Good-bye, June!

 My sewing room is sill chaos and getting worse! I have been dragging totes and tubs up from the basement that were put there three summers ago. While it is fun to see things that I had forgotten about, it makes a terrible organization challenge!

I have not been faithful keeping things current here, but I have been consistent with getting things listed in my Etsy shop, AtomicSisters. I am up to about 45 items and I have not made a dent. I think I need to increase my listing goal to 10 things a day!

I have So. Much. Vintage.Fabric.

The last time that I did much in the way of e-commerce from the selling side was 7 or 8 years ago and my, how the market has changed. Prices are much lower than I expected, but maybe that is a good thing. Sometimes paying a 'pretty penny' for something can make it hard to cut into.

Here are a couple of fun things that have bubbled up from the debris!

This is a piece I picked up at an estate sale last week. It is overcast stitched on all four sides, so it may have been intended as a table cloth. It doesn't have any of the usual spots or wear of a tablecloth though, and the overcast hem doesn't really look as neat as I would expect for table linen, so it wasn't used much, if at all for that purpose.

I love looking at all the different details!

Recognize these folks?

This fabric is fun, but a little disturbing!  It is the Bordens - Elmer and Elsie and their kids having a barbecue. And, it doesn't look vegan...

It is a double border print  with the 'tossed' utensils in the center.  I am thinking it may have been designed to make a picnic table cloth.

The quilt guild sign ups for a all day sewing retreat in August just opened. I will look forward to sewing there, if I don't tame the chaos before then!

Paper Piecing with Penny

I have not been sewing much the past few weeks.  Lots of summer interruptions, and truth be told, my sewing room is a mess of rearranging in process and accumulation of stuff!

This weekend I had an opportunity to sew without tidying up first.  Penny Layman of Sewtakeahike was our speaker at guild on Thursday and she offered three classes while she was in town! 

On Friday, she taught foundation paper piecing in the morning at a cute quilt shop in a small town nearby.  I had never been there, so it was fun to explore a new shop. We used her super cute jelly jar pattern and it was so fun seeing it made up in all the different fabric combinations. 

We used this pitcher patter to practice freezer paper piecing in the afternoon. 

I started with a picture from a vintage coloring book, but I forgot that the image would turn out reversed!

Saturday, we learned how to design our own patterns for foundation paper piecing.  

Penny is a great inspiration and a wonderful teacher and it is always fun to sew with friends!  

I am not sure I will dive right into designing my own patterns, but I definitely feel more comfortable using the technique!

Another thing that has been keeping me busy is restocking my Etsy shop, "AtomicSisters".

If you are interested in some vintage fabric, trim, hankies, or 'miscellany'  check it out. I have set a goal to list at least 3 things every day.  

I should have it done by this time next year...