Meghan's Material World

Still Busy, Busy, Busy!

I just wanted to let you all know that I AM still alive!  I have been so very busy with work, and the weddings, and life in general, that I have not taken the time to post on my blog.  Lately, by the end of work, I really just want to come home and take a nap!  Unfortunately that hasn't been an option....Of course, if I did feel that I had the time for a nap, my mind would be whirling with "things to do" and I wouldn't rest anyway!

I have a ton of projects for the wedding half finished.  I have the expectation of completing them all around the same time....that is the plan, anyway.  You may be wondering why I don't just do one thing at a time....sometimes I wonder that, too!  If I keep it mixed up, I don't get bored as easily, and I actually get a lot more work done in less time.  But then, there is the issue of not having any one thing FINISHED.  It would feel so nice to cross SOMETHING off my list....soon, very soon. 

You have seen the centerpiece bases, so here is a look at the flowers.  What do you think?  Do they look okay?  This is obviously not a finished piece...it is just flowers I stuck into a block of foam as I finished them.  In case you were wondering, yes, the roses are made of paper.  Coffee filters, painted with watercolors, actually.  These happen to look quite orange in the picture, but they are really a very pretty pink.  Really!

Now for some eye candy.  These are images of stuff I have made for swaps recently.  They were all shipped out before my last post, so I have not been "wasting" my wedding craft time with swap projects, for anyone who would question WHY I would do that to myself.  To be honest, it has been very difficult to stay away from any swapping for the past few weeks!  I keep reminding myself that it is just a little while longer before I can swap again....just a little while longer....

I made this as an "angel" package for the Tea-Time Swap at Craftster.  That means that the person who was supposed to send my partner a package, didn't.  So I volunteered to put something together for her, without the expectation of getting anything back.  This one was a lot of fun!  The tea cozy is reversible!

I made these for the From my Hand to Yours swap on Swap-bot.  I haven't heard from my partner, so I don't know if she got it, or likes it, or if it has been eaten by bears or some other horrible fate has befallen it.  This is what I sent, anyway!

Ah, and here is something that I GOT!  This is what I received from my partner in the 24 hour swap.  I love it so much!  I felted it, and now I want to line it with fabric so that I can have a zipper pocket.  You see, my bags have a tendency to fly off the passenger seat onto the floor, and if I don't have a zipper pocket, there is junk scattered everywhere!

I will be sure to show you when it is all finished....whenever that may be....

I must get back to work now...Hopefully I will post again soon, but please don't hold your breath....It could be awhile before I make time to do it again....but then again, I could post tomorrow....we'll see!

Busy, busy, busy...

I want to thank you all for leaving me such wonderfully sweet comments!  I get such pleasure from reading all of your lovely messages that I really wish that I could send each and every one of you a gift!  However, at least this time, I had only one gift to give, and Joyce was the lucky recipient!  If you were not as lucky as Joyce, don’t worry, there will be more goodies to get in the future.

What a crazy week!  I didn’t figure that THIS week would be the one that was so busy!  After all, the quilt show was last week.  So, the shop has been doing very well…Thank you all!  But it isn’t only the store that has been busy….my “real” life has been jam-packed with craziness, too! 

I have had a major toothache all week….not fun!  It isn’t just a toothache because it has been the cause of a headache and an earache, too.  Basically I am miserable!  On Thursday, I decided that it wasn’t going to get better on its own, so I have scheduled an appointment with the dentist on Tuesday morning.  Hopefully, I will survive that long!

Despite my desperately pitiful condition, I have been surprisingly productive.  I finally figured out a centerpiece idea for my brother’s wedding!  Do you like it?  Pretty, huh?

This is the dollar-store centerpiece by Meghan….a candlestick holder with a clear glass plate on top.  Both have been decoupaged with a glittery tissue paper in a very light shade of the bride’s color.  This one isn’t completely finished…I still have to clean up the edges, and the base needs another coat of paper to fill in the patchiness.  But you get the general idea. 

