Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! 

This 2007 Thimbleberries fabric panel from my stash is waiting for the right project.

Here are a couple of images of my collections. Deep in my storage somewhere, I know I will locate them again one day. 

Not much decorating is done during October since trick or treaters are not going to walk up a mile-long dirt road for a piece of candy. Thrift shop witch resides in the spooky castle.  

Seems there are wigs for cats - how cute is that? 

I recently listed this pattern for sale on eBay. One would think costume sewing patterns would be hot sellers - not. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/187566095644

Holiday decorating begins November 1st!🎄Mkay, I lied, it has already begun. We so enjoyed the outdoor decorations out front last year. The only people to see them are delivery drivers, friends and family, and us. I have obtained all the lights through thrift. My latest secondhand purchase are this trio of small lighted trees for $1.50. They had never been unpackaged, all scrunched up waiting to make their appearance. 

So far with the test trees, the dog has torn them out of the ground three times.🐶

Wedding and baby expenses have been incredibly expensive. Now there is debt to pay off so belt tightening has to happen. eBay sales have fallen off since summer and have not recovered. Listing sessions I have queued up are sewing patterns, books, and needlework kits. I just keep listing even when sales are discouraging. 

On the college front, classes post November 3. Praying I can pop on to an online art class for the spring session. Art classes seem to be very popular. First time I wasn't added to a class from the wait list for a fall semester class.  

Bluey Baby Shower Day Of

I spent all afternoon in the kitchen the day before the shower. First, I prepared the fruit salad which consisted of watermelon, pineapple chunks, green grapes, blueberries, apples, and strawberries. 

Next came the homemade lasagna, I had followed this Delish YouTube tutorial. 

Then with the oven still hot, I made coconut cherry macaroon cookies, the devil's food sheet cake (cake mix with homemade frosting), and my fruitcakes for Christmas. One big change to the fruitcake, rather than wrap the sherry-soaked cheesecloth cakes in foil, I vacuum packed them. They will reside in the frig for the next 2 months. 

All went well with about 25 in attendance. Lots of disposable diapers received. 

The piece de resistance the baby heart quilt. She received lots of onesies and baby shirts. 

Baby clothes sewing to follow. Things seem to be coming together for the little girl's arrival.

Bluey Baby Shower

The Bluey baby shower for my daughter will be held on Saturday, 10/25. This image was taken at Wally World where I bought most of the decorations.

I am making a chocolate devil's food sheet cake. First time using a cake writing gel. The best YouTube tip was to use a toothpick to write out the message first. Next, keep the gel working in a continuous line without a break. I figured that might be the case - similar to free motion quilting - slow, steady, one continuous line. 

Now baby will have the summer or first crib quilt I created for this event. I fell in love with this heart flannel one with wool batting - the winter quilt. The patchwork piecing and the baby fabric borders came in the same $6 bag at thrift. I combined the two and added the lilac-colored flannel backing/binding. 

Here is the haul for baby. I will keep the dress with me for now. Hope to have a wardrobe unveiling of garments I've made for her. For now, she will receive the cute as a button jacket.

Grand Mee Maw Sewing Stuff

Can't hide my love of sewing patterns. It only makes sense that I belong to a Facebook group called Vintage Sewing Pattern Nerds. This pattern was posted on that site. I am especially fond of this one because the pattern model is wearing cat-eye glasses.  

Picked up this uncut Butterick very similar to the pattern above. 

Cute dress, uncut pattern, but nowhere to wear this style. 

I have pulled all of the kid sewing patterns from my stock. Come to think of it, the patterns that DO NOT SELL are baby and kids clothes, purse patterns, and home decor (curtains and such). I now have over 30 kid clothes sewing patterns to start my Grand Mee Maw sewing career. 

I am gathering back the old patterns. After I switched to selling only factory-folded uncut sewing patterns, I pulled all of the cut ones from my stock. There were some that I have kept from my pattern collecting over the years. Those that I am collecting back are ones I would like to sew. This early undated Vogue 9219 pattern is a perfect example. Just my size and I have some simply amazing fabrics to make this garment pop💥

Moving on to seller update. I continue to rearrange stock and made my patterns more accessible when I culled the books for sale. The ones pictured below are all of the miscellaneous pattern makers. 

Here is the balance of the sewing patterns of Butterick, McCalls, Simplicity, and Vogue, along with a needlekit/project box shelf. 

Yarn has its own area, items are bagged but mainly disorganized. The El Pollo Loco catering box is full of listed yarn. 

There you have it. My seller setup and my sewing intentions. Stay tuned! 

Out of the CD selling business

Decorating for Christmas this year will have to be done outdoors. This Demon Dog aka Belle destroys anything inside the house with human scent on it. I am going to have to get creative with decor that can withstand the weather. 

The time arrived - I pulled all of the CDs I had listed for sale on eBay. Of the 150 or so to be donated to the Amador County Library Association, I kept 25 Christmas ones. Each year, I highlight the holiday ones in my Countdown to Christmas. I don't have to buy them at thrift this year! 😀

Books listed on eBay were also culled and donated to the library. The only ones I will list or have listed are either sewing related or unique cookbooks. One keeper for my Countdown was a 1997 publication How to do Christmas Florals if You Think You Can't. CDs and books have been slow movers in sales for a long, long time. 

I will miss all of the wedding events. It was so much fun preparing and shopping for it. But with the baby on the way, that will bring it's own type of excitement. 

