Lots of little things

This week was eaten up by lots of little projects, mostly for other people.

• I transferred 11 patches from one boy scout shirt to another.  Pure tedium.  I hate using invisible thread almost as much as I hate sewing things onto sleeves.  Put the two together and  - UGH!
• I hand embroidered a recipient's name onto a quilt her grandmother made her.  Fun, but fiddly.  I prefer to do hand embroidery BEFORE a project is finished, sandwiched and quilted.  I had to be careful to make sure I only went through the top layer of the quilt, not all the way to the back.  I turned out really nice, but, of course, I forgot to take a photo.
• I made some tooth fairy pillows for my nephew since he has his first ever loose tooth.  They chose the brown one, so I guess I'll sell the green one since all my other tooth fairy pillows have sold out.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

Back of Tooth Fairy Pillow where tooth/money goes

They chose this one for my nephew

I wonder how much teeth will cost in their household.

However, some of my finishes were for ME!  I finally wove in the ends of my Isadora Cowl - I've worn it twice already this week; it is so warm and cozy!

We all know by now that my favorite color is orange, right?

I sewed together these orphan pinwheel blocks that were in a bag of donated fabric.  Now what to do with them?

It currently measures 16" x 22".

Do they want to be a mini/doll quilt?  This is about the right size for an American Girl doll, right?  Or are they the start of an Orphan Quilt since I somehow lost the Orphan quilt I finished in July 2010.  I don't even have photos of it anymore.  :(

I have some other little things to get done before heading back to work on Tuesday.

• The person I knit the Little Avery Sweater for, along with a matching hat, has now asked for another hat for a friend.  I'll try to get that done today and in the mail tomorrow.
• Next week's project with the after school program kids is an apron.  We've done some full aprons in the past, so part of me wants to make half aprons.  Anyone have a half apron pattern that they love?  I hope to whip up a sample on Monday.
• And just because no weekend is complete for me without some quality reading time, I want to finish my current cozy (A Novel Time To Die - A Black Cat Bookshop mystery) and spend some more time with Claire and Jamie in Dragonfly in Amber (the second of the Outlander series).  Last weekend I read The Cat, The Sneak and The Secret, the latest of the Cats in Trouble mysteries.  If you like cozies and you haven't read those, the protagonist is a quilter - BONUS!

Well, and then there's that holiday sneaking up on me, the one for which I have done NO creating, NO decorating and NO shopping.  I need to get on the ball!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, y'all!

SEW Cool Playdates!

Bad blogger!  How can I have let so much time go by between posts?  I think about you guys, my blogging friends, quite often, much more often than I post.  But I tell ya, this "starting a business" business will wear a body out!

So, quick recap of the last month and a half -

Business has been great - classes are almost all at capacity, I now have over 50 local artisans selling in my shop, I am able to pay all my bills, and I am having FUN!

Plus, I've had surprise company - Doreen from Treadlemusic stopped in around mid-October

And then Becky from Quilting Meme stopped in a few weeks later.  (Oops!  Forgot to take a photo!)  Meeting blogging friends in real life is so fun!

I continue to keep my shop closed on Sundays and Mondays - a gal needs a rest, you know.  Yesterday's rest, however, was prepping lesson plans and samples for my newest addition to the services at the shop - SEW Cool Playdates for kids.

For the 5 and up crowd who are just starting to lose their teeth, a 90 minute Tooth Fairy Pillow Workshop.  This has to be one of the easiest yet cutest things I've done in a while.

For the 8 and up crowd, a 3-hour Patchwork Doll Quilts Workshop.  I used gridded fusible to align the squares, so instead of sewing twosies, then four patches, and so on, there are just 17 total seams to make this quilt top.  Add some fusible fleece and backing, birth the quilt, add a bit of simple, straight line machine quilting and voila!

Today I want to time out a Rag Doll lesson plan as another option, plus tweak my t-shirt backpack design.  Winter is coming, and I want to give parents something fun for their kids to do outside the house, but also out of the cold.

What have you all been up to?  One goal for today is for me to find out - I haven't read any blogs for eons!  Be well!