Clutch!

Trying to fight off the winter doldrums, it seems I’ve been spending too much time huddled in front of the stove and not enough by the warmth of my sewing machine light.  Apparently, it’s not a very warm light.  But prompted by the sale of a few Bean’s Clutches in my Etsy shop, I decided I better move away from the stove and make more before I’m all sold out.  So I turned up the heat (my creative juices and thermostat) and got to work!

In a matter of a few nights this week, I was able to crank out 10 clutches, managing to use up all the oil cloth in my stash!  Which probably means that there won’t be any more Bean’s Clutches for a while.  Not a big deal.  I’ve been putting so many projects on the backburner, and I’d like to push my shop aside for a little while to get them done.  I’ve cleared a lot of items out of my online inventory, and I keep my fingers crossed that my onesie don’t get discovered by more than the occasional trickle of buyers.  I packed up the remaining scraps from my Bean’s Clutches and some fabric I purchased for new products and they’re off to the closet!

What’s everyone got against pink?

Occasionally, etsians ordering a custom embroidered baby equation onesie ask, “Can I get a different color for the mom’s name?  The baby is a boy.” 

On a “standard” baby equation onesie, dad’s name is embroidered in blue, mom’s name is in pink and “baby” is in green.  The intuitive shades make the onesie cute, colorful and whimsical; perfect for a 0 to 3 month old.

But for those thanking heaven for little boys, I have options.  I like to switch out the pink for purple to keep mom’s name feminine.  After all, what’s purple, but pink with blue added to it?  Sneaky, huh? 

The other option to switch out all the colors for a new color scheme.  Since we’re specifically talking about “boys,” all the names have been switched to blues.  Not as colorful, but still cute.  Mom’s name is in a greenish-blue, because I just can’t get myself to embroider mom’s name in a pure shade of blue.  She’s the one having the baby, and there’s nothing blue about that!

Quilting in the New Year

Today, being the last day of my Christmas vacation/winter break, I sewed as much as possible to make up for all the sewing I didn’t do last month.  I should have been making blocks for this quilt, but instead, I started a new one. 

Inspired by a Jelly Roll of Sugar Pop, I used my quilt software and designed the slightly abstract quilt shown above.  I didn’t really want to make an abstract quilt, or completely design my quilt before I cut any fabric, so I pushed the computer aside, found my rotary cutter and got to sewing.  This is what I’ve got after a day of sewing.  I hope I can be motivated to finish it!

Happy 2011!