Beelightful Summer Days

Howdy!  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!  It's been pretty busy in my nest.  After the Astoria Market last weekend, I turned my attention to filling my order for the new Owl & Thistle General Store opening in Crown Heights, Brooklyn!  Keri Cavanaugh is such a delight & I am super excited to be a part of this exciting opening!

These lovelies were getting all dressed up last night to be ready for the opening!  Stay tuned for news of her Grand Opening party in August!

Now, I can turn my attention to finishing my baby neice's quilt!  Here is a sneak peak of what I pieced together this weekend:

Her room was decorated with contemporary colors, so I decided to be bold!  It took me many months to find the exact fabrics and color combinations I was looking for, but I'm pretty happy with it & I'm hoping she will like it as well!  I pieced together the top, and then hand cut the flowers and appliqued those on before sandwiching.  I did this, as my sewing maching has a bit of difficulty sewing the applique stitching on such a large quilt.  It's just a bit unwieldy!  And, I could have hand stitched it, but I want her to actually use it before she turns 1 years old! 

I should be able to finish the binding by this weekend.  I am heading off to Maine for some R&R with some good friends.  Of course, I'm bringing my sewing machine... I don't know what I'd do without it for such a long time! 

Hope you have a fabulous day & stay cool in all this summer heat!

Astoria Market in July!

Well, I have been remiss in my postings, but am hoping to catch up today!  I joined the Astoria Market again this past Sunday and had a lovely time meeting new folks & networking.  Here is a peek at my booth:

Between moving & going away for the weekend of the 4th, I was frantically trying to get everything together for this market.  Nothing like doing everything at the last minute?? But, I was able to come up with some nice new ideas.  Here is a new gift basket:

It comes with a lap quilt, 4 napkins with napkin ring holders handmade from burlap, and a beelightful candle! 

I rolled my beeswax tapers in new colors, and placed them inside mason jars!  What a perfect way to take a candle with you for a picnic!  For the tops, I cut out feedsack fabric to add that vintage-farm feel.

Here is a lovely lavender basket made with feedsack fabric:

I also found these wonderful novelty fabrics in NC that I just couldn't pass up:

It says "What happens on my tractor stays on my tractor"!  So, of course I had to make some reversible bibs using this with the tractor on the back. 

How fun! 

Hope you are having fun this summer as well!

New Feedsacks!

Look what just flew into my nest:

A new shipment of vintage feedsacks!!  I will be pecking away at these in short order...

Moving & WIP

I'm in the middle of moving, which is a great opportunity for me to re-organize and sort of catalog my fabrics and notions to get more inspiration for future projects.  It is a revolving process, as I start one project, and then get ideas for other projects using scraps, and then get more patterns and pickup more fabric which gets me excited about other ideas... I literally have to keep lists with my ideas, and a schedule to keep me on track with what I'm creating.

But, at least I'm creating!

I was very pleased to find that I wasn't burned out after coming off of all the crazy preparations and late-night sewing for the first Astoria Market.  In fact, I have found that I'm yearning to sew more, but also allowing myself some time for brainstorming to see if I can't make my ideas even more customized and fabulous....

Of course, the last thing I am packing up to move is my workstation!  So, after making some homemade drop biscuits for comfort food,

I started working on some new coaster designs using scraps:

I drink coffee every morning, and usually have a coaster handy to protect my coffee table.  I thought, what better way to get little tidbits of inspiration to get me motivated for the day?  I think this idea may evolve into some other projects.  I am really enjoying using my printer to transfer images and words... it will be interesting to see how this all comes together.

Have an inspired day!

Oh, Astoria!

It's been forever since I have stopped at my little nest and posted something!  Just been very busy getting ready for & attending the first Astoria Market this past weekend.  What fun!  We did well, had a great time meeting other vendors, and look forward to being there again on 7/10.

Here are some photos from the market:

Please also visit my Etsy shop as I've added new listings too!

More to come soon, but wanted to give an update & wish you a wonderful week!

Market Madness!

This weekend was a pressure cooker of fabric, notions, and thread... Wow, can't believe how much thread a gal can go through sewing!! Bobbins, and bobbins, and bobbins...

I am preparing for the Astoria Market next weekend, and then had an unexpected trip come up & will be leaving Thursday morning and returning Saturday at midnight (just in time to be perky for the market on Sunday- hey, I'm not ashamed to be 100% fueled on coffee and adrenaline!).

So, I ramped up my production schedule this weekend & churned out some aprons & created some new designs too!

I absolutely LOVE this feedsack- and no, my photos do not give it justice, but I was in a hurry to post & just shot real quick from my iPhone... I swear I will get real quality photos up soon!

Anyway, I started making some shorter aprons with both left & right handed pockets- super cute! 

Also, I have some unisex campbell's kid aprons made out of oshkosh demin... oh, super cute!

This is what my work station looked like this morning.  I have a pile of fabric (about 11 aprons) left to make tonight & tomorrow, and then I'll pack everything up in my new cute baskets (thanks, Caitlin!), and will be ready to rock and roll for the market!

Have a great day!

June Inspiration

So, I was rambling around the Amazon Kindle store the other day searching under "quilts"... My big secret obsession is reading fictional stories where the authors weave together quilting folklore with heartfelt stories.  When, I found this amazing book:

I have been reading it every morning on my commute, and it is so inspiring!  The history of American quilting is so rich and amazing, from the plantations and slaves, to the Oregon Trail, and beyond!  There are many illustrations in the book of old quilts, the people who made them, and the culture surrounding quilting.  Although I am enjoying the kindle version, I would almost recommend getting the regular book so that the colors of the quilt fabrics and patterns will come through.

In other news:  I just finally purchased a real camera.  Yes!  I have been using my iPhone (without flash) and I am thrilled to finally be able to do something more than just cross my fingers, point & click.  So, I'll be updating my photos on etsy soon & taking new ones!

Also, I've started a new project that I think may become one of my signature items to sell.  It is sort of a combination of a picture frame & personalized quilt... Stay tuned!

Have a fabulous Thursday!