These will have a floral arrangement with little twinkle lites on top.  They will also hold the table numbers.  So they are very multi-functional.  I am very happy with them, and the lovely bride-to-be was as excited as she gets (she is a very calm, rational, person – I don’t get it!) about them, which makes me a happy girl!   Now, only 19 more to go!

Progress on my cake decorating has not really happened this week.  Who can think about cake when they have a toothache?  I did, however, do one cake early in the week that was fun, but not really a wedding idea.  It was more of a “playing with fondant” thing.  I LOVE that fondant is so much like polymer clay.  Not that I am a spectacular example of a clay artist or anything, but I do enjoy doing little projects now and then. I have always liked doing/making canes, so I wanted to see if the process would work with the fondant…and LOOKIE, it did!  This one was fun to do, but it isn’t something I would want to attempt for the wedding.  It was way too much work! 

With all the wedding activity, and the busy shop, I decided I needed to do something for myself last weekend.  And, because I LOVE to do swaps (I like the challenge of creating something for someone else, and getting mail is always a pleasure, too!) I signed myself up for the 24 hour swap on Craftster.  You sign up, and have 24 hours to create and mail out a project for your partner.  When I got the info on my partner, I discovered that she likes bags (okay, who doesn’t?!) and is particularly fond of paisley (again, who isn’t?!).  It took all of 2 minutes to decide what fabric I was going to use….Kaffe Fassett Jungle Paisley…But then it took me about 3 hours to decide how to use it CREATIVELY.  I didn’t want to just make a straight-up tote bag….where is the fun in that?!  This is the final result.

Of course, if I had more time, I would have added a zipper pocket to the lining, and I also would have added some sort of closure, too.  But, for the limited time, I think it turned out pretty nice.  In fact, I must admit, I had a tough time letting this one go.  I could really use a new bag myself, and I really liked this.  But guess what?  I got an equally, if not even more, great bag in return.  And, it is something I could not have done (easily, anyway) for myself.  It is crocheted!  Obviously, with only 24 hours, my partner didn’t have time to crochet and felt it in time to send, SO I get to do the felting myself.  I am excited to try it out….It will be my first time….My only real concern is that I will ruin all the work my partner did!  She seems to think I will do just fine.  I hope she is right!  I will be showing off the lovely thing once I have it felted.  I am hoping to do it today.  Everyone cross your fingers that I don’t screw it up! 

Oh, there is so much more to show you, and tell you about, but if you are even still reading this post, you deserve a medal!  I am even tired of it, and I am the one doing the writing! At least now I know I have something to write about next time, right? Well, I think it is time to take some more aspirin!  Have a great one, all!

Crowds, and yes, more CAKE!

I have a few pictures to share with you today.  I don't have a lot of time for too many words, so I hope the images speak for themselves. 

First, a few of the the crowd at Sauder's earlier this week (most were taken from the "safe" area behind the cutting tables!).  You can see them larger by clicking on the photos.

I call this last one "Brave Local".  Notice the Amish woman in search of the perfect print?  Oh, my, I just realized how terribly jumbled and untidy the bolts of fabric look!  This is the textile carnage that is the result of having a flock of excited quilters swarm the shop!

And, of course, my latest and most favorite (so far) practice cake.  This one is also just an inverted cupcake, but it has an extra layer!  Tiny layer cakes are funny.....and I am easily amused!

 

Just one question  for anyone reading this who may know....How do you keep your flowers from getting smooshed? Should I have let them dry completely before adding them to the cake?  I think I flattened the petals when I was pushing it onto the top.....I couldn't find any directions for making the flowers, so I just crumpled up a strip of fondant until it resembled a flower (like a ribbon rose in sewing)....this was AFTER spending about an hour trying to build one with individual petals, which looked great, but I couldn't get them to stay stuck together!  I need a cake decorating mentor...someone to whom I can ask all my silly little questions when they arise.  Oh, Great Cake Guru, are you out there?!

Let them eat CAKE!

