I **think** it's done - for now

**mental checklist**

quilt gallery uploaded

location loaded

index page updated with gallery link

ideas for new inventory / projects

I finally found a tutorial for a gallery in flash that allows me a description without the frufra of a sliding thumbnail images .. Lordy but that was a search and a half .. I found one that gave me the basic instructions for what I wanted to do .. nothing complicated, just easy to use, simple to follow directions with explanations!! Thank God.

While I was doing this searching and then finally the coding, I had been thinking that I need to have some smaller ticket items in for sale could make the difference between not making my table cost and clearing my table .. some of the ideas are:

1. scrunchies - 3 or 4 for $1


2. bookmarks - $1 - could make these with heavy interfacing or craftbatting


3. knitted dishcloths - $1


4. knitted pot scrubbies - $1


5. mini coasters - $1 - I'll call these keyboard koasters - I have one a dear friend gave me for Cmas in 2000 and it lives next to my keyboard - no batting - yes Dottie I still have and use it ;)


6. quilted postcards - $3.50 - $5.00 - idea for the future, I need to see what regulations Canada Post has on these


7. or even doing a kit with a coaster, a coffee cup, and a bag of tea / hot chocolate or some hot drink .. cider maybe for the winter months.


8. doing a buy two reduced price for trivets - I had a lady try to barter with me for trivets, what I should have said was, I'll sell you 2 for .... but I wasn't expecting that and didn't think quick enough .. granted I thought of it AFTER she walked away from my table .. to late :S

These are all smaller ticket items that ppl can spend their 'pin' money on. I think that's what ppl are looking for at these shows. I know I ALWAYS need scrunchies. And to display these; in the quilted baskets that everyone says are so bloody clever but no one buys :|.

I have a ton of yarn packed away in the basement .. I'm positive that I didn't give away my needles and case .. I'm hoping that they are in the same box as the yarn .. oh and this is a HUGE box of yarn .. also I'm sure that there is a ton of yarn of my mum's at my dad's house still .. so could get her yarn .. and needles if need be ...

Also in the back of my mind is getting maybe some baby quilts or wall quilts done - but I also want to get MY quilts done too .. Kyle's quilt, my kitty quilt, the sea scape just needs a binding to be put on it. A friend in the UK wants me to make her a quilt and we've decided on the grandmother's fan in pale colours .. I'm pretty excited about doing this for her and will get started on that soonest :D That way I can add them to my product pages and my quilt gallery.

I just have to be sure that my webpage is finally all set and I can move forward .. I'm so bloody fussy sometimes ... LOL

menus and galleries oh MY!!!

The past few days I've spent debugging my website and looking for tutorials for flash galleries .. I would prefer to find one close to how I want it and alter it from there, but not having much luck .. course it would likely help to NOT do this when I'm dog tired. I want to find one that allows a description and I've not found that yet .. all sorts of slideshows with or without thumbnails etc .. but nothing with a quick description. It's been a long time since I've done any serious flash and I would essentially have to relearn it all again .. I'm hoping that the tutorials will help jog my memory on the coding.

I also tried to do php for my website .. that way I would just have to update a database, and upload a picture and voila, it would be updated .. but i'm having issues connecting to the server to test the database .. everything seems to be working right, but I just canNOT connect to that blasted server to test - **sigh** So i gave up that idea .. altho, it will stick in the back of mind and if a solution presents itself, I'll be sure to try it :D

I've posted my ads on kijiji.com and there have been some decent amount of hits on them PLUS visits to my website - but alas, no emails or paypal notifications. It'll come. Are you ready for this??? I posted kijiji ads in Windsor, London, Detroit, Saginaw and Lansing .. I check later and the ads for Detroit and Saginaw have been removed. Kijiji is supposed to be a community, free classified ads and I am not in those communities - okay .. i'm 5 mins from Detroit but 2 hours from London LOL!!!!! Go figure.

I can get the space at the Walkerville Trade Center, but wondering on the money issue for it, I was really hoping to have made enough at this last show to cover that cost, but that didn't happen. I have to do some creative number crunching me thinks - I sent my link to the website to the owner of the trade center and this is what she had to say ...

I took a look at your website. Your products are amazing. I have the perfect area that will help to display them off. I have an 8 x 10 foot section that has hardwood floors and a table with wall space that is 6' high and two 8' shelves. There is also a wall space that is 4' high and 5' in length. The area is $150.00 for a monthly rental. When you come in I will show you the area. You will fall in love with it. I figured it would be perfect for your products and it will really help you with having your own business.

bit more than the original quoted price, but this sounds almost like a double space???

Oh well, I'm off to play with coding .. i did find a flash drop down menu that I want to play with .. it'll be very close to the one I have now, but won't cause all the funky issues that this one appears to be doing. Once that's done, I want to make these cute little pouch purses that Judi sent me a link too .. but am hesitant to make much more inventory as I've not managed to sell much of it .. it WOULD be nice to maybe finish my kitty quilt or get started on basting Kyle's quilt .. but i'm driven to get all this website stuff done first ..

a tad of a success

Well today dawned with me looking outside and saying "I am so BLOODy cursed!!!" It was snowing .. sideways even .. I'm like .. are you kidding me ..

today was the day of my second show .. and this nasty weather didn't bode well for a good turn out .. not to be daunted, I grabbed the fliers i had printed out (just did a copy of the index page of my website, got it to fit on one page with my contact information on it and printed 50 of them out in colour :D), scissors, tape, camera, ribbon, bags that were left next to my bin of inventory and packed the rest of it away and got ready to go. I did this on 3 hrs sleep .. and amazingly I'm still up .. tired as all get out .. but feeling pretty bloody good bout myself ;)

I get there and see some familiar faces in the vendors but no other quilters in the room i was in . they placed me in the gym and I had a 4 x 10' space .. room for the table (they provided) and my tote rack that reg made for me. Get set up in record time and waited

I did make my first sale bout 2 hrs in .. sold a wallet and a coaster. I was asked about doing memory quilts, a commissioned wall hanging and do i teach .. nope - not sure bout that one at all .. while I didn't break any records with sales - 2 wallets, coaster set and a large rice trivet - I did give out a LOT of business cards, answer a lot of questions and gave out fliers

So while I didn't break even again .. I did learn again - this show had a LOT more people and more traffic .. and a wider sampling of the population me thinks.

What surprises me is that the totes didn't sell and i figured that the trivets would have been a hot little item too (no pun intended) - ah well .. other vendors were saying that you just never know what ppl are going to want to buy when they come in the door .. i'm beginning to feel like the shows have a 'garage sale' flavour to them .. they don't want to pay the prices or are looking for cheaper stuff .. I need to do more thinking about that - doesn't make sense to lose money at a 'garage sale'

T-Minus 12 Hours & Counting ....

I've spent that past 2 weeks doing my website. It went live yesterday :\ **gulp** A few friends spent some much needed time helping me debug it .. my greatest thanx to you all!1 I got some wonderful suggestions from Kristin, Judi sat for a few hours with me going over links and images .. Joy had few great suggestions and Jan told me issues with my menu, Linda also told me about issues with my menu as well .. all much needed and wanted feedback .. Thank you so much ladies.

Yesterday reg built me a stand for my totebags to be hung on .. doesn't look the greatest, but it's small and lightweight and cost us nothing .. we used the third leg from the audio pier for this with some scraps of laminate flooring! I'll hang just a few totes on there at a time so it doesn't look overwhelming and maybe some on the wall behind me along with my sign .. :D I'm just tickled to death to have it.

I learned a LOT at my first show .. let's hope that that total failure sales-wise shows some profit with the lessons that i learned. I've gotten small tent cards and printed my logo, item name and price on it .. they will be displayed on the items or beside them. I wanted to go to the dollar store yesterday while i was doing all my other running around, but didn't have any cash. i wanted to grab some hooks for this stand and also those plate easle type things .. so that way I can sort of stand up a few things to help attract attention to them. I'm going to start with the display style that I ended up with. i also picked up some bristol board, expanded my logo to fit width of board, then sliced my logo and printed it out - all 10 pages LOL .. just have to trim the white at one side and top or bottom and glue them to the bristol board :D.

I spent today debugging my site - My dad showed up and I suddenly remembered that I had totally forgotten to go to the bank bout 2 miles from my house) to get my float *aw crap!!!* So I decided to take the dog for a walk and walk to the bank (needed to deposit a check anyways) and see if Tim Horton's would sell me some fives .. you know it started to rain as i left the house :S .. but i wanted to do this in daylight and of course I would have the dog with me :D.

Well the girl at tims, was going to sell me some 5s and 10s but suddenly changed her mind .. i'm like what the ... and not to bloody happy either .. I WAS going to pay for my coffee with 2 loonies, but changed my mind and use a 20 instead.

Grumbling deprecations bout her parentage, off I trot to Macs on the way home .. the kid there gave me half of what he had in his drawer .. Bless Him!! What a sweetie - but he had no 10s.

So i stop at the store near my house (had already stopped on my way to the bank, and he had none), and asked about 10s - he had like 3, but told me to come back between 9 and 10 and he would give me what he could then .. I don't need much more .. maybe 2 more 5s and 3 10s - and i'll be good to go.

i'm ready for a nap :S Been a long time since I've walked 4 miles .. i just have to do my sign, triple check a few things and maybe do a few more coaster sets .. we'll see how I feel .. i've not sewn in 2 weeks and I'm feeling deprived ;) Judi sent me the cutest quickest pattern for a origami pouch and I might try to get 1 or 4 done tonite .. they are just made with a square of fabric and some cording :D. I do have to do some more work on my menu for the site - I think I need to replace it as it appears to give ppl various fits - from not laying out right to not even showing up :O .. maybe I'll do a flash one - but i should get some text links in there for now .. we'll have to see.

it's been a while

My site is now live Qzone Quilting. It just finished uploading as i was typing out my update.

It's been a long while since I posted here .. so much as happened in this time ..

I remember that my walking foot went KACHUNK - well that was the noise that it started to make, and it even started to dance too .. something gave way inside .. then my machines started to pull and that created problems for me too .. i got into a HUGE deep depressive funk that lasted for about 2 weeks .. course this was right after my family was so sick too .. no clue why I got into the funk, but it's gone.

Then the day of my show arrives .. gorgeous weather .. first day like that we've had practically all winter - shoudl have been my first clue. This show was such a joke! i didn't make one bloody sale - not ONE. There might have been a total of 100 ppl thru there and 75% of them were attached to the show in some shape way or form .. the rest . were friends of the club ladies that were running the show .. so they bought there stuff .. I had other vendors interested in my things, but if they didn't make their table cost, who can blame them for not buying. Most of the vendor's didn't even make their tables .. bah!

But that didn't daunt me .. rather reconfirmed some private prejudices i had relating to the ppl running the show .. and it was a qualm that I felt when I heard where it was. But that's neither here nor there .. I set my sights upon other ventures. There is a place on Ottawa street where I can rent a shelf for $12 / month - shelf measures bout 3ft wide and 12" deep and I could go up to the ceiling which would be about 3ft - which is really cool, but they've not been able to advertise and have almost shut their doors once. So i put that on the back burner until after the show this sunday ..

In the meantime, a trader's market opened up .. or at least I became aware of it .. it's been around for about a month or so now and they have some more upscale vendors in there .. I talked to the owner today and she said that they would only have one person selling one type of item at a time .. meaning - 1 quilter only, 1 jewelry vendor only, etc etc etc .. the price is really reasonable, and I've been to check it out ... nice space roomy aisles .. just down the street from the other one too :D But this one has traffic in it. THey are open on fridays, saturday and sundays for about 8 hours each day

My back went out on me too during the time up to my show .. that was a rather painful ordeal all in itself .. lost a good 3 or 4 days there dealing with the spasms and pain .. my dad ended up kidnapping me and bringing me to ER, reg grounded me from my machines for a week after the show lol - the plan was .. to get the website up .. that went well until I splashed coffee on my keyboard and didn't realize it .. discovered it went IN the keyboard when i lost my "c" key, shift key, shortcut keys (I really depend on them heavily for graphics and html) - do you have any idea what it feels like not to be able to type your name (@@) At any rate - i found a new keyboard while checking out the traders market :D :D :D so i've been going crazy doing coding and images and whatnot to get the page live .. it's uploading as i type this ..

Then tomorrow i will get some more paper products for my table, and get other stuff ready - i'm really hoping to make some sales this time so i can get my machines adjusted . yeah i know I can do them myself, but lack the confidence right now and there is a retired singer tech that will do them for $12.95 :D :D :D .. works for me (!) Maybe he will look at the 248 as well and give me a quote to fix it .. boy do I miss that machine .

I think I've covered it all .. but sure I missed a bunch of stuff .. I've had some great support from my dad, reg, kyle and my friends during my dark funk time and I am blessed for having them .. thank you Joy, Kristin, Dottie, Judi, Linda Marie, Jan, Joanna ... I think have everyone .. if i missed you .. you can nudge me in the comments

welp back to watching my upload go up .. the last thing I will send up will be the index page.

Inventory & Our Health

It's been beautiful weather. We opened the windows yesterday to air the house out after Reg gave the dog another bath .. she was getting a certain skunky air about her again. The first time she was sprayed she was lucky that a wooden fence took most of the hit - not this time.. it got her full bore in the neck .. phewwww - stinky dog .. but it was nice to get some fresh air in the house. We are all still sick .. well reg and I - Kyle feels better today - which is a good thing! Reg is a good patient .. Thank God!!

