WIP Wednesday

Well, I have works in progress, but they have to be secrets for a little while longer. :)
Also, we got a new camera and I've been taking a few pictures of things I could show you, but haven't read the manual to know how to get those pictures onto my computer yet.  So...you can look forward to more exciting blog posts with pictures soon.

Sorrow

Where Shall We Put This Grief?

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Hmm...well, I was trying to write a blog post, but the kitty found the cursor and my typing to be very fascinating and decided she needed a blog of her own, so she took over.  The title and beginning line were her work.  I think perhaps we should leave the blogging to the humans.

Anyway, I haven't been doing a whole lot of sewing lately.  I suppose I've been preparing for a little children's Christmas program thing at church, researching getting a new car, getting a new car, and finishing reading this book.

I like my new-to-me car.  I got rid of a van that was getting worse by the minute and making me really dislike it. 
I enjoyed reading the book and have been asked to write a review, so I'll have to do that soon. 

Since Tuesday is supposed to be Technique or Tool Tuesday and I have obviously not been figuring out EQ7 (during Christmas break - it's a plan!), maybe I'll mention the Sewline Glue Pen.  I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog.  I did a presentation to the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild on English Paper piecing and discovered that I love this glue pen for holding the fabric onto the little shaped cardstock pieces.  Well, I won a little mini charm pack (which is a stack of 2.5 inch squares) of Architextures so I was thinking that I might wrap those little squares around some hexagons and see what happens.  If there is any interest, maybe I'll take pictures as I do the steps of English Paper Piecing and have a sort of mini-tutorial on using the glue stick and paper piecing. 

Otherwise, I have cut up a bunch of red and green fabric in the hope that I will sew them together into Christmas stockings, following this pattern and a tree skirt or rather, tree pants, following this tutorial very soon...like this week.  :)

I haven't shared anything from the Bible in a while either, so I'd like to do that soon, too. 

Okay, I'll try to remember that I have a blog now.

Oh, hello!

Well, the craft fair happened.  Two days before it happened, my son was home sick.  He may have watched too many movies during those two days while I prepared for the craft fair. 

It was not the most profitable event, but Crystal and I had a good time and met some neat people.  I think our booth was the best looking one in the place, but I might be biased. 

Here we are, hopeful that people will come buy our stuff.

Here's a view without us in the way. :)

 I made a few last minute items and of course they didn't sell, but now they are in my etsy shop. 

Laundry Bag

Drawstring Bag

Another Drawstring Bag

Pretty Bunting or Banner

Journal Cover

 The best sellers of the day were the chapstick cozies.  There were two young girls who were very excited to each get a chapstick cozy.  It was pretty cute. 

I guess my conclusion in the matter is that while it was fun to do and I made a lot of stuff I like, I'll not do a craft fair again.  I have been thinking again about my purpose for sewing and if it is to show love to God and others, I'm not completely sure how selling my stuff fits in there.  I'm not saying it can't fit with my purpose.  I need money to have supplies to make things to give to people and sucking money out of our bank account without putting any in is probably not wise.  So I'll probably make some to sell, some for family and friends, and some for charitable purposes. 

In the category of charitable purposes, I'm excited to have been invited to join an online bee called do. Good Stitches to make quilts for Project Linus.  The do. Good Stitches group has several different sub-groups for different charities and I was assigned to Project Linus.  I'll be stitching up blocks every month and sending them in to someone else who will put all the blocks together and make a quilt.  One quilt will be made by the group each month. 

My goal is to get back to my Romans quilt very soon, but I think I'm going to do just a few Christmas items first.  We have no tree skirt.  Well, not really.  For several years I have been using an actual skirt that I had for some Christmas event in high school.  Also, I'd like to make new stockings for me, my husband, and my son. 

Okay, so back on track with blogging.  My son is healthier and back at school, the craft fair is done, and the Christmas sewing I have to do is not going to be frantic and sucking up all my time.  I will enjoy it.

WIP Wednesday

So I was feeling mostly out of steam for the craft fair, but I decided that I needed to have money in something.  A box didn't seem pretty or all that practical because there's not much room in an 8'x8' booth.  We're using up most of our room to display our stuff.  So I followed this tutorial and made an apron. 

I like it.  There are four pockets so I think I'll keep money in them like this: ones & pennies, fives & nickels, tens & dimes, and twenties & quarters. 

The other thing I think will be really useful at the craft fair is the Square Register and iPad app.  I can take credit card payments with the little square thing I plug into the iPad and the app looks really good.  I have set it to automatically calculate state sales tax for each item and I can have pictures and prices of my inventory.  I just tap on the picture and it goes to the register.  And if people pay with cash and want a receipt, I can enter their email and the app sends a receipt.  Pretty cool.

So, actual works in progress other than the ridiculously long list are making signs that show prices for our items, getting the Square App all full of our products, and maybe I'll do a little last minute sewing.  I made this Union Jack pillow and it was my first sale, so I think I'll make some more. 

After the craft fair, I hope my WIP Wednesdays will be more interesting and I can show progress on those things that are sitting there calling to me.

Oh, and Linda informed me that Tom Selleck's mustache doesn't work!  Shoot.  I'll try to get that fixed.

Catching up

Since I was busy enjoying time with family on Saturday, I forgot to post something funny so I'm catching up and doing that today.  Otherwise, I'm mostly working to get ready for the craft fair this Saturday.  If you are local, please come!


My apologies to Paige if I stole this from her blog.  I don't remember where I first saw it.

Just in case you needed the info again. :)

Hungry for bread

We have been reading from the book of John with Tomás at bedtime recently and the section we've been in for a while is chapter 6.  It's a long section, so I'm not going to type it all out, but you can read it here.  So it starts out that Jesus feeds more than five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  The people like a free meal and full bellies so the next day they go looking for Jesus hoping for more.  He's on the other side of the lake because He walked on the water in the middle of the night and then hopped in the boat with His disciples.  Anyway, the people hop in their boats, find Jesus and He tells them that they are just looking for another free meal and that they should be working for food that leads to eternal life.  They want to know what work that is and he tells them that they need to believe in Him.  They, still wanting to get a free meal out of Jesus, basically tell him "We'll believe you if you give us some more food.  Moses gave our fathers food every day!"  So Jesus tells them that God gives the true bread from heaven for life and they are like "Yeah, give us some of that always!"  Jesus makes it even clearer for them.  He's the bread.  Feeding your soul is more important than feeding your belly.

Reading this has challenged me.  I like to feed my belly and have material stuff and enjoy things around me.  None of that is necessarily bad, but Jesus wants me to love Him more.  I need to be hungry for the true bread.  I need to put time with Him and time in His Word as priority above physical needs.  This is an especially appropriate time to be reminded of this.  We get busy enjoying the holidays and can forget to enjoy Him.  So before we stuff another tasty butter slathered roll in our mouths, let's remember to feed our souls with the true bread and spend time in the Word and in prayer.