Happy 4th of July

Is it really the 4th of July already?  Is it me or is this year flying by.  I know don't we say that every year as well?  I guess that's what happens as we get older.

We have had a crazy few weeks with travel and visitors of late so very little sewing has taken place, but lots of crocheting of plarn.  I have managed to collect a lot of Target bags so that continues to be my focus.  I plan to make this one on the small side but given my judgement of late in size, it will probably still be bigger than I plan, which I'm OK with.  It will just take me longer to finish and more trips to Target of course.  I'll keep plugging away and stop to take a few pictures a long the way over the holiday. 

I'm told that word is getting out about the plarn excitement.  I'm happy to make bags to fit your needs or even to teach you to do it yourself.  Let me know if there is a local interest and perhaps a fun evening can be set up to work on plarn!

Plarn Plarn Plarn Everywhere

The idea of plarn bags is catching on with circles I'm in, mostly due to people seeing my bag of course.  I usually use it mostly for pool and beach activities so it's exposure has been limited to those venues. 

Over the past 3 months I've began training for my first 5K in hopes of potentially becoming some kind of a runner.  This is a completely new adventure for me and has been surprisingly easy to get to the point where I am today.  Most of my hang ups over the years have been to knee problems and then fear of screwing up the then surgically reconstructed knee.  But I digress...

I have a run date every Wednesday with a friend near our daycare.  On the rare occasion that my girlfriend can't make it, or I decide to do a run just before I pick up the children, I stop in school, change and leave my "running bag" (plarn bag of course!) in the principal's office while I run.  I can't tell you the number of comments I get on the bag when I'm there.  People are amazed that it's made out of grocery store bags and that I've made it.  So much so that I'm contemplating creating a grocery bag recycling box there to collect new bags. 

With all this new interest I've been working very hard on the two I'm already working on.  The base of the all target one just about done thanks to my recent shopping trips.  The other bag is probably 4 or 5 ins in height now, so not quite there yet in terms of being proportional to the base, but soon!  I can't wait to share the finish products with you!

Now if only my cousin lived closer I could get her to practice her photography on my products!  You should check out her 30 Photography Challenge that she's doing right now.

Burp Cloth Blitz

I am in a cutting and pinning frenzy of late.  To keep things interesting I decided to do some prep work for my many sewing projects that are piling up on my sewing desk.  This week's activity, burp cloths! 

I always find it funny how long it takes me to actually cut my fabric down to size.  I swear I sit and stare at a piece of fabric for hours making sure the burp cloth dimensions are just right and that I'm minimizing the waste while maximizing the total burp cloths I am creating for a given yardage.

I have a nice stack of burp cloths, pillow cases, blankets, and boppy cover fabric now sitting next to my sewing machine.  Once this pinning it done, then it will be onto the sewing frenzy.  But that is another blitz all together.  Some days I wish I had little mice to help me do my work like Cinderella did, the pile is growing and growing! 

The good news is that I should have some new products I'm considering actually posting on my Etsy page in the near future.  That is if I can keep them stocked long enough to make it worth while.  I'm making things in both girl and boy fabric so chances are high that I'm making something that will fit your needs if you're interested. 

If you're looking for something specific, as always please contact me!  I'm always happy to answer sewing and knitting questions. 

Fear not, the plarn totes are still in the works, I'll be updating you on that progress next week so be sure to stop back then.

Something a Little Different

I mostly talk about my adventures sewing, knitting, or owning a small business here.  Kind of the purpose of having a blog/website linked to a business, right? 

Today I decided to switch it up a little and share a great find I found on Pinterest related to cooking.  I'm up a 4:45 every morning to get my day started.  It is way to early for me to even think about breakfast. So I usually keep bagels and cream cheese at work for my breakfast most mornings.  That can get boring after a while so I was looking for different options.  In comes Pinterest...

