Client Longarming

The Elna 792 Pro came into the shop this week. I never really cared to upgrade my current machine, as long as I can piece a quilt top, that's all I ever needed. 

Then along came this home machine with an automated stitch regulator. I could free-motion quilt small projects with ease if I had one of these. 

My friends with longarms think it's crazy. They all say the same thing, "Just load the project on the longarm!".  Sometimes I think it's too much trouble for really small projects. I can free-motion quilt on the machine I have now but I sure would love it to not have to worry about how fast or slow I have to go to keep even stitches. I am definitely getting one of these....

Someday.

I have a client who is very passionate about a PKD fundraiser that happens every year. She makes a quilt to raffle off every year and this is the one for 2023. It's always a queen-sized quilt so the event does make quite a bit of money off her beautiful donations and I am happy to help.

I also quilted a memory quilt for her. Her son passed away from cancer and she made a quilt to honor his memory. 

Besides the 2 quilts, she had a table runner to be quilted as well. I love the colors she used. These are the last client projects I plan on completing before the holidays. 

On Thanksgiving day I became one of those statistics attached to senior citizens. I slipped and fell then ended up getting 16 staples on the top of my head. It was quite a gash. On my way down, I hit the corner of the buffet in my daughter's dining room. I got right up thinking I was fine except for my head stung a little. And I didn't see any blood although it was all over the buffet. Jeff says I could't see it because it was running down my back. The next thing I knew we were headed to the hospital.

I really didn't hurt myself and frankly, I was disappointed I missed dessert after dinner. At least I got to eat before I went to the ER!

I know they are hard to see but this photo was taken right before the staples were removed. And hallelujah for that. I think the staples were worse than the wound. I am so happy that things turned out like they did. I really could have seriously hurt myself.

Little Projects

A friend asked for a table runner that looks like wood planks. I came up with this. When she originally showed me a photo of what she wanted, I started collecting wood-look fabrics. It was fun to attend quilt shows with a fabric finding mission.

Since it is close to Memorial Day, I thought I would whip up this little Uncle Sam wall hanging. It's a kit from the quilt shop that went together very quickly.  I didn't realize until I hung it up, but I forgot to embroider the nose. I will wait until fall when I take it down and correct that for next year. I guess it went together too quickly - haha! 

A few months ago I got the opportunity to purchase a used barrel from a local brewery called Lakefront Brewery. It's a very popular spot and when they put the call out that they were selling their barrels I immediately responded to the ad in hopes to snag one. Luckily, I did get to go pick one up. Once the weather got better, my husband had to figure out how to cut it in half. 

After searching online, Jeff found a very creative way to cut the barrel. He took my garden wagon and turned it upside down placing the barrel between the wheels. Once that was done he measured to find the center then cut the barrel while I turned it. It worked perfectly. Now I have two new barrel planters to replace my old ones which are rotting away. And what a great story about where they came from to share with friends.

Gnome Ornaments and Table Runners

I made up my own version of a gnome Christmas ornament. I've been working on it for the last month. After cutting various sizes of yarn beards and little hats I think I've come up with the exact size that I want to make. They might be a big hit at the upcoming holiday bazaar this December. 

I'm also working on a few table runners. Last year's bazaar was so successful that I sold all the Christmas themed runners I had and have none left. What a nice problem.

I have a few more in the works and hopefully I can get them all completed before the month end. Sometimes the issue is the kitten. She just loves to help! 

Lemon Drop Martini Table Runner

I love yellow. It's my favorite color, so bright and cheery. What's not to love? 

I love lemon drop martinis. It's the cocktail I order every time we go out for a fancy dinner. I doesn't hurt that the martini is yellow. Haha!

I really wanted to make a table runner that pays tribute to my favorite martini. I purchased some yellow fabrics and whipped up this little beauty just to pay tribute to the cocktail.

It's a perfect table runner to celebrate the first day of summer. The two go together perfectly!

My Sister's Friend Sue's Projects

I get a lot of requests for sewing projects from my sister's friend Sue. Sue has eclectic taste and is a very nice person, which is a great quality since she is a teacher. I love to help her change her keepsakes into new and usable things. There's been children's pajamas turned into a quilt, little baby t-shirts turned into tote bags and zipper pouches, to mention a few. 