There is a lot going on here at Z&S Fabrics this week.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the Lancaster Heritage Quilt Show begins this week, and that means the stores will be mobbed with many, many customers.  So far, it has been rather quiet, busy, but not out-of-control crazy.  For some reason, I have a feeling that today things are going to start to get a little more intense....There are four busses scheduled for this afternoon.  And, on average, for every 2 scheduled busses, there is an unscheduled one that shows up too!  We really like when large groups notify us of an upcoming visit....that way we are sure to have enough help in the store to keep things moving.  This is especially important to our customers, since we are not the only fabric shop in town, and they want to visit as many as they possibly can in the little time they are in Lancaster.

If you aren't lucky enough to have made the trek to Lancaster this year, check out the website for a little fabric therapy.  Right now, any order of $25 or more will receive an extra 15% off!  There are LOTS of new things to see, too!  How about that? You didn't even have to leave your house for that great deal!

More cakes have been decorated… It is quite obvious that while my design concept is good, the actual execution of the cake decorating is quite clumsy.  I am not going to show you the macro pictures of these little lovelies…they might scare you!  Some things are nice from a distance.  Thank goodness, I still have plenty of time to practice….and thank goodness that my practice-cake eaters aren’t as critical of my work as I am!  As long as it tastes good, they are thrilled with my work!

Here is something that I am thrilled about!  Isn’t this just the cutest little notebook cover?  The prints are from the Summer in the City Collection by Urban Chicks for Moda.  We currently have the charm packs available.  We will be carrying the entire line once it is released (later this month, I think).  Of course, one lucky ducky will be the proud new owner of this adorable project made by Me!  I am also going to send the winner their own charm pack of this collection, so they can make something lovely with it, too!   You all know how to play….Leave me a message before Saturday, April 14th, and I will draw a winner from the lot of you on Sunday.  Good Luck!  I can’t wait to hear from you!

Where does the time go?!

Yes, I know I haven’t posted anything in over a week!  It hit me yesterday, when I was driving home from a Craftster meet-up, and I happened to be behind a car with the license plate BLOGGER!  I took that as a not-so-subtle hint from “somewhere” that I need to give my little space the attention that it deserves! Believe me, I have had the desire to post many times over the past week, but I haven’t been able to find the time!  You would probably like to know what I was doing with all of my time, and to be perfectly honest, so would I!!  I know I felt like I was extra busy last week, and I don’t mean just with the shop, but in my “real” life, too.  But now that I am thinking about it, I can’t figure out why last week left me so drained…Perhaps it is the change of seasons messing with me…Yes, that has to be it!  (we will blame it on that, anyway.)   

I did snap this picture on Tuesday, the first day of SPRING – See, I really was thinking about my blog – I found it to be quite ironic that there was so much snow on the ground that morning.  And yet the daffodils were still determined to make an appearance, too!   So there was snow (on the ground) on Tuesday, and then on Thursday, the temperature reached a record-breaking high for the day in

Lancaster

!  (It was 72 degrees – the previous high had been 69 degrees…I can’t remember what year it had been set, though) 

I have been spending most of my free time (at home) working on a quilt for my brother and his fiancé.  It is my wedding gift to them. I am making the Spice Market quilt by FunQuilts (Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr) featured in the April 2007 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I love that the fabric is called Mendhi, because of the wedding connection….If you aren’t’ familiar with the art or tradition of Mendhi, you may want to do a Google search.  I am not an expert on the subject, by any means, and that is why I am passing the explaining off onto Google! I have shown it to his bride, because I really don’t want to invest the time into making a quilt (king size, at that!) just to have it go into a closet, because it doesn’t suit their style.  So, I made sure it was okay before I got too far into it, and now it is coming along quite quickly. It is certainly simple, maybe too simple…I am getting bored with it already!  Not the fabrics, or the finished quilt (I really love the finished piece!), but the monotony of sewing strip after strip after strip is starting to drive me batty!  I only have 15 more strip sets to stitch together before I can start cutting and arranging!  Since the cat is out of the bag, anyway, I will be sure to show you all some pictures of my progress soon.

