Literally!

Three kitty cats in the making...

With two weeks to go until the Flock and Gather Springtime Handmade Market, I'm coming down the home stretch on sewing my goal inventory of pajama pet pillows.

The biggest misconception I had about sewing before I rediscovered it was the amount of prep time to the amount of time that you actual spend putting (sewing machine) pedal to the metal. For these projects, I spend about 1/3 time cutting out the pieces and 2/3 time sewing. Oh, and another third of the time fixing something I messed up.

Wait a minute, that's four thirds. Well, as my sewing improves, hopefully so will my math!

I can't wait to turn out these last three so that I can try out some other projects to include in the sale!

I learned an important lesson about putting the plug in the sink this morning.

I r really careless sometimes. While I was washing up after making some labels, an "i" and an "r" slipped out of my hands and went down the drain. Hopefully that's not an omen for how things will go at the sale next month!

Thankfully, Martha Stewart was generous enough to provide back up letters in her stamp kit and I won't have to change the name to "Paire Sown". And that is why Martha is a millionaire.

I love my brayer.

Ashala and I got up to some serious crafting at Emma Lake at the start of February. One of the things I love most about Ash is her absolute fearlessness. I casually proposed the idea of doing some lino cutting - a type of printmaking that requires specialized tools, a piece of lino, and a little know-how. Her response? "Sure!"

So the student became the teacher. I planned to make lino cut valentines, but Ash was more ambitious: she traced a picture of a dolphin out of an old National Geographic magazine and made a print of that. I was totally impressed by her great work! Not bad for an afternoon's worth of chatting.

I wasn't thinking as confidently as my wonderful friend and didn't think we'd get as far as actually pulling any prints, so we had to do that while the husbands unloaded the car when we got home on Sunday.

I found the valentine I made for Ashala in my car last week while I was cleaning it up. Whoops!


(The linoleum is on the left, the pulled print on the right)

Vicki and I were mentioned on Monday on the Flock & Gather Blog!

When a crafting blog references another crafting blog, does time stand still?

My friend Vicki and I have been invited to be a part of the Flock and Gather Springtime Handmade Market on April 13 and 14, 2012. Can you hear my sewing machine happily humming along?

Pajama pet pillows, Caloo dolls, and other assorted goods will be on offer.


It's raining cats and dog (pillows)!
 

We hope to see you at the sale!