Waggons West Etsy Shop

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Showing posts with label advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advice. Show all posts

Friday, May 30, 2014

A Banner Day


It was a banner day around here yesterday.  I found this Freaky Geeky fabric and thought it paired perfectly with my chalkboard fabric.  So I made a chalkboard banner. 

It made me happy!

  And tomorrow if I'm not happy, I can erase it and write a different message. 


Here you can see a but more of the fabric. 


What fun! Something to note about working with chalkboard fabric and probably paint and paper too...  it needs to be conditioned.  You have to evenly coat it with chalk and then rub it off before you write on it.  Otherwise the first writing will stick around.  If you decide you are going to buy a chalkboard fabric item you should always ask if you are getting one that has either been conditioned or has not been written on.  You don't want to pay for the ghost of some one else's message.

So here is the question.  I put this one together with the chalkboard and fabric alternating.  You can have a message on both sides.  Should I really make them so the fabric is on one side and the chalkboard is on the other?  What do you think?  



Oh, and I finished up another banner that was sitting in my WIP pile!  
 

This is a pink and green one like one I made for a silent auction basket.  This one is going to the craftster raffle. 


One of these days I am going to have to make one of these for me.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

3 Yard Minimum or the Answer Really is FORTY TWO

Note to self:  If you LOVE it, buy THREE yards.

Because you will discover that TWO yards is not enough.

You will discover this three quarters of the way through your project.  When you realize that in addition to TWO 10 inch squares, each block also requires FOUR 6.5 inch squares of the same fabric.

You will also discover that every other fabric you pulled that might work only has enough fabric for TWO 10 inch squares.  And you have FOUR more blocks to complete

After remembering where you bought the too short fabric you also remember that you have been working non-stop using up said TWO yards of fabric, are still in your jammies with your hair sticking up.  (And you probably smell bad as well.)

So you shower and then discover that you have no clean clothes.  (You would have done the laundry but you needed the machine to wash that last quilt project and were so excited to take pictures you forgot about the laundry.)  Eventually, you find a shirt that isn't disgusting AND you remember to brush your teeth and hair.

Only to discover that you have no cash and the car is out of gas.  Of course gas has gone up THIRTY cents over night and that ATM number ONE is temporarily out of service.

Finally, with what gas remains after driving around looking for a functioning ATM, and with what cash remains after paying for another tank of gas, you head to the fabric store.  Which is not the one TWO miles down the road but rather the one that is TWENTY miles away.

Arriving just in time to see some blue-haired teeny bopper on assignment from her pattern making class (seriously!?!) take the LAST spot in the parking lot.  Never have you seen the lot that full.  You brace your self for a long wait at the cutting counter and start the long trek in from the hinterlands.

Realizing in short order that you both a.) forgot to take your advil and b.) neglected to wear your brace for such a short trip to get ONE yard of fabric.

Amazingly enough,  most of the drivers of said cars occupying ALL of the parking spots are in club and will likely remain there for another TEN minutes.

You rush to the back of the store (as fast as your pained, over taxed, un-braced knee will allow) to see without much surprise that the fabric you came to get is gone.  There are ZERO yards available.

Using up SEVEN precious minutes deciding the best blend was either fabric A or fabric B you decide to grab TWO bolts and get ONE yard each.  Brilliant.

Making it to the counter just ahead of the rush (you see THREE ladies wondering out of the club room with more soon to follow) you ask for ONE yard of each fabric and use up the last of your cash.
Thank you no bag necessary.

Only to realize once you are half way home that FOUR more blocks will require TWENTY inches fabric to cut EIGHT 10 inch squares and that you will need an additional NINETEEN and ONE HALF inches to cut out the 6.5 inch blocks.  TWENTY plus NINETEEN and ONE HALF equals THIRTY NINE and ONE HALF inches with some trimming and squaring room lets just say that you need FORTY TWO more inches of fabric.

And you just spent your last cash on TWO pieces of fabric that are THIRTY SIX inches.  Not FORTY TWO.  There is no way TWO - THIRTY SIX inch pieces of different fabric will ever add up to FORTY TWO inches of the same fabric. 

So...  If you LOVE it... buy at THREE yards. 




Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ephemera Anyone?


A lady I know is downsizing.  She has a couple boxes of treasures: pages of recipes, clippings, travel spots, craft ideas, house ideas, holiday stuff.  The graphics are pretty cool.  She would like to have it go to good homes.  We are in the process of trying to package it to sell in the shop.  All you paper people out there....

1.  Do you buy ephemera?
2.  What attracts you to a lot?
3.  Postage?  It is easiest for use to put it in priority envelopes or boxes.  Does that make it cost prohibitive? 
4.  Do you like to get a mix of stuff or do you want a package of Christmas or big ads or what?
5.  If you are searching for paper treasures, what search terms are you most likely to use?  
6.  Speaking of cost....  ??? 

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.