ginapina

Last night my iPhone went swimming in some delicious red curry soup. I spent some time swabbing it out with a toothpick and alcohol wipe and let it sleep it off. Amazingly today it seems to be working except for some, er, minor glitches here and there. Here’s to hoping it holds out!

In celebration of surviving this near phone death here are some (now backed up) snapshots of what I have been up to since you last heard from me. Sometimes in my daily rush to get things done these pics will be the only record I have of handmade treasures sent off to make themselves useful. I have been making a lot of gifts lately so I will focus on those.

Welcome to my little sewing corner. This is where I spend most of my time.  It is on the 3rd floor of the house and so during these spring & summer months it does get quite hot.  Fortunately directly behind my sewing machine there is a little window unit AC.  I do worry over the amount of electricity I am using, but honestly I would fry up here without it.

This is a little bag I have been calling the Bikram Bag because I made it for my sister to store her soaking wet bikram yoga clothes in when she is done sweating it out with the other crazies in that 105F room.  It is such an awesome bag and so handy that I have already had an order for more that will be used as swimsuit bags! Looking forward to making more for my shop as I have been addicted to sewing with laminated cotton lately.

Here is one of the many lunch totes I have been making! The inside is laminated cotton, but the outside is a mix of cotton chicken print with an oilcloth base. I insulated this tote with interfacing and a layer of cotton flannel. Again, laminated cotton is the coolest fabric ever! It is hard to tell here but this closes with a little elastic loop over a fabric covered button. I only wish I needed one of these because they are so stinkin’ cute.

Here is an apron I made for my Granny for Mother’s Day. Granny is my Mother’s mother. Her and my aunt Sherry came to Austin to visit not too long ago and had a good time helping me do some  rollerderby charity sewing and eating Tex Mex. They were also kind enough to take our little chick who grew up to be a rooster. I wanted to keep him, but in an effort to not piss off our neighbours too much it was decided he should go. I am glad he went to live on my Granny’s farm.

Here is a quilt top that I feel has been in progress foreverrrr. I have only been working on this on my “off time” nights & weekends.  I am committed to finishing this one before I start another one, which has kept me motivated to keep truckin’ on.  Right now it is at about 80″x80″ but I would like to make it Queen bed sized and so I am thinking about adding a border. What do you think?? If I do not add a border that will mean making a couple more rows of half square triangle blocks..

Here is a patchwork bag I made for my Mum for Mothers Day. It is navy corduroy and pale pink twill with some Parisville pinwheels for the front flap. She absolutely loves it and says she get’s tons of compliments on it. Yay! Look forward to similar making its way to my shop.

Here is a diaper bag I made as a gift for Mum’s friend & coworker Amy who is having a baby any day now! She is doing her nursery brown & blue and Mum actually helped pick out the perfect fabrics for her.  Denyse Schmidt to the rescue! The thing I love and hate about diaper bags is that they are all about the pockets! I made this one with an adjustable strap, open top for easy access with magnetic closure, large deep outside pockets on both sides, elastic pockets on one side outside and also on the inside.

Here is a picture of Amy that Mum snapped for me after it was stuffed with baby gifts for her.  I am so happy she likes it and hopes she gets lot of good use out of it.

Well it sure was nice to chat at you. Do keep in touch! I will try not to wait so long to post in the future, but I do recommend you using Google Reader to follow my blog if you do not already. If you have a Gmail address (free!) then click on Reader on the top left (you may have to click More) and add ginapina.com and any other blogs you like to read to your subscription list. This way you any time you have a spare minute to read blogs you can check if several have updated all at once. Make sense? If it weren’t for Google Reader I may actually blog more There are soo many great crafty blogs out there. Adding a “Favorite Links” to this page is on my to do list!

Til next time, Gina Pina