I will freely admit that since I have returned from H&H I have gone a little overboard with my inspiration and trying to bring those to fruition. There was a bit of a lesson to everyone about how disease is still out there, I and several other attendees, came down with COVID when we returned from H&H Americas. I wore a mask the entire show, except for meals, so that I would not get sick and miss more work. Despite my precautions I tested positive. Next year (or trip) I will get a booster beforehand to minimize risk further.
Due to my excitement about the binding tool and information by Pauline’s Quilter’s World I ordered the tool set from Fat Quarter Shop and the book “Pauline’s Quilting World: Quilt As You Go Handbook Book” from Amazon. I could not order just the tool set, so looking at the items that were on sale from Fat Quarter Shop I also got several mini charm packs, as well as a half yard of one of the Highland patterns and a half yard of one of the colorful fabrics.
I also ordered some amazing beads from Artbeads, they had some beautiful seed bead assortments I am hoping to use to experiment with the seed bead mosaic techniques created by Sabrina Frey. I was able to see this in person at H&H, they were absolutely gorgeous. I will be ordering the Skinny glue and art edge foam strips from fire mountain gems when I am ready to take that project on.
I did order 2 shawl buttons from Jul Designs to try out. I am really excited to see what they look like and how they work.
The final 2 things that I ordered are the Spindles I need for the class I will be teaching in May as well as the wet felting fibers I need for the class I’m teaching in June. Writing this out I realize I have not ordered as much as I thought, so I’m doing better that I thought.
So, the drive from Western New York to Chicago without any stops would’ve taken me nine hours. Not stopping is very unreasonable for me, plus I was passing very closely to an IKEA. This means that my trip was a lot longer than nine hours, but I had so much more fun than I thought I would.
I have been eyeing the Trofast storage unit for a while now. Not only were they on sale, but they had several of the drawers that would go with it. That were also on either sale or clearance. Plus they had purple. I knew that I needed another storage unit and I believe that this is going to serve me quite well. Since I’ve come home, I’ve already assembled it, and I’ve started filling it with items that I purchased at the expo. I intend to switch items around as I use them. I picked up some other odds and ends and a couple of things that were on clearance however, I think the most interesting for me is the Trofast unit.
I did need to stop somewhere for gas, and I noticed that there was a Kroger’s nearby. I had never been before, so I decided to give it a shot, imagine my excitement when I found out that they had 2 L of diet red pop. I grew up going to visit family in Western Pennsylvania so red pop and diet Red pop are very nostalgic for me since I can’t have the full sugar version. I’m unable to get it in my area. While I was in the area. I decided to get some lunch and see if the JoAnn fabrics that I saw nearby was still open. Imagine my shock and surprise when not only were they still open but they still had a lot of merchandise very good clearance prices.
Before I even started on the trip I had placed an order from a company called snuggly monkey, and they had some amazing felt and stitching designs that I am excited to get started with. I loved that this Joan’s had a ton of inexpensive craft felt that I can experiment with before getting started with the good.
The remainder of this post is going to be about the food that I ate in Chicago and along my trip.
There was a restaurant near Joanns called Rally’s, the food tasted amazing. I got a meal deal which was a very small drink. Very small fries a strawberry pie and a double cheeseburger for $4.30. Spilled part of the drink, but that’s life and the fries have a spice on them, but they are not spicy unlike Arby’s fries.
When I was at IKEA I grabbed a bite in the form of meatballs, potatoes, veg, lingonberry jam, and a diet soda. Lovely, though not really anything too special.
That night once I got to the room, I ordered a Philly Madres chicken sandwich. I usually enjoy the flavors of cuisine from India. However, this sandwich was a little bit spicier than as comfortable for me. I still finished it as it was not intolerably spicy.
I stopped at Speedway for breakfast because I couldn’t hold out until 711 and didn’t want to wait in line for the continental breakfast. I had a corn dog which was actually good. The dog itself was juicy much to my surprise but not in a bad way, I also had an empanada which I was quite afraid of because usually in Hispanic communities Mexican food is quite spicy, however, this was amazing. They did also have some local donuts so I purchased four of those because they had two of an apple kind a raspberry one and a strawberry filled one that looked fascinating, heavenly.
