Week of Kids

A full week of embroidered kids.

Whoever originally did the transfer for embroidery was smart enough to also cut two blank pieces of fabric. It worked out perfect making the quilt top 3 by 3. Now just to decide what to put on the blank pieces. That is about the full extent of my sewing this weekend. Pretty lame huh?

Missing List

My list was missing when I started the weekend and it is quite evident. I haven't made any real progress. The days of the weeks kids are completed and I even have fabric to put together a quilt top with them. How much can I actually accomplish today?

Black and White Quilt Fabrics

I washed all the fabrics last night. 11 half yards of black and white. I need 128 five inch squares to make Kim's quilt.

So if I cut 12 squares out of each of the 11 fabrics I should have enough to random assemble the squares.  I don't think Kim will get suspicous if she sees me cutting the fabrics. Although I won't do any assembling or quilting while she is around.

One More Day

One more day until my four day weekend starts.

And one more day to embroider. Just have Saturday's child left to work on.

Giveaway Day

SewMamaSew is coordinating another giveaway day. If you want to give something away go join now. And if you want to win a giveaway check back here on December 2nd to see what I am doing.

Friday's Child

It feels good to relax and work on something for myself again. I don't think the craft fairs really stressed me out but I would rather sew for fun than profit.

I can see an end in sight with these embroidery panels. Friday's child should be done in a night or two. I will try to find some coordinating fabric this week. Need to get a realistic list of what I want to accomplish this weekend.

Back to the Mill

Back to working on the Mill House Inn Quilt.

There is no secret where this quilt is going. I was originally planned for my sisters birthday but got delayed due to sewing for the craft fairs. Craft fairs are over and my regularly scheduled sewing continues.

Craft Fair #2 Wrap Up

Smaller craft fair this weekend but much more traffic coming through. The serious buyers were there in the morning. By afternoon it was just browsers but it was constant traffic. Made about the same as I did last weekend but it felt more successful due to the amount of people there.

Some thoughts running through my head. I need to force myself to sit down more when I get a chance. This getting old thing isn't cooperating with my body. Wish I had a degree in marketing. Trying to figure out what makes things sell or more importantly what makes people buy.

Mason has been looking for a part time job. I told him tonight I would hire him to get my Etsy store fully stocked. More on that coming soon.

Black and White Quilt

I started buying black and white fabrics in August for a project I had in my head.

I finally started designing it this week. Do you see the little triangles of hot pink and green? The question is do you think I can get this done for Kim before Christmas without her seeing it?

Custom Order Finished

Do you ever have a project you dread working on? I was kicking myself all week for commiting to a custom order that I knew I didn't have time to sew this week. I could feel the weight lift off my shoulders when I finished this last night. Funny thing is I had it so designed out in my head it took me less than 30 minutes to make. I have about 5 minutes left of sewing some reinforcements tonight (ran out of dark brown thread) but it is done.

It is a doggie sling. My dog unfortunately was curled up on the sofa and wanted nothing to do with getting a picture taken. The stuffed doggie is our dog's "baby" which is bigger than she is.

The beginning of the story. A woman at the craft fair last weekend asked if I had any baby slings. I told her no, laughed and told her my husband wanted me to make a doggie sling for our dog. She laughed right back at me, she wanted the sling for her dog. Her dog likes to go on walks with her but is getting older and can't keep the entire distance. She wants to be able to carry her dog safely and continue her walk. The strap is adjustable so the dog can be held snuggly to her chest.

I am almost hoping she doesn't come to the craft fair tomorrow to pickup. I really want to keep this for Buttercup.

Peppermint Popcorn

A great idea for a handmade Christmas gift. Would be great for people in the office.

Peppermint Popcorn

I may need more than four days next weekend.

Journal Covers

We will be at home Thanksgiving weekend. As much as I would like to travel to see family it just makes sense to stay home. I wonder if I can get away without leaving the house for four solid days. The sales are not even tempting me this year. I would rather buy things online and have them shipped to me.

