Bazaar 411

Well, I did it.  It's over!  I shared this TINY booth with a friend of mine, Melanie.  We had no idea how small it would be with all our stuff in it!  We set up the day before and we had no room for anything!

Crowded much?  

My pouch display.

Table runners/toppers/coasters/placemats/baskets/baby items

The day-of we did more rearranging, but basically, we had to stand outside our booth so that other people could go in and browse.  

I think the tight space hindered our sales because people passing by would see how crowded it was and just keep walking.  Boo!  I did sell two quilts, the Prince Charming/Puddle Jumper one and the Rainbow charm square one with the Noah's Ark print on the back.

My and my craft apron all ready to go!  Please excuse my fly-away hair!  I couldn't even hang the banner I made because we didn't have room (and weren't allowed to use the wall for our signs)

While I did sell a good amount, I have tons left!  If any of my blog readers are interested in anything, please comment or email and let me know.  I'll cut you guys a deal since it will save me from having to list so much on etsy!  If you want close up pictures of anything, most items I made for the bazaar can be found here.

Prices are only good until I start listing on etsy next week!

Small flat pouches will be $6-8

pouches with straps are $15--3 left (grey elephants, teal hummingbird, Parisville)

large boxy bags are $16--I have a Echino giraffe one and a bird one left

tote bags are $16--3 left, 2 are 1 is Echino scooters, one is helicopters

iPad cases are $17--4 left  3 left (lego, pink cars, blue bicycles)

washcloths (set of 3 for boy or girl) $6

drawstring bags $17--one left, blue with apples, yellow on top, striped drawstrings

burpcloths (set of 3, girl only, 2 sets left) $10

Bliss coasters with decorative stitching and flannel backing $6

Christmas coasters, $5 SOLD

Denyse Schmidt County Fair camera wristlet (Keyka Lou pattern) $15

Hometown placemats $20

Cloud 9 Organic Baby Boy quilt with pillow $75

Bliss table topper (hand sewn hexagons) $45

"FAMILY" table runner (in Farmdale fabrics) $33 SOLD

"LOVE" pillow in pink or purple (SOLD) with handstitching $19

Sherbet Pips chalkboard with pockets $13 SOLD

Christmas Star circle quilt/table topper $40

AMH voile/flannel receiving blanket $38

Ruby Hexagon quilt and 20" pillow $135

Watermelon Neapolitan baby quilt $65

Hunky Dory baby quilt $60 SOLD

Potholders/trivets $7

More items left over!  They need a good home!

It's Almost Time!

Bazaar time that is!  I'm nervous, excited, and anxious for my bazaar on Saturday.  I still wish I could have made a few more things, mainly some larger quilts.  I only have one lap sized quilt to bring and it's on the small side.  Everything else is either a baby quilt, household item, or pouch.  Oh well!  Too late to stress now!  I did make this banner today to hang in front of my booth.  Yes, I'll take pictures of my booth!

I also made this craft apron to wear so I can keep any last minute emergency items handy.

Another last minute project were these Scrabble-inspired coasters.  I love this idea!

This is the quilt I will be donating to the bazaar's silent auction to benefit a women's shelter.  

This is the only Christmas-themed item I have (besides the matching coasters in the same fabric).  I'm just not too excited about holiday fabric in general, but I loved this text print!  

I've had these tote bags done for a while, but I just recently finished sewing the handles on.  I wish I would have had time to make a few more!

Stay tuned because next week I'll tell you how to get a cute scissor/monkey shirt like this....on sale!  It comes in purple, white, and red.

Bazaar Crap

I don't know about you all, but I'm getting sick of the bazaar crap.  You heard me!  I'm going to be so excited when it's over and my posts change to things I really want to make, not just things I think could sell.  Oh, wait, Christmas is coming up--those really-want-to-make things may have to wait! :)    This is little circle of Flea Market Fancy will eventually be a table topper for the bazaar (if I can manage to sell it).  

I made these boxy pouches a while back, but got burned out during the last step so I just finished them last night.

In case anyone is curious, this is my stack of stuff for the bazaar so far.

In non-bazaar news, I finished my pillow top for PTS6.  I will be posting my original LOVE letters (a different size than this) on my blog for free soon.  I'm in the process of creating an entire alphabet of paper pieced letters to sell in my etsy shop so you'll get the free ones once the rest are done! 