At the convention center the first day I had a lovely boneless barbecue rib sandwich for lunch. My dinner that night was crab filled eggrolls, along with crab topped french fries. I ordered this through DoorDash to my room. It arrived and tasted delicious. There was plenty of crab throughout.
The final day that I attended the conference was Thursday and I did not feel very hungry so I did not purchase food there. I did get a drink called a strawberry bubbler which I later found out is made with a lotus energy, drink soda, water and sugar-free strawberry syrup. I am looking into buying myself a bottle of the lotus flower energy drink, but it’s going to be a little bit because I have to pay off this trip and some of the things that I ordered after I came home.
I left the convention center to head home at about 3:30 on Thursday, unfortunately that means I ran into traffic. It took me two hours for a drive that should’ve taken about 20 minutes. This means that by time I was done I was very hungry and so I stopped at Dairy Queen, hoping to get one of their meal deals. Unfortunately, it was a treats only Dairy Queen so I did get a delicious coffee blizzard, but I had to stop at the nearby McDonald’s to both go to the bathroom and grab some chicken sandwiches.
The rest of my trip home was fairly uneventful, I did get tired enough to stop and grab an hour nap before I finished my drive. I would much rather look stupid and or have to explain myself to a police officer then drive drowsy, I would rather live.
Since I’ve come home, I’ve been mostly sorting and organizing, though I did ensure that I have all of the supplies that I need to work on the next few projects I plan on experimenting with.
I came back from this conference with a renewed interest in my passion, as well as a renewed appreciation for good food. Until next time, please remember to Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
I was lucky enough to attend H&H Americas as a volunteer demonstrator for the HGA booth. I am not sponsored or affiliated with any of the organizations that I will mention. I also was very careful to not draw the attention of the vendors away from their intended customers, as this is their livelihood. That being said, I was lucky enough to purchase some items while I was there, I will not be giving you the prices that I paid as I mostly paid wholesale prices.
This is Belagio cork fabric, I purchased three lovely, 15”x18” pieces. These are more like fabric than the cork fabric I have used in the past to make purses. The designs are lovely, this can be ironed with a cover and a dry iron on high. This cannot be washed, only wiped clean. I rolled them the opposite way to make it lay a little flatter as they arrived, tightly wrapped around a very firm cardboard, core. I look forward to working and experimenting with these, I believe that if I am going to use them in a purse or a pocketbook/wallet type situation, I would use a fairly firm stabilizer just to give them a little bit more body.
Graphic impressions toted themselves as a Candy store and they were not kidding. I did not get a chance to speak to the owner because she was, very rightfully, quite busy but I did get a chance to speak to her husband for a few minutes. I was permitted to purchase a wide variety of their small tools so that I can test them out and play with them. If I am being very frank, I was not expecting these to be of the quality that they are. If you would like me to go in depth on each one, please let me know and I can do that in the future.
There were several vendors selling silk in various forms. This vendor was selling their silk fabric and it is absolutely gorgeous. They were also very encouraging of my art quilt idea and helped me find a packet that contained a black piece so I can try the fabric out. She also mentioned going to her website to watch a video on how to use and care for this particular fabric.
There was wool felt fabric, tell me you didn’t know that I was gonna buy some. There was also an absolutely gorgeous burgundy velvet, and I look forward to experimenting with both of these. The Sue Spargo booth also had a wide variety of needle types, and one of the vendors there showed me where a lovely sampler pack was and so I picked that up as well. In the next post, I will show a picture of one of the quilts that I have been looking at online, but when I saw it in person, I found out that the depth of fabric and color and texture is so much more than can be captured in a two dimensional photo. When I came home I was also lucky enough to remember that I had purchased one of the books that Sue Spargo wrote about various stitches, so I plan on exploring that more in the future.
There was also a variety of products that absolutely blew my mind, but I did not purchase at the show for various reasons. Some of which are financial, lol. I will freely confess I did make a couple of purchases when I came home that I absolutely do not regret and that I am very much looking forward to receiving. Although my crafting budget is certainly done for the year as soon as I get the credit card paid off, I will consider starting up again, or saving to attend this show again next year.
