Posted on Leave a comment

So many Quilts!

Since the first of the year, the quilting machine has been running almost daily! Lap quilts and baby quilts are the most fun and work up quickly. From Muppets, Bee Hives, and Halloween to Sunflowers inspired by Van Gough. These quilts will sell for $120.00-$140.00.

The first of many Bee Hive Lap Quilts
Close up of the quilting
Hive Rules. Assorted trim fabrics. Printed Panel with all the right rules. $120.00
The Frog and Pig are together again. This 38″ x 48″ Lap Quilt is colorful and fun featuring Kermit and Miss Piggy. Sells for $120.00
Close up of the quilting on this fun and colorful piece.
All the Muppets together. Busy and perfect for all kinds of fun. this 36″ x 44″ lap quilt is $110.00
It is trimmed in red…
or Royal blue.
Oh Baby, this perfect peach and turquoise baby quilt is backed in flannel. $120.00
Oh Baby close up of the quilting.
Another look.
Happy Halloween! Spooky and Sweet this one-of-a-kind lap quilt sells for $130.00.
Happy Halloween!
Close up of this cute Halloween fabric.
Sunflower Happiness. These sunny lap quilts are trimmed in blue or black for $120.00 each.
Blue trim
Close up of the quilting.
Close up of the quilting on the black quilt.
Black trim.
Close up of the two quilts together.
Posted on Leave a comment

Butterfly Quilts 2020

Butterfly Quilts, December 2020

“Families are like quilts, stitched together one piece at a time.”

 

When I first became engaged, one of the new traditions was to travel to the countryside of North Carolina and spend time with my then fiancé’s family.

His maternal and paternal grandparents lived on farms just a few miles apart, and both lived exactly how you thought one might live on the farm. Suppers with every vegetable known to man, two types of meat, and sweet tea. Grandmothers and Aunts in the kitchen, men in the yard, all spending time talking and relaxing. Using what they had, before buying anything new, and wasting nothing.

After dinner, the women would talk about recipes and Grandma would usually bring out her latest project, to show, get comments, and even help on. During one of these visits, my future mother-in-law and her mother talked about making a butterfly quilt. They were using scraps of fabric from past dresses, shirts, and skirts, and the backing that each butterfly would be appliqued to, white sheeting,  was possibly the only fabric purchased. Grandma shared fabric, black embroidery thread, and quit sheeting pieces with her daughter. They had ordered the pattern from “Laura Wheeler” in New York and made copies to share as well.

That was the summer and fall of 1976. I don’t remember seeing or hearing anything more about the quilt until August of 2020. My husband’s grandparents and parents have all passed on, leaving countless items behind. When my in-laws were in a nursing home, their home was emptied and remodeled. The contents were put into storage units to be sorted through when the time was right. Little by little boxes and containers have been drifting into our home as we slowly and carefully look through them. Everything from photo albums to holiday decorations.

As I was cleaning and organizing, I found a worn and torn cardboard box with fabric, sewing notions, old photo negatives, and a few crocheted doilies inside. After digging and trying to sort through the items in the box, there, wrapped in a drycleaning bag, were the applique butterflies from years before. There were calico, gingham, solid, striped, flowered, and plaid butterflies. All were sewn to the sheeting using a buttonhole stitch of black embroidery thread. Some were stitched as neatly and evenly spaced as close to perfect as you could find, others a little less perfect, but each stitched completely by hand. My mother-in-law was not one to sugar coat things, but also harder on herself than anyone else. She would profess that she did not spend much time in the house sewing, as she was needed in the fields after her brothers had all enlisted in the armed services. I know she would have claimed the imperfect squares, but I can almost bet they were sewn by her younger sister Carolyn, who was born with Down Syndrome and was never excluded from anything that the others were doing. I remember some of the fabric used for the butterflies as dresses that Carolyn and Grandma wore. Also in the box was the pattern, carbon paper, and poor Xerox copies of the pattern. They adapted the pattern from a “Butterfly Puff Quilt” to a very simplified applique quilt.

The original Pattern

 

 

After looking over the pattern, I began to look at the actual butterflies again and started counting.  There were ninety squares in all. Ninety hand-stitched appliqued butterflies of every fabric color available to them over forty years ago. I tried to sort pastels from primary colors and an assortment of prints and solids. A lifelong friend and experienced quilter was called in to “consult”. We decided on making two quilts, one for each of my daughters, but soon realized there were enough squares for three quilts with a few more left to use for pillows.

