Slow week....

I haven't been doing much crafting this week. I took a little break after the craft show.

I spent some time trying to get my craft room cleaned up a bit. Still isn't as good as it could be, but it is much better than it was.

I listed a couple of new things at Etsy. A hat and a pillowcase dress.

I paid bills.

I watered lawn.

I pulled weeds.

I mopped floor.

I vaccuumed.

I dusted.

I took kitty to the vet.

I counted calories every day. 1500 isn't much.

I went out to breakfast with my husband.

That about sums up the highlights of my week. Dreadfully dull, I'm afraid!
Hope you all have a great weekend!

And the winner is......

Katherine is the winner of my 100th post drawing! I need your address so I can mail your prize to you! You can email me at ljlehn@charter.net and let me know where you want it sent! Congratulations! I hope that you have fun creating with the fat quarters!

The craft sale was sort of a wierd thing. There weren't very many people there, but I probably sold more than anyone else at the sale. I made $56.00 which was enough to cover my costs and I now have a few things left to list on Etsy. All in all, a moderate success. They are thinking about doing one again next year, only advertising and organizing it better than this year. This was their first attempt. I think part of our problem was that we were just a little too far away from the main activities in town that day. People weren't going to walk that far just for a craft sale. They are talking about putting together a committee to organize next year's sale. This one wasn't handled in the best manner. I sold 3 pillowcase dresses, two t-shirts and two pairs of Shoe-bead-oos. A good portion of those were all bought by one person, however. :)

I spent the last couple of hours updating websites. I updated our adoption site and I put together a new site for the block swap where I posted pictures of Amanda's beautiful bright quilt. Hopefully this will inspire others in the swap to finish their quilts and people who didn't participate to make thier own bright quilts.

HELP! There are MONSTERS in my house!!!



These are the T-shirts I have done for Saturday's sale.
One of them inadvertently bears a striking resemblence to the Waite Park water tower. LOL

I put a patch like this one on the back of each of them, too.

I had hoped to get two more done, but I am running out of time, so I think I will go with what I have done.
I discovered while ironing the pillowcase dresses that one of them has a hole in the fabric. It looks like the fabric just has a worn place on it. Strange that I didn't see it before. So I am down to 5 pillowcase dresses. I had hoped to have 6, but I don't have time to make another one at this point in time. Oh well. I'll have a small amount of stuff, but at least I am giving it a shot.
Anyway, I just wanted to share the Li'l Monster t-shirts with you guys, I thought they turned out pretty cute. I may have to do some more of these for Etsy if these sell.

My One Hundredth Post: A Tribute and a Gift....


There is an old quilt that hangs on a quilt rack in my bedroom. It is tattered and faded and stained. I am afraid to wash it because it just might disintigrate on me. It was made by my grandmother during the depression. It is made from pieces of dresses that my mother and her sisters wore, as well as shirts that my grandfather and my mother's brothers wore. I'm sure that it was made with a very utilitarian purpose in mind, but to me it is much more than that. It is a link to the past and inspiration for the future.


For my one hundredth post I though it only fitting to post a tribute to all of those women in my life who have been an inspiration to me.
My grandmother's name was Tennie Starks and she was a wonderful lady. She was the daughter of first generation Americans. Her father's family came from Prague, and her mother's family was Irish. She endured much hardship in her life. She was the mother of seven children and raised them on a cotton farm in the hills of western Tennessee. I know that often money was tight, and that she created things originally out of necessity. Things like the quilt that I cherish so much. In her later years after my grandfather passed away and she left the farming life, her creativity continued. I remember crocheted bead necklaces similar to these that she made for me when I was a child. I had a solid green one, a solid blue one, a red and white one and a pink pearly one. She croched dresses and doilies and afghans and shawls and just about anything else that could be made from a crochet pattern. She could crochet faster than any person I ever saw. Her fingers flew so fast you couldn't even see them! In her later years her eyesight went bad and she continued to crochet just by feel, rarely missing a stitch. This sweet lady is the one who taught me to crochet when I was in about the 5th grade. I made a yellow pot holder:). My grandmother passed away in November of 1987 at the age of 89, during my freshman year of college, just a week before Thanksgiving. I still miss her a lot.

