Hen House Hot Pads

In 2011 I made 15 chicken/rooster hotpads to sell at a holiday craft fair.  I blogged about the chicken and rooster stories I was told, while selling my wares.  What fun it was.

http://quilt-talk.blogspot.com/2011/11/hen-house-hot-pads.html

Following the fair, I promptly sold the remainder to friends.  I had requests to make more, but couldn't find the fabric again.  But guess what I found this fall at the Quilt Expo?  And I still had a number of barn-themed reds, so I get to make a few more after all! :)

Sewing up a Storm

Getting ready for another craft fair in a week.  Here's today's accomplishment.  Eleven fleece scarves.  These are fun and fast.  Which is a good thing cuz I have a lot to do between now and next Saturday. :)

Version 1 or 2?

Version 1?

Or Version 2?

Moving and Liquidation Sales

 

One two-day, two-household garage sale, and one 5-hour, poorly advertised craft fair later, I've put money into savings for home repairs and improvements and have even been paid in full to make a second rag-edge recycled jeans baby quilt for a woman with two baby grand-daughters.  I had most of the supplies on hand, so I came home, took a power nap, and started cutting and stitching right away.  Here's what I accomplished last night - even in my rather burned out state.

Here's the down side!  27 bags and boxes in the middle of my living room.  Most are garage sale items, some are quilts and crafts.  Some of this will be sold on Craig's List.  Some will be donated to assorted charities.  But it needs to be sorted.  Someone dear to me took sick as we were tearing down the garage sale, so others chipped in to pack things up so I could take him to the ER.  All turned out well, thankfully!  But as a result, the sorting and sifting I intended to do before bringing anything inside didn't happen as planned.  At least I can now do it in my warm, dry living room at my leisure.  HA - who am I kidding?  I don't remember what leisure is - LOL!

So all of this has been going on as I prepare to sell my home.  Had an inspection done, painters are prepping to paint the outside - though the job goes slower when they can only work in the warmer part of the day.  And I have three other weather dependent jobs to complete in short order.  I continue to have respiratory troubles, so I commisssioned my sons to do my garden tear out and final yard clean up.

So call me crazy, but I'm considering doing another one-day craft fair in a couple weeks.  Being a Holiday Craft Fair, I'm debating if I can still sell non-fall/winter items?  This fair runs 7 hours instead of 5, and is VERY well advertized. I'm told the fee is only $60.00.  I've e-mailed the man in charge, to determine if there's still room for another vendor and what one gets for $60.00.  Though I'm tired, I could use the greenbacks for home repairs and improvements, and I SURE would like to make some boxes dissappear!  :)

Craft Fair Report

Here's my booth at the church craft fair.  This is only my second craft fair ever.  Had fun both times.  Here's a close up of the Fall/Christmas side of the table.

And here's the Sping/Summer side of the table.

The bag containing a Beanie Baby panda was purchased by a little boy who loves pandas.  He was going keep the panda for himself, and give the bag to his girlfriend.  Couldn't have been more than 8 years old.  Too cute!

Halfway thru the show I realized that people were more interested in the fall/winter items, so I switched the two sides of the table - placing those items closest to the entrance.  Immediately my fall/winter stuff began selling in earnest.  Hooray for product placement - or as they say in the real estate business - location, location, location!

Business was slower this year than last year.  I was taken aback, because my prices were at or below cost.  I really wanted to move my inventory.  I'm preparing to sell my house and won't be able to do much sewing and crafting until I'm settled elsewhere - and I don't want to pay money to store all my stuff. 

The church has a children's shopping room where kids can buy items ranging from $0.25 to $2.00 for presents for family and friends - all without mom and dad!  Gift wrap is free so family won't see the gifts.  When I visited that room near the end of the sale, I was saddened to see how much stuff was left.  None of it will go to waste - it'll be boxed up and stored until next year - but still, more traffic would have been nice.

The concensus amongst the vendors I talked to was crafting business is down due to the economy.  I also learned our sale was not in the newspaper this year.  So to be proactive, I took LOTS of pictures of booths.  Next year we can advertise for free, with up to 8 pictures on Craig's List.  And if the church won't advertise in the paper, maybe I'll do it myself.  I'm hoping that will help the church, the kiddies and the vendors!  :)

Dino Costume, Then and Now

17 years ago I made two little dinosaur costumes for my boys, then ages 5 and 6.  I made them big - to fit over their snow suits, and the boys got a lot of wear out of them.  Eventually, my boys outgrew the costumes and the dinos took up residence at my sister's place.  Her kids enjoyed them too.  But time marched on.  Laura's kids have outgrown them as well. 

Just as we were discussing what to do with the costumes, my niece - a high school freshman - announced she wants to be a dinosaur this year! 

Here she is in the modified costume.  Laura inserted a panel about 6" wide below the zipper and tail, but above the crotch. The blue leggings are a great touch.  Sonya is over 5 feet tall, so for once that dino tail isn't dragging on the ground.  LOL

It does this Auntie's heart good to see her handicrafts living on and bringing still more Halloween happiness to her family! :)

Retreat Results

Here is one of several projects I worked on at retreat.  I won the top two stars in a block raffle a year ago, and just got them out  recently.  Added the bottom two and the border.  I'll be calling this one Autumn Nights.

I completed this mini quilt for my sweetie to hang in his cubicle.  So often quilt patterns and fabrics are feminine - it was fun to work on something with a more masculine look and feel.

This is the reinvention of a project gone wrong.  Had previously made these 8 flag blocks and combined them in fours - only to realize they looked like swastikas!  Ugh!  So I cut them apart and played with them until I happened across this (much preferable) secondary pattern.  Will need to finish joining them and bind.

This is a new project, made from this summer's Moda Wisconsin fabrics, with some other scrappy fabrics thrown in for fun.  I think I'm going to change the border in the upper left corner to blue and work in the tan elsewhere.  I want it to have a log cabin look, but may work in some flying geese or pine trees for fun.

I had some old jeans squares left from other projects, so I put together this little rag quilt with pockets.  Half the fun of including pockets is deciding what to put in them!  Here I have a sock monkey and a soft rattle.  The back is fleece, so its a very soft cuddly blankie for some little girl.

I hope to do more quilting this fall.  Other duties called this summer, and I've missed quilting dearly!  Now I'm preparing to put my home up for sale, so that will also take time, but I hope to sneak some sewing time in as well.  :)

Please Prove You're Not a Robot

Does anyone else find this annoying? 

I may be a bit slow, but sometimes it takes me four tries to leave a simple comment.  I can't imagine how anyone with vision problems could read the "codes" we are to type to prove we are real, live people. 

Seems like its getting harder all the time, and eventually it'll be such a hassle that people won't comment any more.  That will be a sad day indeed. :(

Gold Leaf Flimsy

One autumn-y quilt top complete, one more to go!

 

I made the center leaf square at a class.  We used a bleach paste painted onto various objects and then stamped onto black fabric - to remove the dye.  My leaf has been waiting patiently for my attention for more than a year, but now it's the focal point of this 20' x 20' wall quilt.

 

Once it's quilted and bound, it'll hang in my Sweetie's cubicle at work.  :)

Amateur Photography

My sons work for a sporting goods store, and needed pictures of themselves doing their favorite sports.  I took the top picture of DS1.  You wouldn't believe how long it took to get picture to snap at the exact moment his leg extended!

DS2 had his dad take this picture, but then we downloaded it into my software to tweak.  Darned if that red eye correction wouldn't work on the right eye.  Considering they had just a few days notice, I think the pics turned out alright!  :)