Sue gave my sister a bag full of things to repurpose. There was a baby shirt to turn into a Christmas ornament, an embroidered baby shirt to turn into a pencil pouch and a few other baby t-shirts to repurpose. Besides those, there was a 2-yard piece of fabric that she wanted a table-runner out of, and she also requested that if there is any leftover fabric to make a few little things.

There was a little problem with the request. She made the request in spring, my sister forgot about it and here we are at the end of November when she remembered. Grrrr. I agreed to do the best I could. I was smack dab in the middle of making football themed totes when I got the request and I couldn't sleep thinking about it. After all, it wasn't Sue's fault the work wasn't getting done so I didn't want her to be disappointed. So I got to work.

This is the first table runner. The fabric is Christmas themed with lots of glitter. I purchased some matching grunge in pink, green yellow and brown to match. The fabric looks good as the gift wrap part of these gift blocks. 

There was so much fabric left that I made another table runner, This one is simpler and fabric print is easier to see.

There was still lots of fabric left. So I made some zipper pouch stockings, some mini tote bags and some Christmas ornaments. 

And here is the ornament from a t-shirt and the pencil pouch from the embroidered t-shirt.

The baby shirts are now zipper pouches.

I still have a small piece of the Christmas fabric but for now I'm pretty burnt out from all these. I will just have to revisit it at a future date. For now, Sue will get these just in time for the holiday season. 

Craft Fair Table Runners

In an effort to replenish my table runner selection for my next craft fair, I made a few fall and Christmas runners. I used up scraps from last year for the fall ones, and some new fabrics for the Christmas ones. I was in quite a hurry to complete these, so I didn't spend much time on pattern selection. I really need to take some quality time to look at patterns for Christmas projects, and I plan to make that a November priority but for now, these will have to do. 

10-Minute Table Runner Test

I picked up a 10-minute table runner kit from the quilt shop's clearance bin and I thought I would test it out. Does it really take just 10 minutes? I was going to find out. 

I felt a little like I was cheating because the fabrics were already cut in the kit. I did remeasure to make sure they were correct so I guess that could count towards the time I saved by using these precut pieces. 

The first step was to sew the pieces together to make a long tube. Then flip it right side out and press so that the feature fabric was in the center.

Then I had to trim the uneven edges off, fold the runner in half and stitch along the cut edge.

Then I had to iron the seam flat.

Once flipped over after pressing the seam the runner looked like this.

At this point the instructions suggest an embellishment to hold the fabric down once folded over. I didn't do that. I think I would like it better if I did some free motion quilting on it which I will do another time. (I don't like to put the free motion foot on my machine until I have more than once project to quilt.)

According to the clock this project took a total of 14 minutes. I guess I will have to work faster next time.

Prepping For an Art Fair

I've been pretty busy getting ready for my first outdoor art fair. I've ordered a commercial pop-up canopy and I've we've been going to antique sales to find props for by booth. So far, I've purchased a stainless steel egg crate and a metal shopping cart. I can't wait to see if I can make them into anything fun.

I've been trying to make some extra table runners to sell so I thought I would try to efficiently load them on the longarmer. I sewed 5 different backings together and loaded them on the machine. 

Then I cut the batting to size for the first table runner and quilted it onto the backing. I just rolled the finished table runner around the quilt frame bar until I got to the second backing. I quilted each table runner this way using a different quilting design for each one. It was so fun and worked out great. 

All that was left to do after they were quilted was to cut them apart and bind them. It was easy peasy. 

I think I will use this technique again with Christmas table runners. 

Longarm Projects

I had a few projects to quilt for others this week. The first one is for my friend Mary. She had a table runner where she says, "no hurry". When I opened the project bag I could see why - a pumpkin table runner.... I guess she wouldn't need it for a while - ha!

The second one is a quilt for church. They will use it at their spring raffle. The quilt top has patchwork hearts so I chose my 'Love' pantograph for the quilting. It should complement the top perfectly.

Flurry Blocks

I am making a bunch of "gift" blocks based on a pattern called Flurry. They are fun to make and I'm planning on using them for a pillow cover and a table runner. There are enough to make an entire quilt but I just don't want another Christmas quilt.

I think I will get a Christmas themed pantograph to use to quilt the pieces once I have them completed. I'm using my Sweetwater fabric collection to make these. I have two years' worth of their Christmas fabrics and I don't want to save them any more. It's time to use them for cute things! I've collected so much of their fabrics that I could make quite a few small projects.