Another lady who comes to mind is a lady named Adeline Smith. "Mrs. Smith" was a member of the church that I grew up in. She was an elderly lady that we often picked up and gave a ride to events and services at church. She was one of the sweetest ladies I ever met. She had an incredible story and I loved to hear her tell it. She was orphaned at a young age and lived in an orphanage for several years where she assisted with the younger children. She was eventually adopted by a family when she was in her early elementary school years. They allowed her to choose a new name if she wanted to and she chose the name "Adeline" because that was her favorite name. Mrs. Smith was a crocheter, too. The beautiful white doily seen here was made by her as a wedding gift to Jason and I. She made one large one and 4 small ones to match. It has been displayed somewhere in our home ever since we first moved into our little apartment after we first got married. Mrs. Smith passed away about six months ago, well into her nineties.

And where would I be without my Mom? Mom taught me to sew when I was in Junior High. I didn't really even want to learn at first, but I gave in to her persuasion and learned that I enjoyed it. Now I can't imagine NOT sewing! When my husband and I became engaged I told him that I didn't know if I could remain sane without a sewing machine. His gift to me for our wedding was my little "Brother" machine that I used up until two years ago. (Mine to him, was a Nintendo 64, LOL. I think about that now and think, "yep, seems about right...") The first thing I made with that machine? Bridesmaid dresses. (He gave me the machine early, so that I could do this.) Mom made the Matron of Honor dress for my sister and the flowergirl dresses for my nieces, and I made the two other bridesmaid dresses. My mother also crochets and occasionaly arranges flowers and has done some hand embroidery. I remember when I was a kid, there was a time where she was working on a stamped embroidery project of some sort and we had a cat. I remember her sitting at the end of the couch under the lamp working on the project and the cat sitting on the arm of the couch next to her and he would bat at the needle every time the end would poke up through the fabric. I often think about that when my own kitties curl up in my lap when I am stitching. Thanks, Mom, for the inspiration that you have been and all that you have taught me!

My sister is an inspiration to me as well. She is not as much of an inspiration in the creative realm (although she has done a bit of sewing and creating in her day) as much as in the realm of courage. My sister's daughter, Allison, has a genetic, degenerative neuro-muscular disease. My sister has valiantly faced many frightening realities about her daughter, and is determined to make the best of things. Even before Allison was born or we knew anything of her illness, my sister decided to go to school. My sister finished her RN degree while both of her children were preschoolers and did so at the top of her class. I couldn't be prouder of her for the wonderful nurse that she has come to be. Love you, Janet!

My mother-in-law, Burdette has inspired me to try new things and learn to enjoy the "now". When I first met her she was taking a class in stained glass craft, after that she took a pottery class, and a jewelry class. For my birthday one year she gave me pottery tools and paid for a pottery class for me. It was something that I had always wanted to try. Burdette is never afraid to try something new and creative. She has a real love for anything that is unique and creative. Whether it is a cookbook for which her friend did the photography, or an abstract hand painted floor cloth that refuses stay put on the floor (lol), or a whimsical mixed media framed piece of clothes on a clothes line, or even a lopsided drawing by one of the little girls, she loves them all the same and sees the creative value in each one. I really appreciate all that I have learned from her. Thanks, B!

Finally to the wonderful women that I have befriended, whether in person, or online. People like Amanda and all my other new blogging friends, Tricia from ARF, and all my "pod" buddies. Thanks for the encouragement and new ideas for projects. I love you all!

If you have waded through this far, then I commend you! LOL. So now, the gift portion of my 100th post. I have here a little watering can holding 6 coordinating fat quarters in blues, greens and yellows, and just a touch of pink that I will give away. To be entered in the drawing just reply to this post and leave a comment and I will draw a name next Sunday (the 24th) in the afternoon sometime. Thanks for reading, I am truly grateful to you all.

