Runaway October

So I decided to join in Sun­day Stash started by Tamara of 1/4 of an inch. The idea is to air out some of your stash and maybe get some inspiration.

This is one of my favorite fab­rics. I picked it up on clear­ance when a local Han­cocks was going out of busi­ness. I’m not sure what to do with it though. Of course I bought 2 yards… just in case

This is a lovely lit­tle 1 yard piece that I just picked up at Good­Will this Sat­ur­day. $1.50! Go Me! It is Alexan­der Henry’s “The Great Pumpkin”.

Under­neath both of these is a huge piece of yummy cor­duroy that I also scored at the thrift store also. It’s a rusty red­dish brown that will make great fall or win­ter projects. I intend to use it for steam­punk cos­tumes, of course.

If you’d care to join in, hop on over and tell Tamara that you’d like to play too.

Okay, so, things have been quite busy here. Some good things, some bad things. Lots of pictures.

Where to start.…

Rowan now has two teeth and judg­ing by his level of irritibil­ity it seems he may be pop­ping out a few more. The first one was super easy and I didn’t even know it was hap­pen­ing. What a trooper huh? He’s been wear­ing his Amber Teething Neck­lace and just looks so cute in it! We call this his pirate face.

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We recently spent a morn­ing at Agri­topia with Grandma Ann and were blessed with an over­cast sky. Sadly it was humid enough to induce a full body sweat film, but we still had a good time. The food was won­der­ful as well. Rowan just adored the grass.  We don’t have a sin­gle blade at our house, because it’s a crappy rental. Declan loved being able to run wild while we sat and ate — Oh, to be a two year old again. Notice the shorts D is wear­ing? Made ‘em. Yep. I actu­ally made some­thing for a boy. Not as easy as you think.

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I com­pleted my Chromium Star Afghan for a very preggo friend, though it didn’t come out as expected. I don’t have the time, or the heart, to frog it and start over. It ruf­fles in cer­tain sec­tions, as you can kinda tell here. Before it ruf­fled so bad it wouldn’t lay flat. This is after wash­ing and block­ing. The points also curve but I kinda like it that way. I asked the pat­tern cre­ator for help a cou­ple times, but have got­ten no reply. If you break the star into sec­tions — you should see ten here — the sec­tion that goes from the val­ley to the peak ruf­fles up, like there’s way too many stitches. I’ve gone over the pat­tern time and time again and can’t fig­ure out what I did wrong. Any ideas?

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I opened an apple for the kids the other day and the seeds had started to sprout. How cool is that? We popped them in a lit­tle pot and look what we have now. One is a marigold and the leafier one is the apple. Funny how they start out the same size. The apple was organic and local grown so I’m hop­ing that it’ll will actu­ally grow since it’s most likely not some funky kind of com­mer­cial hybrid.

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My biggest news is that Matt has fully given me his bless­ing to really move on an Etsy bou­tique. I’d like to make some income from it, but Matt will be happy if I just cover the cost of all my fab­ric. I cre­ated a pat­tern for a sim­ple lit­tle jumper and match­ing dia­per cover and used one of my favorite girly fab­rics. It came out awe­some. I even made some labels that will make do for now. But then dis­as­ter struck! The reverse but­ton on my machine just kinda popped out in my hand while try­ing to do the last two but­ton­holes. I would have been fin­ished. But no! Matt’s mom had given me her old machine, so I can use that for straight sewing, but I can’t get the but­ton holer to work.

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Stu­pid me, I marked the but­ton place­ment on the out­side of the dress with an indeli­ble marker not think­ing I’d have an issue. Grr. Now I have a cute lit­tle jumper set that I can’t sell until I fig­ure out the but­ton­hole idea. I was so so so happy to be get­ting some­thing rolling. It’s cute though, no? Would you buy it? Well, if it was finished?

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I think I’m going to have my labels made by Spoon­flower. The ones I made myself were on muslin with fab­ric paint and I really like the soft­ness. No one wants those itchy pokey tags. Now I just need to come up with a logo and make all the ban­ners and avatars for my bou­tique. Any one want to help? I’ll make you cook­ies and water­mel­on­ade!

I’m think­ing of pay­ing some­one to do it for me. Maybe I should look into busi­ness grants? Any­one want to help fund my ende­vour? Or buy a new sewing machine!?!

Com­ments guys! I live for com­ments!! Seriously.

“Phew!” with a dra­matic swipe across his forehead.

I’ve actu­ally been pretty busy of late. Remem­ber those 17 loads of laun­dry stuffed on the couch that I men­tioned? ALL folded, hung, sorted, orga­nized and put away!! After 3 weeks it was hard to come up with excuses for why it was still there. But I’ve also com­pleted 2 more aprons — one for Grandma Betty’s birth­day, along with match­ing place­mats and one for Nicky’s birth­day. I finally got a new iron­ing board cover made. It’s super sim­ple but took a day because of the nooblets… I mean the kidlets. (Does any­one remem­ber Sixlets? Those were awe­some!) I started a third apron for Ann today. Next up is my bag for the Mar­ket Tote Swap. I have the idea all worked out in my head, I just hope I can trans­fer it to real­ity easily.

So after all that’s done I’m going to start work­ing on some smock­ing and shirring and post­ing items to my Etsy shop. I promise. No more swaps or birth­days and what­not. I’ve found some gor­geous designer prints mixed in with the cheapy cot­tons at JoAnns and have totally scored bolts of them with 50% off coupons. I’m afraid to cut some of them up.

I’ve also been comtem­plat­ing get­ting a cot­tage license to sell the aprons that I’ve been mak­ing. The thing is it’s $100 for a year but I’m not sure if I could cover the cost with any profit I make, ya know? The license gives me the right to make and sell any­thing by Sew Lib­er­ated, for­mally Montes­sori by Hand, where as now I can only make and give such as all that I’ve made so far. It takes me about a week of fid­dling to make an apron because of… interup­tions. The hard­est part is choos­ing the fab­rics — I always worry that some­one will get their apron and go “WTH was she think­ing? This isn’t me at all!” I’m debat­ing on just going it alone, or using some­one else’s pat­terns. Any thoughts?

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Here’s Grandma’s Apron. The reverse is a very pretty white Poppy print.