~*Welcome to my Favorite Room*~

Today I spent the afternoon working on cleaning up my Favorite Room of the house. Never in my life would I have thought that I would live in the country in a home that was built and designed by me and Danny.
It is nothing fancy and I have no knack for decorating but it is has big open rooms. The kitchen, dining room, and living room are one great room and then we have french doors that open to the master bedroom and more french doors that open to my favorite room...my craftin' spot!
So welcome to where I create primitives by the light of the moon. For years now I have been a night owl and when the day is done...and the sun goes down...this is where you will find me. I'll be crafting something for sure and watching TV Land's old shows, and stopping by a few blogs to see what all of you have been doing.



A good friend of my Mom's gave me this cutting table. It sure comes in handy when you want to cut out large projects. I mostly do small things now so I use the top for storage.



Danny gave me this wonderful sewing table and cabinet for Christmas one year. Early in the mornings...when I'm at home I open the blinds and watch the hummingbirds as they stop by for a drink in the front yard. In the late afternoon the sun out of the west shines so brightly I have to close them for awhile.


A bookshelf loaded with a printer, tv, paperwork, pictures, old spools, and this and that. This part of the room still needs some work!


I just love this desk. I found it at a local thrift store that was going out of business. Barn red is one of my favorite colors and the drawers are super for holding spools of floss, pre~cut weavers cloth, and such.


More windows on the side of the house open to the north and the window seat holds quilts and some Christmas goodies.


I have a book shelf loaded with quilting books and the closed cabinet holds some of my floss. I have trunks filled with penny rug makings. The door opens to a walk in closet that has cabinets lining each side. When I get it organized I'll open the door and let you take a peek.


Shelves filled with wool, fabric, and lots of weavers cloth. On the quilt rack is some unfinished quilts. Another book shelf that holds primitive patterns for rug hooking, needle punch, wool penny rugs and such.


The french doors open to the living room where late in the evening you will find Danny sitting in his recliner watching a little tv or snoozing!


Baskets of odds and ends for future needle punch projects and an old cabinet that holds lots of paper patterns for all kinds of projects.
You may have noticed on the walls are projects that may be finished and some are works in progress.
Yes, this is about as clean as it gets...life is short and I do enjoy stitchin' more than cleanin'....
Hope you enjoyed my favorite room!

Happy Trails....Ginger

Threading Your Cameo Punchneedle

One step threading for your cameo punch needle. Begin by gently pulling off the white tab at the end of the threader.


Once the tab is removed it will have one closed end and one end will be the open end of the two wires.


Begin by placing the closed end of the threader into the needle end of the punch needle. Run the threader completely to the top open end of the punch needle.

You will then place your floss into the threader leaving about a 1 1/2 to 2 inch tail of floss.

If you are using 6 strands of floss be gentle so not to break your threader. Now begin gently pulling your threader down through the punch needle.




Here we have the thread almost out....Continue pulling until the double thickness is all the way through...but make sure you don't pull hard you don't want to break your needle.


Once the double thickness of the floss is through the punch needle pull about 4 inches more through for the next step. Next you will place the two open ends of the threader through the bevel side of the needle eye.


I gently bend the needle threader...just make sure you don't bend it too much. It straightens out just fine unless you get it into a bind. If you do just pull out a little more floss and bend the threader again and place in the eye of the needle.


Now pull the floss through the eye of the needle. Don't force the thread just gently pull until the double thickness is completely through the eye.


Once you are to this point remove your needle threader.

Shorten the tail on your floss and your ready to begin punching!

So now you have removed that little white tag...the only problem is you might have a little bit of trouble finding your needle threader. You can keep it attached to a magnet...or like me you have to look for it every once in awhile.

Hope this has helped you save a little time in your needle punching projects.

Happy Trails....Ginger

It's a cash giveaway!!!!

In one of my first post my sister Jane told me about a contest. Make a craft...write up a pattern for it...send in a sample as many as you like and see if you are a winner. Well~~~~~I had a couple of things already made that were wool applique but I had one last day left and decided to hurry and do a needle punch pinkeep. I waited and waited and never heard and then out of the blue one day when I was home a DSL driver comes to the door and leaves a pkg...it had two of my three entries returned...sorry you didn't win...mmmhh wonder what happened to the hurried pinkeep.
A few weeks later I get a call on my cell phone...guess what I won 5th place and $250 and I couldn't have been more surprised. It is definetely not one of my better pieces but I guess needle punch was an unusual entry. It will be published in Country Woman magazine in the fall and to boot I get a free magazine.

So seeing how it's Friday and I just love Friday...my favorite TV show comes on, we usually have mexican food and we are keeping Sloan overnight...I thought I would give each of you that stop by my blog in the next few days an opportunity to win some of my prize money. So if you will just leave a little note on this post you will have the chance to win....

A $50.00 money order...that way you can spend it however you like.

If you don't have a blog just leave your email so I can get back with you just in case your the winner.

I will announce the winner on next Friday July 25th.

Happy Trails to You....Ginger

Happy Birthday!

Me and my lil' sisters!

