My mom introduced me into the basics of sewing after I graduated high school. And it wasn't until my parents bought me a sewing machine after I graduated from the Y that I really started making things. I've sort of morphed into this self taught sewer/quilter that has lots to learn. When we moved to San Diego, I was asked to write a little something about myself so that it could be posted in the Relief Society newsletter at church. I expressed that my interests included sewing and quilting. As I was sitting in class the following Sunday, the newsletters were passed out and all of a sudden I heard, "WHO is Jennifer Gibbs?" This darling older woman approached me and told me about her little quilting group and invited me to join. I've really been enjoying myself and I've already learned a few new things. Some of you faithful readers might recall my paper pierced dragonfly. Basically what we do is learn a new technique each month and make a square using that technique and after 12 months, we will have 12 blocks to put together as a quilt...nothing fancy, mind you, just a "what I've learned at quilt group in the last year" quilt. Last night we started cutting out 3" x 3" for a scrappy lap quilt. It's suppose to give us practice doing more of the nine patch squares. We cut and sorted our squares into light, medium, and dark bags. Apparently we need over 300 squares so I'll be doing lots of cutting. I'm hoping to get together with a friend next week and make some cute holiday hotpads using the basic nine patch square. As I make and learn new things, I'm going to try to blog about them more frequently. I love getting and sharing new ideas for crafts whether they be for cards, or quilting, or just fun projects. So let me know what you're up to too!
My mom introduced me to making beaded bookmarks a few years ago. They're a ton of fun to make and I love to coordinate the beads with the books. These beaded bookmarks pictured below coordinate with my Peter and the Starcatchers series and my Twilight books. My mom sent me one that coordinates perfectly with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I love having a stylish bookmark and I love seeing them dangle from my favorite books on the shelf. Although, they're very easy and fun to make, there are a few trade secrets to making a good beaded bookmark. The key is finding a good cord to work with. We've found that waxed linen is the only way to go. When mom came out for a visit to NJ, we couldn't find waxed linen so I talked her into getting some black waxed cording that looked like waxed linen. She was hesitant but I thought it would work. I also bought some hemp cording. So I bought both of them thinking that they would do just fine. Wrong. Don't settle for imitations, they just don't work as well. Waxed linen has this stiffness that makes it easy to work with, keeps knots perfectly tight, and lies straight unlike most cording on a spool. I found my waxed linen from a website called http://www.fusionbeads.com/. I buy my beads on sale at places like Michael's, Joann, and Wal-mart. If you are interested in jg original, they're $5 a piece. And yes, they make a perfect stocking stuffer!