The next post is going to be absolutely chock full of inspiration and beautiful photographs so until next time Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
I was lucky enough to be permitted to volunteer at the hand Weaver‘s guild of America booth as a demonstrator. I am not affiliated with or sponsored by any of the organizations or products mentioned here. I was very careful while attending this show to ensure that I did not bother vendors while they were speaking with their customer demographic, as this is their livelihood.
This post is mostly going to be pictures with minimal text if it is not obvious who the producer or organization being shown is I will add that.
These are some of the amazing items on display along with a featured crochet artist. I am not certain who made the very cute flame or the beautiful jacket.
The panel quilts are made using Camelot fabric.
There were many absolutely gorgeous quilts on display. I will admit that when I came home, I immediately went online to pick up the ultimate sashers collection by Pauline‘s quilter’s world. Some of the Sashing can be seen in the final quilt as the black outline is actually Sashing. The gentleman at the booth was kind enough to take a lot of time to describe to me the quilt as you go method and how the Sashing can be used for that. I do have several blocks on my embroidery machine that can be made as squares, and I am not very excited to use the quilt as you go method to create beautiful quilts and to experiment with the binding.
Coley craft had a wide variety of tools that were fascinating to look at. A lot of them are magnetic so they would hold up on either a magnetic pegboard or just a piece of metal like a cookie sheet that you put on the wall.
Ito had some brand new sparkly yarns that I just had to photograph although I know that sparkles do not show up well. The backlighting kind of wash these out but you get a bit of an idea. They were absolutely gorgeous in person. Louet purchased a new yarn line. I believe I mentioned that in the first post and these are some of the absolutely gorgeous colors as well as some of the kits that they will be coming in. I do not have a price but I will be on the lookout for them.
I am going to give you my caveats one more time and at the beginning of each post. I was lucky enough to attend H&H Americas as a demonstrator for the hand Weaver’s Guild of America I am not supported or affiliated with any of the organizations that I mentioned.
I was very careful while attending this show to ensure that I was not drawing the vendors attention away from their primary customers, this is often these organizations livelihood, and how they make their living so I did not want to in any way draw from that. Even though I did not draw the attention away, all of the demonstrators were very generous with their time and often without my even asking, they offered samples. This post I’m going to talk about the samples that I received and in the next one, I will mention the items that I purchased while I was there.
Each day had slightly different offerings, but I have mushed them all together into the single post. First there was a golden ticket drawing, I sort of want to say that everyone won this, but I don’t have proof of that. Brewer quilting and sewing had two different prizes and since I somehow received three messages that I won, I received both of the prizes. One is a lovely little pouch with handles and zippers, and the other is a mini box opener. Both products are extremely well-made, and I anticipate using them for decades in the future. The vendor and display were absolutely amazing.
Spun silk world Company was extremely generous with their samples. I received two sets of three puffs along with a sample of Eri silk and a sample of Mulberry silk. As I stated in my first post, I will be doing a comparison of this along with plying up the samples that I spun during the conference in a future post. Even though I’ve been home for a few days, I still have not taken my wheel out of the car, so I certainly have not gotten my spun fiber onto bobbins yet. The colors were very rich. I have three different pinks as well as some amazing grays that I am so excited to be playing in the near future. Again, this is not an advertisement, but I do have to mention that this is the absolute fastest I have ever been able to spin silk. Their fiber is absolutely remarkable and if you were starting to spin, I recommend this as a silk to try.
Woodsy Craft Co, OMG! I just love their wooden shapes that can be colored in with their special acrylic markers. What I find remarkable is that the markers lay down a very fine line as opposed to the craft markers that I’ve worked within the library where they not only lay down a thicker line, but they bleed. I had the opportunity to test this and I could’ve colored in the entire shape, however there was still a lot of the show to look at so I wanted to move on. They do have all of the supplies to turn these into banners as well as small kits for single banners and bigger kits for organizations. The demonstrator was extremely friendly and willing to speak to me. She even took down the information of my manager so that she can recognize the name if an order comes through. I am going to recommend that we order these kits because they are just amazing.