We are so lucky as sisters to live within an hour of one another. Birthday parties are always a fun event and this evening we celebrated my niece Erin's 13th birthday and my sister Sherry's birthday. They share birthdays...how wonderful is that! One of Danny's sister's also has the same birthday.
We had hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salad...mmmhh. We also had lots of desserts which is my favorite.




Erin is very talented...she plays the piano for us at church sometimes and does a super job. She plays classical, ragtime, gospel, just about anything.


Sherry is next in age to me so we grew up having lots of adventures. Some may have got us in a little trouble with Mom. We had our first job together mowing the neighbor's lawns. Back then we got $2.00 each now you can't even by gas for the mower for those wages.



The pool at Erin's house was a big hit with the 3 little girls. They always have a great time wherever they go. It is so much fun just to watch and listen to them.

Happy Trails....Ginger

Wishing for cooler days....

Here it is the middle of July and I'm longing for Fall. I love to watch the leaves turn and the crispness in the air. I finished one of the Halloween needle punches and it is being listed on eBay.



Then over at the Lemon Poppy Seeds we are still having Christmas in July. I finished up this little Snowlady all decked out in her fine hat!


Check back soon I'm planning on giving away a little Fall needle punch.

Happy Trails.....Ginger

*~*How I over~dye cotton floss*~*

I thought I would share with you how I sometimes over~dye my cotton floss. When Wal~Mart closed out their floss at a reduced rate...I started buying it up. At most stores I bought it all. I have boxes of it stored and Jenny came over and helped me to sort it by colors. Anyways, some of the colors were what I call "dog~ugly" and some are just too bright for my liking so with a little help from some rit dye it turned out perfectly prim!
Sometimes I dye with walnut crystals, tea, and cushing dyes for wools. Today though I chose some tan rit liquid dye.


Here's what I gather together:
An old crock~pot(I only use it for dyeing purposes)
gloves, rit dye( I mostly use tan), water, a plastic bowl, floss, old towels, or a cheap plastic tablecloth, an old apron if your messy like me (it might just save your clothes)





I remove all those little labels and then gently tie the floss into loose knots. It will help to give the floss a variegated type look. With darks and lights throughout the floss.








While you are working at getting your floss ready. Take your old crock pot outside and heat you some water. I don't fill it full...just about 1/2 way. It just depends on how much floss you plan to dye. Today I did several hundred and about 1/2 full was plenty. I add a couple of tablespoons of tan dye...I don't measure I just pour. I add a little more dye as I go along because the floss will soak up the color. You will notice that the water will lighten as you go and when it does just pour in some dye and your good to go again.





Once the water is good and heated I then put on my gloves and add the tied floss to the dye bath. It doesn't take long at all so keep a close eye on it.



You can see how it changes right in the crock pot. No more bright colors...perfectly prim!




You will want to remove it from the crock pot and place it in a bowl of water and vinegar. I just pour in a little vinegar into the clean water to help set the color. I also have used some salt to set the color.

I then rinse it 2 to 3 times to remove any vinegar smell or salt.


I then start untying the floss and laying it out on an old towel or cheap tablecloth. Today I used a tablecloth and used the cotton side of the tablecloth to lay the floss on. I leave it there until it air dries.




So if you like primitive needle punch or even primitive embroidery...this is a great way to dye a lot of floss at once.

Happy Trails to You.....Ginger

I've been missin' my lil' buddy!

Our lil' cowboy has been visiting his other Grandma and Grandpa and I have surely missed him. He turned 9 months old today and I did have the pleasure of having lunch with him. Time is flying by and before we know it we will be having birthday cake for this lil' one! Don't you just love how his Grandpa feeds him....



The hay is done except for putting it in the barn until winter arrives. The cows are sure to be happy come winter time. Lots of hay for cold winter days. Hard to think of cold right now with the temps soaring into the high 90's.











This ol' buzzard returned to scavenge for field mice. He stayed quite busy looking for his supper.






I did find a spare moment to finish up a needle punch and have already begun another. Tomorrow I hope to over~dye some more floss for some fall items I'm wanting to do. Hope each of you are having a fun~filled summer and taking time to have a cold glass of lemonade or iced tea.

Happy Trails to You.....Ginger

Farm Livin' is the life for Me!

What a day! You name it and it happened. The sun came up and instead of blazing saddles it was blazing tractor seats. Occasionally you could feel a breeze but it was a warm one. TROUBLE.....began early. Johnson grass is evil~ it will make your day miserable when trying to rake it or bale it! Countless times spent digging it out from the baler and untangling it from the rake wheels.

Spit and sputter...next thing you know the tractor is coming to a stop...what could it be???? It was hollering for more diesel and I needed a great big gulp of tea. I think I must have drank a gallon today.

More time spent on pulling out the evil johnson grass out the baler and making some adjustments, adding more diesel to the little blue tractor and once again we can begin again.

Dad made a few rounds raking for me...whew, I'm off to drink some more tea...just can't seem to get enough of the sweet stuff.

TROUBLE....digging out the evil Johnson grass once again just before dark and what do you know ~ TROUBLE ~ a flat tire on the hay rake! I'm calling it a day!

Green Acres is the place to be
Farm livin' is the life for me
Land spreadin' out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside

Happy Trails to You....Ginger