Felting

My Therapist Said I’m Like Crabgrass

by CZeitler

So at my most recent therapy appointment my therapist told me I’m like crabgrass, I changed that to a dandelion, but the sentiment is the same. Nothing can keep me down for very long, giving up (suicide or self harm) have never occurred to me. I still have major ups and downs, things still stress me out to the point that I am on anti-anxiety (anti-depressant) medication. I shared in my last post that the reminders of how much time has passed since losing Mom and Dad really got to me. Due to these circumstances I decided to give myself a break from people for Thanksgiving Day. I planned on doing some major cleaning, instead I wound up doing some Major Crafting. Patterns for Pirates has an amazing amount of free patterns and they are giving more away during this Holiday Season. Their patterns can be found here:

https://www.patternsforpirates.com/product-category/freebies/

Using the Patterns for Pirates free Dino Nuggies pattern I created four of the five nuggets:

I love how they have all turned out, they are now up on my etsy website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/alittlemoreabstract/?etsrc=sdt

I am hoping to sell them, partially to purchase more material, partially to say that I’ve made a sale in the first year of my etsy shop being open, and partially to help pay my bills. Oh well, weather I do or do not I had fun making them, and I know that the pattern is easy enough for us to make at Teen Crafting in 2024 as well as Adult Crafting. The plushies are not all that I made, I had a ton of fun experimenting with my Finishing Sander and wet felting.

I love how the felt turned out, I am presently trying to figure out the best way to turn the resulting felt into cup-cozies. While experimenting one of my multi layered pieces turned into fantastic geode slices as well as a beautiful feather. I used Gorilla Glue Hot Glue to put pin backs on the felt after everything dried, they will not detach easily! I love how they turned out and hope that some one can give them a good home!

Of course they are also in my Etsy Store.

I have about three baby blankets that I need to add binding onto as well as one very textured baby blanket I’m trying to use a quilt as you go method for creation. Soon there will be cup cozies, baby blankets, and burp cloths in my Etsy store.

The burp cloths are made with terrycloth on one side and fleece on the other. I finished the top stitching before work this morning. I still need to bury the threads, and run them through a wash cycle using Dreft. Once I have that finished these will be up in my shop. I’m thinking about selling them as a package; one dinosaur back, one black back for $5. It will be 2/$5, the only reason I can do that is because I managed to get the fabric as remnants so they were very inexpensive.

One of the things that I need to consciously stop doing is trying to undercut the other sellers on Etsy. Some individuals have items, like the dino nuggets, for less than $10 each. I do not know how they even purchase the supplies for that let alone sew and stuff them. They are not a huge time commitment but the Sherpa fabric I used to get a lovely look costs $16/yard, then I had to purchase stuffing. I will try to price my goods according to what supplies cost me and how much time they took me to make. That means that my quilts will not have really fancy quilting unless they cost a bit more, I don’t have a long arm and the absolute least expensive method for me to turn my machine into something like a long arm is $500 (my car payment, or the price of my fancy quilt on my Etsy Store that I made using a Tula Pink Pattern). Sending things out to be long armed looks inexpensive until you see that a small quilt will probably cost $50-$100 to long arm (there goes any profit/hope of selling it).

That is the progress that I have made so far, I hope to finish the baby blankets and mug cozies so that I have plenty of items in my store. There are some plans for me to go to a few Craft Shows in 2024 to see if that is a better market for my wares.

Until next time I hop that you Live Life A Little More Abstract!

Weird and Wonderful Weeks

by CZeitler

the past few weeks have been both weird and wonderful. I have received two different commission opportunities as well as an opportunity to attend a conference for mostly free.

I’m not going to go into the commissions too much but they have kept me busy and will continue to do so for a few more weeks.

I was able to attend EGLFC for just the price of supplies which my last speaker fee should have covered. Unfortunately I still have not received that fee so I’m going to have to back out of guild meetings for a while so I have what I need to attend a work conference in three weeks. I’ll be comped for the expenses but I need to cover the expenses first. Enough about money right now.

I had so much fun at EGLFC and I learned so much about wet felting and how a finishing sander can be used to make the process easier.

I was able to make two rings, three brooches, and a vessel out of felt. I really like how everything looks. I have a couple of amazing plans for wrist cuffs and a possible wall hanging, I’ll be exploring that a little further once I have made some progress on my savings goals. I believe I will put a couple of felted pieces on my Etsy site to see how they do. I do have a wall hanging that I need to finish before I put it online. I was inspired by my teacher comparing my piece to something that she would jury and giving me tips.

I am thinking about creating tutorial PowerPoint presentations to teach various techniques and putting that behind a paywall. If that is something you would be interested in, please let me know.

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract.