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.
Yay! This past week was the last week of our summer reading program. We will be having a finale and prize drawing this upcoming Saturday. I’m teaching a needle tatting class to a guild that day so I will not be available. For the end of our summer reading program I ran my usual classes and two extra events. Due to this I’ve been really busy and not able to get a lot of crafting done.
I have been working on hiding the threads for my big quilt, I’m done tying the top and bottom threads together and just need to thread each one into a needle and slide that needle between the top and bottom quilt pieces and then snip any extra thread off. This will help the threads stay together better and not allow the quilting to unravel. I did wash the quilt and it has amazing crinkle. I’ll post photos next week when I’m ready to put it in my Etsy store.
I haven’t managed to make much progress on my second Tunisian crochet square but I’m having fun with it. I have managed to make progress on a couple of projects. I put some wood filler into the cracks I’ve found on my back porch railing.
I am certainly going to have to do more sanding and possibly more filling. I cannot wait to get this ready for the winter. Speaking of prep for the winter, I’m still working on my garage. I’m going to show you the shame of my garage window and the hole I need to fill in.
As stated in my earlier post about how to repair the window, get the right sized glass. It makes all the difference unless you are good at cutting glass…which I am obviously not good at.
My handyman left a bunch of stuff behind that I need to figure out what to do with. I’m more concerned about getting the hole covered so that I can store my garden stuff in there for the winter. I did spray the place with all natural cat repellent as well as a bug spray to make sure I can get in there without any real problems. I’m on vacation in two weeks so I plan on doing more work at my home then, while wearing some very durable gloves.
I also managed to finish a garment which is one of the few garments where you would ask your significant other ‘Does this make my butt look big enough?’ I am going to be playing the part of a mother from 1880s who is in mourning. I’m trying to put together a costume with minimal purchasing so I used an old pillowcase that I stuffed with fabric scraps and sewed in a semi circle. I then sewed a few lines to roughly keep the stuffing in place before adding in some twill tape to use as ties. This is not how you should make this garment if you want it to last and look really authentic. For a quick job this is an alright result. It will cover my entire backside and give my hips a little more padding. I’m going to try to put together my rough costume this upcoming week to see if it all works.
The final bit of news I have is that my local government is going to release a new grant this week for an opportunity to get home repairs completed. My last application contained a bunch of small things I would like to get done and my application was denied. This time I’m asking them why my last application was denied as well as asking for a list of contractors that will do repairs on my roof. I did see an article released about someone that obtained the initial 10k grant toward a roof replacement and their roof was actually leaking. I’m trying to get this repaired before it leaks, so here’s hoping.
That is it for this week. Until next time remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract
I guess I did not realize that the most involved part of creating an Etsy shop is putting up the listings. Since each item I create is pretty much one of a kind, though I do have some rainbow bottle necklaces that are going under one listing, each item has to be put up and described individually. Not only that, there is nothing like putting up photos that are supposed to show how amazing your work is to make you realize just how bad your photographing situation is. I ordered a light box and hope to create better photos this week for my listing already up then work on putting up new listings.
Part of what I really need to do is create a general phrase for my stitch markers/progress keepers, resin pieces, and quilted work before adding in additional deatils about that particular piece. I hope to have a new shop update and listings updated by Sunday June 18, 2023.
Other than figuring out the problems with my etsy shop I have been busy getting ready for Summer Reading at the Library, and dealing with vertigo from my allergies. Fortunately I was able to get the correct medicine and now that there is less fluid behind my eardrums the vertigo has gone away, being dizzy is not fun at all.
Sorry there are not any photos in this post hopefully I can add some into my next post with my new photo setup. Until next time Remember to Live Life A Little More Abstract!
A Little More Abstract 