Since I am on the subject of my brother’s upcoming nuptials, I will mention that on Saturday, after working in the morning, I attended his Love’s bridal shower.  It was really fun, and she got some lovely things….I never had a bridal shower, or a “real” wedding (Hubby and I did it at the JP’s office) or any of the other fun (?) involved in planning and having a wedding, and I must say, the only regret I have, is that I missed out on all the GIFTS!  I am constantly having to go out and buy myself all of those little kitchen-y gadgets and other home-keeping goodies that so many brides are given as gifts.  It can get pretty expensive when you realize you don’t have enough serving dishes (or spoons, or trays, or wine glasses!) for the Christmas dinner you are preparing for your and your hubby’s entire families!  Lucky for me, I have a wonderful family (and my Hubby has an equally wonderful family) and they don’t require me to have an entire set of matching anything!  (Although I certainly wouldn’t mind if I did!)

Speaking of matching sets….Did I mention that I got the Yellow Quilt from Patricia?  It is so cute!  We have picked out a border design to use…we originally were thinking stars would be good, but ended up with a cute bow pattern.  And, progress on the pink quilt has been continuing….everyone in the shop has spent a lot of time on it…The girls have been working on it during their lunch breaks and whenever we are all caught up with orders.  There is only one block left to be finished, and then I get to bind it!  I can’t wait to get them both done so they can be given to the Kim girls.  One thing is for sure, a lot of love has gone into these quilts, and you can see it. 

Thanks to everyone who is still reading my (poor, neglected) blog!  I appreciate it!

So much to share!

First, a winner has been drawn from the hat - for the bag and fat quarters.  Karen of Baby Goin Places was the lucky one this time.....but don't fret too much, I have a feeling there will be another chance to win something fun real soon.  I am truly overwhelmed by the number of emails and comments that you all sent my way!  I am slowly, but surely working my way through them all (I got over 125 messages in response to the Jello/free bag post!), so that I can respond to each of you.  I don't have the focus to sit and type emails for hours at a time (okay, I can't even focus long enough to type 3 emails in a row without taking a break!), so it may take awhile before you hear back from me....but trust me, you will!  I am just hoping to be through all of these messages before Easter! 

So, does anyone know what happened to Spring?!  Two days ago I was wearing a t-shirt and driving around with all the windows rolled down....It was a pleasant 64 degrees - just perfect!  I suppose it was just some sort of cruel joke, because it sure didn't last!  Currently, it is 30 degrees, and snow, sleet, and freezing rain have been falling for most of the day.  We are supposed to have 6-16 inches by tomorrow morning (there are slightly conflicting reports about the totals....it is still more than I wanted to see!)  The roads, especially the "back" roads around the shop are terribly icy, and quite dangerous to be driving on.  So, Mom and I are having a sleep-over at the store! 

Before you get too concerned that we are hunkered down in the warehouse, let me assure you that we are not "roughing it" at all!  The store has everything we need to have a super-fun, snowed-in, sewing-all-night, slumber party!   I have one of my sewing machines here (Carolyn, I had brought it for you to use when you were visiting! - we miss you!) - and we are whipping up some super-stylin p.j's....oh yeah!  We have been sharing it (the sewing machine) quite well, so far.  We haven't had to use the timer to "take turns" with it!  And there is a kitchen, fully equiped with all the necessary appliances, and an adequate amount of food.....including cookie dough...I didn't say it was HEALTH food!  Heck, this IS a slumber party!  Plus, there is a quilt in the frame that we can work on, too!  Oh, we are having some fun, now!  And, when the fun ends, and Mom and I start to drive each other insane (it is inevitable, people) we have separate bedrooms to which we can retreat...in fact one of them has my bed from when I lived at home!

That quilt that is in the frame....that is the pink beauty that we started on Wednesday....we still have a bit to go.  I did manage to snap a few pictures while we were working on it.  Remember how I mentioned that I had never done any hand-quilting before?  Well, I may never do it again!  I am so disappointed in my stitches....they are much larger than I expected or wanted them to be, but they are even, and I know that is important, too.  So, how are you supposed to make small stitches?  I think that the frame is too tight to make them any smaller than I did...but I may just be making up excuses for my lack of skill!    I have plenty of quilting left to do on this piece, so perhaps by the end, I will be more impressed with myself....I must say, that over-all, the quilting on this is very beautifully done - thanks girls!

