My Girls And I Have It Handled...

I'm showing you another photo of my studio today so you can see what makes it possible for me to accomplish as much as I do. With the help of "my girls" - my three Babylock machines - I'm able to multitask to the max.

First, I know...I'm one lucky girl to have not one - but three - machines. Believe me when I tell you that they do get a lot of use year-round, not just during the holidays and I don't take anything in my life for granted. If you've read my blog before, you know that my Ellisimo is lovingly referred to as Miss Ellie. I also have an Espire quilting machine named Prissy, and my Evolve serger was actually named yesterday by Handsome. He looked at the decal (Evolve) on the serger and then said, "Why don't you name her after my mom's nickname, Evvie?" So, Evvie she'll be from now on.

Handsome came into the studio because he heard the multiple machines running. Miss Ellie was stitching out a design, and I was moving back and forth between Prissy and Evvie. I have to admit, it was pretty impressive! And, yes, he did mutter under his breath again when he walked out, but then he came right back in and said, "You're pretty darn cool, you know?". This fortunate and grateful wife smiled and gave him a kiss.

I chose this cupcake design for the scarf gift bag because
that's what the scarf yarn brings to mind.

I know you're wondering what I was doing with all three machines running. Well, I'd decided that this year I would make gift bags that could be used after the holidays, instead of shopping for multiple rolls of holiday wrapping paper. Miss Ellie stitched out the design onto muslin. Then I moved the fabrics for the front and back of the bag to Evvie to be serged. After the serging was completed, I moved over to Prissy and we added a sleeve on the top to run a ribbon to be used as a drawstring. In no time at all, we've finished a bag!

The grandkids can use them to hold treasured toys. The crafters on my list can use them as needlework bags. I guess they could even be re-gifted. Each bag has a design chosen especially for the recipient, so although I'd made a bunch of them already, I still had a few more to do - and I may make extras to give as gifts in their own right, too!
I'm to the point now where I can package up some of my finished projects into their respective gift bags. I'm sort of staging them in the dining room until I'm ready to box up and ship them out mid-week. So, I guess you might say that "my girls" and I have this holiday in the bag!