Craft Shows

I was asked how I got involved with craft shows.

First you have to know that we have a small family so not a lot of family members to make quilts for, and they don't all even like or appreciate quilts.

After I had been quilting a couple of years my husband asked me what I was going to do with all the quilts I made. At that point I didn't know that people make quilts for charity efforts.

A friend did a couple of craft shows and she convinced me to give it a whirl.

Even though we have two fairly big shows in this are I would not say making quilted items is very profitable since they are so time consuming.

I make back the cost of my supplies which allows me to quilt all year at no out of pocket cost. I can try different fabrics than my usual taste because someone else would love and buy it. I make a few dollars on top of expenses but not a lot.

I have fun at the craft shows even though they are a lot of work. I think 8 years later I still get a little thrill that someone is willing to pay for items I have made.

Well off to get ready for the first show. I don't expect a whole lot from this show as it is smaller and the first year that I am doing it but hope it is at least worth while.

kathie

Craft Show Ready

I spent part of last evening going through the craft show quilts to see which ones to take with me tomorrow. Since this is a smaller show than the other two that I do every year, and I only have one table I can't take everthing with me.



I have a few last minute things to toss in but think I am mostly ready for tomorrow.

When we moved into this house in June our cat decided that he didn't want to go to the upstairs. This went on for over two months and he was always easy to find as he was somewhere on that floor. One day he just decided that he could manage the stairs after all and now we never know where he is. Cats pick funny places to lay that is for sure. This is one of his new favorites, he lays in the shower of the master bath with his chin on the ledge. Looks VERY uncomfortable to me.



Today is basically a housework day with a trip to the local quilt shop thrown in. They are having a 25% off everything sale and I figured it would be a good time to get a few quilting Christmas presents for several Christmas gift exchanges that I am in.

I am going to try and stay away from buying any fabric for myself but I don't know how I will succeed as there is a FQ bundle that has been calling my name for a long time.

Kathie

I have trained her right!!

I forgot to post about this earlier. Monday night my daughter went to the first playoff game for her high school's soccer team (to cheer her boyfriend on). Since it was chilly she took an old quilt I had made for her with her to put across her legs.

She said that several people said it couldn't be very warm as it was so thin. She said she set them straight telling them how the layers trapped in your body heat and that it WAS NOT CALLED A BLANKET, that it was a quilt.

I thought that was too funny. I guess she really HAS been listening all these years.

Kathie

Goals

I wanted to review my goals from last January and see how I was doing this year. What I posted as goals on January 1, 2010 are:


1. Continue to get rid of PIGS. Either make them up, return the fabric to stash for use on other projects or give them away.
(I did make up a few things and returned several packets of fabric to my stash. Not great but making progress on this one)

2. Finish/give away a few more projects from my old old old UFO listing. (I might have finished one more of the old old ones. Think I just need to give them away).


3. Continue to quilt as many charity quilts as I can between customer quilts and my own quilts and to not feel guilty if I tell someone NO. Each quilter has their own personal charity of choice and I don't have the time to do quilts for each of those. I will continue to primarily quilt hospice quilts but will do an occasional one for other causes. (to date I have quilted 26 charity quilts this year. Most of them were for hospice with a few other tossed in there. I am doing better about saying no but not so good about saying no and not feeling guilty).


4. Seriously work on using up or giving away scraps, strips and orphan blocks that just add to a messy quilt room. (I did give away most of my orphan blocks to a lady making teddy bears with miniture quilts to give to rescue squad and Sheriff department and have a couple of ladies in the guild that I give most of my scraps to so I will say this one has been a success.)

So I have overall done fairly good on my goals so I guess I will start thinking about ones for 2011. I know I am awfully early but the next two months are so busy, I want goals in mind when January hits and I have more times for projects.

I think I might focus on things like using up FQ packages I got years ago, making some of those many panels I have into quilts etc.

I quilted a Halloween quilt this afternoon. Felt kind of funny but she didn't get it done in time so hey, she will be WAY early for next year.

Tomorrow on the agenda is several customer table runners.

Kathie

Last Christmas Quilt

I made four Christmas quilts for upcoming craft shows (first show is this saturday) and last night I sat down and finished the binding on the last one while watching TV. This was a cute little panel I saw at our local quilt shop and just put a few simple borders around it.



I did manage to get a couple more table runners quilted yesterday and the next customer quilt on the frame. My intention is to quilt or at least start quilting that this afternoon.

This morning is my day time guild meeting and I always look forward to that. Show and tell is always my favorite part. We have several ladies that do wonderful applique and I always enjoying seeing what they have been up to. Applique is one of thoese things I just don't do and I really admire it.

I will be going off with cutting mat and rotary cutter in hand as we are spending part of the meeting cutting donated fabric into kits to make charity quilts.

Have a nice and productive day.

Kathie

A Finished Top

I really should have loaded the next customer quilt yesterday but with a million errands to run and several interruptions I just didn't want to stop and start on the quilt. Instead I worked on several of my projects.

First off I got borders on this soccer quilt so it is one step closer to being a finished Christmas present.



Later I completed 13 more blocks for my batik quilt. I could swear that I was working on 14 blocks not 13 so hope I didn't lose one somewhere.

Then last evening since my hubby is gone and daughter was at a game I sat and watched TV and got the binding about half done on the last Christmas quilt I made for my craft shows.

So even with all the errands, interruptions and distractions I still got a lot done, just not what I had intended on.

Today is no school so I imagine I will be running the roads again today. Sometime today I need to fit in time to quilt two table runners as backing fabric is already on the frame and to get the next customer quilt loaded.

I have already busted some fabric stash this week so if I can just keep out of fabric stores I might have a good number to report on sunday's stash report.


Kathie

Design Wall Monday - November 1, 2010

Boy do you believe it is already November? I don't know where September and October went. Ever since school started this year it seems to have just flown by.

My daughter's boyfriend is on the high school soccer team and she asked if I would make him a soccer quilt for Christmas. I found soccer fabric awhile ago and it was just perfect as their school colors are green and gold.


I seem to go back to this warm wishes pattern just about every time I want a quick themed quilt. I started piecing it a couple of weeks ago at a retreat and finished putting the top together on friday and it is now on my design wall awaiting borders. I am going to have a thin black inner border and then a larger black/white border in fabric my daughter picked out this weekend.

I have several errands to run this morning and after that I hope to get backing fabric washed and on the frame and some of my remaining table runners quilted.

Tomorrow is another day off school (election day) so I am not counting on getting to much done in the sewing room. I will be SO GLAD when all the political commercials are off the air. They have been so negative and nasty this year that even my 16 year old is asking why no one ever says what they want to do, just what the other person has done or not done and that is usually a flat out lie or way out of context.

I am already starting to think about the end of the year and what type of quilting goals I hope to accomplish next year. Guess I should revisit my posting from the end of last year and see how I did on those goals.

Have a great start to your week.

Kathie