 

Some of the 90 plus squares

  

 

Fabric was selected to compliment the three stacks of butterfly squares, and the cutting and assembly began. A yellow quilt, a pink quilt, and a grey quilt. The piecing took place in early fall, and the actual quilting was done by machine on a longarm quilting machine, so the quilts could be given as Christmas gifts. I’m sure Grandma would have set the quilt frame up in the living room, and they would have been quilted by hand, but I like to think she and my mother-in-law would have approved of how the squares were divided, pieced together, and machine quilted.

“We stitch together quilts of meaning to keep us warm and safe, with whatever patches of beauty and utility we have on hand.”  Anne Lamott

The layout for the Pink Quilt
The layout for the grey quilt
The Yellow Quilt top pieced, but not quilted.

 

 

The Yellow Quilt completely pieced.

 

At the machine
Detail

 

 

The Quilt label

The finished Pink Quilt

 

 

 

 

The finished Grey Quilt

 

The finished Grey Quilt

 

 

 

Posted on Leave a comment

Ready for the Holidays!

Are you ready for the holidays? We have been sewing, and sewing. Please check out the new items in our shop!

Thank you!

I’m Outdoorsy Dishtowel. White or beige background 100% cotton.
Sugar Cookie Recipe Dishtowel
Child and Adult Christmas Christmas Cookie Crew Cookie Taster Childs Aprons, Christmas Cookie Crew Lead Baker Adult Red with white stitching $12.00 each
Posted on 2 Comments

Creating in the dirt! Check out our Bean Tepee

Grow a Bean Tepee, a fun yard project for all ages.

After 2 months the beans were growing!

 

It started in March 2020 with 12 one-gallon pots, some dirt, and an assortment of bean seeds.

We placed 12 pots in a semi-circle

We placed the pots in a semi-circle rather than digging up the yard.

Add one very helpful toddler, a large bag of dirt and we were in business.

Leo added 4-5 pre-soaked bean seeds to each pot

We added bamboo for the beans to climb on, then the pre-soaked seeds were carefully planted.

Leo carefully planed the seeds.
Leo loved being in charge of the seeds.

Leo loved being in charge of the beans. So some pots had more than others. We planted Purple Beans, Pole Beans, and Stringless Green Beans.

 

He loved being inside the tee-pee but really didn’t understand what we were planting.

So fun standing inside the tepee!

And a selfie after out planting was finished. Now for them to grow!!

After 2 months the beans were growing!

Fast forward two months and the beans are climbing up the poles! (We did add twine between the poles to help the beans to climb).

Another month of growing and some of the beans were ready to be picked!!

Look at all of the beans we picked!!

Washing beans, hands, shirt, sink, and floor are all very important.

Then we snapped the beans, and pot them in a pot.

Leo is a great helper!

To our surprise, the purple beans turned green when they were cooked! They were YUMMY!!

Posted on Leave a comment

2020 Face Masks-UPDATE

UPDATE 5/12/2020: Over 1,522 Facemasks made and distributed.

If you are in need of masks please email Wendy at wcarriker@gmail.com for orders and available fabric colors.

Just a few face masks being spotted here there and everywhere.
Sewing is my therapy.
Right now it is helping me cope during these “Safe at Home” days
(North Carolina has been sheltering at home since March 16, 2020).
It started with a few masks for the Cafeteria staff of our school system, as they continue to serve meals to the students in our community.
Then requests came from Businesses, Hospice, and friends near and far.
Over 600 masks have been made and distributed as of 4-20-20.
Please let me know if you would like a mask, all I ask is that in return you make a
donation of food or money to a school feeding program.
Food insecurity is a huge issue in our area under normal circumstances.
It’s even more important to make sure the children and families in our community
have food to eat during these times.
If you would like to make a donation to the Hungry Bears Feeding program,
please send your donations to:
Mount Airy City Schools
351 Riverside Drive
Mount Airy, NC 27030
Memo: Hungry Bears Backpack Program
Fabrics vary as I go through my vast collection of remnants.
Stay Home
Stay Safe
Take Care!
Wendy
wcarriker@gmail.com
Posted on 2 Comments

Table Favors & Luggage Tags (made the GFWC way)

Everyone can use a pack of tissues in their bag or suitcase. These Red and Blue GFWC logo embroidered pocket tissue holders come complete with a travel size pack of tissues in Leadership Red or Federation Blue, or any other color you might like!