I hope you all have a wonderful, warm weekend!

Commence Quilting!

Some of you may be aware that I had volunteered to do the quilting for the Quilts for the Kim's project that was organized by Shanna and Patricia.  While I was originally planning on doing them on my machine, Mom brought up the idea of doing a bee.  We thought that it would be more fun to share the experience with all the girls in the shop, and our customers, too!

We are ready to start quilting!  We got Sabine's quilt into the frame and, and it is ready to be quilted, now (quite literally NOW).  I will share more pics and tell you how it went, later.....This is my first attempt at hand-quilting.....wish me luck!

There's Always Room for J-E-L-L-O!

I really want to make some new kitchen curtains.  I have been fighting this overwhelming desire to redecorate ever since these fun prints came into the shop a few weeks ago.  I adore the retro kitchen theme, and the colors are light and Spring-y, and then there are the Jello molds.  What can I say?  I think they are FABULOUS!  I haven't done a great job of hiding my obsession with these fabrics (and the Jello molds!), so look what Mom brought in for me to have with lunch the other day! It is a tiny Tupperware Jello mold!  Only my mother would have an entire set of individual serving-sized jello molds AND know where to find them on a whim!  I have discovered that it is not so easy to get the gelatin out of the mold.  The first one I tried, ended up in big chunks, half of it was stuck inside the mold!  Here is a picture of my second try....  I think the hot water I used to loosen it from the mold was a bit too hot!  The gelatin came out in one piece this time, but there was also a lot of re-liquefied jello, too!  I was so giddy when Mom showed these to me....yes, I really am that easy to please!  I have decided that these are fun, but I certainly would not attempt to serve them at my next dinner party!  Mauled gelatin desserts - yeah, that sums up my culinary skills pretty well....Hmmm....as I was typing this I had a thought....are you supposed to make finger jello (you add the extra plain gelatin) when you use a mold?  I am thinking that the extra firmness may be the key to successfully removing the jello from the form.....anyone know?

Now that I have made it painfully obvious that I am quite clueless in the kitchen, I am hoping to redeem myself by showing off some of my sewing skills.  I must admit that I am not usually very good at following a pattern, if, and when I use one at all.  But, I thought it would be a good idea to try out one of our new patterns, so I made a real effort to read and follow the directions the whole way through! I made the Original Scrap-bags pattern.  I am proud to report that the only change I made to the pattern is using a button in place of the magnetic closure.  This is partially because I didn't have a magnetic closure, but MOSTLY because I have a computer machine.  In case you don't know, magnets and computers are not a good mix...kind of like bleach and ammonia, it just isn't a good idea.

This pattern was really easy....I whipped this up in an afternoon.  This pattern is the perfect canvas for all sorts of embellishment techniques!  You could make 100 of these, and not have two that are the same (unless that is what you want!)

I am pretty happy with the one I made.  What do you think?  Would you carry it?  You could!  I am going to be giving it away to one of you!  And, well, because an empty bag is sort of sad, I am putting 10 fat quarters of yummy Amy Butler fabrics (from her Lotus Collection) in the bag, too! 

You know what to do....Leave me a comment, and you will be entered into the drawing for the bag and the fabrics.  I will be choosing a winner on Friday (March 16).  Good luck to you all!   

Help!

The past few days are a bit of a blur. See all these bolts?  I am TRYING to get them all scanned and onto the site.  It seems that as soon as I think I have made some progress, another truck pulls up with more fabric! 

Does it sound like I am complaining? I'm not, really.  I am just telling you all where I have been for the last few days, and what I will probably be doing for the rest of the week, too! 

If you would like to see what all this is, check out the New Fabrics page at the Z&S site!

I Had to Laugh....

This comic, Pickles by Brian Crane, which was published on February 21, 2007 is definitely worth a chuckle.....I am sure that most of you will find it amusing as well.

Okay, now I have to get to the fabric store, because there are a lot of orders to fill!  Do you remember back in December when we got our 5,000th order?  Well, would you believe that we have reached order #6400?  Over 1400 orders in less than 3 months!  WOW!  Thank you all!