Frugal Friday with Marsha 11/7/14--Crafts as Gifts Continued

Welcome to Friday.  I'm off to a quilt retreat for the day as well as all day tomorrow.
Is that frugal?  I guess it depends on how you look at it.  It's local, hosted by the quilt shop.  They are calling it a no frills retreat, which means they are not catering meals in for us.  That means it did cost considerably less than the last one they held.   I have some TV dinners to take along, however, I also have cash on hand in case others are sending out for something that sounds really good.
I have 7 or 8 different projects packed to work on, including some for gifts this year.

I will share a few more of the gifts that I have given as gifts in the past again this week.

This is a lined fabric bag that I made for my middle daughter, Heather.  I had learned about making the lined bags by making walker bags.  I messed up and the pockets ended up on the outside.  I wasn't about to take it apart, so it stayed that way.

Here are more fabric bags that I made.  These were before I learned how to make them lined, but also before I learned about doing the French seams as well.  One was for my nephew, one for my niece, and 2 for grandsons.  I put their gifts inside the bags.

I had run across a panel that was to make a bug book.  I chose to take the pages and line them up as a quilt top instead.  It was given to my grandson Cash as he hadn't gotten a quilt from me yet.
I have Christmas book panels now that are packed to work on this weekend.  I will be making those into quilts instead of books as well.

I look forward to sharing more gifts with you next week and also look forward to anything you would like to share with me as well.

An InLinkz Link-up

Writer's Unite 11/6/14

Happy Thursday!   I hope this past week has been productive for you with your writing.

This week I want to remind you of other sharing opportunities that I have here on my blog:

Super Sunday Reviews--Share reviews you have written in the past week.

All Business Monday--Share blog posts you have written about your business.

Writer's Unite--as you know is each Thursday where you can share 1 or 2 links to your writing online, any platform, any time you have written it (even if it was years ago)

Frugal Friday--share any posts that you have written related to living a simple life, being frugal, saving money.

Ongoing giveaway--If you host giveaways on your blog, share them on this page, which is found in the index.

Homemade 2012 and Beyond---also a page in the index where you can share any post you have written about making handmade gifts, or even list your handmade shop etc.

An InLinkz Link-up

WIP Wednesday 11/5/14

Woot Woot!!  Quilt Retreat coming up this weekend!  It's an in town one hosted by the local quilt shop. It will be held in a building at the state fairgrounds.  We will be sewing 9 am to 10 pm Friday and Saturday.
I've started to pack my projects, machine and supplies.

This week I will actually start with a finish.  I plan on making lots of set of these fashion doll bedding sets.   This one is going to my granddaugher, Zelda, for Christmas, but others will both be listed in my section of the Online Craft Mall, as well as in my Etsy Shop.

I worked a bit more on the fractured pineapple blocks.

I sewed together tons of the 2 and a quarter inch squares.  I still have 2 very full pizza boxes of these squares.  Next is making them in to 4 patches.  I'm using these in the doll blankets and have a few other projects in mind for them as well.

Last, but not least this week,  I got my hexagons out for the November color with the soscrappy blog challenge.  This month the color is baby blue, or lighter blues.   It will be interesting to see just how many of these actually get completed this month.

Back to my UFO list.   I really should work to attempt to complete these before 2014 is over!

UFO's:

Rectangle quilt
challenge wall hanging
GoodNight Irene quilt/wall hanging
Yo-Yo Table runner
Emerald Island Fusique table runner
Five and Dime quilt
Fractured Pineapple quilt
Christmas bags (total of at least 25) (9 done)
Charming Stars quilt
Brown half square triangle quilt
? sets of doll blanket, pillows and rug
Hexagon flower table runner

I am linking up with the following blogs:

All Business Monday--Online Craft Mall Membership

If you are looking for a place to sell your handmade items, I highly recommend the Online Craft Mall with Under The Rainbow.

I have been a member for going on 10 years and there is no way that you will find a better deal online...at least not that I have ever seen.

Look at all you get for just a ONE TIME $10 membership fee:

20 FREE craft mall posts – Under The Rainbow provides a variety of ways to earn more free posts, or you may purchase more as needed for a small fee. *Purchase more posts for only $2/10 items.

Personal Posting Assistance – Under The Rainbow personally helps you with everything needed for posting your items, including picture editing/scanning, shipping cost calculation, and more.

Absolutely NO non-crafted items as competition – All New Members are screened for authenticity. We are crafters, not representatives for other companies, as all craft malls should be.

No Monthly Fees to Maintain your Craft Posts – Only a small 15% commission on sales, to help support web site expenses – NO MONTHLY FEES for craft item maintenence. We want to help you increase sales without increasing your expenses. Commission is retained from crafter payment when your items sell!

FREE Advertisement in Newsletter – We do our best to promote all members and craft mall posts.

FREE membership to www.online-craft-show.com – Participate in our Online Celebration Events to help increase your sales and broaden your exposure. Events are held every 2 months, and are optional. No commission due for member vendors. *Participation is optional and doesn’t require Vendor Spots.

FREE Private Party Chat Room – We love online parties and like to see our chat room used by our members. So, we created a Private Party Room JUST for that use. *Chat room scheduling is required.

Member Discounts & Benefits – Enjoy our many member discounts and benefits to help your crafting business grow – Craft Classified Ads, Gazebo Store Fronts, product discounts, and much more…

Crafter Fellowship, Business Assistance, and even Craft Project Assistance – Under The Rainbow’s Company Yahoo group for networking with other members and company announcements – membership is required to maintain mall membership. We’ll even help you with your business outside of the craft mall.


I  need to get busy and get more things listed for myself, but you can find my crafter page HERE.


Click HERE for complete information on joining.   If you do join, you might tell her that Marsha sent you over  :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Super Sunday Reviews---Brazilian Bracelets: Making Friendship Bracelets & More

Brazilian Bracelets: Making Friendship Bracelets & More

Friendship bracelets are so much fun to make and even funner to give out to friends and family.

The book, Brazilian Bracelets, is all about making friendship bracelets and more.

Published by Schiffer and written by Florence Bellot, inside the 61 pages you will find several patterns and techniques to choose from.

Some are simple, some are more complicated.

The book starts out with material and advice. A bonus in the back of the book are threads to get you started. A packet which includes 5 different colors.

Some of the designs and techniques include thins bracelets, zig zags, fish, wraps beaded, and more.

There are even instructions on how to decorate your hair with them.

The back of the book includes 2 personal pages. You can fill in your favorite design, the design you love the most, and the first design that you created. You can create your own color chart. You can compare the designs in the book to those you come up with on your own.

My teenager got right down to business making bracelets once I got the book. I thought she would stop after 1 or 2. She did stop at 2 for herself, but then she went on to make more to give to friends and to her sisters.

She brought the book to her next oldest sister’s house and left it with her to make bracelets too. She even gave her a box of embroidery thread to work with.

So much fun to make!




Here are some of the bracelets that Jasmine made:

Disclosure: I rec’d the book, Brazilian Bracelets, from the publisher for the purpose of doing a review. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions are my own.

An InLinkz Link-up