It's Ready

My first pattern is printed, packaged and ready to go.  Hopefully this will be my first of many.   I am preparing myself for retirement by moving on to something I enjoy, will keep me busy and also reward me with a little income.   I have several years yet to go before I can retire but it's never to early to plan for the future.  I have a favorite blog that I follow faithfully, the lady has sooo much creativity and has inspired me to try do the same. 

Well my candle mat I listed on E-bay didn't sell.  I had many viewers and several watcher's but no one bought.  I have  relisted with another picture.  I also changed the time that the auction will end.  In the past I always listed on Sun.  and sold alot, but for some reason, probably because I was up early last Sat morn.  that's when I listed........crazy me  who is gonna be up early to bid on an auction that they might be interested in.   Especially on a Sat morn.  Oh well live and learn and we'll see how it goes this week.

I bought a Just add  ice orchid at Walmart after Christmas.  It was half price.  I think I paid 6.00 for it and it only had three blosoms.  Poor thing was in bad shape.  It is called Just add  ice orchid because you water it by adding three ice cubes to it every week.  They have a web site that e-mails me to remind me to water or should i say ice it every week.   I have had it probably three weeks and it has six more blooms ready to open.  It is thriving and I'm thrilled. 

I don't have to work tomorrow, I just love having Mondays off.  It makes Sunday so much more enjoyable.  I have time to list my patterns on ebay and try to figure out how to sell them on my blog tomorrow. Stay warm and good nite.

Almost ready

Yippee. I almost have my first pattern put together and ready to list.   I have to take a really nice picture for the front of the pattern and make copies of the sheet that shows all the design pieces.  I also got "My Valentine" candle mat up for auction on e-bay last Sat. and it seems to be doing good.  Quite a few viewers and a acouple watcher's.
I'm also very happy to have a four day weekend coming up.  I worked from 7am til 10pm tonite so i quite deserve the time off.  Plus I got to go out to a snow and ice covered car...........sometimes I hate winter. We are expected to have a very cold weekend, so I plan on staying in and staying warm.   Hopefully I'll get my patterns done.

Happy weekend to everyone!!!!!

"My Valentine" Tutorial (2)

I have now placed the roses on the the white hearts using the bullion stitch.  The small red hearts are sewn onto the left side of the the white hearts using small white pearl beads. These are now blanket stitched to the pink hearts.

These hearts are now lined up on the dark red scalloped background, making sure the "V" line up and that the points at the bottom of the hearts align with each other.  I sew these on two at a time across from each other.

After getting all the hearts sewn onto the dark red background I position and blanket stitch it onto a white scalloped background. I placed pins onto the white scallops to alert me to the placement of the background white.  To finish the candle mat I then blanket stitch another white backing on.  This makes it a nice thick candle mat. This candle mat measures 15 inches

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

My darn camera.  The true color of the candle mat is in the last photo.  I'm hoping to be able to offer the pattern next week and I will probably be placing this candle mat on E-bay over the weekend.  Take care and stay warm!

"My Valentine" Tutorial (1)

First things first.  Finding or buying the wool.  I went to Jo Ann Fabric for my material.  They carry 20 and 30 percent wool blends. You can also use 100 per cent wool if you chose.  I bought two yards of white and two yards of red. I have enough of the pink in my stash from previous candle mats. I previously had to dye the wool to obtain the pink because Jo Ann Fabric doesn't carry pink.

After getting home I felted the wool. 

Felting the wool means that I put in the washer with hot water and just a scant amount of laundry detergent.  Then into the dryer on high for about 20 min.  I tend to watch it while it is in the dryer (I don't want it to shrink too much).  Sometimes I take it out before it is completely dry and hang it over something to finish drying.  I bought 2 yards (72inches) but now have 52 inches.   When buying wool make sure you buy enough to account for the shrinkage.  The wool is now nice and thick and feels stronger.

I use freezer paper to make copies  from my templates.  Using a dry iron I press the freezer paper wax side down to the felted wool.  I use large scissors for cutting out the larger pieces.  I find that small scissors do a great job when cutting out the smaller pieces.

I have cut out 6 large pink hearts, 6 medium white hearts and 6 small red hearts.  I also cut out 1 red background and 2 white backing pieces.

OK now I'm ready to start to embroidery the roses.  I will probably do it this evening while I'm watching the bachelor  I don't know how I got caught up in these crazy reality shows but  my husband thinks I'm crazy. Lucky for me he won't be around this evening.

This is not a free design to use. I plan on offering up the pattern for purchase.

Geting ready for "MY VALENTINE" candle mat

 I use the bullion stitch to make the roses that I use for my valentine candle mats.  I will soon be offering a tutorial of my valentine candle mats.  The hardest part of the candle mat is learning to make the roses.  I found a site that offers great instructions.  Just click on the link below. Pictures of my valentine mats can be viewed on one of my earlier post.  Jan '10

Bullion stitch roses and more

A New Year

A new year and a new design page for my blog. My new years resolution is to blog more and to start selling my patterns. I kinda got side tracked last year with some remodeling that was going on around here. We (my husband and myself) got three huge rooms painted, carpeted and new furniture........we still have more rooms to remodel but what we got done was a huge undertaking and took alot of elbow grease. Then Christmas showed up so that took up more time. Anyhow I promise to blog more, have some give aways and design some patterns for my penny rugs. Hope every one had a happy new year and wishing ya all lots of luck for this coming year. Got my tree down and the house picked up (somewhat back to normal).