The End of One Road, But the Journey Continues

Where did summer go?  My daughter is back in school, Labor Day weekend is nearly upon us and her soccer season is in "Go" mode. It seems like I was just writing about the Niagara Falls trip that we took right after school was out.  Labor Day is bittersweet as it brings the end of summer, but signals the beginning of Fall in Ohio which can be a very beautiful time of year.  Of course, Fall is followed by Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day which right now NO ONE wants to think about!

This Labor Day weekend brings a little something else for our family;  the sale of the rental property that I had mentioned several posts ago, will be closing tomorrow.  I'm so happy to not have to go clean it for showings or have my husband worry about keeping up with the grass, but as I mentioned before, I wish things could have worked out differently for my brother in law and he could have purchased it.   It was not God's plan I guess, and we wait to see where He leads.

With the rental property gone, I can get my husband focused on finishing my shop/studio!  We are in the process of giving the hot tub away, my windows will hopefully get ordered next week and I've been amassing vintage antiques for use as fabric storage and display.

   As this picture shows, my cat assumes I bought a new kitty perch just for her.  She's got a surprise coming!  I mentioned in the last blog post that my daughter and I were trying something new...and yes it is an AWESOME new product:

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you ---Quilt Store Next Door will soon be selling assorted soaps with gift sets.  Marketed as "Two Roses" for Quilt Store Next Door, these are shea better and goat's milk soaps in several colors and scents.  I already have about a dozen orders for the soap gift sets which will also include a lovely appliqued finger tip towel made by Quilt Store Next Door on this sweet baby:

Yes, I broke down and decided that I needed a 

serger!  I've contemplated buying one for years but couldn't justify it since I don't "sew."  Well, it will be a life saver when I'm making these towels, as you can see however, I am still afraid of it so it is still safely in the box until I can figure it out!

Getting time to figure anything out lately has been next to impossible with how busy my shop (and me!) is becoming.  I've made oodles of lunch totes and still have an orders for 6-7 more in my queue.  

I also made my daughter a class switch bag and the new item for Fall is a microwaveable bowl cozy.  These items have been flying out the door so hence, I never get out of my studio when I'm home!  I don't mind though, I LOVE what I do.  I realized this week that I think I finally know what I would like to be when I grow up, and this little humble business is it.  I have a lot more plans that you will be seeing solidify in the upcoming months, but for now, I am actually going to go to bed and get some beauty sleep.  Thank you for your faithful reading and God bless you and your family.  Until next time, good night!

I Spent Friday Dyeing

As the title of this week's post tells you, my big accomplishment was FINALLY getting around to hand dyeing some fabric! My daughter and I joked all day about "getting around to dyeing" or "after we run errands, we're going to dye" and in her words: "that joke never gets old!"  She's hit the age where she LOVES a good play on words! Nonetheless, I posted about six months ago that I had bought dyeing supplies and PFD fabric but then I didn't want to do it inside so as not to have proper ventilation and once nice weather came upon us---well, it's "August Already" and here we are. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm spending the last two weeks of summer break home with my daughter, and so we "dyed!" Ha! Here's the breakdown: I had read plenty about the process, but reading and doing are two different beasts. I had already gathered my armamentarium, so we set up on my porch (aka future quilt shop and studio) and from there, it was messy and a little nerve racking. Of course, the labels warn that you should wear a mask and gloves, as procion dyes are known carcinogens in the state of California (haha, I love labels written like that) and so I figured it was safe to assume that the powders were carcinogenic in Ohio as well. So, there was just a lot of care to be taken.  My daughter dyed and painted a little t-shirt as well. In the end, it was one beautiful mess. I dyed five yards of fabric and the results look like this 

You'll notice you only see four bolts.  I have another bolt of green that was too light and had too many blotches so that becomes part of our next project.  More on that next week! ;-)

These did not come out perfect for my first rodeo.  The fuchsia has some grains, the purple has one really light blotch, but the green and blue actually turned out nice.  These are available by the half yard on my website www.quiltstorenextdoor.etsy.com for $5.50 per half yard. 

Would I do it again? That would be a resounding YES! In true Shelley fashion, I am hooked on this--it was fun, a little stressful, very messy, but the results were worth it. I ordered more fabric today and some new fall tones.  

It was a great ending to a great week with my girl. Monday, she took her first sewing class that taught how to make a pillowcase.  We came home and made a second one for her full sized bed and they are gorgeous! I'm very proud of her.  We visited the Columbus Zoo, had lunch with my husband, dyed fabric and signed her up for TWO MORE sewing classes for September and October.  That was our first week! We have one more week and LOTS of plans....I'll tell you more later--I've got a sleepover to get to.  Bye all, and as always, thank you for reading. 

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August Already?

Good morning! It's a beautiful Sunday morning in Lexington, KY! Our family enjoyed another weekend getaway, this time to Lexington with my in-laws in tow so they could enjoy a visit to the Kentucky Horse Park with my daughter. If you are at all interested in horses, this is an amazing place to visit. You will learn about many different breeds and get to see several retired race horses, including Kentucky Derby winners. 

As we head home today, I begin a two week "staycation" from work. I'll be spending the last two weeks of my daughter's summer break with her before she heads back to school.  It is so bittersweet that it is August already. I have been looking forward to having this time off with her all summer, but I also know it means back to school is coming, followed by the end of summer.  But I am also amazed that it is August already because my quilting journey part two, that you have been faithfully following, started in January---seven months ago! It's been an incredible seven months! My online shop, Quilt Store Next Door, just finished a record sales month in July. It's only August 4th, and the shop has already had one large order on Friday that I will be shipping tomorrow morning. 

In my physical home-based shop, I'll also be working on completing four more lunch tote orders. This one below is the first completed order which will be delivered tonight to its very excited owner! 

The next tote is getting personalized. This allowed me to play around with my Accuquilt die cutter making letters and doing some appliqué. 

I'll post a pic next time of the completed lunch tote. This is going to be a cutie! 

As for progress on my home-based quilt and fabric shop, I got an estimate on windows which was a great price and we will be moving forward getting those installed hopefully around the end of this month. I've been checking flea markets for hutches, shelving and decor for the interior of my shabby chic/vintage look shop. More ideas swirling in my head. 

Next Sunday, is the beginning of August class season.  We will start with another throw pillow class, followed by a "Bring your own project" class that will allow students to bring that project that they either have no idea how to get started or, have no idea how to finish, and I will help them through it.  Later this month, my students will get to start their first applique project with some simple applique circles. I have a lot in store for them--now I just have to get started on the class samples!

My little one, upon asking for her sewing machine that reignited this whole thing, wants to learn to make clothes......well, I don't do that and I have no desire, or available time to learn, so tomorrow we head off to the big box craft store so that my daughter and her BFF can take their first sewing class.  They will be making pillow cases followed by a girl's day out lunch with her and her mother.  It'll be a great way for us to kick off our two week girly staycation and we're pretty excited.  I think I see some simple kit ideas coming out of this pillowcase class.  

Lots of work to do and I love it!  I'm not quite where I had hoped to be on some things, such as my catalog, but when I start beating myself up for getting behind, I have to stop and remind myself that this all began because I was following God's plan and still now, I have to leave things up to His timing.  Yes, it's August already....