Your choice of fabric, but we like Leadership Red and Federation Blue the best! ($3.00 each, or contact us for quantity orders)

Keep an eye on your luggage with these clear plastic luggage tags. GFWC machine embroidered logo on one side, room for a business card on the reverse.

Available in any color you like, we are partial to Leadership Red and Federation Blue. GFWC embroider on one side, room for a business card on the other. ($3.00 each, or contact us for quantity orders)
Posted on Leave a comment

For all the strong remarkable women in your life.

We love quotes, and especially quotes about strong, remarkable women! These towels can be embroidered in a wide assortment of colors. We have towels in red, royal blue, turquoise, black, white and tan. We also have white with turquoise, red, pink or green check trim, white with black boarder….and the list goes on. Send us a message and customize your items today.

Available in any color towel, and any color thread (Towels available in Red, Royal Blue, Turquoise, White, Ivory) 100% Cotton, $6.00 each
Available in any color towel, and any color thread (Towels available in Red, Royal Blue, Turquoise, White, Ivory) 100% Cotton $6.00 each
Strong Women Towel, Available in any color towel, and any color thread (Towels available in Red, Royal Blue, Turquoise, White, Ivory)
Posted on 2 Comments

Wendy Jane Creations Celebrating 40 years of creativity!

Wendy Jane Creations began 40 years ago with Baby Bibs made of Counted Cross Stitch fabric, and sold in needlework stores to be stitched on by the customers.

From there we created needlework kits, decorative house and yard flags, English Smocked children’s clothing, bookmarks for Counted Cross Stitch to machine embroidered aprons, dish towels and back full circle to machine embroidered baby bibs, and baby items. There have been many products along the way, and we are grateful for your support and patronage over the years.

We are proud to be able to give back to the community through donations of goods (Surry Arts Council, Arts Ball, Festival of Trees, Civic Club events etc.) and each purchase of a Mount Airy Bear’s Flag supports Vincent’s Legacy, Kindness Rocks.

Thank you for your years of supporting our creativity and patronage.

14 Count Aida Cloth Baby Bibs from the 1980’s
18 count Aida Counted Cross Stitch Bibs from the 1980’s
Machine Embroidered Baby Bibs
Taggie Blankets
Smocked Clothing
House and Yard Flags. The purchase of a Bear Paw Flag supports Vincent’s Legacy, Kindness Rock
GFWC Collect “dish towel” pillows
OMG and other sayings on dish towels and aprons

 

Posted on Leave a comment

Checkmate!

Someone in our family was having one of those birthday’s with a “0” in it, and is also a little hard to shop for. The idea of a vertical chess board came into the conversation. We had looked at one on a web site, but it was pretty expensive, and thought, can’t we make one?

Vertical Chess Board D.I.Y

We started with a 40% off coupon at Michael’s, and found a 18″ x 24″ shadow box

We were in the process of having new flooring installed, and I asked our “flooring guy” Jimmy if he could help get the “shelves” needed and put them in place for me. But first I had to break out the glass in the frame, because it was secured to the front of the frame, not just placed in.

You have heard the saying measure twice, cut once? We measured at least 4 times, to make sure the shelves were the right size and distance apart.

 

 

Jimmy also put small spacer pieces on each side to help hold the shelves in place, and give the shelves stability.

Next the shelves were spray painted black.

The back of the shadow box was a soft foam board. It was measured off, and painted. We didn’t have to worry about the lines being exact, because the shelves would cover the top and bottom of the painted squares. Because the back was soft, it did absorb quite a bit of paint.

We found a set of Super Mario Chess pieces, which just added to the fun of this board.

 

 

Posted on Leave a comment

For the Baby!

Over the past few months, we have been creating some new items, for a new baby! (are there any other kind of babies?)

For the Baby! A quilt made for a prince!

We were told that the nursery would have an animal theme, so the embroidery began with assorted animals on denim, all stitched in earth tones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To add some fun, primary colors, and a jungle print were added.

The primary colors were also used for the backing.

 

Delivered and placed near the crib. This was truly a labor of love!