Now that I am back from teaching Hand Quilting at the Estes Park Fiber Festival (which was enormously gratifying) and I now have one graduate class, instead of three, on my plate, hopefully, I can get back to smocking, knitting, sewing….etc. It felt really good to get back into the teaching mode at the festival. I really love it when I can see students actually understanding and improving their skills throughout the duration of the class. Thanks to my minor afternoon contribution, I can say that there are 20 more people out there who have a better understanding of the art of hand quilting. Fabulous!

Now, on to the dresses. I have the fabric in the stash for an Alabama Roll Tide dress, but have yet to put a needle to it. Also in the works is an Auburn toddler bubble outfit that is just adorable, complete with paw prints. So, if you haven’t yet visited my Etsy site, please, please, please do. I would really appreciate it!

As always, comments are welcome and appreciated!

Fair Winds

There is a matching Bishop style dress in the works for Ella’s little sister Lauren, and both are to be completed in time for Easter.  Photos of both dresses together when they are finished.

Now on to the new toys.  Since I started this venture, I have, naturally, been looking at pleaters.  My experiences with the local shop (see earlier post) have been less than fulfilling and I, also, want to be able to pleat my own garments on the fly.  Enter a friend from church who’s sister was looking for a buyer for her pleater.  Yipee!!  Look at my new baby:

Oh yes, I thought I was just buying the pleater.  I did not know it was already mounted and everything.  I am just tickled pink, or in this case, orange….LOL

Taking a page from the Obama “How to spend without the appearance of spending” reference manual, I was able to save enough money on the pleater by buying it from my friend, that I bought this:

This little old lady (below) is on her way to the shop for a tune up.  I learned to sew on this machine while doing a project for Girl Scouts and it belonged to my mother until she passed away.  Don’t ask the machine’s age, you will be asking mine…

Finally, last, but certainly not least, Ebby was less than thrilled with the St. Patrick’s Day party favors we brought home from the restaurant last night.  Somehow, the camera made her eyes green…She is such a party animal.

That is about all I have for this week.  Of course, Spring Break is not over till Sunday night, so you never know what kind of trouble I can manage between now and then…Fair Winds,  D

And, now that I have the photo shoot done, I can make it official.  I finally have the first item in my new Etsy shop.  The name of the shop is ArwensChild.  I am so excited about the new business, although only having one item in the shop is a little pathetic, it is a start.  Please go have a look and tell me what you think.  Better yet, if you would like to order a dress or Christening Gown, or know someone who would, please give me a shout.  More photos of more items to come…I am working as fast as I can.

Fair Winds…

Twist Collective did a fantastic job with their pattern selection in this new issue.  If only I had the time…

During all the years we worked in the quilting industry, we were on the supplier end of things, so we saw the shop owners come and go, their businesses succeed for a while then fade or be sold to the next shop owner.  One thing we almost always saw in common among the owners who failed was a desperation for $$ to stay afloat and an indifference toward the individuals who could keep them afloat, their customers.

Sure, there are a lot of good business decisions that go into keeping a business running smoothly, but if you don’t have the customers, you can’t sell anything.  Many shop owners struggle because they want to offer a high end product and they cannot afford to discount that product, so their more frugal customers will depart for the national chain down the street.  The problem is that the shop owner begins to look suspiciously at all their walk-in customers as potential lost sales from the beginning and then treat them as such.

Today I was confronted by another of these shop owners.  The other day, I took in some fabric to this shop to have it pleated.  This is a service that this shop offers.  When I called the shop today to check on the status I was informed that the price would be higher for my pleating service because I had not purchased the fabric from the shop.  While I do understand the thinking behind this as wanting to sell more of her own fabrics, what it did was just the opposite.  Wouldn’t it have been better to raise the price of pleating a piece of fabric from $7 to $10 across the board and not have to hassle with whether a customer bought it there or not?  Wouldn’t that just be a great service to offer to everyone?

I will now be buying my own pleater, which I could also have purchased from her, and doing my own pleating.  The shop owner lost my pleating business, fabric sales, and pleater sale business all because she wanted to make a couple of extra dollars from me any way possible.

The thinking that goes into dividing your customers into groups according to what they will or will not purchase from you on any given day is one of the things that ultimately puts these shops out of business.  When I visit a speciality shop, I expect to pay more, but I also expect to walk away with a desire to “Come Again Soon”…

Thoughts?

This may be the only entrelac pattern I would ever consider trying.  It is actually very pretty and I can just see it done in fall oranges and browns!  Here is the Ravelry link to the free pattern if any of you are interested.

Till next time…