There were several publishing companies that had booths, as I was familiar with them I did not spend time stopping by to check them out. However, on the second day, there were two authors present at separate booths that had their books and we’re signing them. I offered to purchase a copy of each of the books, however they were signed and gifted to me. I believe they were doing that for everyone. I am so excited to take my time and explore these books as they are simply phenomenal. I was planning on purchasing both of them in the near future anyway and I certainly am going to recommend them for purchasing for the Library as well as possibly loaning them out so that some of my patrons get an idea of what can be done. Both of the authors were absolutely delightful.
I stopped by the Oxford punch Company because I have a kit, and I know the basics of how to do rug punching, but I always love ogling their tools. They have an amazing new stand that can hold between three and six punches, along with some accessories, and it looks like a fabulously compact way of storing their items when I mentioned that I love their punches I was offered a free sample kit, which was extremely generous. I love the smiley face, and I look forward to taking time to create my little wall hanging in the near future.
On my second day, I discovered a part of the conference that I hadn’t even noticed the first day, it was so huge. In this part, there was a heat press as well as a sublimation ink printout, and a bag that you could put it on. This was so much fun and I love that. I got a chance to see exactly how sublimation ink works. The heat press could not have been easier, though they did have a note that you had to be careful because it would get very hot.
There was a beautiful fabric line by Camelot fabrics and I will be having pictures of those not next post, but the one after that. When I asked for a business card or their information, they gave me a set of three hair ties instead that has their website on it. Since I’ve been home, I have been looking online to see where I can purchase the two panels that I greatly admired, and I have not found an online retailer in the US yet.
The stitchin’ tree had a lovely demonstration of their traders dice, and they also explained along the way how they use it to sell items in a retail environment, which I found fascinating. Each participant was given a free set of dice as well as the information to order more and a wide variety of uses other than what was mentioned in the demonstration. These little dice are amazing, each person brings a particular number of whatever is being traded. For example, if you are going to be trading skeins of yarn, each person would bring six. Three would stay by that person and three would go into the kitty. Each person would roll the dice, there are three dice, then the dice are turned so that the words can be read by the player and whatever action it tells you to take you do for each die. For example, if one is trade across one is a kitty and one is hold then the player would choose a skein of yarn that they like from the player across from them and trade it for one that they did not like take a yarn from the kitty in the middle and keep a hold of what they have for the third die. Gameplay will end when all of the items from the kitty have gone. The presenter mentioned several times that when they have a family reunion, they bring all sorts of coins, not only different denominations but international coins as well and use the dice to create a fun. This was so much fun, not only to participate in, but to learn about and of course the dice at the end are just lovely.
Knit the Rainbow is an organization that donates items to LGBTQ plus youth in Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles. If you were looking for an organization to donate your handmade items to this is well worth your time. We actually have need in our own community so I will not be bringing this to my supervisor, however, if you were in a more affluent community or if you simply do not have the same need that we do I highly recommend participating with this organization. They also let me take a button home.
Last, but definitely not least Last but definitely not least Scented Stitches very generously gave me some extra samples to give to my patrons as they will be expiring in July so she was unable to sell them in her store. These are simply delightful, moisturizing bars in an almost mini deodorant, type container. The vendor was absolutely lovely and generous, and I’m going to have to keep one of these for myself as it smells wonderfully, and I can always use moisturizer.
Before I get started with this post, I’m going to put two very important caveats in here: 1. I am not sponsored by any of these organizations and any freebies that I received were welcome to everyone that was attending. 2. While attending this show, I made every effort possible to ensure that I did not distract attention of the vendors from their actual retail customers, not doing the ‘I am an influencer’ thing or anything of the sort. If someone is tempted to go to this or volunteer in the future, please make sure that you are being respectful because many of these individuals are basing their livelihood on getting customers from this event.
I drove to Chicago on Tuesday, May 6th so that I could attend H&H, Americas, Wednesday and Thursday. I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer at the HGA HandWeavers Guild of America booth. As a volunteer, I brought my ladybug spinning wheel by Schacht, which I so cleverly named Lady. Lady was an absolute hit, people just loved her stickers which was validating because in the past some guild members (not HGA) have been not as thrilled with the stickers.
