Craft Show

My sister and I had a booth at the craft show in Rose Hill, Kansas the 8th of October during their Fall Festival. She does embroidery by hand, which complements my tatting. She has been working on her stuff for months and months. I’ve not been so dedicated to the show items, getting sidetracked a lot. But it was a good show for both of us.

Craft show setup on wandasknottythoughts
Craft show setup

The craft show started later than we usually see, but we found out that was due to the big parade they had. There were some shoppers the first couple of hours but not a lot, we were somewhat concerned that the day would be slow. About noon one of the organizers went around announcing the parade was over, and the people familiar with the event understood things would get busier soon. Which it did. There was a steady flow of shoppers for most of the event after that. We spoke to a lot of people about our items during the course of the show.

Most of my tatting at the show on wandasknottythoughts
Most of my tatting at the show

There were a lot of people that looked at the tatting, a lot even knew what it was. There were a lot of “oh, my (insert older relative) did that but I never learned.” Some showed an interest in learning – I suggested to them if they would get a few people together I would be willing to come down to teach. One woman came by that actually did know how to tat! We had a lovely conversation about tatting and patterns. Unfortunately, I didn’t get her name. But it was enjoyable to speak to her.

One item that sold the best this weekend was my Hymnal Angel. I made them a bit smaller this year, cutting the paper three inches instead of five inches. And I used wooden beads for the heads.

Hymnal Angel for craft show on wandasknottythoughts
Hymnal Angel for craft show

Something else that drew a lot of attention was my button sunflowers.

Sunflowers for the show on wandasknottythoughts
Sunflowers for the show

These sunflowers are fun and easy to make. I mostly used 9/16-inch buttons with a few 13/16-inch. I love how the buttons look in the center. I found a package of brown buttons in different diameters made out of coconut shells that look great, much better than plastic.

I put together a quick pattern for the sunflowers. They are very easy. If you are interested in it you can find it on the My Patterns page.

Here are a few of the things that got me sidetracked prior to the craft show.

Lid pet kitty with ball of yarn on wandasknottythoughts
Lid pet kitty with a ball of yarn
Lid pet kitty with butterfly on wandasknottythoughts
Lid pet kitty with butterfly

My granddaughter loves these. I put a magnet on the back as well as the hanger. I let her have the ones she wanted.

I was on vacation a week before the craft show, which is how I got so many of the angel wings and sunflowers made. I’ll be sharing a few of the pictures I took next post.

“Yellow is my favorite summer color – it makes me feel like a sunflower.” Bria Vinaite

From Critters to Snowflakes

I’ve had to move on from critters to snowflakes, at least for a while. My sister and I will be in a craft show in October and I need to work on items for that. Now, if I would repeat more than one piece at a time with the same pattern I’d be better set for that. I have a hard time making the same thing over and over at one time.

Pinwheel in white on wandasknottythoughts
Pinwheel in white

I did make a few of my Pinwheel snowflakes in size 20 white. Of course, now I have to starch it. There is no way this will hold up as a tree ornament without starch.

Two-layered snowflake in white on wandasknottythoughts
Two-layered snowflake in white

I came up with this two-layered snowflake instead of using a pattern already available. I have a few others in this pattern in different colors, which are really cool looking. (I haven’t taken pictures of them yet). I like this. This one is made in size 10 thread.

8-point snowflake with cabone center on wandasknottythoughts
8-point snowflake with cabone center

While at Tatting Corner‘s Tat Days in July I took several classes with cabone rings, and now I keep seeing places I could use them. This is a simple snowflake with a 1/2 inch cabone ring at the center, made with size 20 thread.

(I do not get any benefits for mentioning Tatting Corner)

Blue snowflake with cabone ring center on wandasknottythoughts
Blue snowflake with cabone ring center

I like how this one came out. I used size 10 thread and a 1/2 inch cabone ring for this one. I even added beads!

I much prefer working in almost anything other than white. With white, any dirt on your fingers and hands is transferred to the thread. I swear, even if you clean your hands constantly, it ends up looking dirty. My sister pointed out that most of my sales have been ornaments in white, so I guess I need to keep making some. But those ones in color are so much fun!

Now what I really, really need to do is put the finishing touches on a bunch of pieces I’ve done. You know, sewing in the ends and cutting them off, starching if necessary, and blocking them. I’ll be excited about them when they are done and ready to go, but right now I’m in tatting mode!

Thanks to all of you that have been following along with my critter ideas on Facebook. I’ve had so much fun with them and seeing all the ideas about them from others. There will probably be more eventually. I still haven’t come up with a dog that I’m happy with.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer