Journal Junking

There never seems to be enough time in a day to pursue all my crafty habits. Three week intervals calls me to updating on my hand quilting progress alternating with a cross stitch roll call update for the SAL and HQAL groups I participate in. But in addition to those two passions, I have been working on and creating lots of junk journaling journals, envelopes, cards etc.

Add in Dr. appointments, daily activities like making the bed, cooking meals, walking the dog, grocery shopping, talking with family (phone), friends, gardening (not so much with the winter weather) life is full.

I thought I would share some of the latest with the journal making. Most recently I worked on Valentine themed birthday journal for a cousin turning 60. It will be going in the mail today. Technically not really a ‘junk journal’ as this was made with some beautiful printables, sari ribbons and pieces and lace . Below are a few of the pages. This has a two ring binding and the cover was made using a lemon cake mix box. Each page has a border that is machine stitched as is all the added ephemera. It measures 8 X 6″

One of my favorite things to create right now are prayer cards. These sweethearts are made out of file folders. There is writing space on the backs of the cards as well as the small card inserts to write down a prayer or intention (anything you like).

This one below is geared more for Christmas giving with a lace tuck space for the journaling card.

These last three posted have vintage religious metals attached. They are also made out of file folders, vintage music and book pages, sari ribbon and vintage lacey bits.

I’ll finish up this posting with two pages of a mini Valentine themed journal. This measures 4 X 4 1/2″ and is a real tweet heart of a jewel. It’s really chunky and with a big crocodile mouth kept closed with some jute twine.

Time to get this day going, there’s still our mini schnauzer patiently waiting for her morning walk and a post office visit for my cousins birthday surprise.

HQAL: Jane’s Quilt Update

Monday morning and I opened my computer to the heading above and the HQAL links below and realized I never wrote my post. I was feeling off all day. I had a bad back ache and bit of upset tummy, canceled a sister and brother in law visit, got out a blanket and heating pad and relaxed. (I am feeling 100% today) And then there was Netflix. we had started the show ‘Trailors’ a reality show, the day before. ok ~ I have never and I mean never watched one of those type of shows before but this one hooked us in and yes we binged watched and finished the entire season 1 – forgive me please 🙂

So on to my beautiful Jane’s Quilt. I didn’t get much done but made progress with 6 logs completed this time. She is massive and a beauty. (original picture not quilted yet)

I have been hand quilting though, working on a baby quilt that I need to get done. She has taken up much of my hand quilting time. My first plan was to outline all the pictures in the blocks, which is what I have been doing. With one last block to work on I am trying to decide if that was enough or I should have or should I do more. Perhaps a pattern in the sashing. Thoughts and ideas 🙂

That’s it for me this time, I am off now to catch up on the others. A wonderful coming three weeks to you all

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, Connie, and  Cathie 

SAL: New Project ~ Happy Camper

At our last update I had shared the new project I would be starting. It’s this cute camper cross stitch.

Nothing exciting to see but I am off to a good start.

This project splits her time with a Log Cabin and baby quilt I am hand quilting. Oh, and some junk journaling too. I think this will be fairly simple and shouldn’t take too long to do. I am already thinking about what I want to work on next.

Now I am off to check in on the others in this SAL. We post every three weeks to encourage and cheer each other on to a finish. You can join me by clicking on the links below. There are some amazing projects in the works.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

HQAL: Jane’s Quilt Update

Happy January and the start to another great year of hand quilting. I am continuing work on Jane’s quilt. I am now 1 year in working on her. She is kept front and center in the living room on the couch doing double duty; reminding me to work on her when I am just vegging watching tv and keeping me cozy warm.

At our last posting I showed you this picture, there’s not much visual excitement.

But I have made some real head way these last three weeks, having completed 25 logs (if I’ve counted right) of the this log cabin beauty.

I have also started another quilting project. Another baby quilt for my granddaughter who is expecting her first child in April. It is a baby boy! The nursery theme is desert/western. I wasn’t having much luck finding anything at our local fabric stores. I was looking for something cactus, roadrunner etc. My daughter found a great online fabric store (not just fabric) called Spoonflower. The selections for this theme was mind boggling. I have already begun and am making good progress. The front is cute with all kinds of dinosaurs pulling wagons and cowboys on bucking dino’s and the back fabric has cute snakes in cowboy gear. Now I must admit, I have a deep seated aversion to snakes but these are cute and since I wasn’t the one solely picking the fabrics I had to cave and endure my long standing fear.

Here’s a little peek into the nursery. My daughter free hand drew and painted this desert theme for the crib background

Before I close till next check in I wanted to say a big welcome back to Connie 🙂 Below are the links for checking on the others in this group.

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, Connie, and  Cathie 

SAL: Snowman & Reindeer wrap up

Happy New Year to all. I couldn’t think of a better way to start the new year then to wish you the very best, a healthy and happy coming year filled with lots of crafty excitement and finishes.

I am entering 2023 with a wrap up on my Snowman & Reindeer cross stitch. (It only took me the entire 2022 year)

At our last posting I had pretty much thought I had a close finish and was ready to set aside and start something else. But with a bit of encouragement from all of you I soldiered on and did most of the little finishing touches I was going to put off. Here is where I was.

I had not done any of the backstitching around the birds and had not filled in the snowman. In the directions the white unstitched sections were left unstitched. I had originally wanted to fill them in. Looking at this now I can still see where improvement can be made. The bird on the hat, the bridal…I’m feeling ok with it for now. I love the fabric I photographed him on and am thinking I may use it as a type of frame/matting for this.

Something fun like the photo below, then framed with a red lacquered type frame – shiny and bright.

I am putting this aside now and will be starting on a new project. (showed you last posting) It’s time for a break and new start for this year.

Please join me in checking out the others in this SAL by clicking on the links below

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

About the SAL

Please note this SAL is not accepting any more new members until further notice but this is what it’s all about anyway. This SAL (Stitch Along) is slightly different to other SALs in that we don’t all stitch the same design at the same rate. We choose ONE unfinished project, or ONE new one, and show progress of its completion over a series of three weekly updates. There are no deadlines and no set amount to stitch. The result is that the space in our drawers full of WIPs (works in progress) is gradually being freed up to store lots of new crafty goodness. It’s surprising how much motivation I’ve gained from being in this SAL.

HQAL: Jane’s Quilt Update and another finish

Our last posting for the 2022 year, and I wanted to say thank you to Kathy for hostessing this quilt along.

I have been working on Jane’s Quilt since January 16, 2022. It’s coming up on a year and I feel like 2023 will see her finished possibly. Hand quilting takes time, good lighting and heart. Heart because there is so much love put into this art. When I am quilting, I sometimes find myself drifting into thought and then I realize I have stalled and have just been sitting with nothing getting done. It’s easy to do that with Jane’s quilt as it was a gifted heirloom quit top filled with so many personal memories. It’s easier to machine quilt and often I think how much quicker it would be to create a machine quilted beauty. Don’t think I haven’t thought that with this 🙂 she is massive and time consuming, thick and heavy and not lending to summer quilting in the heat. Here she is and you can see that the pattern repeats on the back side slung over the fence.

I have been working on the dark colored logs these last 3 weeks and gotten 12 done moving the hoop 1x.

Another hand quilted project I have been working on was a baby quilt for our nephew who is having a boy. You may remember this quilt.

It is finished, gift wrapped and ready for pick up, actually today 🙂

I am wishing you a magical holiday season filled with lots of love and laughter. Wishing you good health and happiness in the year to come.

The HQAL is an opportunity for hand quilters to share and motivate each other. The talented quilters below post every three weeks to show our progress and encourage one another. Stop by their sites to see what they are working on. If you have a hand project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Cathie

SAL: Snowman and Reindeer Update

I was so excited to post that I had a finish with my Snowman and Reindeer cross stitch. I have been working on this since January and I was ready to frame and dance a jig. Then I realized I had not done the outlining stitching. I am still dancing though, this is a finish to a very long project.

I have decided not to fill in Mr. Snowman which I have toyed with doing. From a distance he looks just fine and frankly, I have run out of steam on this project.

While my fur baby was enjoying a spa day I popped into our Goodwill to look around. I had a few things I was looking specifically for, one of which was Scotty Christmas ornament for a neighbor…. the GW didn’t let me down and I found exactly what I was looking for. Bonus – I spotted this X stitch kit. I picked it up for my next project and just might start this and leave the backstitching on Mr. Snowman for later. I can use the wording as is or personalize it differently for gifting if I wanted. Either way it’s cute and will be less fussy to stitch.

I must admit I had never heard of Zweigart before so I did a quick google search on this brand and learned this company is Germany based and was established in 1877.

With our next posting on January 1st, I look forward to starting 2023 visiting with you all. I am wishing you love and laughter as we finish out this year.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

Our next updates will be posted on the 1st January 2023.

About the SAL

Please note this SAL is not accepting any more new members until further notice but this is what it’s all about anyway. This SAL (Stitch Along) is slightly different to other SALs in that we don’t all stitch the same design at the same rate. We choose ONE unfinished project, or ONE new one, and show progress of its completion over a series of three weekly updates. There are no deadlines and no set amount to stitch. The result is that the space in our drawers full of WIPs (works in progress) is gradually being freed up to store lots of new crafty goodness. It’s surprising how much motivation I’ve gained from being in this SAL.

HQAL: Jane’s Quilt Update

Three weeks and here we are again, and I am ready to post with an update on Jane’s Quilt. There is never really much to show in the way of progress, that is nothing changes with the pattern and it looks quite the same each time. The photo below is from last time. I started working on the dark blocks. Finished them and have moved the hoop 2 times now.

As you may remember this was a gifted quilt top pieced by Jane Rogers and given to me by her granddaughter Raeleen, Jane was the mother of one of my dearest and closest friends, Jeanine. Both Jane and Jeanine have passed on now but through this gift, my relationship with Realeen, I feel like they are both still with me. Going through some of her mother’s things recently, Raeleen came across something of Janes and sent it off to me. I thought it would be fun to highlight it in this posting. It is a mailing from a quilt guild that Jane belonged to.

The mailing is from 1984. This was a guild she had belonged too prior to moving to her/our home town to be near her daughter. We are like a guild, a group of hand quilters keeping this art alive and if there had been no internet invented, we just might be mailing out a monthly flyer to our members with news and updates and cute pattern ideas to fit the season.

As we honor and uphold this craft of old, let us remember and honor those who have come and gone, who taught us and inspired and sparked our flame to hand quilt. Jane Rogers was one of those woman. I have shared this photo before but here she is again. Perfect timing with the Christmas season upon us. I remember exactly where we were and why. It was a luncheon in honor of Jane. Jane is opening a Christmas birthday card. She had a Dec. 27th birthday.

There are some beautiful projects in works and I am off to check in with the others.

You can join me by clicking on the links below 🙂

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below. Enjoy visiting the other members of our group!

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Cathie

SAL: Snowman and Reindeer Update

It really does feel like winter here in the northwest corner of the United States. Spending more time inside than out certainly helps with steady progress on projects. At our last posting I was here with my cross- stitch

My favorite stitching time is an hour in the morning with repeats of Perry Mason on the TV. I’ve made considerable progress and I’am still hoping for a Christmas finish. Here is where I am now

You can see the progress with the background. I still have a bit of the side to complete and then all the backstitching. You might miss the green reins for the reindeer. I actually had and didn’t realize I hadn’t finished them. I still feel like Mr. Snowman needs some help – some fill in. But if I don’t get to that and decide to leave him, I think he will be fine.

Now I’am off to check in with the others in this SAL. You can join me by clicking on the links below.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

HQAL: Jane’s Quilt Update

The rain has been consistent and happily has kept me indoors crafting. It’s been another three weeks and time to update you on the hand quilting project I have been working on. I haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked but I am happy as I continue to get closer to a finish.

Just one picture of my progress this time. I completed the dark color cabin logs of this corner, which completes a bottom section all along the bottom or top, either way you look at it. You might notice the bottom and side log are not stitched and that is because I am not stitching all along the borders as there will be a binding that will cover them. I have moved the hoop to the next dark section and once that is done a complete half of the quilt will be finished. Actually I will be about 3/4 completed 🙂

I have been alternating with a baby quilt I am also hand quilting. Just a quick reminder of what it looks like.

Is anyone else feeling the crunch to get some Christmas gifts completed ? I can hardly believe we’re in November. I finished another hand quilted quilt that I haven’t shown as it is a Christmas gift. I have it wrapped and ready for mailing out for December 1st. I don’t want to ruin the surprise so I will show it in another update once it has arrived.

Also occupying my time and these rainy days are a few more junk journal pocket Christmas cards.

This card is so much fun ~ pic 1 has a vintage pin with monogrammed dangle attached onto the bottom ruffle. This has 2 pockets with journaling cards in them. Pic 2 the sweet framed golden song birds is the top tuck spot that holds the church card. There is gold glitter on the frame. Pic 3 is the back and these cards are attached with tiny clips. All of the printables are from RubyandPearlxo who you can find on youtube and she also has an Etsy shop.

This one is a favorite. Madonna themed and simple, the rose pocket holds 2 journaling cards and a vintage postcard. The rose pocket wraps around to the back framing in the rest of the printable. I should add the papers, also from RubyandPearlxo, are glued to a piece of sturdy card stock.

Now I am off to check in with the others and then get in some quality quilting time. Be well and see you all at the next check in.

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below. Enjoy visiting the other members of our group! 

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Cathie