Purchasing stock in felt, fabric and yarn

I thought about tipping you folks off so you could put your pennies into the felt, fabric and yarn markets prior to this weekend. I was concerned about insider trading, and would like to keep my similarities with Martha Stewart to remain in the sewing realm -- so I kept my mouth shut.


It was a lot of fun dressing up for the Halloween contests at a local park (we were judges and not participants). Tonight is trick-or-treating with the little one, so we can get the most bang per stitch before these costumes get hung up.

Full disclosure: while I did make both of the shirts the guys are wearing...it was years ago.

Buckle Toy in Action

Some folks have been looking at the buckle toys in my shop, but aren't quite sure what they are. I wanted to post a picture of one in action... (Thanks to this all-star buckler and his mom for showing us how it's done!) Notice his use of tongue for extreme concentration!

For starters, the little one might need help getting the buckles open. Even help lining up one or two...then they're off to the races.

We affectionately call our family buckle toy "Buckles." It goes with us in the car, but is also great when little hands tend to get into each and every thing when I'm trying to do something else. We can pull out Buckles (which is almost always greeted with cheer) to give her something constructive to do.

Where I've Been...

I'm rounding the bend on having an Etsy shop open for an entire month. If you've been paying much attention, you've noticed that I haven't posted any new items in my shop since the October 1st opening.

What the heck have I been up to??

First and foremost, I was resting. I had toe surgery the last week of September, and that slowed me down more than I had originally planned. Also, I sewed every free moment leading up to the Wistful Stitches shop opening...and that left me a little burned out.

Last week, I jumped back in the sewing saddle out of necessity. Halloween (our family's favorite holiday) was quickly approaching, and I had four costumes to make. We're all going as a garden gnomes this year, so the work was fun - but intense. Especially since I managed to volunteer myself to make my daughter's and my dresses from scratch...and also managed to NOT obtain any sort of a pattern. Her dress/apron is pictured to the right. I have a few odds and ends to tie up, but this will all be done before the gnomes head out of our house on Saturday.

I was also working on a pair of colorful Euro shams (26" x 26") for a custom order customer (pictured left). I can't wait to see a follow-up picture of these babies with their pillows!

Introducing the Wistful Stitches Blog!

Here it is!! I'll be using this site to show what projects I'm working on. You can also see the tabs at the top take you to pages that describe how I came to this point of starting a shop to sell quilts and another describing the details of ordering a custom blanket.

After nearly three weeks of recovery from crazy pre-grand-opening inventory building and toe surgery...I'm back in the saddle. Feel free to sift through this blog, peruse the store...and share, share, share with your friends!!