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!

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! 

Burp!

Burp cloths that is!  I made 4 sets of three coordinating burp cloths to sell at the bazaar.  I'm not making a lot of baby stuff other than quilts, but these are so quick I thought I should whip up a few.

Love my new tags!!!  Thanks again Stefanie!

All bundled up and ready to be priced.  Pricing is still so hard for me!

Watermelon Neapolitan

This quilt is otherwise known as, "If I were a quilt I would look like..."  Sometimes quilts come together so easily, it's like they make themselves.  I started this quilt at 8 last night and finished it at 1130.  I love it!  It came out exactly like I wanted--don't you love it when that happens?

The entire front and binding are made from Essex linen/cotton blend in various colors.  The neutral background color is sand, but I'm not sure of the names of the rest.  I cut (2) 2.5" x WOF strips of the coral, pink, and green fabric; (4) 2.5" x WOF strips of the ivory, (32) 3.5"x 10.5" rectangles of the Sand background.  I sewed 5 of the strips together then cut (8) 4.5"x10.5" rectangles from those.  I repeated this step with the remaining 5 strips, but I alternated the order.  Then, I sewed a 3.5"x10.5" background rectangle to either side of the pieced strip.  When piecing the top I simply alternated directions of the block (and alternated style of pieced block).  Ta-da!  A cute, modern 40"x40" baby quilt!

I had exactly the right amount of this Amy Butler print for the backing.  Seriously, it was destiny!  I'm obsessed with the colors in this print.  These large scale florals are hard to use in pieced fronts, but for backing they are perfect!  This will be yet another for the bazaar (though I'd love to keep it!)

Baby Quilt and a Boy Named Ralph

I finished up this organic baby boy quilt the other day, but I haven't had any time to post it since I was busy prepping for a garage sale with a friend of mine.  I really love these fabrics by Cloud 9!  I think I'll make a girl version too.  This was quick and simple, made from 5 fat quarters and very little planning. :)  

Oh, about that garage sale--people are nuts!  No, I will not sell that item I priced at $5 for 25 cents!  Are you crazy?!?!?  I'd rather give things to Goodwill than sell them to some of these people!  I don't mind bargaining, but at least be reasonable!  I sold about half of what I had out so I'm happy.  It's nice to get rid of all those tiny toys kids seem to collect!

After the garage sale we went to a birthday party for one of Roarke's friends.  The party was great, but I started not to feel so good.  By the time we got home, all I wanted to do was lay down.  I spent the next three hours curled into a ball on the cold tile of the bathroom floor wishing I could just throw up and get it over with!  I hate feeling nauseous!  I'd much rather have a few seconds of hurling than hours of nausea!  Anywho, on one of hubby's visits in to check on me, the kids came in too and he proceeds to tell them that "Mama is on the white phone with a boy named Ralph."  This causes me to burst out laughing (because I'd never heard that phrase), then moan in pain because my stomach hurts so much.   Roarke then dead pans, "I think she has a bird in there (my stomach)."  Dude!  You're killing me!  Stop making mommy laugh and let me be miserable in peace!  This fun filled evening was topped off with a horrible, restless sleep followed by Cian waking up screaming for his pacifier that he couldn't find, then the alarm clock going off because the kids had been playing with it.  Obviously, we're taking it easy today and I'm mostly sitting on the couch reading.  I don't even have the energy to sew, so you know it's bad!  Here's hoping I feel 100% tomorrow!

Oh, and Roarke finally decided on a costume for Halloween!  Now I just need to find a 2T Luigi and we're set!  Let us not discuss the irony of our last name and his choice of costume--if you don't know what I'm talking about, good!

Pouch Palooza!

It was a pouch palooza at my house yesterday!  I finished these 12 small pouches for the bazaar.  I need to make some boxy pouches too and then I think I'll be set on pouches.

For the majority of these, I used scrap pieces for the outside--bonus!

All of the lining fabric was from my scrap bin.  I love when I finally get to use a smaller piece of fabric I've been holding onto a while!  A funny thing happened while I was assembling these:  I was at the stage where you pin right sides together when, all the sudden, I couldn't turn the pouch around to pin the next side.  I had PINNED the pouch to my finger and didn't even know it!  I guess my lack of manicure and thick cuticles saved me some pain. =)  I also finished a baby boy quilt top, but it's already basted so you'll have to wait until it's complete for a pic! 

I Like to Cheat!

I'm in love with this cheater print!  It's from the Annie's Farm Stand collection.  

I did put a little more effort into the quilting since the patchwork was already done for me. :)  I quilted diagonally through every other square.

I also sucked it up and used some of my precious AMH voile for the back.  SOOOOOOOO soft!  The binding is a subtle green stripe from MoMo's Just Wing It collection.

I love how the quilting highlights the diamond pattern on the back, though I wish I would have had enough of the voile to orient it in the other direction.  Whew!  One more quilt for the bazaar complete!  I'm now working on a LOT of pouches.  I finished two last night, but I hope to complete 10 more or so today.  I'm so nervous about having enough items to give people some variety!  I'm still really worried I'm just going to sit there all day and no one will stop, but it's too late to turn back now!

Productive!

I was really productive this weekend (and a little today).  I finished THREE quilts!  Two are custom orders and one is for the bazaar.

This is the one for the bazaar.  The fabric is Hunky Dory, except the binding which is Henna Garden in Spring.  The pattern is from Camille's book, Simplify.  Super easy and super fast!

The color of this is off because the sun was setting.

This It's a Hoot quilt is a custom order.  The front and binding is from It's a Hoot, the backing is from Lizzy House's Red Letter Day.  The pattern is Easy Bake (with a layer cake) from Cluck, Cluck, Sew.  No, it's not a 9 patch.

This one is another custom order from my friend, Sara, a photographer.  She really wanted a quilt with those 5 Amy Butler fabrics and she chose the Swoon pattern.  While I love the pattern, I wish I would have added one additional print so that two of the same print centers wouldn't be next to each other.  I love this quilt at a distance, but I'm not sure how much I love it up close.  Also, I made the MASSIVE error of using white.  Sara specifically asked for gray, but I had the white out for another project and must have been on autopilot!  By the time I realized it, the blocks were half constructed!  I gave her the option to back out, but she still loved it so all's well that ends well!

I decided to make the back a little more special than the plain solid we agreed on since I messed up the front!  I actually like this side better!  Drat!