Memory Bear

My week really has been a week of catching up.  I am not going finish everything I wanted to finish, but I am going to make quite a dent in it all and I am holding out hope still.

My list for the week included (starting this past Friday through this coming Saturday)

1. Doily Quilt - literally, I am sewing 30+ doilies this customer's mother had made onto a quilt - talk about labor!  I will not do one of these again.  I am about half way.  My walking foot broke, so I had to order another.  It came tonight.
2. 33 shirts and jumpers to put embroidery and applique designs on.  Each one different.  I want to shoot myself. 10 down - 23 to go.
3. A Cube Quilt for my son - I HAVE to get this one done.  At this point, I have completely cut the front.  Need to start sewing...
4. 100 Blue Line Key Chains - DONE!
5. 1 Blue Line Pin - DONE!
6. Make a Memory Bear for Mock-up - DONE!
7. 2 Embroidered Logo shirt - same design, different color
8. Embroidered slogan on a patch
9. Lay out one quilt with specialty requests
10. Lay out one quilt with just 55 shirts - Whew!

Although it seems like I am not getting far, I have put a large dent into all of these.  However, now I am need to focus on one thing at a time and just get it done.

So, for tomorrow, I am going to embroider the design for the quilt, lay it out, take a picture - done.  Then, I am going to embroider the slogan on the patch - done.  Then, embroider the 2 logos - done.  3 items done by the end of the morning.  This is a MUST!

My son has band lessons, so I will have to leave, but I will start with my son's quilt.  It is the next most important thing to get done.  I will work until we leave, then start back up when we get back.  I hope to get the front sewn tomorrow.

Before I get back to it, here is a picture of the memory bear.  Not bad for a first run, and I plan on make some adjustments for the next one.

There are a few adjustments to be made, but I think it turned out great!

Monday Morning

Most of the kids in my area are starting school today.  Ah, I love the fact that I am not stressing about it - getting kids up early to catch the bus at 6:28 a.m.  My growing teens are still sleeping this morning because we are not starting today.

David, who is heading off to college, cannot move into his dorm until Labor Day.  They are on the quarter system, so I guess the year goes a little different.  Works for me though, that is how I remember the school year going - after Labor Day.

Since we have to travel to deliver him, we are holding off homeschool until then.  Plus, we are taking over his room.  I am such a bad mom - this weekend, we cleared out his room and put in 2 desks and a sleeper sofa, well, I am waiting for the sleeper sofa today. 

In my defense, he is hardly here any more.  The room is still his while he is here and he will be afforded all the privacy, etc.  It will be our homeschool/guest room while he is gone.  This kid has been gone for the past two years; he is not even batting an eye.  Before I even thought of this, his room echoed because he cleaned everything out!  At least now, it feels cozy with no echo.

As for work, there is still so much on my plate - it is good, I am making money, but Darrell is feeling neglected and so is the house.  The kitchen will be cleaned to my standards today.

I feel horrible though - I promised Carla some treats for her kids and I then I got completely swamped!  Carla - they are coming!  I am waiting on something for you actually, then I will ship this week!

Also, I HAVE to get a quilt done for my son.  Sigh, too much at times, it is overwhelming.

Quilts on order:

1.  One Doily Quilt - Should be amazing when I am done - if I ever get done.  I probably will not do this again.

2.  Five T-Shirt Quilts - all of varying sizes and difficulties.  Some are straight forward, but HUGE - 60 plus shirts, another one is all baby clothes, and another one is from a UT Head Cheerleader - so lots of embroidery and special requests.

3.  One made from the baby bedding.  It is an interesting one.

4. Eight lap size made from clothing - a continuation of the one set of 9 queen size I did before. This came Saturday night - kick in the gut really because I cannot take any more Quilt orders for Christmas.  It is going to cause trouble with a few of my customers who I told to get to me, but they didn't.  I have a very hard time saying no.

Then, in addition to this, there is all the scout patches and embroidery that constantly comes in.

NOW, I go and do a dumb thing like join a 2-day craft show.  Unbelievable!

I have to make things for that as well.  Like hooded towels, hot pads, embroidered kitchen towels, key fobs and I have blanks for sell as well.  Oh yeah, and make a couple of quilts for display!  (hopefully, I can get someone to let me borrow one!)

Oh, did I mention it is outside?  LOL

Halloween Buckets

So, if you cannot tell - I have recently began offering embroidery and applique to my customers.  Well, business BOOMED!  I am working 12+ hours every single day.  I love what I do, so I don't mind so much, but it is taking time away from the family.  I try to stop whenever they talk to me and make time for breaks on the weekend.  Plus, I need to fit homeschool in as well.  There is no such thing as balance!

The conference this past weekend went pretty good.  I learned  quite a bit and met some fun people.  After a rough start that is - the whole crowd thing seriously overwhelms me.

One of the main things I was introduced to is blanks.  It is a blank something - my focus is blanks that can be embroidered or applique on, but they had heat transfer items as well.

My first thing to throw out there is Halloween Buckets!  They are absolutely adorable.  I am getting a lot of feedback, but they have to be pre-ordered, so people are hesitant to purchase which I TOTALLY understand.  I may have to buy a bunch and see what I can do - it is hit and miss, but I have a show coming up at the end of September, so I think they would do very well there, but I need the inventory.

I can embroider on them or leave them blank and they are pretty big, too!  ~ 10" tall and 10" in diameter.

Right now though - it is monogramming backpacks and lunchboxes.  12 today minimum and more coming!

I still have 7 quilts on order as well.  Need to get going on those. 

OK, that was lunch - back to the grindstone!

Typing on my phone, so this post will look odd.

This is the bag I embroidered for the Applique Getaway Conference I am going to.  Currently sitting in the airport ready to get it started.

I am excited about it, but nervous because I am going alone and I don't do crowds well.  However, I will be attending classes and I NEED to learn, so I hope that alleviates some if those fears.

I hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

Need a Place to Get it Out

I know - back and forth - make up your mind.  I missed being able to vent here and although I kept up with some of you - not enough.

It is going to be different this time - I am not trying to get out of debt anymore, so I am not going to talk about money very much - just so much as it pertains to venting.

There is going to be a TON about my sewing.  It is my daily life - and I do mean daily.  I am going to talk a lot about Homeschool because again, it is my daily life.  I am going to talk about camping, the lack of cooking, the lack of exercise and how crazy I feel because I am not very good at balancing it all - not one little bit.

My house is a wreck, but only slightly so because I have a wonderful husband who is picking up the slack, even if it not exactly how I would do it.  I am getting over it because, well, I don't have time!

I screwed up an order for a customer - she doesn't know it and probably never will as I caught it, but it is due this week - a tshirt quilt, along with 2 other quilts, so I am beyond slammed!  I was supposed to put a color block border on it, but I put a plain border on it.  Which meant, I had to take the binding and border off and try to piece together batting backing and the color block border with only 1/2" space to work with.  Sigh, I did not get much last night.

We started a lite version of homeschool last week - math, grammar, writing, programming and a reader, but we are not doing homeschool this week because I am way TOO slammed.  I am going to an Applique Getaway Conference this weekend as well, so that puts even more pressure on me.

I will leave you with a couple of a pix of new items I am doing - more on that later though.

Red and Blue Line Key Fobs

Hooded Towels