I did find an adorable project I would like to work on next weekend. You have got to check this one out. Journal Covers. It could even be turned into a sketch book cover. I am sure I will have a jumbo list of things to work on by next week.

Craft Fair Photos

I promise to get some better photos this weekend.

But at least you can get the idea. We may change things around a bit this weekend. Depends on the size and shape of our booth space.

Custom Order

I did pick up the items I need for the custom order. Hint- It is not a bag but it does hold something. Any guesses?

Sewing for Fun

I thought I would actually sew for fun yesterday. I had bought the hooks several months ago to make Buttercup some custom dog leashes. This one is from left over binding scraps from a quilt, a dog and cat quilt to be exact. Think I will have to find another fun fabric to make another one for her.

Still trying to work out the details of the custom sewing order in my head. I will just have to keep you guessing on that.

More thoughts from the craft fair Saturday. Spent some time talking to a sister and sister-in-law team that does embroidery. All their items were commercially made and just monogramed. They had the large insulated tumblers (no lid) one letter embroidered on the fabric for $18. I wouldn't pay that price for one and  they were selling like crazy. Woman in the booth next to me bought three of them. Very interesting.

Craft Fair #1 Wrap Up

I forgot to take photos of the booth. But my friend did get some and promised to send them to me. Foot traffic at the craft fair was down from previous years. I went as a shopper to this fair 3 years ago and barely had room to breathe. This year there was never a time when we were busy. We did make our money back for the booth fees and even made a decent profit. The biggest seller for me was the hanger covers, now affectionately called Hanger Hugs. One lady even came to the booth because a friend called her and told her about the hanger covers.

My friend sells paper covered journals, her smaller sizes sold very well. I talked to several of the other vendor and their sales were down considerably compared to other years. One shared her booth with her mother and neither made their booth fees back.

I love chatting up with people. It did help draw the people in and keep me entertained most of the day also. Got invited to a quilting guild. Met a lady that crochets shoulder sized tote bags from recycled plastic bags. Couple fun suggestions... Adult sized bibs, fleece seat belt covers. I did get a custom order, more about that later in the week.

Doing Hard Time

It took the three of us 2 1/2 hours to set everything up. We have an odd shaped booth location. In a corner. I will get photos in the morning once we get the finishing touches on the booth. As we were setting up I realized I REALLY needed a coat rack to display my tote bags. I was ready to open my wallet and spend $100 in hopes to make my money back tomorrow.

As a twist of fate would have it I had my friend from the office with me. I joking told her there was a coat rack in one of the conference rooms that would work perfectly. If you don't see a post from me by Monday I am doing hard time for petty theft.

No Ruffle

The ruffle is gone off both aprons now. I will try to get a photo of my friend wearing hers. Hopefully she will model it in our craft fair booth for you. My car is loaded down, I will head over right after work and start setting up the booth. I have also enlisted the help of one of the girls at my office so hopefully with the three of us together we won't be there too late.

I walked (ran) through the antique mall yesterday. I never could find what I was looking for to display the tote bags. Well I did find what I was looking for but could not bring myself to spend $90-120 on a coat rack. About a month ago I started to question why I was doing these craft fairs. As much as I love to sew, craft and share what I make, the ultimate motivation was to make some extra money. So I started to rethink where I was spending my money.

It has been really hard for me to find good information about craft fairs on the web. Most of it seems generic, but very little written by anyone that actually lived through it and willing to share advice. I haven't done craft fairs in many years so this is like learning to walk all over for me. Besides all the inventory and merchandising items, this is my list of what to bring along with me. Maybe it will help you plan for your craft fair.