Why not make a large batch of breakfast burritos, freeze them, then nuke them when I'm ready to eat?  That's exactly what I did this week.  I bought some tortillas, ground breakfast sausage, and of course some cheese.  I had the other ingredients of potatoes and eggs.

This time around I added to many hash browns, so I think I'll use fewer or just leave them out all together on my next batch.  Other than too many potatoes it's a hit!  I've had them as my breakfast every morning this week and it's been a great change of pace.

I've seen a lot of recipes for a various breakfast burritos.  My theory is, find a list of ingredients you like mix 'em up wrap them and enjoy!  Then of course let me know how it goes!

Draft Post Craziness

I think I have about 400 blog posts in some sort of draft state.  I have been pulled in about 500 different directions of late and feel like I'm getting no where.  Of course, that's what happens when you try to multi-task too much!  To that vain, I'm trying to focus and knock one or two things off a day if possible.  The larger items will take a little longer than that to knock off, but there are several, just hit post type tasks I need to get out the door. 

Therefore, my six-month resolution is to focus a little more and complete a task before moving onto the next one.  So today's goal of letting you know I'm still alive and well on the internet it a goal of mine. 

HELLO HERE I AM!

Whew!  Got that out of the way!  Now if only the rest of my to do list were that easy to accomplish.  Off to try to knock of something else now. 

What's been keeping you busy of late?  Any new exciting patterns or projects on the horizon?

Work in Progress

I've been diligently working on 2 plarn projects of late.  The one I started a few months ago is still going strong.  It is a lot bigger than I had initially envisioned it, but that's ok, I'm sure my friend will enjoy a larger than planned plarn bag.  Now that I'm a few inches up the side of the bag, it is starting to take some serious shape.

As I bag started to get bigger, I was surprised at the softness of the bag feel.  As a result, I'm doing some experimenting with different bag material and plarn thicknesses.  Hence why I have two bags currently in the works.  The larger bag uses mostly my grocery store bags with an occasional other bag mixed in here and there.  For some reason my grocery store bags seem very soft when it comes to the type of plastic.  Yes, I said soft when referring to a plastic bag. 

I'm curious if by using different bags that are not as soft if the bag will be stiffer.  You can see from the larger, more complete bag that the overall look of the bag is more like canvas than a basket.  That's fine, I'm just trying to get a better feel of different textures with this medium.  There is a lot more experimenting here than say sewing a boppy cover. There I pretty much know what kind of fabric I want and why and then how to construct it.

The second bag I'm working on it going to be made only from Target bags.  It's already starting out much stiffer than the other bag.  I have a feeling it is the bag material, but I did also just switch the way I'm cutting my plarn in order to make it more uniform.  I'm curious if that will make any difference.  I suppose I will find out when I get to those strips on the larger bag.  Until then you will just have to enjoy my current stages.    

Pattern Pallooza - Beginners

This blog post has morphed slightly from it's original plan.  My original plan was to share some patterns with you, but I received the most wonderful email yesterday.  A friend just bought her very first sewing machine!  Wahoo for her a whole knew world now awaits her.  Now of course she has the all important task of deciding the the first project will be.  So instead of just haphazardly selecting some interesting patterns, but now I have a purpose to share with her and the rest of you some interesting first projects with your sewing machine.

This week I am focusing on patterns and projects that are perfect for the beginner sewer.  That means, the concept is relatively simple and there is lots of room for error if you do need to rip it out or don't sew in a straight line. 


 
Up first are these great bean bags I found from MADE.  They are adorable if you ask me and much more fun than a store bought bean bag.  This is a great first project to sink your teeth into.  I want to make some of these for the adults too, not just the kids!

42 pages internet pattern scare you?  No worries! How about some floor pillows instead?  You still get new comfy seating for the kids but it might be a little less intimidating to start.  Fido may think these are for her, but they help make a great reading nook for some much needed quiet time in the kids room.  This pattern and tutorial comes to us from oven lovin'. 







