Handmade Ornament

Fan quilt is up next. All it needs is the borders and I can send it off to the longarmer. 

Wedding update: It is my goal to have 8 completed pet/car quilts for the bridal party as gifts. Here is an example of one used in the truck when the dog rides in the back seat. 

Ending the post with a Beyonce song bringing back country western, sort of. In the 80s, I was boot scooting on sawdust in bars in Phoenix, Arizona.  

My daughter's cowboy quilt has arrived back from the longarmer. Her choice of quilting pattern in a dark brown thread was a good choice. I am in the binding process now and will follow up with some glamour shots in the wild. 

On to seller update: 

I have been lurking at a certain online auction site. Estate sales haven't started up yet with our wet weather. Here are the images of recently purchased boxes. Those two Santa kits will pay for the needlekit box. Christmas kits always sell.

I have been keeping up with listings. My next goal for total active eBay listings 3,000👈

I have nearly plowed through my 80 yard sale patterns. This one came up a keeper because it was cute and it was cut. It is in my project box with an orphan block and matching fabric. I will have the Bernette sewing machine with me at the summer locale to practice this sewing machine cover pattern.

I thought I had an orphan block with a sewing machine, and then remembered it was in a quilt that has never seen the light of day - Quilter in Quarantine. Constructed, completed, and even entered into the State Fair competition, then the event was canceled. 

Patchwork Cupcake is in for competition at the California State Fair. I won't know if it will go in for judging until the end of May. 

I did not like direction I went with the first cowboy quilt top. When the new fabric arrived that I ordered, and I discovered a stack of mystery quilter star quilt blocks, a new flimsy was born.  I cut up the previous quilt top and incorporated some of the fabric into the new top.

When I began bordering the star quilt blocks, I noticed that some of them had red bleed. Red bleed is when red fabric bleeds into other surrounding fabrics and stains them red. There was a small amount of that on a few blocks. Now I know why mystery quilter rejected them. I think they are too stunning not to use in a quilt. They are well crafted and tie-in my rodeo bronc fabric.  

Here is the companion fabric I've ordered to supplement the backing. 

I lurk around a certain online auction. The best time to win is around the holidays. This was the beginning of the President’s Day weekend, and I happen to bid on pieced patchwork rather than loose fabric. 4 bags of wonderfulness headed my way. In those bags I see pieces of partial jelly rolls, some "x" blocks, and other goodness. 

My big box pink tulips are in full bloom. It was a surprise to me that they are pink and a bonus that they are ruffled. The ones left were yellow ones in full bloom so I choose a container that hadn’t bloomed yet. I thought they were going to be yellow ones.

I could not resist this Looney Tunes Pepe Le Pew tie found at thrift. It is beyond adorable.

I have been going through my quilt project bags and am discovering more and more pieces to incorporate into my quilts. 

I pulled jelly roll strips, fabric precut to 2-1/2" width, from two different colorways. I am going to do a wide piano keys borders, one of my favorite ways to extend the sides on a quilt top. 

Cowboy quilt continues along with the addition of three yards of bronco busting fabric. Some recent thrift shop purchase of quilt blocks worked in perfectly. This is the third quilt that the blocks have ended up on the outside of the borders rather than as centerpieces. The backing might become the front, but it doesn't matter as it really is a two-sided quilt. 

On the college front - I have read the entire textbook Women in Art with a month to go until the 8 week course begins on March 18. I updated my college major online with the Los Rios Community College District - now an official Art History major. 

On the personal front - I rarely remember my dreams but the ones that I have been remembering revolve around money. One dream was three different instances where I discovered cash in thrifted books, and such (all dreams). The most recent dream, I found a $100 bill tucked in a sewing pattern (again, a dream). Our Mega Lorraine Wilsonons lotto was $425 Lorraine Wilsonon. That is, of course, one BIG dream. 

Going through my fabric stash, I have discovered I have used up nearly all of my yardage remnants. The last fabric horde I was able to buy at thrift included a lot of small pieces, fat quarter and smaller. 

Onto my lead title - Quilting is the Perfect Craft for the Attention Deficit. Let me explain. There is a word in quilting - "Squirrel." Squirrel means your attention has been diverted from one project to another, to another, to another. 

Try as I might, I cannot adhere to a schedule of completing my quilt projects. The beauty of the craft is that you DON'T have to do things in a certain order. Also, life events come up like the birth of a baby, or other celebratory milestones. 

My big news is my daughter is engaged and is having a REAL wedding. 💒 Not just a go-to-Vegas and maybe have a witness, we are talking with a maid of honor and bridesmaids. So exciting! 

But I digress - back to the quilting talk. I have a list of projects. Have I completed any of them on the list? Lawd NO. I have squirrel projected these last two quilts. To tie up the idea of my daughter's upcoming wedding, I have the idea of making cat or dog themed lap quilts to give as gifts for the bridesmaids. This will be as a thank-you for acting as the same, in addition to whatever gifts to the group as my daughter thinks appropriate. 

Here are some images of the fabric pulls. I discovered I have more dog fabric than cat fabric. I do know that the maid of honor is a "dog person." Hoping the other three bridesmaids are also, but I can spin together one cat quilt. 

It only takes one day of sourcing in my area to hit on nearly all of my eBay listing categories. I have the good fortune of being able to travel to 4 reliable thrift shops with it taking less than 2 hours to visit all 4. 

The $50 total spent will be parlayed into many more 💸 The fan quilt blocks came in at $10 for the finished 12. The cowboy-themed jelly rolls were $6. The patchwork pieced quilt top cost me $7. Those three items fall into the keeper category. The contents of the 99 cent tub are yarn, small package of doll clothes, sealed CDs, a quilt kit with fabric, and sewing patterns. Best of the keepers are the fan quilts blocks featured in the lead-off image. Sorry Lava Lamp pattern, you've been bumped by the 2024 Fan Quilt. Here is the fabric pull incorporating the vintage fabric pieced backing. 

My daughter has claimed the Cowboy Quilt, adding in the jelly roll remnants gained through this recent thrifting excursion. The image below is the first fabric pull for that project. 

My latest eBay listing session are CDs. Those preowned ones I run through a listen on my commute to work. Love the ones 😍still sealed in package. Bought for 50 cents each, they are quick money in the pocket. 

I am beyond pleased to report that I had my first $250 week of sales. That is clear profit money in the bank. As I continue to add to my listings, I move closer to my goal of $1,000 a month in sales.