thank you and you know who you are who sent cards, gifts, texts, flowers, cookies, donuts, bagels , coffee  and best of all the friendships I have with all of you. What a fun way to spend this day that I now have turned 68.........it's unbelievable I am that old!!!!! I use to think after sixty you are ready for the old folks home.......well I am here and somedays I feel like it but you know what , where we are today and what has been going on around us I feel pretty lucky and count my blessings every day........... so 68 doesn't look so bad anymore.  Thank You all ...............

And I treated myself  and ordered my newest birthday girl from the talented Jenn aka. Noodle and Lou!  Is she not the cutest ever.........

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend........I have started out in the most perfect way...............thank you all!!!!!!

 

Summer Stitch Camp Cover...........

Finally finished this cover..........last night I thought why do these things just take on a different look once you start omitting and putting back on.......you don't know how many different things I have tried to make this look exactly what I had hoped for.........well here she is.  In the beginning I knew I wanted to incorporate my "FI FI" punch needle pattern.....also this handkerchief cut in half looked like a bandana scarf, also wanted the year, the red trim on the side is old and have been hanging onto it for just the right place..........anyway this part is complete. Below I am going to show you a little trick on how to make a leaf look 3 d..

If you have some old green thin fabric ,( I just happen to have the trim off of an old tattered quilt that was green) just cut the leaves in a shape you like and wad it up if its not quilted fabric and take a running stitch with embroidery floss and run the stitch right down the middle......so easy and because of the wadded up fabric it kind of curls up like a leaf....... if you are using a quilt  just take it apart so you won't have the thick batting.  Hopefully you can tell by the photos how its kind of crinkly around the edges......

 

Happy Stitching..............

The BEST Lemon Bars ever.......

I will say it once again I LOVE this cook book.........so many wonderful recipes......and this is another one!  If you have followed me on the blog you know I am a big Meyer Lemon fan. We grew up with Meyer Lemons in California and for a long long time Oklahoma people had never heard of them, but now they are to be found in several markets and they are always in my refrigerator.......and this is what I used for the bars. I also used the zest to the filling plus I squeezed 3 lemons instead of the 2 it calls for......... I do know this they are better the second day because they firm up but if you like warm lemon bars they aren't to bad a bit after you take them out of the oven...........here is the recipe if you don't have the book......... if I were you this is one recipe book you can't live without..........

So there you have it on this beautiful Wednesday afternoon in sunny Oklahoma..........enjoy!

happy mail.....happy tuesday........

Several years ago I discovered this blog " Lilla Lotta " was the name, I loved everything she posted even her heading on the blog  was a pair of black and white stripped leggings with red shoes.........at the time when I discovered her she lived over seas with her big family ( I even did a big Christmas exchange with her and loved everything she exchanged for one of my Christmas Porcelain dolls).......since then she is living now in the states and  is one talented artist. If you visit her shop and instagram you will know exactly what I mean. So that brings me to her wonderful twill tapes that I have ordered once again. You may of seen these show up in many of my sewing projects over the years and these new ones are so fun.........please go check her out!

The second of the Happy Mail is some fabric that I have been waiting to get my hands on since January and finally came out in May.    Cathe Holden's Flea Market Mix by Moda...........  No one here in OKC had it so of course I had to order..........I did not order the entire line but did get these 3.......the other line will be ready in the fall and it's called Flea Market Moxie..... These came from Lone Star Quiltworks and it arrived within a couple of days..........

Love them all and right now I think  ordering like most of you has been something that makes us all Happy and something to look forward to.......and hopefully we won't get in too much trouble when the bill comes at the end of the month.........oh well!!!!

 

Happy Tuesday ..........have a great day!

Monday June 22.......Bonjour..........

A few pages from my Summer Stitch Camp Book.........some pages are a work in progress and a few of them are finished ..........each page has a new technique that was taught in each of the classes along with some of the products that we were given in the kit.....

the photo above is one of the pages  I did on my own. I wanted to use some velvet of course and I love the Sashiko Fabric for the background that was included in the kit also.....it really makes for a great background....

the photo above we learned how to the YoYo to make flowers.........

the photo above we used Antique French Paper for the vase and learned how to stitch on paper ......we then used wonder fuse to adhere to the vase to make this page.........we also used the French General paper alphabet and ironed them on...........also at the top of this page I cut in half one of the paper piecing hexagons we learned how to make.......

the green page was one I did on my own.......I did include a felt heart in the middle of the quilt piece that has some hand  embroidery stitches.........nothing really special, I just wanted to do a page in green since the book is about colors............

this page also has another paper hexagon and I did some Sashiko stitching on the navy blue pillow ticking.......

Lazy Daisy stitching on quilted fabric in this photo ........... this page is far from being finished.......

I am still working on the front cover and I have switched it all around so many times but hopefully this week will be the week for me to complete the book........I have enjoyed working with different kinds of elements in this book and hopefully they will be useful for stitching projects in the future............so now you know what I have been working on the past 3 weeks.

 

Happy Monday all..............

dot.......... dot.......... dot...........

Seeing dots.........I love polka dots of any size or color!  A few years back I was lucky enough to take a class from artist Lynn Whipple. She is the queen of collage and I absolutely love her art and the techniques she uses.  One of the things she taught us was how to use these small dots with a seamstress tracing wheel and paint. 

squirt some paint onto a surface and run your tracing wheel through the paint( I use just cheap acrylic paint that isn't to thick) to make sure it reaches all around the wheel......then drag it onto you paper or whatever you are wanting the dots on and there you have some small little dots all over .......do it really random and not perfect.........the more random the better it will look.......have fun!

Below is one of Lynn's pieces of art I bought from her........you can see how she used the tracing wheel.

Any way I just was thinking so much of what has been on the blog is stitching.....thought I'd change it up a bit today....the piece of doodling in the first photos will be turned into tags!

 

Happy Tuesday.............