Finally, but potentially more importantly, you can find some beginner sewing tips over at Couturier Mommy.  No need for me to reinvent the wheel here when there are already so many how-to websites.  Hopefully I can at least help you centralize them. 

Please feel free to share your references for a beginner here and don't forget to stop back for more advanced patterns and resources. 

Comments

I must be making the rounds on the Russian internet recently, my only comments seem to be coming in the form of spam that appears to be from Russia or at least one of the Eastern European countries and they are not real comments.  At least not in my definition of posting to old posts and not relevant to the post.

As a result, I'm playing around with my commenting settings in hopes it will curb fake/spam comments and encourage my readers to actually comment.  Of course, I'm assuming that I do have real readers out there and my visit count isn't just from web crawlers running all over the internet. 

If you feel your comment may be been deleted in error, please let me know.  I do monitor the comments and if something seems out of place, I do tend to delete them and you may have gotten caught up in a delete frenzy.

If I am just talking to myself, I'm OK with that, but if not, feel free to say, "Hi" occasionally.  I don't bite, honestly! 

In the mean time, stop back later this week, I have a new feature I'm starting that I'm sure you'll love.  At least I've enjoyed the research for it!

Let's Celebrate!

It's really time to celebrate.  Stitch Silly is turning 2!  I can't believe that I've been at this for 2 years now.  It really has been a great journey so far.  Thank you all for putting up with my ramblings!  What's next for Stitch Silly you ask?

Well, for one you may notice, Stitch Silly has a new look.  We finally were able to get a decent logo pulled together.  I'd love to hear your feedback on the new logo.

Other than the new logo I'm hoping to push out a few new projects this year.  I know what my local customers are looking for, but I'm very interested to understanding what you my internet readers would be interested in seeing as either a product or a new topic to discuss. 

What keeps you coming back, the business topics, tips and tricks, new product ideas, or something different all together?  Bring it on, I want to keep you engaged and unless you tell me what you want, you will continue getting my brain dumps as I see fit. 

Crazy Times

From Hollie & Harrie

Whoa, what a crazy few weeks!  We had some unexpected craziness at our home that has really sucked me away from work.  We are slowly getting back on track, so I am also slowing getting back to blogging, sewing, and crocheting.  I finally broke open my new fabric purchase.  Initially I was disappointed when I looked at the aqua I selected to compliment my chevron fabric.  Of course as luck would have it, the two colors are just off enough that it was bothering me.  I almost returned it, but then quickly realized wait this isn't going to be a solid piece of fabric.  I've started laying out the fabric to start sewing it, part of the joy of having the lines already drawn out for you.  Fingers crossed this blanket will not take me as long as the previous one.

While I'm busy getting back on my feet, here are a few great finds that I recently found on Pinterest.  This was such a great idea to keep out of the sun at the beach this summer.  I don't think we are going to be making a beach trip this summer, but I will be looking into this as an option next summer when we head to the beach. 

Another great project I found that I think will be great to make sometime in the future are these giant floor pillows I saw over at ovenlovinblog. It's such a great idea of a kids reading nook as mine get older. Her description is great that people with any ability should be able to actually pull it together.  Be sure to stop over to see her description.

Spring Cleaning

My lastest fabric arrived!  I'm super excited to get started with me new projects.  One of the fabrics I picked out was sold out by the time they went to cut mine so I will eventually need to make another order for that one, but my current fabric should entertain me for a while.  At least we can hope!

This weekend my community is having their bi-annual community yard sale.  That has been taking up most of my time this week preparing.  I've been going through baby cloths that are going to sold off.  It's a sad day, but it will be nice to clear up some room in the house, slowly but surely.  It feels good to have some spring cleaning in the house, even if it means sewing is put aside for now. 

This is the first time I'm participating in my community yard sale so it should be a fun experience.  Hopefully the kids corporate!  Why am I bringing up the community yard sale you ask?  Well other than preparing for it occupying my time, I'm also looking at it as a marketing/sales avenue.  As part of my wares that I am putting out for sale, I am also going to put out a small sampling of some of my current inventory for people to see.  Perhaps I'll get a sale or two out of the deal.  You never know unless you try!