Got the Saturday traded....

I managed to trade Saturdays with someone so I can have the 23rd off for the show! I have decided to applique some T-shirts for boys and do the pillowcase dresses for girls. I went shopping for stuff last night. I got T-shirts in sizes 2T through youth small. I started out with just two of each. Do you think I should do any larger ones? I'm thinking that boys who wear a larger size than a youth small are not going to want to wear an appliqued T-shirt. I am putting funny shaped monsters on them. I'll show you when I get one done. If I get done what I want to get done, I'll have 8 T-shirts, 5 pillowcase dresses, 2 reversible jumpers and bloomers, and at least 6 pairs of shoe-bead-oos. That is the minimum of what I'd like to get done. Do you think that is enough stuff to look decent on a table? I'd love to get more done, but we shall see...

Oh, and Ashley, don't worry, my etsy shop isn't going anywhere any time soon. :) I plan on more dresses after I get done with the craft show. I just sort of took a little break after all the birthday and vacation hubbub of the last couple of months.

Thinking about doing a craft show...

I learned yesterday that the church we are going decided sort of last minute to do a craft show during a local summer festival called Rapids River Days in Sauk Rapids, MN which is where the church is located. It is going to be $10.00 to rent a table, I think. I don't have all the details, yet. I'm supposed to get an email today about it. I really want to do it, but it will mean either trading Saturdays with someone at work, setting up halfway through, or getting someone to set up for me and watch my table until I can get there as I am scheduled to work that day. It is also only two weeks away, which means I need to get BUSY! I figure if I don't sell much there, I'm not out much, I may have met some people from the church who are interested in crafts (sine we don't know a lot of people there yet), and I can list things at Etsy. I got two pillowcase dresses almost done yesterday afternoon. I could have had one completely finished, but I didn't have the right color bias tape for the arms. :P The other one I wanted to work on more, but we ordered a pizza for dinner and I can't always hear the door (if they knock instead of ring) from my sewing room, so I had to put it on hold. By the time we got the pizza and ate and cleaned up, it was 8:30 and I still had three loads of laundry to fold and put away, so I just quit for the evening. I plan to do another pillowcase dress and then a couple of the reversible jumpers. I have the fabric for all of those on hand, so that will be good. The jumpers go together really quickly, too. Then I'll take along the shoe-bead-oos since none of them have sold yet, and maybe make a few more pairs of those, they are quick and easy to make. We'll see where we are at at that point and see what else I decide to make.

Has it really been a week?

I knew it had been a bit since I had posted, but didn't realize it had been a week already! I had a fairly busy week last week. Last weekend I sold another item over at etsy, so I had to get that ready to mail and to the post office. I also had to make something else to replace it. I made the little orange dress in my etsy link at the top of the page.

I also mailed out the blocks for the block swap. I was going to take pictures of all the blocks and make a post about them, but my kitchen counter always seems to have stuff on it and I didn't feel like messing with clearing it! LOL.

I had some birthday money so I went shopping on Saturday. I went to Gruber's. I love all the beautiful fabrics that they have in there, but I don't often buy a lot of things because they tend to be expensive. I did buy a couple of small pieces for pillowcase dresses from their half off discontinued items. A lavender floral piece and a bright multicolored cartooney looking floral piece. From there I went to Mill End Textiles. There, I spent almost 40 dollars! I bought these fabrics for a quilt for my mom. Her birthday is in October.

I then went to Target and bought these storage containers. They are pretty cool! I am hoping that they help with the disorganization in my tupperware cabinet.

I also spent some time working on this.

These are the Sanctuary Moda fabrics that I bought back last fall. I am absolutely in love with these fabrics. I bought two charm packs, paired them light and dark, and then sewed them together diagonally and cut them in half to make these diagonal blocks. I am putting them together in a sort of random pinwheel fashion.

There's my week in a nutshell. I hope you all had a great week, and I look forward to seeing what you all have been up to!
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