My booth at RMSC Holiday Bazaar

Happy Thanksgiving to all. A big thank you to everyone who attended the Rochester Museum and Science Center 49th Annual Holiday Bazaar. I had a great time and "The Sewing Husband" was joined by "The Quilting Wife." Deb did a great job talking with customers and inviting them into the booth. Tina came on Sunday and you can tell she grew up around retail. She shared knowledge and pride in the work done by both of her parents.

Deb made scrunchies, hand warmers and purse pockets to sell along side of my wall hangings and table runners. Of coarse the first sale of the day was a scrunchie! These are also available in my shop #407 at The Shops on West Ridge Road in Greece, New York. The Shops on West Ridge is a coop of over 150 vendors selling artistic creations, antiques, collectables, home decor, repurposed furniture and much more. It is located at 3200 West Ridge Road and is open Thursday through Sunday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm with additional days in December just visit the website.

My booth at RMSC Holiday Bazaar

If you are reading this because of the listing on my business card you should know the post here are not as often as they should be. For more current information and updates please visit my Sewing Husband Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sewinghusband like or follow the page to get regular updates.

Small Business Saturday

November 24th is Small Business Saturday. Come to The Shops on West Ridge, 3200 Ridge Road in Greece, New York. This is a collection of 200 small shops that feature Artisan Creations, Antiques and Collectibles. My shop #407 is one of over 15 shops with individually crafted items, a great place to start and maybe finish your holiday shopping. There are two full floor, so plan enough time for your visit, there is a Cafe for lunch or snack to refresh and continue shopping. Open Thursday to Sunday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, check the website for additional days in December.

These are some of my applique items that may still be available, it first come and get it for unique items. I also have table runners, Christmas stockings, journals, mug mats and much more....

I will also bring what is left by then to the Eastside YMCA Crafts for a Cause event on Dec. 1st.

The Snowmen are Coming

I love these guys and I have gotten a lot of positive encouragement from friends and family on FaceBook. The base of these projects comes from an in the hoop design at Sweet Pea Machine Embroidery Designs.

Each snowman takes over an hour, closer to two hours, to sew out in the embroidery hoop. I choose the colors for each part of the design through the fabrics that I apply as I sew through the multiple steps. I have five variations of snowmen to choose from. Once these are completed I play with how they are arranged as table runners or wall hangings. 

Here is my first set of snowmen all in black and grey. The blue snowflake border compliments the blue snowflakes in the designs of the snowmen. Below is a wide variety of ways that I have chosen to finish my creations. From single snowmen to groupings of two to five with a wide variety of borders. I continue to create these products as I get ready for upcoming shows and stock for my shop.

Christmas Stocking Promo Video

 

This is my first video on the blog. It is a promo for "First Saturday" at the Shops on West Ridge Road. This is a cooperative group of shops and I am one of the many vendors there. My shop is #407 on the upper level, in the back right corner near the Rest Rooms and the Cafe.

It is located at 3200 West Ridge Road in Greece and is open from 10 am to 6 pm on Thursday through Sunday. Every first Saturday of the month there are special events, live music and a treasure hunt for tokens that offer a surprise discount on your purchase.

I am also excited to offer classes on my Christmas Stocking. I am looking forward to teaching how to have fun with your sewing in a variety of ways. I was a Sunday School teacher for 16 years and I did product demos at Wegmans for about 8 years. After promoting KBS, Knowldge Based Service at Wegmans, I look forward to promoting FBS in the future, Fun Based Sewing. Below are some additional stockings already waiting for you in my shop. Stocking may be personalized for an additional charge.

Oh Christmas Tree - Dec. 2nd - Second Day of the Blog Challenge

Thank you to the 40 people who have visited my blog. For me those numbers are great and the best since last spring. I hope y'all will keep coming back.

 Now for the Christmas tree story. My wife was showing me how to use her beautiful, Bernina sewing machine. She showed me a best practice of putting a little starter strip of fabric under the foot as a way to make an even start when you begin sewing. She used a little piece of green fabric that was next to the sewing machine to show me what to do. Since she used it that day I assumed it was a scrap, silly me! Some days later I thought I would use her pile of scraps to make Christmas tree. The two you see here are a couple that I made that day, along with the four trees together on a wall hanging in the next photo down. Well, those 'scraps' were actually bias cut strips that she had ready for an appliqué project. They were to be the stems between flowers on a bed size quilt. When I showed her what I made she just smiled and walked away. I could sense something was wrong. She later told me about the appliqué project and admitted it was all her fault because she used that little piece as if it was a scrap when it wasn't really.

So from that example you see how most of my projects happen. They just happen as I put together shapes and fabric in pleasing combinations. In this photo you see the wall hanging with four trees in it. That is one of my favorites and is used to decorate for Christmas. It contains the fabrics from my wife's appliqué project, so I don't think I can part with it. It is one of the many pieces I hope to write a pattern for. In the mean time, in the same photo you see two new wall hangings one with three trees and one with two trees in various stages of completion.


In addition to my small strip trees I have made some larger strips into trees. The first group of five sold right from my FaceBook posting. The single trees below are actually the second group I made this year and there is another "Joy" waiting for the hanger on the back to be finished. I use scraps to make the trees and decorate them with those fancy stitches on the sewing machine that never get used. These will also become a future pattern or maybe a class.

Fun with Vintage Santas

Here is my latest wall hanging. It features three vintage santas embroidered in green on a cream swirled background. Each santa is machine embroidered and the panel was quilted prior to final assembly of the wall hanging. This allowed me to add extra batting behind each santa for a raised effect. Free motion quilting, in the cream color backgrounds around them, imitates the swirling snow. 

The black fabric used for the half square triangle block has a beautiful gold poinsettia print.

 The finished piece measure 23 1/2" by 44 1/2" with hanging triangles on the back to hold a dowel at the top for hanging and an additional dowel at the bottom to provide weight.

 The additional photos show the wall hanging in process. The machine embroidery designs are from a the "Old World Santas" collection by Beth Dix at Primerose Lane. My wife has used their designs for hand quilting in the past and were pleasantly surprised to see that they offer so much of their beautiful work in digital format. We purchased disks for the santas and the covered bridges at the Lancaster, PA quilt show last year. These are so great to work with you will be seeing more in the near future.

Gifts given 2015

I made a few gifts that were given in 2015. I made a firetruck quilt for my grandson. I made the quilt top and my wife quilted it. I made two table runners that also went out as gifts. One went to my secret santa gift at work and one went to a family pass around gift. To an end of using more scraps than I create, which I don't think is possible,  I make the smaller inset blocks from the scraps that came off the ends of the stars. Making half square triangle as I go and them finding a way to use them in the end product.

The fire truck was going to be smaller with three fire trucks.  But, I started with the ladder and it grew from there. So it ended up as one large truck for a twin size bed. After this photo I added the light bar above the cab and my wife added extra quilt lines to embellish it. Fun to make personal projects.