Here I have been sewing/quilting for about 10 years. In all that time, the Mr. didn't take much notice. Now that I have started making baby clothes, he has been bragging to his friends about my sewing skill. Go figure. It just proves my theory that kid's clothes are much more interesting/popular than patchwork quilts.

I am finishing up the new baby receiving blanket - just awaiting a pretty purple flannel to arrive in the mail. 

There are about 25 kid clothes sewing patterns I have gathered. I even went through my eBay-listed patterns and pulled the ones for my future projects. Kind of nice when you can just go downstairs and shop for what is needed. Sweeeeet. 

Ending the post with the news that I am a Digital Creator on Facebook. I guess not everyone gets that title. I am not quite sure what it all means. Guess I am supposed to complete assigned tasks to become more popular. Who knew? 😜 Here is the linky loo to my real identity. https://www.facebook.com/tami.aschenbrenner

Thrifted Pieced Patchwork

This pieced heart patchwork came with the baby fabric and other fabric remnants in a $6 bag at thrift. There was a purple border fabric that I removed and replaced it with the baby fabric print. As an example of the cost of retail fabric, the giraffe-print flannel backing I purchased totaled $50. Just for the backing. 

This one I will quilt so it will be ready for the baby's birth. Using a wool batting for warmth. Since she will be born in the winter, another dress is out of the question for now. I am slowly building back my baby fabric stash. The Mr. says I have already gone grand-baby crazy. With all the sewing and such. Marking the quilting lines now. 

Our fur baby Belle is now six months old. She is the larger size of the breed, and still growing. 

Queuing up the Countdown to Christmas posts. My way of celebrating the upcoming holiday. 

Girl Dress Retro Rocket Rascals

So excited to get to my girl dress project, 1996 McCall's 7940. I have had this tres adorbs fabric for quite awhile now - Retro Rocket Rascals by Michael Miller. 

It was the first time I had sewn a Peter Pan collar. Biffed on the first attempt, nailed it on the second. 

Ran out of the retro rocket fabric so I supplemented with a pale yellow backing. Such is Life Living with Remnants. 

The buttonholes were another new thing. My quilting machine a Baby Lock Jazz 2 came with both the quilting attachment and the buttonhole setting on the machine. Praise be to the Baby Lock machine designer. In home economics in the 1970s, we had to figure out the dimensions of the buttonhole manually. It took me a couple of days learning how to work the attachment, I have it down for the next garment. I should have made a prototype first. 

The baby shower is set for Saturday, October 25, 2025. Rachel gave the A-OK for a Bluey-themed event with purple and gold colors. 

Finally found the fabric pull I intended for the New Look 0185 pattern. 

On the eBay seller front, my sales have been worse than awful. Usually sales pick up after summer ends. This year not so much. Perhaps a collective tightening of the purse strings. I had hoped to pay off wedding expenses before Christmas hit. 

It is official and as I suspected. Quilting posts are much less popular than sewing posts. I will admit that patchwork quilting has improved my sewing skills. 

Bought a bag of fabric at thrift and this pieced heart-themed one with matching baby fabric was included. I have bumped all of my other projects to whip up this throw. I removed the purple strips borders shown in the upper left of the image. I don't have any fabric in my stash that marries well with the pieced top. The baby print will be used as the border fabric. Wool batting and a flannel backing for this quilt so it will be warm. 

The crib quilt I intend to give her is not what one would consider warm. It has a thin cotton batting and would serve better as a wall hanging. 

Off to cut the New Look pattern. 

Sierra Gold Quilt Guild Show

I try to make it to this quilter's event in Plymouth, California, each year. The lead-off image is my favorite quilt from the show. The two-day exhibition will run through Saturday. 

Paper Dolls

This one came in a close second for me. 

That Fairy Tale Quilt

I got there early because in years past there was a freebie table. This year I scored 32 quilt sewing patterns for $3, or if you count the $10 entry fee - $13. I also got to enjoy the artistry of local quilters. 

I now have 20 sewing patterns for children, in various states of cut and uncut condition. Those are just the few I have picked up at thrift recently. I am chomping at the bit to start a sewing project but other time commitments have gotten in the way. 

What I Kept and Sewing Intentions

I was going to resell the China picked up a thrift for the wedding. I ended up keeping three patterns I just could not part with. Of the small vases I kept 3 of the 13, a Princess House, and 2 Lenox crystal. The bulk of the plates and small vases were thrifted back. 

Other wedding fiascos included the dessert plates not being unpacked before the cake cutting (mom to the rescue), gift bags not being passed out (again mom) and I packed up the gift table items and placed them in the couple's car before the items disappeared (just in case). 

What did disappear was my mother's 6 piece setting silverware. Only 1 fork made it home. Not sure who stole the items.  

There was a ton of leftover uncut flowers. I made up some flower arrangements, one went to my favorite hospice thrift, the remainder went to the Amador Senior Center. Dispatched the flowers and leftover flower vases in one fell swoop. 

And on to sewing news - as I have alluded to before in previous posts, I have a stash of vintage cut sewing patterns. There are quite a few apron ones, I doubt many kids patterns (since there have been no grandchildren in the family up to this point). I couldn't resist this pattern, I place it as 1950s, the tell-tale signs being the white gloves, a fashion accessory during that time period. 

Even though it is listed as a teenaged size 14, I think it would fit me. I am going to organize all of my cut, kept patterns into sewing projects. It is not as crucial if a piece is missing, I could wing it. 

Next up in the sewing category is a dress for baby girl Malcolm. The baby shower is November 15, so I have time to make at least one more outfit. 

Finally, we are in one of my favorite months of the year - October. 🍂