Trumped

It's been a while since I sat down to put pen to paper.  My last quilt was the graduation quilt for my niece Caroline.  Since that time she has gone to college, graduated, gotten engaged to a young man who owns a cattle ranch and is basically living her dream.  Her little sister graduated and I put together a colorful quilt for her.  This quilt I secretly named, "Trumped".  You see it was during the time before the election, and the Donald was campaigning.  I was busy putting together this lovely lap quilt.  My son stopped by and I proudly held up the completed quilt top for him to look at.  He said, "is that a swastika?".   I looked down and my quilt and back at my son and uttered a 4-letter word.  Several times.  I don't know that it was a true swastika but it certainly resembled one.   My son snapped a photo and texted it to his wife and she responded with, "is that a swastika?"   He responded with, "my mom is saying a lot of really bad words" to which she replied, "it's a very nice swastika".
Again, my most used tool, the seam ripper, came out of the drawer and we went to work.  The quilt was finished in record time and presented to a very happy graduate. 

If I would just slow down and pay attention.

The Bucket List

While all of my friends are making their "bucket lists" I have created a list of instructions for my family.
Things you CAN NOT do if I die
1. If I die suddenly, say in a car accident, you CAN NOT put flowers and a cross on the side of the road.
2. You can not advertise my memorial service on the electronic marquee at the Citrus Fair
3. Please do not list my cats as survivors in my obituary (especially by name)
4. If you don't want my craft stuff please burn it. Don't donate it to Goodwill.

#4 came about when we started collecting Owl "stuff" to hand out at our Soroptimist meetings. There was a needle punch owl in a frame. Debbie gave it to one of the members, and she in turn donated it to our end of year auction. During the auction she said some old woman had made this and when she died her kids just donated it to goodwill (very likely). We all laughed at her description and her comments about if she dies and her kids don't want her stuff.....and I thought OH NO! This could be so true. I have so much crap that only means something to me. I am a collector.
I Can Make That! and so there are the piles. Pin cushions, jewelry, greeting cards, quilts, hats, all in various states of progress or planning, and if I were to fall off the face of the earth tomorrow I am pretty sure there is nothing there that anyone else would care to have!

So I started thining it out. I cleaned and organized and packaged up some of it and sold it, and donated some of it to goodwill (it's okay if I do it...but not if someone else does it for me) and then I have the rest of the piles left. There is for example that bag of 50 ties to make hats with. I am not yet ready to part with those. My son needed a tie the other day and I drug that out and he looked at me like I had lost my mind. Maybe I have.

My sister had my dads jewelry making kits and she went through them and then asked me did I want them and I said yes please. I came home one day and here on the porch were 3 boxes. One of them was a large fishing tackle box. I spent a lot of time sorting through his stuff. I bagged some of it up and sold it. I kept some. The fun part was when I got this brilliant idea to share all of his rocks. His grandkids called him Pop. So I purchased some small bottles and sorted rocks and filled the jars with them. Then I made labels - "Pop's Rocks" and each grandchild got a jar of Pop's rocks for Christmas in 2009.
Maybe I should make my own jars for my stuff - Mom's Marbles......buttons, threads, glitter, rocks, odd pieces of jewelry.....:)

I have to go finish some of my projects now.....

It's the toilet paper!

I was reading a recent issue of Good Housekeeping and came across a consumer test they did for toilet paper. The toilet paper I have been using was tested and the results were interesting. The paper does not break down very well. It now occurs to me this could be contributing to our ongoing septic issues. At this writing I have switched from Charmin Ultra soft to Kirkland (from Costco) and things are working very well.

Debbie, my business partner, and I have divorced. We were sharing a booth at Antiques and Uniques and we decided due to space issues (I think she was taking up too much space, and she thinks I was taking up too much space) we decided to strike out on our own. Debbie got a space on the isle. Prime real estate! Antiques and Uniques is not really just an antique store as the name might indicate. The business owner has a variety of mechandise, new and used - glasswares, jewelry, furnitue - a little bit of everything. It's a great place to find a gift. Part of the store is stocked by mall vendors - we rent "booths" and we stock them with our merchandise. You might find antiques, hand made items, clothing - a wide variety of merchcandise. In my booth you will find my hand made jewelry, my hand made greeting cards featuring my Trailer Trash line, and various second hand items - glass wares, stuffed animals, craft items, men's ties - whatever happens to catch my eye when I am out shopping for merchandise. Right now I have a variety of Easter decorations, along with a beautiful punch bowl, a selection of gravy boats, glassware, and beannie babies just to name a few of my items.

My Easter cards are on display in the front of the store. Soon my Mother's Day cards will be in stock, and I am hoping to create some new and unusual jewelry.
Stop by Antiques and Uniques in Cloverdale and check it out! There's something for everyone.

PS - I haven't finished the Block of the Month Quilt - although I did make a bit more progress since my last posting.

August!

Well since my last post I have been working on those Halloween projects that I started last year. It's just so much work. Maybe if I were more organized and had more space it would be easier, but most likely not.
I spent most of my day yesterday working on these Halloween wall hangings/table throws. I must mention again - quilting may not be my thing!
I made another trip to the fabric store where I bought more fabric than needed to finish these projects.
If I were just doing one of them, it would be fine, but no, I chose to do 6. Of course my goal is to sell them in my space at the Antique Mall - but who knows if they will sell. So many of my projects sit unpurchased. I still have cake slice pin cushions, and tea cup candles.....sitting unwanted and unloved.

And on my trip to the fabric store I bought a quilting magazine (because I am a magazine junky) and in it was a hat I want to make. So I stopped at Goodwill and bought a bag of men's ties. But now I don't have a hat pattern. Last night I went through my hats and found one that I like - and from it I am going to create a pattern. (ha ha ha - this should be interesting).

Tea Cup Candles

Project of the moment - tea cup candles. I made a few of these for craft fairs, and have sold some in our space at the mall. Now I get requests. So I got out all the supplies and spent Friday evening pouring candles. As usual nothing goes without a hitch. I didn't like the appearance of 5 of the candles, so I popped them in the freezer and then popped the wax block out of the cup, and spent a good portion of the morning remelting and remoulding. Then I attached the saucer to the cup, and tied a ribbon around each one. the very first time I made these and tied a ribbon around them my daughter said to me that I should make sure customers know to remove the ribbon from the cup before they lite the candle. She was right. That will be the finishing touch on this batch of candles. I also had a couple of cups without saucers and was thinking perhaps I would go to the goodwill store to see if I could find a couple of saucers. Then it occured to me - I have an entire booth full of bowls, saucers, glasswhere, jewelry cards (you get the picture). A quick trip to the store and I had a few of my individual saucers to help finish up the project.
Maybe tomorrow I will finish the quilt blocks and work on the baby quilt I am making. Maybe.