For my first “shift” volunteering I was loaned out to the Louet booth. David was just lovely and setting me up with their E spinner because most of their wheels had not arrived. He was wonderful about answering all of the questions and in case you didn’t know, Louet just acquired Schacht and David will become the president or company head, CEO of Schacht. This spinning wheel was just a delight to spin on, they have a wonderful feature where the leader thread actually gets nestled inside the bobbin so you don’t have to worry about it just spinning around, usually on an E spinner I have to tape down the leader thread. Also, oh my goodness, the new Harmony loom! The beater is on a track so that you get an even beat every single time! Totally mind blowing. If I had anywhere near a budget, I would be getting that immediately because having an uneven beat is a reason that I don’t weave a lot because I always angle to the right when I’m beating. Louet also purchased the yarn line Venne which comes in a huge variety of colors as well as some very fine weights. The one that sticks out in my mind that was mentioned to me was 32/2 however, I can’t even dream of what kind of a set that would be I do plan on researching and exploring these more in the future as they seem like an amazing yarn to work with.
It was so much fun to be surrounded by weaving and spinning related booths, and everyone was so friendly. The Ashford and Schacht booths were a little kitty corner so I did not get to spend as much time ogling their merchandise. However, the Kromski booth was right across from me. The woman running the booth was absolutely delightful and I had so much fun chatting with her. The products were amazing. I am so jealous that they are coming out with a purple wheel! And I mean a royal purple wheel. Their looms were amazing and I loved how they had their drop spindles displayed in so many different colors. Their entire booth looked like a candy store.
Speaking of candy stores, the other booth across from the HGA booth was a silk producer, Spun Silk World, They not only produce silk yarns, but they also produce silk fiber for spinning. They were generous enough to offer me samples, both days, as well as samples of their Mulberry and Eri silk to take home to run an experiment on. Each set of samples came with three little puffs of fiber, and I was able to spin them so much faster than I’ve ever been able to spin silk before. I am so excited to ply those up and I will be showing those skeins off in the near future.
I will have more posts in the near future until then remember to live life a little more abstract.
I have two ideas for projects that I would like to see through. The first is taking a stencil pattern, or a pattern that has large pieces that I can then ‘turn into a stencil’ to do reverse applique in the style of Alabama Chanin. My thought is based on the paper that children tend to play with where it is a black top and when you scratch at it with a stylus a colored background is revealed. I hope to have a very colorful fabric laid down first, sprayed with temporary adhesive, with possibly a thin batting and then the plain top fabric, all of these would be face up and have the temporary spray adhesive on them to prevent shifting as the pattern is drawn on. Draw the pattern on and stitch around the entire pattern either with a machine or hand stitching. The next step would be tricky, cut away the top fabric and batting within the stitched pattern without cutting the backing fabric at all. I suppose, writing it out, I could trace the pattern on the top fabric with the batting adhered and cut it out (probably spraying with fray check) before putting it on the backing fabric. At this point I would need to reassess and decide if the ‘raw edges’ with stitching is sufficient to keep the piece from fraying or if I should do a turned edge reverse applique to keep everything looking tidy.
The second idea I have is an art quilt. I love the look of Dark Fey and other gothic inspired aesthetics. At present I plan on creating the main image with applique, likely a figure, and using other textile and fiber art techniques to create the accessories, background, and other objects within the piece. This is likely to be a very long term project, though I am extremely excited to get started.
The email also included a new line by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics called Color Wheel. I’m having a hard time deciding if that would be better for my reverse applique idea, or a new quilt for my trans sister…or both. Oh, to have unlimited funds, lol.
It is fascinating to remember that without my ADHD Medication (it is on backorder due to manufacturing and regulations) I am still capable of being creative. I’m not as capable of completing tasks, however I hope to look on the bright side and get tasks started/thought of/planned until my medication arrives. I am very lucky that since I was diagnosed in my early 40s I have well developed coping mechanisms to employ that allow me to still get my work done, and come up with crafting ideas. There is, of course, a downside. I’m attempting to get ready to attend H&H Americas and will be leaving on Tuesday. This means that if my medication has not arrived by then I will be attending my first Craft Industry Trade Show…un-medicated. I’m sure I will get through it, I already have notebooks prepared and my cell phone brick charger ready so I can take digital notes as well. There was a rabbit hole that I fell down, I was thinking of getting a mini fridge that would plug into my car’s lighter/12v charging port…however when I spoke with my sister she let me know that the functionality was not great so it would be a waste of money.
