First Craft Show of the Year - Spring Fling

My first craft show of the year was last Saturday and man, did it get me in the mood for more! 
A few things happened at the show that really got me motivated. 

• First, people actually bought my items.  Sometimes I start getting worried that nobody will like my stuff and I'll go home penniless. I tend to be really hard on myself sometimes.
• Second, I was told about//invited to 3 other BIG festivals or street markets.  That was pretty sweet. Knowing that people think my items and booth would be good at another venue is extremely flattering.
• Third,  and frankly the icing on the cake......three people recognized my booth from this show I did before Christmas. Did you hear me?  PEOPLE ARE RECOGNIZING ME!!!  That's so cool.

Upcoming Spring Craft Shows

I've been busy with a capital B getting ready for a couple of upcoming craft shows.

To be honest, the only reason I'm so busy is because I'm a total slacker.  I've been procrastinating for way too long, and it just hit me the other day that I only have two weekends to work on stuff. Crap!

So.....this past weekend I ALMOST completed 12 jewelry/sewing pouches and 60 more pendants.  That means that this week I'll have to bust my butt to finish those so I can work on Moleskines and pincushions next weekend.  I'm tired already just thinking about it.

Wish me luck!

Nature's Modern Art or White Trash Yard Art

With Spring snow melting fast around here, we couldn't help but appreciate this.

 

Mother Nature is so my people.  Artistic with a sense of humor. Who knew? 

Signs of Spring in CO

The Pink Wallhanging - Completed

I finally decided what to do with this project.  I'm going to donate it to my son's school for a silent auction being held to send the Circus Arts club to Washington D.C.  Sending talented kids to the nation's capitol seems like a way better idea than having this sit in my shop for who knows how long.  Who doesn't love helping kids??

It was looking pretty plain jane, so in order to jazz it up and make it seem more relevant to the purpose of the auction, I added a few inspirational words. I hope it goes for lots of $$. These kids deserve it.

Photo turned into a wall hanging

Do you guys remember 1999?  The year Prince - or whatever his name is these days - sang about?   The year before Y2K?  The year these totally awesome panoramic size photos were all the rage?

It was also the year before Gardener Guy and I got married.  We went with his family to Lake Powell and stayed on a houseboat for a week.  That was the first time only time I've ever done that and it was pretty damn fun.

My sister in law took this photo of us at some point in the trip, I don't remember when. It's now my favorite picture of us. I've always wanted to hang it up, but ironically it's kind of small.  Too big for the picture table, but not quite big enough for a space on the wall.

So, being the crafty chick I am, I decided to enlarge it and make it a quilted wall hanging.  I was further inspired when I saw this post by Elizabeth on Sew Mama Sew.  What an easy way to sew itty bitty pieces of fabric together!  I had to try it.

 It worked okay, but I think I need practice.  That interfacing is kind of stretchy, especially when you start sewing all the rows.  Some of my seams are a little arched, so don't look too close.

While I was trying new things in my quilting, I thought I'd give "thread painting" a shot. I wanted the clouds to be light and barely there, like in the photo.  I didn't want to fuse some glaring white (or even off white) fabric onto my beautiful sky.

I'm not sure I pulled it off.  From a distance, you don't even see the clouds. I don't think white thread was the best thing to use. Maybe the thread painting works better with a bunch of different colors, instead of just one.

I feel like this post has gotten kind of wordy, so I'll save my super easy way of hanging it for another time.

Oh!  While I was tooling around the blogosphere the other day, I came across another photo turned into a wallhanging over at Upstatelisa. Go check it out, it's gorgeous!!