Drawstring Bags

I'm sure a lot of you follow Jeni from In Color Order, but if you don't, get your booty over there and check out the tutorial she just posted for these bags!  I whipped up four of them last night and I LOVE them!

What's funny is that I'm not even a big fan of drawstring bags!  ha ha!  I just wanted to make some to sell at the bazaar (hope that's ok Jeni) and when I finished, I didn't want to sell any of them! The only change I made to Jeni's pattern was to add a layer of Shape Flex interfacing to the exterior pieces only.  If I had used home dec weight fabric I would have just followed her instructions, but I thought the quilting cottons needed a bit of help.

My favorite is the bird one.  I was really pleased how the coordinating prints I chose worked there.  It's always difficult for me to know what's going to look good together on a finished project.  Sometimes it looks great as a pile, but not so much in the end.  I probably should have chosen different linings for a few of them, but live and learn!

Puddle Jumper

I intended to take the day off yesterday after making all those pouches, but I couldn't resist making another baby quilt!  I swapped for a charm pack of Prince Charming a while back--in an effort to prevent myself from buying a fat quarter pack of the entire line--and I decided to use all but 2 prints to make a simple baby quilt

I love simple design and there is something therapeutic about putting things in matching order. :)

This was my first attempt at circle quilting.  Overall, it's pretty easy:  draw a circle somewhere on the quilt and use your walking foot as a guide to make subsequent circles.  I learned that I need to watch my bar guide on my walking foot, not my needle.  It's kind of like driving where you look at the road ahead, not what's directly in front of you.

For the back I used my favorite print from the line.  I just love this color!

And I love that turtle!  This is another bazaar-bound quilt!

Yes, More Pouches!

I am really sick of pouches at the moment!  In an effort to produce some more inexpensive items for the bazaar, I made 20 more pouches!  I have 10 smaller ones and about 8 or 9 large boxy bags, but I wanted some middle ground.  So, I grabbed a rainbow of zippers and started sifting through my scraps.

I organize my scraps by color, but I also have a large tote bag where I put scraps that have yet to be sorted.  I hate sitting down and emptying out the tote to sort--BORING!  I had the genius idea to use only scraps for these so it would decrease the amount of scrap sorting I have to do.  All of the pouches exterior AND interior fabrics are from my scrap pile with exception of the nuns.  I caved on the nuns.  I made a small zippered pouch from a free Spoonflower sample of nuns and I liked it so much I ordered a yard.  Expensive, yes.  Too stinkin' cute to pass up, you bet! :)  These vary in size, sometimes due to the size of the zipper I had, sometimes due to the scrap size.  I did make three large cosmetic pouches that can stand up on their own.  Also, the very top middle pouch and the bottom middle pouch are velveteen!  So soft!  I won't be disappointed in the bottom one doesn't sell, I think it's my favorite!

I may take the day off sewing today.  I made all of these in a day and a half and I'm kind of burnt out!  I have two quilts ready to be quilted, but I'm low on motivation.  Oh!  I think I may have a cool post coming up for you guys!  The lady that makes the bicycle/umbrella shirt I got in NYC (see pic below to refresh your memory) is going to give me a special discount for you guys!  I wrote her to ask about a shirt I saw when I was at the store--scissors and a monkey, need I say more?--to see if she would be making it in other colors.  The store only had white and I'm not big on see through shirts.  She happened to be making more that day!  I immediately ordered one and I then got bold and asked if she would give my blog readers a discount if I blogged about it!  I didn't have any expectations, but you don't know unless you ask, right?  I was super stoked she agreed!  Hopefully she'll have them up on the website soon and then I'll do a little post for you all to get your own shirt--you don't HAVE to get the monkey one, but, come on!  Scissors and a monkey!  How can you beat that?!?!?  P.S. These shirts are SUPER soft organic cotton and are hand screen printed!

Fabric Preview!

Don't you just love it when new fabric hits the market?  When Lesley Grainger contacted me and asked if I would like a little preview of her upcoming lines for Robert Kaufman I immediately said yes!

