One Creative Family

I have been finishing up a few items I week and don’t have a lot to show for it. For those of you who shop craft fairs or have booths, I have a few questions for you. Even if you don’t do either of these things please give me your input.

As the fairs seem to be getting more competitive we are always looking to add something new while also keeping the more popular items. Which has made me think of how to improve our booth. What I have noticed is NO ONE have bags unless they are the bags from the grocery store. With this in mind I am going to make some fairly good size totes to offer with purchases of x number of dollars or more. We do have smaller bags with our logo on them for the smaller item purchase. We are also offering the lighted bottles this year and have made bottle gift bags for these if anyone wants one with the purchase of the bottles. These items won’t have a large dollar amount tied up in them, it is just a little something extra.

We do have built up a following over the years and send out emails of our upcoming sales and offer a 10% discount when visiting again.

Am I over thinking things and making too much out of it?

Tonight will be finishing up some “Bed Buddies.” They are 9×18 inch tubes filled with rice and lavander. You can put them in the freezer and have an ice pack or microwave and have a heating pad. I have 10 more to make and making some cases for them so when they get dirty they can be washed. We use them all the time.

Please I would love your feedback. Thank you

My head is so full of ideas and not enough of me to make them all at once. I’ve been making lists, but still so many I want to do. Last week I got a Cricut and have been making a lot of things. I showed my bottles and last night I tried it out on fabric. In less than 3 minutes from start to finish (loading the design and last cut) I tried it out on fused fabric.

Two projects in one. Putting elastic on the larger piece for a head band and the little pieces to use on cards or little embellishments on some project.

I can see using this to cut out small pieces of applique .

So many ideas and not enough of me or time. Stay focused Jackie, Stay focused.

Be prepared for some practical jokes tomorrow. Have a great day.

I have been playing with wine bottles, lights, alcohol ink, and vinyls. This has been lots of fun. I still need to practice more before I sell them. This is the first day of trying.

Now here they are lit up.

Not sure if I like the blue bottle very well, but we will see. This is taking me out of my comfort zone as I usually deal in fabric. I do LOVE the Circut tho. This weekend I am going to get a fabric mat and cutter then life will be perfect.

Enjoy your day.

Yesterday I purchased a Cricut Vinyl Cutting machine and love it. Or at least so far. I have been enjoying it. This is the one more thing I am adding to things to do. I am looking forward to using this to add something new to the quilts and make a few other things.

This week has been fun and busy. Getting lots of sewing done and am ready to start the craft fairs. Tomorrow brings rain and so I will be watching it rain and have a good book to read. It is also the deadline I gave myself to get rid of some fabric I haven’t used in a long time. While I worked I made almost all of my clothes and now I live in jeans and leggins, and the occasional dress clothes. I hope someone can put this to good use. Then I need to tackle patterns. Maybe not. I have patterns from the 50-2019. Maybe the kids can get rid of those.

I hope everyone is having a good and productive week and hopefully tomorrow I can show you something from the Cricut.

Sweet dreams all.

I have been doing a little cleaning and have been looking thru some magazines that my Mother in Law had saved. These are such wonderful finds.

-Look at this Disney Coloring book! Copyright is 1937-1939 . For sure one to save.

The books are all in together and there are only a few marks on the coloring pages , but no page is colored.

With Spring here we have been trying to work in the yard some. Now I am ready to get some flowers, but am determined to wait a month until we are sure no more freezes. What are you doing this week? Enjoy your days.

I have been making little cell phone bags. They started out being an Owl. Then I thought a Penguin would be cute and then the ideas started coming like crazy. Penguin got tried out a lot yesterday.

I woke up this morning thinking Bunnies, Kittens, Puppies, Bears….I am cutting out more Penguins today and making them. As I make them I am trying to write out the pattern for them. So I guess this week will be a “Zoo” in my sewing room. Craft fairs are around the corner and we are adding 1-3 more this year.

Now for good news (I think) my stash is getting smaller and I don’t have big totes of fabric any more. What this means, and this is the good news, I need to buy more to replace what I have used up. For fabric lovers this is good. I do need to keep some sort of list of fabrics I have, what I need to replace, and so on. Sounds like lots of work…

What are you working on this week?

Do you have some way of knowing what you have in your stash? Want to share?

Have a wonderful week and enjoy this first day of Spring.

I have spent the evening and day adding to the flower panel from the last post. It desperately needed it. Thanks to some of the posts for the suggestions. Then I dug out the crystals and had fun. What do you think?

Now I am off to another project. What is you ask? I don’t know yet. I did get a new magazine and I think that I will sit back with a glass or wine and take the afternoon to enjoy some sunlight First day in MONTHS we have sun and in the 54 degrees outside.

I hope your weekend is as nice as today is turning out to be.

This week I have been working on this panel I purchased on line, The picture was a little brighter than the panel, so I decided to quilt the darker parts of the quilt in a bright lemon yellow. The lighter shade in a shade lighter yellow. As you can see(I hope)the pedals are now defined and I will be adding a few Crystals to Bling it up but other than that I feel it is missing something? Suggestions? PLEASE.

This week has been a wild week in Kansas City, with BASKETBALL. We are hosting the March Maddness. For those like me who don’t pay attention to sports it is College Basketball Championships. That and then St. Patrick’s Weekend. We stay away from the Downtown area. We figure with the celebrating of both events people don’t always think or act rationally and we will stay home. It gives me a reason to go wandering thru the quilt shops and finger the fabrics.

Please say a prayer, send a good thought, whatever it is you do the the people, families, and members of Christchurch in New Zealand. 49 People killed in two Mosque shootings. This is so sad and such a tragedy. Be safe my Bloggin Buddies.

As I was cleaning the house today, dusting, hubby asked why I kept these 4 mugs. Yes they are cracked and not any use, BUT, those were my mother’s and she isn’t with us anymore. They were damaged in the mail . I sat gluing them together crying like a child who was told no. I showed him the 1st mug, it was all in one piece, I told him this represents us as newly weds, the next was cracked. Little life struggles, the third in many pieces . I said this represents the worst struggles of our life together, and the 4th not broken but cracked and chipped. Us 47 years later very happy. He thought for a few minutes and said “Good one, Jack” and walked off. I didn’t know if I should laugh or go after him and kick him in the back end. Good one, Gary.

I gave up on spring cleaning as it really isn’t spring and went to the sewing room. I did get block 1 of row A of the Dear Jane quilt made.

I am on a roll. On to the next one. If I make one block a day except the days I have the granddaughter, MAYBE by Christmas I will have it finished.

I hope you have had a good weekend. Do something fun.

Well I have finally completed all my UFOs and am ready to start new projects. The next project is one I have wanted to do for a long time and have put off. It is a Dear Jane Quilt. Lots of little blocks. This will be a great way to do many blocks and maybe will find a new favorite. For me the blocks are so much like my quilts. My favorite is the one I am currently working on. How about you? Have you made a Dear Jane Quilt? It is going to be fun and a wonderful way to use up odds and ends of my Civil War reproduction fabrics. This quilt may have to find it’s way on my wall to stay.

Looks like fun doesn’t it? This is not my photo, I got it off the internet.

Before I start this next project I am having a granddaughter who does photography as a hobby come by to take some photos of a few quilts I am trying to decide between to submit to go in our Quilt Guild’s space at the Kansas City Quilt Festival. We will see how it goes.

Have a fun evening and enjoy life.