A tour

What have I been busy doing? Getting ready for my favorite holiday show at Cafe Wren in Luck, WI. This is my 6th year at the show and I think I finally have the display down to an art. This year was a little smaller than some, since I spent the fall busy with wedding activities.



Here's my set up. This is a great show, where I just set up and there is a central check out, so I don't have to table-sit. A huge plus! I brought 52 or so puppets up this year. Andy made me this great stand for them - so cute! - and the rest live under the table until it's time for them to fill in the blanks.



I made a few little tiny needle felted ornaments this year. A bunch of birds plus a penguin and a lobster (and some turtles and sushi...)



And finally enamels! This is the first show I have brought them to. I really think I made some great ones and I hope they go home with lots of people. I took close up photos of all of them if you want a closer look - head over to my flickr.



And since it is a coffee shop where the show is held, I pulled out all of my coffee cup coasters from the etsy shop and brought those along.



I finally managed this year to get a little more organized and not make myself crazy making puppets the last 3 days before the sale. What a nice feeling. I was considering doing more enamels at 10 pm before I drove up to Luck the next morning, but that's another story. The first year I did this show, my prices were too low and I had no idea how many puppets I would need. The organizer called me after the first day and said "you have to bring more!" I spent every day sewing like mad and then jumping in to the car and driving up there with whatever I had finished. It's a nice problem to have, but wow, I never wanted to see a puppet again.

Off to knit a ***** for ***** - gotta get some Christmas presents done!

I have a new love.

And her name is Singer.

My sewing machine is ailing. It made a horrible strangled noise and quit this afternoon. I had just spent all of a couple of evenings cleaning the lint out, replacing the needle and all of that good stuff. To her credit, she had started to squeak, which is what made me think that I ought to do a good cleaning, so I did perhaps have a little warning. I don't think the problem is anything I did while cleaning (or putting her back together) but I am afraid, judging by the amounts of lint I pulled out, that a big blob of yuck has jammed in some plastic gears someplace I can't get to. This machine and I have a love/hate relationship. I spent a lot of money on her. She has a nifty thread cutter (which stopped working after about a year). She has a wonderful walking foot that makes me smile while making quilts and a buttonhole gizmo that works like a dream. She has an overlock stitch which is super nifty and dozens of fancy embroidery kinds of stitches (which sadly I use next to never). However, she also has a tendency to eat and/or tangle threads at the beginning of whatever you are working on, no matter what you do to prevent it (no, holding the ends doesn't work). She also likes to eat fabric if you get too close to the edge and groan about too many layers of fabric. She is computerized and so you can't get to or see anything. She is a Babylock QC700.

Today I had declared that I was going to work on puppets. It is time to get my butt in gear if I am going to have them ready for holiday show season. I lost a couple of evenings to cleaning the Babylock and Andy is off playing with the boys today, so I made a pot of tea, got out the gingersnap cookies and was ready to cruise through the 60+ puppets that are cut out and waiting for me. Approximately 1/16th in to one puppet Babylock uttered her death cry. (I am pretty sure she's not really dead, but it will cost me to get her revived.) I grumbled some choice words, shoved her under the end table and headed to the basement.

Several years ago, I got a couple of vintage machines as a "payment" for some costuming work I did. I got them home and admired them. Even cleaned up the 1952 Singer (so pretty) and figured out how to thread and wind bobbins. And then promptly put them away. Who needs an old Singer when you have the new fancy expensive machine. HAH! If I had only known! I am completely in love with the Singer. She sews beautifully. Best machine I have ever used. No thread tangling. Sews through layers of fleece like butter. Feed dogs that feed! Perfect tension. Fast - twice what my Baby lock can do! I finished something like 30 puppets just this afternoon. I may make fun of myself later for making all of this fuss, but for now I will just enjoy that new machine buzz.