Look at all those pretty dots!  She has two new collections coming out, Pretty Paisley and Launch.  Pretty Paisley is a 100% flannel collection filled with sweet girly prints.  Think how cute these would be to back a little girl's new quilt or, better yet, as pajama pants for the winter!  I wouldn't mind having a pair myself in those cute multicolored dots, snuggly soft and cute to boot!  Look for this line come January.

The other collection is Launch.  This is the one I'm most excited about since it's for BOYS!  I have two boys and I know they would love some rocket ship pillowcases!

Look at all those wonderful, bright colors!  Launch is (ahem) launching in December!  

Hope you liked getting a sneak peek as much as I did!

A Tisket, A Tasket

I made some baskets!  I meant to make 2 of each, but I cut the apple one in the wrong direction so I had to make one large one instead of two small ones.  The small ones are made by cutting one exterior and one interior piece 9"x12.5", a layer of fusible fleece, and handles made from two pieces of 4"x4.5" fabric (made like fabric tape).  Boxed corners on smaller baskets are 1.75" and 2.5" on the larger basket.

This little guy is my fav!  Thanks Jacey for helping me find the fabric!

I also made this set of Hometown placemats.  eh.  I don't love them.  I like the patchwork part, but I really wished I would have bound them like a quilt, but I didn't have any yardage of Hometown. 

I made all four placemats from one charm pack and some Essex linen in ivory.  As you can see, I left out the yellow prints.

All of these items are destined for the bazaar.  I have a million more things I still need to make and I know I'm going to end up working right up until the last minute! 

NYC: Food, Fabric, and Fabulous!

I'm back from NYC!  We had a great little mini-break without the kids and got to see one of my hubby's frat brothers get hitched.  I hope you guys are ready for a picture bonanza!  I'm going to try and just write brief captions under everything so you get the general idea.

This was our hotel, the Library Hotel.  Each room is themed using the Dewey Decimal system.  I don't mean the decor, I mean the books in the room are all themed.  We had the paranormal room so all our books were about psychics, ghosts, etc.

14th floor roof top garden/bar of the hotel

Every morning they have free breakfast and every evening they have free DRINKS here.  

After checking in, we walked from our hotel in Midtown down to Soho.  A cupcake cart!  How cute is that?!?!?  This is totally off topic, but I felt like it was Invasion of the Body Snatchers when I was there!  All these girls dress alike:  tight black pants/jeans tucked into boots, cotton top, cropped jacket.  I swear, just on our walk from Midtown to Soho I saw no less than 100 girls wearing this exact same thing!  Totally freaked me out!  It's not that they didn't look good, but when they all dress alike it's really weird.  

Farmer's market in Union Square.  By the way, the weather was sunny and in the high 70s low eighties the entire trip.  It was perfect!

Purl Soho baby!!!!  Yes, we went there the first day.  Hubby was a little tired of hearing me bemoan the fact I couldn't go to the Sewing Summit (seriously, I pouted all weekend!), so he made sure we got my one fabric to-do out of the way early so I'd be a bit happier.

They are all about the presentation here, but the prices are sky high.

I don't use yarn, but it sure looked pretty!  Don't worry, I did buy some things, but that pic is at the end of the post.

Saw this store on the cab ride back to our hotel, but hubby wouldn't let me get out to browse!  How rude!

A friend of hubby's took us to the Korean BBQ place in Korea town (not where Korean's live, but where all the Korean restaurants are.)  As a side note, there are all these guys waiting outside fancy black cars on this street--apparently they take you to a Korean prostitute house if you're so inclined.  Um, no thanks.

After dinner we went to Momofuku.  It was ok.  I wished I got the compost cookie instead of the creamsicle cup.  Hubby got the crack pie, it was tasty!

The next morning we walked around the corner to Grand Central Station to take the subway uptown.

Hall of Grand Central.

Ceiling of Grand Central.

On our walk from the Subway to the Met, we stopped at Dean and Deluca for a snack.  They really know how to make a presentation!

Uhhh, I'll take them all!

Jars of candy goodness!

Mmmmmm, carbs!

We passed this church that had ribbons and prayers for deployed soldiers.  These covered the entire gate around the church!  It was really touching.

We sat on the steps of the met and drank lemonade and people watched for a while.

Us!

