Karen’s Opinion

I just noticed that I rarely make anything in the colors, red, white and blue. I need to remedy that! I did make this pillow.

“What do you give?” is how the auctioneer began his spiel when starting the auction for each item from a large estate sale. Mom and I headed to a quilt show Saturday but decided to check out an auction first. We were “just going to look”. Famous last words.

Little did we know that this auction had boxes of fabric and quilts. We were as excited as a shopper with a 700 credit score! We had our eye on a quilt top that looked to be from the 1930′s. It was a Grandmother’s Flower Garden pattern. It was not a finished quilt and the rest of the box held “cheater quilts”.

The auctioneer went through box after box of old dishes that included some carnival glass and depression glass. I did pick up a few salad plates and discovered that two of them might be valuable.

I also bought some old fashioned mixing bowls. I knew I better be careful or I’d be checking my free credit score in order to have some money left over to bid on some quilts.

Mom and I were keeping close tabs on the boxes that held the quilts we were interested in and were a bit put out as we watched several ladies rearranging the boxes contents. We rearranged them back to their original contents more than once! I hoped there wouldn’t be a fight before the auctioneer finally got to the boxes of which we were longingly waiting to bid.

The box that held the quilt went for way more than it was worth, ($80.00), but I did get a box that held 19 quilt blocks. I only paid $5.00. The quilt blocks are paper pieced using newspapers dated 1928! I am so excited to have acquired these old blocks.

When we got in the car to head to the quilt show, the temperature was 98 degrees! We were red in the face and sweating profusely. We were kinda gross to go to a quilt show but off we went.

I have been grasping for things to write about because it seems like all I have been doing lately is sewing! Don’t get me wrong. I love to create things. I especially like to finish projects. Here is what I recently finished.

Pressure! Pressure! How many of you think of gifts you want to make? Gifts that take time to create? Now, I am not talking about research and all the work it takes to be an accountant but making crafts does require time. In the manner that forensic accountants take time to build information needed to build a case, I travel to different stores for supplies, cut out patterns and get down to the project at hand. Laundry and dishes go untouched! My house becomes a display of disarray from one end of it from the other. Is this how you work? Why can I not think of these things in June? I could be prepared and set out to embroider snowmen as I sit outside getting sun on my face.

That is not how I work. I decided on Sunday that it would be a good idea to give snowmen pillows as gifts. Two are finished. Three more to go.

Small pillow with blue piping around the edges.
I put three large buttons on the back.

I am so excited! If any of you sell on the Internet, you know how important computer support is. It is not easy learning the ropes of how to put up a good picture and how to write a quality description of your product. IT support is wonderful as well as having friends who are passionate about making and selling handmade products.

I just received an email informing me that one of my bags was included in an Etsy Treasury. You Etsy sellers know how hard it is to get noticed amongst the thousands of sellers on Etsy. To have someone find one of your products let alone include it in a treasury is like, um, a miracle! Visit the treasury to see all the blue and green bags in this collection.

I belong to an Etsy group called Cabteam. That stands for Carried Away Bag Team. We are a group who love to make handbags, totes, wallets, etc. This group encourages each of us as we strive to make quality products and also raises money to help needy causes.