Crazy Christmas Tree Table Runner

I've had this table runner called the Crazy Christmas Tree Table Runner by Cut Loose pinned to my Pinterest board for a very long time. I finally purchased the pattern in October and bought a layer cake a few weeks ago that would work well with the pattern. The fabric line is called Oh What Fun by Sandy Gervais. The background was made using pieces from my low volume fabric collection.

It went together quickly although I found the instructions regarding cutting some of the background pieces rather confusing. In fact, I'm not sure I did it correctly but I made it work. I also learned about color placement while making this. Next time I will be more careful with how I sort the pieces that get sliced into sections. That way I won't have the same colors next to each other. like in the tree on the far right.

Another table runner I had saved in Pinterest is this one made using a half hexagon ruler. I decided to take a crack at it without any instructions. I took scraps of 4 different green fabrics and cut 2 half hexagons out of each piece. I then cut the same size half hexagons out of white background fabric. I cut the white half hexagons in half down the center of each piece. I sewed the white pieces to each side of the green tree pieces and then sewed them together in columns. I added an appliqued star to the center and a red border. I think it turned out pretty well considering I made it from a photo off the internet - ha!

Fall Church Craft Fair - Success!

Yesterday I did a craft fair at my church. The church has held this craft fair for more than 30 years in a row. It is very popular.

In the past, I've had some success at this fair. But I never thought it was that great.  I never took the time to figure out how to do better until after I retired from my full time job.  Now that I have more time to concentrate on my hobbies, I started researching how to do better.

One of the things I noticed in most articles I've read is not to have too many items. People get overwhelmed if there's too much to look at. Keeping it simple seems to be the way to go. I am working toward that goal by limiting my inventory to less things. I also sorted my inventory and display it differently so more like things are together.

I used some bins to display all my baby items. They are all in one place now.  I used my display rack to hold all my bags and pouches. Everything is viewable in one spot.

For a change, I brought along some quilts. I never expect to sell any since the price point is high. It seems most people attending our fair are looking for small, reasonably priced items.

An amazing thing happened this year....I sold more than double than I have ever sold before. My marketing strategy worked. The advice worked. How wonderful!

I also sold a quilt. What a happy unexpected surprise. For the first time in a long time, I am excited to enter the craft fair vending world. I will definitely look for more marketing tips before the next fair.

Some of the items I sold include:

• Baby Blankets
• Burp Cloths
• Boo-Boo Rice Bags
• Quilted Gift Bags
• Zipper Pouches
• Bowl Cozies (sold out)
• Hot Pads (sold out)
• Table Runners

Etsy

I had my very first Etsy sale. I am very excited that it finally happened. Over the years I've sold many things at craft fairs and by word of mouth. I've even sold quilts on Ebay. But for me, Etsy was pretty elusive. 

I tried to sell quilts on Etsy a few years back with no success. That's when I tried Ebay and that worked better for me. I chalked it up to the saturated market on Etsy that did not exist on Ebay. I don't think it hurt that I have a good seller score on Ebay from years of selling other items there.

I thought I would try again with table runners. I have a regular clientele that purchase my table runners directly, so maybe those would be better to sell than high-end quilts. I listed 24 table runners and the first one sold. Yay! 

I shipped her item this morning and I hope the purchaser enjoys her new home-made item.

Halloween Table Decor

In an effort to use up some older fall fabrics, I finally broke into a fat quarter bundle I purchased a very long time ago. It's a cute bundle and I whipped up a nice table topper for my daughter's kitchen table.

The special surprise for my granddaughter is the Nightmare before Christmas fabric that I used for the backing. It is her very favorite thing besides dinosaurs.

I made a larger version of the table topper out of the same fabrics, I think I will save that one to sell at a future craft fair.

I also picked up a table runner kit from a local quilt shop last week. It didn't take long to put it together. I had some incentive since I wanted it for my kitchen table. With halloween looming, I knew it was best to get it done quickly so I would have time to enjoy it.

Modern Maples Table Topper

I made this table topper today using the Modern Maples quilt pattern. The blocks measure 12 inches finished so I decided to make 9 of them in order to get a 36-inch square table topper.

It was really fun using this bundle of fall fabrics for this project. It was a perfect match with the maple leaves.

I quilted it on my longarmer using a panto that had leaves and berries. A variegated thread worked perfectly to enhance the pretty maple leaf blocks.

This is exactly what my kitchen table needed for this fall!