I did manage to get some inventory done, altho looking at it now, you can tell I'm not feeling good when I'm doing this. I did 2 mats and a basket yesterday. I wanted to do a binding around the edge of one, but i should have made the strips wider .. I did ³/4" - next time I'll do an inch .. it doesn't stand out like i want it to, seems a lot smaller. I did variegated thread on the one with the border and yellow thread on the rectangular one. Heh, I'm running out of motifs that i want to use for quilting these, there are only so many hearts, butterflies, and flowers that a body and can :S

Here's one of the many baskets that I did, this is the first one that I modified back to a 9 patch block. It turned out pretty good, but I can see mistakes in my my quilting that I may go back and fix, or I could save this one for a display model. I still have to tack the sides down. For the insides I used a hand-dyed pink that I did many years ago .. I still really want to find my dyes, I miss doing that! You get the neatest results from it!

a wee bit quilty; basketball

Well reg's team didn't win tonite, they lost by 20 .. but these boys gave it there all didn't stop fighting .. I'm so proud of them and so is reg. His team was playing a team that is older (19 year olds) and larger .. Reg's team consists mostly of 16 year olds that are in their first year of senior basketball .. these kids will be unstoppable in 2 years and bloody hard to beat next year.

I'm still feeling like crap and have a headache like 10 men. I did manage to get a basket done tonite and I've got some fabrics picked out for the rest of the fan mats. I really wanted to get everything ready so I just had to quilt it all up tomorrow, but right now i just lack the energy.

Tomorrow is a new day and I'll be busy working on it then!

Challenge, Inventory, health n stuff

Please click on the images to view larger versions in a new window ;)

It's been a nutty week - with Reg's basketball team season winding down, my challenge and getting sick.

Reg's team won their quarter final game on Wednesday by 15 I think .. it was a game that the ref's were absolutely HORRID and Herman led by at least 5 the whole game. It was good to see it! I had a splitting headache, was sicker n a dog, but enjoyed it. The semi's are tonite and I'll be going to this game as well. If they lose, they are out, so I want to be there to support the team.

I spent 2 days being sick and almost missed getting my candle mat in for the challenge. As it was i sent it up just before midnite and the email at midnite :\. This is the candle mat that I entered. I did the birthing method for quilting this. Made it quick to put together - I'm likely going to do this method for all the smaller items that I can; while I wish it had that pretty defining binding as a frame, i can always add an extra ¹/4" to the outside for the appearance of a border. I used green thread for the quilting and did flowers and ditch stitching.

This is the candle mat that I wished was ready. While the colours are striking in the other one, this one just speaks more to me. I used a variegated thread for the quilting and did different flowers, butterflies and ditch stitching on it.

I used mum's machine on for the decorative / applque stitches for these mats. It only jammed on me one other time and that was right at the beginning just after I did the bobbin. This machine has such a tetchy petal!! It only has one speed - SONIC - so speed control was a huge issue for me .. but all in all, no serious problems while doing it - it was just nerve wracking is all .. thank you all for the prayers, naked moonlight dancing and burning feathers ;)

This is a finished basket; I say finished like that as I still have to tack down the flaps on the inside. This was very easy to make, altho I did have to man-handle this while I was sewing down the flaps to make the basket .. I'm just so glad that my machine was able to do this :D. For this I just did ditch stitching for the sides and meandered along the bottom for stability.

I'm still not feeling 100%, maybe 55% right now .. have another headache, and am still suffering from this cold - but i'm better today than I was yesterday and specifically the day before - Thank God!

Catching up; baskets, candle mats

It's been in interesting few days. I've been going a wee bit nuts trying to figure out exactly what I'm going to do for the show coming up. I had a whack of ideas; but felt like a one-eyed cat watching 10 mouseholes. ;) I think it was just a case of nerves and just needing to settle on what items I was going to start on first.

I did find some really neat patterns and ideas on Freepatterns.com - it was just a matter of settling on what to do first. I found a really neat quilted basket there called Mexican Star Basket. It's the neatest thing - it's basically a 9 patch style 12" block that is folded and tucked at the sides to create a basket. I found a neat pattern called fancy flowers that is a traditional block so i am free to use it according to her terms and conditions. I cut out enough pieces for 5 blocks and rather outsmarted myself as I was going to cut them all out at once .. I made notes in the margin and ended up cutting wayyy more than I needed .. ah well .. I gots lots of pieces now :S I put the first one together and it looked really great.. so I started on the second one ... I realized that this was a 5 patch block - bloody hell! Well I had them cut, I was going to piece them .. i had all the sections of one block ready to put together and then I took a look and wondered how would this look without the sashings??? - welp i put it together and it looked great .. and what do you know .. i got my 9 patch block back :D :D :D I have 4 others like this but in different colourways waiting to be basted and quilted.