Really?  I mean, really?  I love art and all, but are you freaking kidding me?  Art my round rear end!  It's a blue canvas for cripes sake!  I guess everyone who paints their living room is an artist now.  Call the Met, they'll transport your wall and put in on display!

Love the colors here!

Again, really?  art?  I love it, don't get me wrong, but I made this kind of thing when I was 12.

This will be a quilt one day!  This was the most inspiring piece I saw.  I wanted my fabric and my sewing machine right then and there!

You can't call it an art museum unless there's a Monet!

Taxi cab pic.

Little quilt, big city!  Another couple attending the wedding are friends of ours who are expecting their first kiddo in December.  They don't know the sex, but they are extremely outdoorsy so I thought they'd like the Circa 60 regardless.  This was a really simple and quick quilt.

I botched the photo here, but the label on the back reads:

be honest.

be fearless.

be yourself.

I tried to think of the most concise way to express my general philosophy on life and that's what I came up with.

Nighttime again and we went to Brooklyn to try out a restaurant I saw on the Food Network.

The place is called Rye and it was on The Best Thing I Ever Ate.  They claimed the meatloaf sandwich was killer--and they didn't lie!  I'm not even a meatloaf fan, but this was the most kick ass sandwich ever!   It had beef, pork, duck, and other random things in it, along with onion jam, BBQ sauce, and fried onions.  FABULOUS!  Also, we ordered two appetizers.  The boys (hubby and two of his friends went with us) wanted fish, which I don't eat, so they let me pick the second appetizer.  I choose the brussels sprouts and they all groaned, but agreed.  Guess who got an apology from them later?  Yeah, that's right, those sprouts rocked!  Bacon, butter, parmesan cheese, hello?!?!? They were gone in a flash!

The boys!  Steve is on the left, Brent in the middle, and on the right is hubby.  After dinner we met up with a lot of the other wedding guests and the soon-to-be married couple at a pub and hung out for a while.

The next day we went to Chelsea Market and ate at The Green Table.  Everything was super fresh and organic.  Chad had the Beef Bourgeon pot pie--very delicious! 

I had a harvest salad with candied pecans, cheese, and apples along with a side portion of mac and cheese.  Yummy!

Kaelin, this pic is for you!  FatWitch baby!  These are the most scrumptious brownies you will ever eat!  They even had free samples!

Brownie heaven!

More yummy finds at Chelsea Market!

From Chelsea, we walked to the Donut Plant.  This was their wall decor.

The menu of awesomeness!  I had a creme brulee donut and a tres leche one.  The top of the creme brulee donut was crunchy--like the  top of creme brulee!

This is in front of Marimekko.  This old guy was sitting on a bean bag chair playing with his iPad.  Struck me as funny!  

Sadly, this was the only picture I took inside of Marimekko!  I was simply too overwhelmed to think!  Such beautiful fabrics!  I even ran into someone who was in town for the AMH and HR workshop!  cool huh?  I came up to her because she was carrying an AMH scarf and I had my AMH bag.  Yay for fabric junkies!  I did buy a little fabric in here, but that pic is at the end!

Angela, this pic is just for you!

I ditched hubby so he could go play with his friends an I had a nice (long) walk back from Chelsea to the hotel.  It was such a nice day out that I didn't mind the walk, especially after my pedicure!

All dressed up for the wedding!

*Sigh*  A halfway decent picture of me and hubby has to close his eyes!

We got stuck in traffic trying to get on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I was supremely bored!

The bridge.

Finally we cross the bridge.

Made it to the wedding on time!  It was in a converted warehouse. 

Drinks were served before the ceremony!  My kind of wedding!

The couple has a garden and used all their own flowers for the table settings!

The bride.

The food was very tasty!  Local BBQ, mac and cheese, salad, etc.  They also had some really wonderful cupcakes for dessert, but I forgot to take a pic of those.

Hubby and I toward the end of the night.

My NYC loot!  Three 1/2 yard cuts from Purl Soho and some twill tape that looks like measuring tape; an organic cotton, hand printed shirt I got at a shop in Chelsea Market, and 1/2 yard of Marimekko fabric (my big splurge!)  Whew!  Thank you if you made it this far!  We had a great time in NYC, but I must admit I thought a lot about my friends at the Sewing Summit and wished I could split myself in two so I could be there with them!