Speaking of Rabbit Holes, Dollar Tree has new (to me) gel pens in a wide variety of colors and some even have glitter. I purchased a set of the ones I had not seen before and after testing all of them I was pleasantly surprised that there was only 1 dud out of 6 packages (of various quantities).
I have not made much progress on my pencil rolls, first because I will not be able to make as many as I would like to use as giveaways, second because I am at a tough part where I need to figure out the best way to create the pockets and what material I would like to use for the backs. Of course, this did not stop me from going down another rabbit hole.
I decided that I wanted to make a bag, not just a bag but a duffel bag with my ‘brand’ on it. Frankly, it did not go too badly at first. I was able to cut the panels out, quilt them, figure out the embroidery, make the pockets, add the zipper, all with minimal problems. Then came the assembly, and the fact that I completely forgot to add handles. As far as I can tell the pattern required the completed sides and bottom to be sewn together…this made for some very bulky sewing. I really think I did something wrong, or I need to read the pattern more carefully next time I attempt this. Since I am leaving in a few days I am not going to take the time to remake the piece, however as I learned during the Quilter’s Summit, no one gets everything right on the first try.
I am looking forward to my first industry event, seeing what is upcoming as well as what goodies I might obtain. It will be a ton of fun to meet people with a passion for craft. Spending 7 hours spinning will also be a ton of fun. My wheel needs a tune up this weekend and I need to make sure that there is enough spinning fiber. I should also look into packing clothes and making sure that I have the toiletries I need.
Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
At present I am trying to build my ‘side hustle’ into an actual business that brings me some income, joy, and purpose. To that end I have started batching some of what I have decided I want to create as well as signing up for some amazing opportunities. One of the major challenges, and ultimately advantages, that I have is my ADHD. Due to my body’s inability to produce the proper chemicals that induce focus it is either very hard for me to focus on a particular task, or it is too easy for me to go down a ‘rabbit hole’ and lose complete track of time. The latter has not really happened for me since I got out of Grad School, which unfortunately means that I have not been able to do any of what is referred to as ‘deep work’ since that time. After my diagnosis, at age 40, I was put on medication. The first was too strong, and had adverse side effects. My current medication allows me to focus on tasks, remember side thoughts, and come back to those side thoughts without having to write them down or keep repeating them with a single minded focus lest I completely blank on what I was supposed to be doing. It is a singularly unsettling feeling realizing that people can go around knowing what they have to do without blanking when they reach their destination then having to retrace your steps and thought process so you remember what you thought you should do two minutes ago.
Recently, I have learned how to utilize my ADHD, medicated state, and newfound purpose to create systems where I can batch my projects. I have two running at the same time currently. With JoAnn Fabrics closing they are having some serious sales. This is allowing me an opportunity to purchase craft felt at a very discounted price. I am using that felt to create pencil/pen/paintbrush rolls. With the scraps I am creating corner bookmarks that I am hand embellishing with a variety of techniques, embroidery, beading, etc.
To effectively batch my tasks I find that thinking about what the next step is going to be at night before I go to sleep gets me interested and motivated the next morning. That is not going to work for everyone, however it is the method that is working for me. I will walk through my creating pencil rolls as an example, each * indicates a day/morning so you get an idea of how long this is taking me:
*I had some leftover fabric and a lot of pens/pencils/markers. I wanted a way to take them with me in case I decide that I want to try my hand at being ‘artistic’ while taking walks on the beach. I did a quick sample and liked how it looked. Then Joann fabrics had a lot of craft felt remnants for sale for literally pennies on the dollar. This felt is both sturdy enough to hold pens and light enough to roll well. An idea was born, also I plan on going to a conference in the near future and would like something that I can ‘give away’ to promote my business.
