Saturday, June 28, 2008

Crunch time

Well, it's another busy weekend for me! I am working on a tie-dye order for a gal in PA, delivering 26 Totes to a friend to take to a craft fair next weekend, and picking up about 30 that she cut out of her fabric to sew and get back to her by next Wednesday... I still have a challenge piece for our Quilters' Guild to finish, and we won't even talk about the disastrous state of my house! Then, I decided to start playing with a design for a journal cover yesterday, and realized I need to think through the process a little more. The good news is that I have had some sales on my Etsy store... 3 since I opened it earlier this month! It helps to have an outlet where there is already an established customer base...
Promise to self: save time NEXT WEEKEND to do some dyeing for myself! It's been waaaay too long since I got to play with the dye!

Friday, June 20, 2008

And yet another new project... sigh!

Well, I've done it again... veered off course to delve into something new (for me)... grocery tote bags! The pressure is on to reduce/eliminate our use of plastic bags, and I had one of those 'AHA' moments... opportunity to be a part of the solution by creating something I can sell! And so I am diving into my stash, scouring the fabric store remnant piles, taking donations from friends, to create as many 'low-cost' totes as I can find the time to make. Here is a sample of what I have done so far:
The fabric for this one isn't very exciting, but I loaded 9 pounds of groceries from my pantry into it! And I love the design... easy to make, rolls up conveniently for storage and transporting to the store. Now I just need to convince the baggers at the store that I want them to be used! I have a friend who is going to take a bunch with her to a 3-day craft fair over July 4th weekend, and we will see how they sell. I hope to become the premier bag lady of Flagstaff!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

The T-shirt from hell!

I have been working... it seems like forever!... on 4 kids T-shirts, an order for my boss's wife, for their 2 little ones and 2 nieces. She wanted them for July 4th, so I decided to try some of the techniques I have learned and used over the past year: soy wax batik, and/or using freezer paper for resists. I'm afraid I will never do this pattern again, because it took waaaaaaaaay too long to get it right! Dyeing, flipping over, dyeing the other side, cleaning up back dyeing on the stripes, cleaning up ragged dye lines... you name it! So I decided to post a picture here with a warning: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! Unless you really love to be frustrated! On the other hand, if you try it and succeed in coming up with a way to do it that doesn't require a lot of correction and clean-up, let me know!

Monday, June 2, 2008

Taking care of bizness!

Well, I decided to push the envelope a little today, and opened up an Etsy shop! Mostly, I plan to market my tie-dye there, but I have some other ideas in mind for items I hope to post there soon! So far, I only have one item up, but stay tuned... I'm off all this week, so I have no excuse (except for waaaaaaaaaay too many other projects I want to work on) for not posting more stuff!
Ta....