One other part of spring cleaning I've been working on.  As you've probably noticed, there have been some changes to the website recently.  I'm in the process of reworking a few things on the site and behind the scenes.  One of them being the Stitch Silly logo.  I had a great idea that hasn't really panned out to what I had envisioned so I'm now working on a plan B.  We'll see how this iteration goes! 

I'm curious, am I the only one caught up in the spring cleaning bug or are there others of you out there too getting miscellaneous things in order that you were putting off doing in the cold winter months.  

Thank You

Wow, I am in complete shock right now and feeling very blessed.  As March winds to a close I am happy to announce that we are winding down not only our best quarter in sales, but also our best quarter in website views.  I can't believe the progress that Stitch Silly has suddenly made, and I couldn't have done it without you, my loyal readers and customers so thank you!

Because of the great successes, I am actually moving up my planned fabric order, so I should have some new burp cloths and receiving blankets soon.  And thanks to your feedback last week I was able to choose at least a chevron blanket, the blue one (sorry Gina!).  I think for now I am going to hold off on the rag quilt, but it is something that I will keep in mind as I fabric search!

While I wait for my new fabric to come in, I'm giving my sewing machine a bit of a break and working on some crocheting, with plarn of course!  Especially with a long road trip ahead of us for Easter.  I am almost done with the bottom of the current bag I am crocheting so with the trip, I hope to be able to start working up the sides and make some interesting progress.  Not near the kind of progress my mom has made of late. 

She has temporarily retired (long story and she's a bit crazy - in a good way) and spent the last 5 weeks in Florida visiting family and friends.  My parents had a great time.  I laugh because they just arrived home this past weekend only to be hit with 8 inches of snow.  In her down time in the car and visiting she kept her hands busy.  She crocheted, I believe 3 if not 4, bags while she was down there to give as gifts to everyone she encountered.  There is no way I can keep up with her speed, but I will at least try this weekend. 

I'll be sure to report back next week, until then, have a Happy East and wonderful Passover!

Fabric Orders

Photo courtesy: Do it yourself Divas

I've been tossing several new projects around in my head.  I haven't quite worked through the execution of any of them yet.  Because I have so many ideas floating around I foresee a potentially large fabric purchase once I decide exactly what I am going to do and then go through the painstaking task of selecting fabric for these projects.  I'm looking around for a few different quilt ideas, both personal projects - I'm not ready to try to make and sell quilts yet, but who knows, it may be on the horizon.

One project I know are definitely on the horizon are some more burp cloths.  They have become increasingly popular of late, I'm almost sold out of all my burp cloths.  Not a bad problem to have, but an unexpected one at that. In the next few weeks, my burp cloth inventory is projected to be almost completely depleted if not completely.  These are some of my favorite items to make because they are so versatile.  I can't tell you how many uses I have come up with my old burp cloths that I made for my kids.  If you're interested in some burp cloths and want to personalize them a bit, let me know and we can work together before I make the fabric order. 

The other project I'm tossing around is a rag quilt for our living room (see picture above).  We currently have two blankets we keep, mostly for me, on our couch that are starting to age.  One is a blanket from my high school alma mater, the other is a no sew blanket I made while in college before I got my sewing machine.  Both are great blankets, but I want something that is 1.) a bit more adult centric, 2.) coordinated with our color scheme in our living room, and 3.) not as tattered looking. 

Of course the other is a blanket for my youngest son in the same fashion of the chenille blanket that took me forever to sew for my oldest. This one is probably the farthest a long in the thought process.  I'm thinking of using this Riley Blake Chevron fabric to make the chenille this time.  Psst, it's striped so I won't have to worry about drawing 500million lines and then sewing each line, I can just sew a long each side of the stripes.  I can't decide which colors to use however.  I'm inclined to go with the blue one as opposed to the rainbow one.  Since I'm still brain storming, I'd love to hear your thoughts one which you like best.  Bring them on, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Left to my own devises crazy things can happen!

