Empty Nester – Extraordinaire

Posts Tagged ‘quilts’

In the Shop – Quilted

I grew up with quilts. My grandmother made them for my sisters and I and for my cousins.  My parents made them for my wedding and then for each of my kids.  It only seemed natural that I should make them.  Enough of my sisters and cousins quilt that I believe this IS a natural attraction.  Even Ravynn’s caught the bug.

I’ve wanted to add crib quilts to Bats! meow… for a long time, but I, for whatever reason, never put one together. Lately something has stirred and I put together five quilt tops in a matter of days. I hope they sell just as quickly.

This quilt was made as a gift for a friend’s daughter.

I fell in love with the peacock fabric and found others to match.  I’m a little sad at how the peacocks aren’t the focus at the end of it.

I love butterflies!  Ravynn pointed out the purple fabric and we were lucky to find others to match.  I couldn’t resist the temptation to put one together.

I’m not the only one inspired. Ravynn gathered up all the scraps of fabric and put together this 24×24 quilt top.

Wanting something darker – something like I would have wanted for my babies – I found these black and red options.  Ravynn and I designed the top and stitched it together.

Hopefully soon we’ll find time to put the backs on and do the quilting.

Visit us at Etsy to see more of our crafted treasures.

1-7/365 [take 2]

One of my goals for the 101 in 1001 Project is to complete the 365 Project – to snap one photo a day for 365 days. I’d started this last year and did very well, but fell off track when Eric took the camera to Burning Man in August.

Here we are. Starting again.

Dollies, dresses, and blankies… oh my!

I have great plans for new items for Bats! meow… I also have great hope that the time I need to draft the patterns and sew some samples will just appear in my life.

First up are a couple of new dresses or, maybe skirt and top sets.  The way this usually works is I determine what my girls want and then sew for them.  If the design is a success [as determined by the ooos and aaahs of the 6- and 7-years old girls  in the house and in the neighborhood], we’ll photograph, do the price workups [cost versus profit], create the web listing, and work on alternate size options – not necessarily in that order.

Next up are a set of rag dolls.  Or something of that nature.  I’m super excited about this.  When I was a little girl, all of my baby dolls [and I had a LOT of baby dolls with ALL the accessories] were little blonde things with bobbed hair.  They didn’t look anything like their mama.  Even the baby dolls in our house are 90% blondes. I do believe it’s time to expand the market to include more of the ‘looks like me’ variety.  Of course, there is more in the plans than just brown hair and grey eyes.  I’ll share more as soon as something has been sewn and stuffed. I’m really looking forward to this!

Finally, I want to incorporate my love of quilting into our designs.  More housewares, some quilts for babies, even some pillows for bigger kids and adults.  But not just any design will do – we’ll need something special, so more designing on real life graph paper.

So much to do.  Such great plans.  But time, again, is the enemy.

~sheila