*I started batching, the first step was to cut the felt to what I thought would be the correct dimensions. I took a few hours to cut all of the pieces that I would be using to very similar sizes.
*The next day I pressed all of the felt out since many pieces were wrinkled and I had over 30.
*I decided how tall I would like the pockets to be, out of fleece fabric I had in my stash and picked up on clearance, then cut them to the same length of the craft felt. After that, and on the same day, I folded over the top about 1/2″ and did a quick straight stitch hem to have the top looking nice.
* I took the tallest pen that I had to make sure that the felt would be tall enough, I discovered that the back and pockets were both too tall.
* After some frustration, I chose to cut down the felt and resize the pockets. Thus began my second batch project. I took a day to cut these down, while realizing that it was not realistic for me to plan on making dozens of these rolls in time for the event. That is alright, I already have an etsy store and I can bring some to gauge interest. The felt will be great for corner bookmarks.
* I cut down the felt to the correct size for the corner bookmarks and then cut some of them diagonally to create the flap for the page to sit in (thus making it a bookmark).
*During the evenings or when I have a few free moments and feel creative I use various threads to embellish the corner flap of my bookmarks and do the stitching that holds the two pieces together. Beads, buttons, thread, whatever I can get my hands on and whatever stitches I think of are being used to embellish these.
*I did a sample of the slots for my pencil wraps, using a seam ruler I placed it inside the pocket and that became a hard guide for my presser foot. This sort of worked, however I hated how it looked since there was a ridge in the middle of the slot where the ruler stretched the felt a little.
*After some thought I realized that I could use tailors chalk to mark the ruler spacing on the back of the felt and sew along those lines. I have completed one and like how that turned out.
*I had some faux leather and cut that out the same size as the felt so I could create a waterproof backing for the pouch. Placing the faux leather face down on the pocket side of my piece, I sewed along three sides leaving one open to turn and place the cord.
*I pressed the piece once it had been turned right side out. I hate how the leather looks since it just about refuses to lie flat. This could be in part because my iron is set to synthetics, however, perhaps not. I used sewing clips to flatten out the edges some as well as holding the open side so that I can use a top stitch to close that up, as well as inserting the cord.
This is as far as I have gotten, I just put the clips on the faux leather sample yesterday evening. I plan on sewing the sample closed as a demonstration piece. Fortunately I have quilting cotton and thin fleece fabric that I can machine embroider on, this should create a cleaner finish for my pencil rolls while having an embellishment to draw attention.
I am not working quickly, I am trying to be both efficient and produce lovely products with minimal waste. This is a great chance for me to explore different stitches with the bookmarks, play around with my embroidery machine, use up thread and cords I had lying around, and (hopefully) create beautiful projects that people will purchase to help fund my exploration.
I hope that this helps some of you who might be stuck trying to figure out how to get bulk products out the door. While I certainly took my time by taking each step one day at a time, there are ways that you can batch these tasks and do them within one day, for example cutting the felt and fleece to the correct sizes could have happened on the same day, even cutting whatever you would like to use as your ‘pretty’ fabric for the outside of your pencil roll.
I hope that this is informative and possibly helpful. Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!
I did have to work on Saturday so I did not get as much time to enjoy as I would have liked. I do get this upcoming weekend off. Despite working I did manage to get eight book sleeves sewn together, however two of them are too small to fit a paperback so they are not available on the shop. The fabric unraveled a little more than I thought it would so I had to redo a couple of seams.
I always find it fascinating to look at the lunar phases after I notice a pattern occurring. Right now we are entering into the full-moon phase. This is a time of new beginnings, and a little bit of madness. The madness started earlier this week with some really strange interactions with patrons at work, and since next week is the actual full moon I expect the strange to continue. It is also a time of renewal in projects that interest me. I am loving making these book sleeves and I have some ideas for projects that I can take to a very special thing I am doing in May (though I really need to get a start on those).
All in all I am finding this time to be one of renewed interest and starting new projects despite the cold outside. I had hoped it would be warmer so I could get a bit of a start on my garden, alas that is not going to happen, though I might find it in me to get some seedlings started this weekend.
Until next time remember to live life A Little More Abstract.
A Little More Abstract 