Accounting System Update

By far, one of my most popular posts is my accounting system description series.  It's always good to see others really getting something out of my uber nerdiness.  I've been playing around with it a little of late.  Mostly in the fact that it drives me batty that I am tied to a specific computer in order to use it.  I'm a girl of the 21st century.  If I can't somehow get to my documents no matter where I am or what system I'm on I have issues.  Between smart phones, tablets, laptops, work computers, personal computers there are so many systems we use on a daily basis, I always find comfort in having at least a few things in my life centralized and smooth.  Cloud documents is one of them.  This is probably why I'm such a huge fan of Google; not to mention their open source philosophy is right up this nerdette's ally.

If you recall in my original posting, I created my super cool accounting system, linking pages with all sorts of cool functionality together.  I had to do this in Microsoft Excel in order to get the functions to work.  Well come to find out that sometime in the last 2 years Google has done it again and implemented the needed functions in their Google Docs package.  Woot! Woot!  Let me tell you how excited I was to find this out.  If I could do a back flip I would, but alas I can't so I just did my happy dance. 

I'm still doing a dual accounting in Excel for another month or two just to make sure nothing surprises me, but so far so good.  I cannot begin to tell you how this makes my life easier.  Now when I'm out and about picking the kids up a daycare and I get asked, do you have X in stock or how much is Y, I can just pull it up on my phone and take a quick glance. 

I know I may be alone in this excitement, but I wanted to share this update with you in case it helps you as well.  Not to mention, it's been a while since I've posted anything to help my fellow small business owners out there.  It's been all about my activity of late.  Today, I wanted to give back and share with you!

Have you found and new tips and tricks worth sharing recently?  Bring them on!

Thank you Snowquester

I'm so excited to announce that I finally finished the blanket for my son, that was supposed to be a Christmas present, then a birthday present, but really turned out to be a just because I love to you present. 

I was finally able to finish it because of the Snowquester "storm" that rolled through the area yesterday.  Now I understand that people west of the the DC area did get some significant snow fall.  Me however, NONE, ZILCH, NADA, NOTHING!!!!  I realize I am probably partially to blame.  In anticipation for potentially 6 - 9 inches of heavy snowfall, I dug through our hand me down pile to find a snow suit that fit and a paid of snow boots that way to big but can work in a pinch.  And I got this stuff out on Monday...Wednesday comes, yup, no snow, but it didn't stop the world from shutting down so mommy gets to stay home with the kiddos for the day.  Which meant I took full advantage and finished that blanket!  I hope you enjoy the pictures, though I took them on my phone so they aren't the best quality.

I haven't washed it yet, because how do you explain to a 3 year old that the blanket isn't done until it's washed when it looks useable right now.  I'm ok with that, it will cutiefity (yes that's my own word!) as he uses it.  I imagine it will be wash regularly as he came downstairs this morning blanket in hand dragging on the floor behind, in his Lightning McQueen PJs and snow boots (yes he found them and will wear nothing else now).  The blanket had to go to school with him and won't leave his side; a true Linus moment and I couldn't be more proud. 

Now that I've completed one, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but yes, I would completely do one again.  Now that I have a system down I can see myself doing it.  And yes, I would do one to sell as well, but after calculating my time and material cost it isn't a cheap blanket.  I did a brief comparison on Etsy and my price is well within the norm of what I found there.  So bring on the custom orders, and I promise it won't take me 5 months to complete yours!  But it is definitely not an overnight job. 

Up next will be my plarn bag for a friend and then maybe I'll start working on one for my younger son since I'm not exactly happy how his hand knit blanket turned out (it's too small for my liking.)

