​Look what I’ve been making, yall! ❤️✂️
Jessica Swift has been hosting a Summer Tote Challenge with her new collection called Sirena for Art Gallery Fabrics, and I was super lucky to be chosen by Jessica to get involved! Check her out, she's got some awesome talent!
Woo Hoo!! I'm so excited, it's finally my turn to share my tote bag, and my little bonus zipper bag!  This fabric is so pretty and fun, you need it for your stash!! 😍

I used the Indigo Tote Pattern designed by friends at It's Sew Emma, if you wanna make one too, the FREE pattern and full fabric collection are available at The Fat Quarter Shop. ​

Sometimes the selvage on the fabric is totally fabulous and must be included in the project, so I included it on the exterior pocket, and I love it!!

There is a fun little hidden message here in this picture...
​The spiky plant down on the bottom right, is a pineapple plant!!!  I love to water-root starts after we eat the pineapple from the store.  Sometimes they even grow a new baby pineapple, if you are lucky!!  

Here are a few pictures during the making of my bag.  I used Pellon Naked Flex-Foam for the body of the bag, and I really liked how it turned out.  It gave the bag good body without being too stiff, plus it was easy to work with! 
**Bonus zipper bag: I used leftover strip pieces to make a 7x9 front and back with cotton batting, and two 7x9 pieces for the liner pieces, along with a 10 inch zipper.  These are fast and easy little bags that I make all the time!  Feel free to comment if you have questions or comments, I am happy to help!  ❤️✂️

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, hope to see you again soon!  
Happy Sewing! 
​Gina Tell 

Hey Y'all!  I'm excited to share my latest finish with you today. 
Often times I make quilts for books & pattern covers, or client quilts, and even fabric designer projects, but this quilt was made straight from my heart.  I have a beautiful friend that just found out she has breast cancer and I hope that she will snuggle up and know we are fighting with her as she kicks cancers ass!!

I purchased two Color Cuts by Moda Fabric from The Fat Quarter Shop for this project, one pink and one grey bundle, and I pulled the pattern from The Jolly Bar Book Vol.1 by It's Sew Emma.  This book is one of my favorite "Go To" books for fun and fast patterns!   

I picked the Hopscotch Quilt on page 18 for this PINK project, and I added one special heart from the Paper Hearts Quilt pattern on the next page to add a splash of love to the quilt front. I'm really excited how the color cuts fabric blended together to make such a pretty quilt!  
​
One of my favorite parts of making a quilt is the time I spend with my hubby looking for the perfect place to take photographs!  We found a tiny white gazebo not far from our house at one of our fishing spots, and it was perfect for this pink quilt of Love!  

Since I am also a long arm quilter, I did some large scale swirls and flowers for the quilting and a few hearts blended in for fun!  Oh and I also painted my nails hot pink for an extra touch of love for my friend too!  Giving quilts to friends and family that I love has always been one of my favorite things to do, and this one is no exception.  I hope you will try out one of the patterns in this book the next time you need a special quilt.  

I have also made the Seas the Day Quilt for one of the sweet little boys in my life a couple years ago.  I used all Kona Solids for that boy quilt, and I guess the point is, no matter the fabric, all these patterns are simply adorable!  ​

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, hope to see you back soon!  
Gina Tell 
​Thread Graffiti 

When I got my first sewing machine back in 2003 I knew absolutely nothing about sewing,fabric, patterns, designers and all the rest of the gadgets that went along with it! 
I made myself one very horrible quilt with that machine, and I didn't get it back out of the box again for a couple years.  I taught myself during a time before YouTube videos and social media, so it took me a long time to really develop my skills and enjoy the process.  
I grew up in the floral industry pretty much my entire life, my Mom did it when I was kid, then I worked as a floral designer all though high school and college as I earned my degree in interior design. I even owned my own flower shop for a while before I decided to move to Austin, Texas.  So, it didn't take long after the move for me to miss creating colorful things with my hands.  I realized I was kinda lost inside, I realized that I had spent all those years struggling to get my degree in design for a reason, it's just who I am!  So in 2005 I got that machine back out and started making a quilt for my niece.  She was just a little girl at the time, and I knew she wouldn't care what it looked like.  That quilt was also ugly, but I enjoyed making it!  I quickly made two more for my nephews too.  They were all just scrappy squares and I didn't know how to nest seams or iron correctly, all I did know, I had just fallen in love with colorful things again.  By then, I had become a new Mom, and I quit my job as a bookkeeper to be at home with our son full time.  I loved being a Mom, I loved teaching and playing, but my mind missed being an adult out in the world.  So I pushed myself to really learn to quilt, I got myself a good Juki sewing machine and I set up a room dedicated to quilting, and me.  I started making things for everyone, every holiday that came up I made handmade gifts!!  Everyone in my family got a quilt, I still wasn't good, but loved it!

I got a few more machines and kept making all kinds of handmade things....
I had an opportunity to put a few of my things in a local craft show, but was required to get a sales tax number to reserve the booth.  So my BFF Jody, and I spent days talking about  business names, we talked about old times in college and laughed at the stupid things we used to do.  I had gone though some hard times personally and Jody helped me heal my wounded soul.  I battled several forms of abuse back then, and she would remind me to live in the moment.  She helped me grow strong and appreciate each day that was good and learn from the bad ones and move past them.  It was then that I learned what
​Carpe Diem meant, and it was something I held onto daily! 
So naturally as we tossed around name options this came up, we decided to name our little crafty team Carpe Quiltin'.  We decided we would "Seize the day, and put very little trust in tomorrow (the future)", because we never intended for it to ever be anything but fun.

But, as the last 10 years have passed we HAVE grown a beautiful small business out of our love for fabric and quilts!  I am no longer a damaged 20 year old struggling to find myself.  We are both happily married, with great families, living in beautiful places filled with positivity and love, and we have decided that it's time for a new fresh name!  

We still make unique gifts, but we now have a new Handi Quilter Avante Long Arm Machine here in the studio and we offer full custom Long Arm Quilting!  Full custom means that we don't offer pantographs or digital designs, all the quilting I do here is custom free hand quilting guided by my two arms, years of practice, and a lotta love for art and design!  We are now Thread Graffiti, y'all!!
I currently quilt many of The Fat Quarter Shop quilts that are featured on their new pattern covers, blogs and books, but I also welcome new clients too!!  So, if you have a special quilt that needs more than just a digital quilting pattern, I would love to work with you.  Maybe you have a quilt that you want to enter into a quilt show, like the client quilt I did in the picture.  I hope that you will continue to follow my blog and grow with me!  As we transition you will be able to follow me using BOTH CarpeQuiltin.com and
Thread-Graffiti.com  and we are also still available on Facebook and Instagram too, you will just notice some name changes, but it's still me! :)
Much Love, 
Gina