Lots of Sewing and The Craft House

I've actually been doing quite a lot of sewing lately, just not very much blogging (or picture taking). I need to work on making blogging more of a balance within the crafting parts of my life.

The biggest news is that I've rented a booth at The Craft House, a shop specializing in handcrafted items. If you are in the Lafayette, Indiana area, I do hope that you will come visit the shop, which is located at 846 Main Street in downtown Lafayette (open hours are Tues-Thurs from 10am-5pm and Fri-Sat from 10am-6pm). So that means there are two downtown locations where you can find my items (the other is NPEN, which I posted about previously).

I have been spending a lot of time lately building up inventory for those locations and not as much time sewing on projects for myself. So that means that the quilt that I am making for Luke has been put aside for a little while. But I did finish piecing together the front, so I'm really happy about that and how it looks. I've been reading up on blog posts and tutorials about putting a quilt together and I think I have it figured out, at least in theory. So I do plan to actually put that theory into practice soon. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

 

Mostly I've been sewing rice therapy bags and boo boo bags. Basically, the idea is that you can either heat it in the microwave for heat therapy or put it in the freezer for cold therapy. I add a little bit of lavender both for the pleasant and relaxing scent as well as to make it not smell quite as much like rice. (I've mentioned these bags a couple of times in previous blog posts.) I feel like I've really gotten the process of making these down and I'm quite happy with the outcome. Along with the larger bags, I've been making mini bags (these are the boo boo bags) in fun kid-friendly fabric so that parents can use them to help kids with any ouchies they might experience. The boo boo bags are also a good size for breastfeeding women who have a clogged duct or mastitis because it can be heated or cooled and placed in the bra.

It seems like these are a good idea because I've had them in the shop for just a week now and I've already sold several, so I'm really happy about that (and thank you to those who have bought them!). I've been working on creating more so that I can restock them as they sell. So I have a bunch of bags in varying stages of readiness. Some have been sewn and need to be turned right side out. Some have been turned right side out (and for the bigger ones have had channels sewn) and need to be filled. Ah, filling these bags. There have been times when rice just goes everywhere! It's definitely a challenge to fill them, but I think I'm finally figuring out a good way of doing it that, while slow, doesn't end up with rice all over the couch and floor.

Ready to be turned right side out

Ready to be filled with rice and lavender

This is one of my favorite fabrics for these bags!

The picture here doesn't capture how lovely this purple fabric truly is.

 I've been trying to decide what else to work on for the booth (as well as the Etsy shop) and I've decided that I really enjoyed making the mug rugs, so I want to do more of those. And so I've gotten several charm packs and packages of binding and I'm having a good time putting the fabric together and making what are essentially mini quilts. I've already finished two more, which I'll be taking to The Craft House soon.

Front sides

Back sides

So although I may not have been doing a lot of blogging lately, my sewing machine has been busy!