Quarantined

My youngest is sick, yet again.  This time he is "kicked" out of daycare until he gets better, stupid rules and regulations that they have to follow.  Since I've been home, I've been able to get some work done on the website, photo editing, and yes, even some sewing.  My chenille blanket is almost complete.  I have about 30 more rows to sew.  Then comes squaring the blanket up and adding some satin blanket binding. 

I took a few pictures this morning of my progress since I've been asked on several occasions how the blanket is progressing.

The first picture is of my general row stitching on the bottom of the blanket.  My stitching has gotten a lot better as I've progressed.  I think more so to the technique I used marker where I am supposed to sew and developed in the process.  My first few rows were not as straight as I would like them to be.  This project has been a large practice in keeping a steady hand if nothing else. 

The second picture is of some of the rows I've already cut.  Now that I'm on the home stretch, I'm starting to cut and sew as I go, so this is just a sample of that.  It already looks great and I haven't even washed it yet to let it get softer.

Finally, the last picture is of the top with the Disney Cars theme that my oldest son is really into right now.  I like that the stitched rows are subtle so the fabric can really shine. 

I'm so close to being done, I can taste it.  Now to get the dog off the blanket so I can continue working on it. 

And We're back in Action...

Good News: I fixed my sewing machine! 

Bad News: I couldn't begin to tell you what I did to fix it, it just worked when I went to try to tinker with it again.

I was really hoping to right a tutorial for you all, but when things just start working again, I'm not sure how to document that other than to just start sewing again.  Which I quickly did! 

I also started what I'm going to call my hubby project.  As anyone who knows me, I do not sit still well at all.  I am usually doing at least two things at a time; be it nursing and reading, reading and watching TV (Yes, I love to read), knitting and hanging out with my boys, the list goes on. 

Now that our littlest is getting into a more predictive routine I'm trying to spend more time with the hubs, you know we did get married for a reason and might want to spend some time together.  Crazy to think, I know, but we like to be unconventional that way. Anyways...

I decided instead of holing myself up into my sewing room all the time, I could spend some time with him in the evenings while working a non-sewing project.  I decided I'm going to surprise a friend of mine ( I don't think she reads this blog, so hopefully it will still be a surprise) with a plarn bag.  We'll see if this bag turns out in comparison to my original.  I'm in the wonderful cutting stage at this point so no photos of the progress as off yet.  

Eeek Sewing Problems

Ok, so I need some help today!  I was sewing a long this weekend, finally stealing my son's nap blanket fabric away to sew it and working on that notorious chenille Cars blanket.  When crash, the bottom thread kept getting tangled!  I cannot for the life of me figure out what is causing this. 

I checked...

the bobbin: nope thread is wound tight. 

for build up in the opening in the sewing machine: some build up, cleaned it out and tried again.  Still no luck.

the tension: adjusting it didn't make a difference

the needle: I changed it, still the same problem. 

I tried sample swatches with less fabric.  The only thing I haven't tried yet, was switching up the stitch to see if that knocks some sense into me sewing machine.  I don't know if my machine has a lower tension adjustment as I've never had to use it. 

I can't imagine my machine is at its end of life, it's only 6 years old!  Hopefully I'll be able to figure out this glitch soon, I was starting to get into a good groove recently.  Please bring on your suggestions!  Once I do figure it out, sounds like a tutorial might be in the works on how to fix it, that if it's something I actually do to fix it instead of an automagically working again.  Until then bring on the suggestions, I'm anxious to get back to sewing again.

When Plans Go Awry

A few months ago I bought some fabric to make my son a new nap blanket.  I have been too busy to actually sew it, other than laying it out (on multiple occasions, mind you).  This weekend I tried yet again with my son in the sewing room with me.  Let me tell you, big mistake!   He wanted to cuddle, sleep on it, be covered under it.  In other words, everything that is counter productive to cutting a straight line to begin pinning it down.  It's minky so it will hold up to the abuse that it is currently being put through, which usually includes a certain someone carrying it all over the house and laying on it.  It's good to know that he will like it when it is eventually done, but it doesn't help in actually getting there. 

