Sewing Withdrawal

With my next jewelry show a mere 15 days away I've needless to say been twisting and hammering to get new items ready. This will be the last show of the year and I really need to get busy with my Christmas sewing. I have 2 projects on the machine cabinet ready to jump into - but that will be after Nov 12 when the show is. I did combine my two loves last week thou when I was at Stefanie's sewing. I started the base for 4 different fiber jewelry projects. I've always wanted to make one of the big fiber bib necklaces and got a good start on that - it's not done yet thou. These smaller mixed media pieces are finished. 

Happy to say that I sold one of my fiber art wall hangings on my Etsy shop today. 

It's always such a great feeling to know someone loves your work. 

I like making wall hangings and post cards the best. 

The freedom of knowing I can put anything into the art and 

let my creativity run amuck is a wonderful thing.  

So Stars In The Sand is now history. 

Stefanie sold one of her beautiful quilts today too

I told her that her luck had rubbed off on me. 

Hopefully sales will pick up for everyone

as the holidays sneak up on us at a rapid pace. 

Home made makes wonderful gifts and there

are so many gifted artists and crafts people on Etsy. 

I've already bought several presents there. 

Blog Give A Way over at The Quilt Rat

I've been following the Quilt Rat ever since I ran upon her collection of child's sewing machines on flicker. I have a few but her collection is ... well WOW. She just celebrated her blog's 3rd anniversary and is having a give away to share her joy. So click HERE and check out a wonderful blog and her give-a-way.
She's a very creative fiber artist and her quilts and techniques are a joy. I've been influenced to try many new things after seeing her creations. She is also one of the reason I started doing zen doodles.

Gone To The Dogs

Well it's been a doggie past few days.

I got the lap quilt with the pet fabric sandwiched and ready to quilt. 

 Auggie helped me a little - he always thinks fabric is to nap on. 

Yesterday I had a Social Artworking class at JoAnn's,

with 5 students who did some of their first paintings.

Every one had a great time and here are a few of the paintings. 

 One had attitude

 One was customized to look like the owners baby. 

The youngest student did a great job. 

That's her grandmother just behind her, every time

I told Emma how well she was doing her grandmother said

"That's my grand daughter!"

While I was at the store and since they were having such a 

big sale I got a new cutting matt. My old green one has been 

tortured with me doing my jewelry on it. So I got one of the

new yellow ones - so easy to see the numbers and marks.

 I'm going to tape the old and new one back to back and flip

them when I go from jewelry to fabric cutting. I've lost count

of how many rotary blades I've ruined from stray bits of wire 

on the cutting surface. 

So now I'm off to start quilting the pet lap quilt. 

I am going to try a dog bone and heart quilting pattern, 

to match the fabric in the border/backing. 

A Bang Up Good Time

Well yesterday was a fun day all around. The weather just couldn't have been any better. The Jessie James Festival had great live music, mostly blue grass all day. The food was great and sales were good. This show is in Nashville TN just down the road from Fontanel, which was the home of Barbara Mandrell and is now a home for music dinning. Their is also a beautiful 2 mile walking trail threw the wooded property. 
The show was just behind the James Gang General Store. So with this theme there were of course some shoot-em-ups, but the sheriff kept things from getting out of hand. 

 There were some really great costumes. 

In a cloud of gun smoke the shoot out

comes to a peaceful end. 

The General store is a restaurant with live music

I even made a new hat band for my hat to wear 

to the show that I'm calling western steampunk. 

My friend Jim Cohron told me about this show. 

He is a very talented wood carver and I just

couldn't pass up getting one of his beautiful pieces for our home. 

Here is some of his other pieces. 

Jim often works on his carvings on the

front porch at Fontanel. If you are interested

in his work drop him an email. 

For my sewing this week I've started on my

pink and white blocks for a quilt our guild is making. 

I did a little cheating and did my half square triangles

using Brenda Henning's Triangulations software. 

It's a super fast way to make just about any size 

half or quarter square.

It's Been A Long Time

Since I've been in a craft show that is. Well years ago I did the big show in our area in Centennial Park. I drove up from Florida to do this show (several times). I remember one year I drove up in a small car with my display strapped on the top of the car...Oh I'd never do that now. I was either brave or just plain silly - maybe both.
Now 20+ years later I'm getting ready for another show. The Jessie James Festival, is only 30 min from my house and just a one day show - great for getting my feet wet. Lots of things have changed since those early shows. Seems like the tent and display stuff has gotten a little heaver - oh that might be me thou.
I will also be trying out my new Square this weekend. I've never been able to accept plastic before. People just don't carry around cash anymore so hopefully this will help sales - keep your fingers crossed. I just need to do a few more things and I'll be ready for the show. I have a booth buddy to help out - THANKS Becky - your a life saver. I think I've remembered everything - but you know that nagging fealing of thinking you have forgotten something important.

For those of you who Etsy they announced a GREAT new change that will be available soon - I'm thrilled about this - you can now change your shop name. That will go into effect the 18th of this month. So my shop will be called roycecreative soon and no longer graphicthreads. I have a new header all ready to pop in there on the 18th!

Split Personality

This week I spent my days sewing, hammering and tossed in a little computer work. A pretty typical week for me. Last week I did the center of a lap quilt with the D9P pattern and this week I found the perfect border fabric. I'll also be using this for the backing. I was looking for a paw print fabric but it was the hearts that caught my eye.

Speaking of quilting I wanted to share a post from The Quilt Rat blog regarding an erasable marking pen called FriXion. I found this very interesting. If you have one of these or had planned on getting one this is a must read.

 On my last post I showed you my bench pin that hubby made me and there was a little section of copper on it that I'd sawed. Here is that piece completed. It's a pin and has copper/brass/nickel and steel. I really enjoy mixing the metals.

I wanted to get a quick brochure done to hand out at shows for any retail folks that might be interested in my jewelry. I don't do writing thou and had to ask for help with that. I got it from Gene. He jumped right in and wrote some really nice copy for my brochure from the sketchy list of words I'd sent him. After I had all the photos in place and the copy dropped in I struggled for a name for my jewelry. I ask for advice, I thought and thought. Then it hit me - why am I going around the world when I just need to put my name on it and call it a day - so a new logo was born and the brochure was completed. My friend Edna who was a teacher did a little grammar editing and now I'm ready to print.

I have never been a techie person - I've always had an old or hand me down phone - but this week I jumped into the modern age and got an iPhone. My main reason is to use the Square to take credit cards at craft shows. (Square will work on most smart phones) I have one show this month and one in November. I'm hopeful accepting plastic will increase sales - keep your fingers crossed. By the way I LOVE the iPhone. It was the easiest phone to learn I've ever had. I was changing the settings as I walked thew the store right after I got it - joy!

Bang Bang - Saw

Well I'm back to jewelry today and getting ready for 2 shows I have scheduled for Oct/Nov. I'm excited about my first show with my jewelry. I've been working with flat metals for a good while but have only recently started sawing my metal with a jeweler's saw. It sure takes some getting used to, but it's much better than trying to cut the sheet metal with nippers. One thing I was needing to help with this was a bench pin and like most good tools they put a dent in your wallet. Being basically cheep I wanted to try making one and hubby came to the rescue and made one for me. These normally mount onto your work bench but I needed something a little more mobile. So I thought if I just had the section of wood I'd clamp it to my little table - well it worked out just great.

 Brass & Blue - metal and chain 

Steam Punk Bib Necklace

Well back to the sawing and hammering.