I decided to get going on my candle mats and pot holders to meet a challenge that one of my lists is holding. I need to have my mats done by Thursday at midnite. Well since my machine is still sick, I needed to use mum's. I've asked my friends to pray for me with this. I didn't care of they prayed, danced naked in the moonlight, or waved burning feathers .. I needed all the help I could get .. well I cleaned and oiled it this AM. heh .. only jammed once and broke a needle. I'm off to a GREAT start!!! I let it sit for the rest of the day so I could finish piecing the blocks for the baskets. I pulled it out and needed to make a bobbin .. heh .. you got it .. jammed on me again .. *Hellasigh Well I redid the bobbin again, double-checked to be sure that it was all in good working order and tried again .. so far so good .. i managed to piece 6 fans and it didn't jam again. I need to use this machine for the applique part of these fans. It's going to be a pain to have to swap machines around, but I don't have a walking foot for this machine and the speed is a wee bit tetchy for me to be wanting to quilt on it.

My house isn't as odorous, but Reg is sick and managed to get me sick as well .. oh well .. I started to hack and cough this am. I've got the itchy inside of the ear and the raw-ish throat. I'm hoping he and I start to feel better soon .. it's hard to concentrate and my temper gets frazzled more quickly right now.

But starting was the key - i'm not feeling so overwhelmed right now - matter of fact I can't wait to get a few things to the point where I can quilt them so I can see actually how they will work out. I'll be quilting stuff tomorrow .. it'll be busy for me tomorrow .. I have to go pay for my table at the show, reg's quarter finals for his bball team are tomorrow nite so I'm going - not been all year - would be nice if the coaches wife showed up .. I went to a lot of games last winter. Then that will leave me tomorrow nite and Thursday to get the candle mats done :D .. I can't wait to see how they'll turn out

Blasted Bloody Dog!!!!

That stupid stupid dog!!! With the rain that we had overnite and today, our backyard has turned into Lake Lambie again .. it's a mudpatch, swamp, bog, marsh .. a MESS. So the dog hadn't been out in a bit and since it was like 10pm, I figured I could bring her out front. With her being in heat, she's not come out front in over a week. I knew that any other male dog around here wasn't going to be out - so safe enough right .. WRONG.

At the same time, we both see a polecat across the street, I'm like Orion don't you dare .. NO NO NO NO NO .. GET BACK HERE .. yes I was shouting by the end and my voice had been raising. While she didn't run headlong over there, she sure wasn't listening to me. She wanted to say hello - Bloody twit! DAMN DOG!!!! Needless to say, she got sprayed - and this isn't the first time. She was sprayed last july or around there - you'd think she'd learn?? What i'm more burned about than anything is that she not only didn't listen to me, she went across the road (!)

I had my last dog for almost 20 years; we took her to the mountains, state parks etc .. not once did she get sprayed, bit, porcupined, pinched (crabs) nothing .. and what's this twit do??? (@@)

Here I am manhandling this 70lb dog in the tub - she wasn't happy and i sure wasn't going to let her win .. i scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. 30 to 45 mins later, out we come .. Reg is beside himself all ticked off at her .. he wanted to toss her outside .. I'm like are you kidding me, I JUST gave her a bath .. there is NO way you are putting her in the back yard NOW!

She doesn't smell right now .. the house STUNK / stinks tho. I had to wash all the towels, rugs, clothes i was wearing (winter coat included) - i burned 2 candles half the nite, put whole cloves and cinnamon on the stove to boil and 'fume'. Every time i moved my head, I smelt skunk .. even in the shower I smelt skunk. Pix just looks at me sideways if I got to pet him .. It would have been nice if it was so blasted cold out so we could open the windows and air the place out. Heh .. i just might do a bit of that tomorrow. Needless to say, she's not going on any of the furniture for a bit. She's already off the couch until she's out of heat. I set up a towel / padding arrangement on the swivel rocker for her, but she's not allowed on that at the moment. we have tv trays, laundry baskets and boxes blocking the furniture when we aren't on it.

Last time she got sprayed, we got her in the tub immediately and got lucky-ish. She had a certain air about her for a few weeks, but it was livable. I'm guessing it's due to her type of coat. Full of natural oils that just repels this stuff .. i wish she wasn't so bloody curious!!!

Heh .. maybe we'll do fish again for pets instead.