Until that time, I suppose I will have to bide my time and develop and plan to sneak fabric away from him to do some much needed sewing on it...

Birthday Planning

Image from kommunicated

My oldest turns 3 next week.  I can't believe it!  Where has the time gone.  He is no longer a baby or a toddler, but a little boy.  I look at him and am so happy with the type of person he is turning into, I just hope it sticks as he gets older.  His birthday is always hard to plan for because he is my Valentine.  I'm constantly struggling it how to manage the Valentine's Day part with making his day special.  We are having some friends over for a party on the weekend and school is having a Valentine's Day party so it will be festive if nothing else.  Today I am going shopping for the valentine's cards (fingers crossed I will do glow sticks this year - thank you Pinterest!) and this weekend I plan to work with him to make his Valentine box for school. 

This year instead of a normal shoe box, I'm using one of my fabric shipment boxes from one of my latest orders and fingers crossed am going to make a Lighting McQueen Valentine/Birthday box.  Of course with a 3 year old helping, I will be lucky to wrap the box in red construction paper.  No matter what it this weekend will be a fun craft weekend between making/printing the actual Valentines and making the box.

Of course, I still have yet to finish his blanket.  Remind me never to attempt quilting!  I have been working on it, but only a few rows at a time.  I'm getting more opportunities to work on it now that my surge in orders has subsided, for now.  I say this now and I'll blink and my order queue will fill up again so maybe I should get busy!

Now that we are a week away, what are you Valentine plans or activities you have scheduled?

Organization

I don't know what hit me late last week, but I am suddenly in a huge organizational kick right now.  This past weekend I organized my office closet where I keep most of my product.  It could still use some work, like more shelving and bins for storage, but it's much better than it was previously.  I have a better idea what I want done, it's just a matter of executing the plan at this point to completely uber organize it, perhaps a trip to the Container Store is in order.  

It also motivated me to finally put up the artwork that had been sitting in that closet for over a year now.  While I was putting up the photographs, I finally narrowed down some decorating ideas of putting some other artwork on our living and dining room walls.  Artwork is expense and can be so impersonal so I always wanted something that was very personal for our family.  To Pinterest I went...

Pinterest really should be illegal at times, I find to many ideas and not enough time or space for all the ideas I come across.  I think the winning idea to try to experiment with creating my own prints on canvas.  The biggest problem will be finding the right photo(s) to print.  I think I know what my tasks in the coming days. 

Busy Bee

Again I must apologize for drastic change in posting frequency.  Right now I have a very good excuse, at least that's what I'm claiming.  I have been super busy with orders! 

Yeah, that's right, this lady has had order out the wazoo recently.  It's been mostly nap blankets for daycare kids, but that's OK.  I have my own design that I feel I have perfected at this point so my speed of production has greatly increased.  (The new mom energy has not yet, but that's a whole different issue!)

Aesthetic Nest Chenille Blanket Tutorial

In addition to the orders I have several projects I want to work on for my son to include a new nap blanket and his chenille blanket similar to the one on the right. 

The nap blanket won't take me long, but man oh man is this chenille blanket taking me forever to finish.  I think this is one of the reasons I am not a quilter!  I grossly underestimate the time it will take me to do something, not to mention how tedious it is.  Don't get me wrong, I am really enjoying this process.  It's teaching me to be a much better seamstress/sewer.  I've never been very good at sewing in a straight line, or cutting in a straight line for that matter, so this has been a great exercise in this as well as marking my fabric for sewing.  Most of the things I do I can pretty much freehand.  I've never really done super intricate work that is so precise before.  As a result this blanket is not one of my finer works, but it's a labor of love and I know my oldest will love it when it's finished, crooked stitches and all. 

And for the record, my New Year's resolution is to increase my posting frequency.  Do you have one?  (Yes I realize were are at the end of January so by definition I am not doing too well in that regard.)