Change- My plan is $50 in small bills. But remember I have a friend I am sharing the booth with. She will have some also.
Calculator
Small notepad
Apron (of course)
Customer bags. It was a toss up between spending $12 for 1000 bags at Costo and using my Walmart stash. The Walmart stash won out.
Tape
String
Needle and Thread
Lint Brush
Snacks
Business cards

Hopefully my items are priced right to sell. Cross your fingers for me. I have another one next Saturday also. Yikes.

Ruffle

All the pockets are on the aprons. I am not loving the ruffle on the apron. I think I will leave it on the one for my friend and leave mine plain. Just not a ruffle kind of gal. I didn't put ric rac on my pockets either. I am the no frills one of the pair. Need to finish these up tonight.

Running Out of Time

I am running out of time pretty quickly now. We are able to load into the church and setup Friday evening for the craft fair. I still don't have the legs for the peg boad the way I want them. Off to visit Home Depot at lunchtime. Must finish the aprons between tonight and Thursday evening. Luckily I don't have other last minute sewing to do. Will change the peg board around later today and see how the hangers display.

Aprons

Working on aprons for my friend and myself for the craft fairs. Think I need to pickup some dark brown for the ruffles and pockets. Hopefully big enough pockets to hold all the cash we are going to make. I girl can dream can't she.

These are the last two tote bags that were cut and waiting to be sewn.

Be Attitude

The craft fairs will be over in a couple weeks. I have been looking for an applique project to work on this winter. I think I have finally found it.

Art to Heart's Be Attitude. Check out some close up photos on this blog.

I spray painted the peg board dark brown. My craft fair partner likes pink and dark brown and it matches well with the aprons I am making us. Now just need to find S hooks and spray paint them pink.

Merchandising

I talked David into buying peg board today. I can use it for my craft fair displays and then he can put it in the shed.

I do think I need to paint it white and buy many S hooks.

I bought two 2x4 foot pieces. One to display sample hanger covers.

And I think I need to bring props for displaying the bags. Dog bones, toys, cosmetics... any other ideas?

Hope to make it to the local antique mall tomorrow to look for a reasonably priced coat rack.

Craft Fair Inventory

I probably won't make another big sewing push before the craft fairs. I might add a couple items in smaller quanitites if I have time and the creative urge hits me. But it is looking doubtful. First craft fair in 10 days. Remember I am doing this booth with a friend. She has other inventory primarily beaded pens and journals.

So right now my inventory for the craft fairs is:
59 Bibs and burp cloth matching sets
28 individual bibs
29 individual burp cloths
23 tote bags (I do have two more cut, maybe 30 minutes of sewing to finish them)
412 fleece hanger covers
73 cosmetic bags

My first merchandising thought is a coat rack (tree) to hold some of the tote bags. It will give me height at the booth. I don't own one so finding an affordable solution should be interesting. Second thought is to hang them off the front side of the display tables. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The Edge

Life would be boring if I didn't live on the edge. My sister may try to disown me after this but I am going to do it anyway.

Look at the fabulous tote bag my sister made. Love the choice of fabrics. The pocket between the straps is adorable. Very, very cute. So if you want to keep me out of trouble with my sister leave her an encouraging comment.

Fleece Fuzz

First before I forget again. The brown fabric I used on the backing of these bibs is called Minky. Not sure if there is a more technical name or not. But if you go into any fabric store and ask for minky they will point you in the right direction. The dog fabric came from a Swapbot swap, not sure where my partner got it from.

I don't usually think about cleaning my sewing machine until it starts making noises or becomes uncooperative. Something made me dive into the depths of my machine yesterday. Not the best photo but fleece fuzz was growing pretty heavily inside.

This is how much fleece fuzz I removed. The bobbin in there for size reference. Guess I am glad I thought to look before I had problems.

And this is what happens when you sew more than you should. The table becomes empty. What a nice sight to see but my shoulder is not so happy with me today. I need to spend this week thinking about how to merchandise the items for the craft fairs. Craft fairs are scheduled for the 14th and 21st, I may be regretting the back to back weekends.