Chris Cringle First Sale

Hi!  No, we haven't forgotten you.  We've been a little busy.  Early in November, we had a booth at the annual Chris Cringle craft show in Champaign, IL.  This was our 5th year participating in the show.  If you've ever had a booth at a craft show, you never know how long you will have to wait for your first sale of the day.  Sometimes it takes over an hour for the first person to buy something.  At the start of a show, it seems that everyone just wants to look around to see what is available.  But sometimes we have buyers before the show is officially open.  That's what happened to us this year.

For the past 3 years, we have had the same people as our first sale.  There are 3 sisters who attend Chris Cringle every year.  For the first 2 years we were at the show, one of the sisters came alone.  And she made a purchase from us both years.  Then 3 years ago, she brought her 2 sisters.  2 of them fought over wanting to buy the same elephant tote.  So we had to make a custom order for the sister who didn't have first dibs on the tote.  This year they both came carrying their elephant totes.  Yay for loyalty!

The past 2 years, these 3 sisters have made a point of coming to our booth first to make their first purchases.  Who knew we would have a following.  It's kind of fun.  So, we took pictures of our first sales this year.  You get to vote on which item you like best:  a phone bag or a wristlet.

Phone Bag

Wristlet

A couple hours after these ladies made their annual purchase from us, another lady stopped by and asked if we had any more elephant totes.  She had seen the sisters with their totes and wanted to know where they got them.  She loved elephants, too.  They directed her to our booth, but we didn't have elephant totes this year.  We didn't have anything that had elephants on it.  We've realized from these craft shows that people love fabrics with animals.  We try to have a variety of animal prints, but we just can't please everyone all the time.

Stay tune for our exciting new challenges we have planned for next year.  Just remember to vote!

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Pillow Challenge

It's the end of September, and we're getting ready for our annual Chris Cringle show.  With that in mind, we decided that we our challenge this month would be one of the pillows we've made for the craft show.  Who doesn't like pillows?!  These are two bright pillows that would liven up any boring room.

Red Pillow
The front of the  first pillow is a Japanese red painting MUJI on linen cotton.  The back is a red houndstooth.  Houndstooth is one of my favorite fabrics.  The Japanese fabric is now out of print.

Dot Pillow
The second pillow is made of linen moochi dots fabric.  Each fabric was cut into 2" strips and then sewn together.  It was then cut again into 2" strips and sewn together.  Tedious, but fun.

All we ask for you to do right now is vote for your favorite pillow.  If you're in the Champaign, IL area on November 7th and 8th, you can visit our booth at the annual Chris Cringle show. These pillows will be available.  We hope to see you there!

October Challenge (a day late)

Our annual showing at Chris Cringle show starts today. Yay!  It's hard to believe that this is the 4th year we've been in the show.  Time flies when you're having fun!  We spent yesterday afternoon setting up our booth and fine-tuning the look of it.  We're ready to get the party started!

We've been working hard on all our merchandise this month, so please forgive us for having another pillow challenge 2 months in a row.  Last month, our challenge was to make something out of the same fabric.  We both happened to make a pillow.  Surprise, surprise.  Since we've been busy making pillows for the show, we decided we would each enter a pillow that we're selling as our challenge this month.  Makes sense, huh?  Why make something that we're not going to sell.

Lindsey Polka Dot Pillow

This pillow is made in honor of a friend, Lindsey, who loves polka dots.  I hope this pillow makes her proud!  The pieces are made of one-inch squares of polka dot fabrics.  The initial idea was to make it a random design, but the randomness kind of went away in favor of this awesome looking pattern.  Can't think of what the name of this pattern is, but it's fun and beautiful!

Anthropology Knock-off Pillow

Sometimes you see something you love that's really expensive, and you don't want to spend alot of money on it.  Or maybe you just can't afford it.  That's when you put your skills to work and make your own.  Call it copy catting.  Call it knock-offs.  Call it making it work on your budget and your taste.  That's what this pillow is.  I saw it at Anthropology and refuse to pay the full price. It's made with blue chambray.  This is my interpretation, and I love it!

Vote for your favorite pillow!  If you like both pillows and can't decide, then vote for both.  We won't be offended.  And if you really like the pillows and can't live without them (and you're in Champaign, IL today or tomorrow), come out and buy them.  That wouldn't offend us either.

Tote Sewing Challenge

We are gearing up for our Fall craft show season.  We don't go crazy with craft shows, but we do have a couple dates on our calendars.  We'll tell you about those dates in just a bit.  So that means that we are should be sewing like crazy.  We've got coin purses, wristlets, totes, pillows and coasters on the brain.  Our sewing rooms are beginning to look like Christmas.  Well, sort of.  That means we've been on the lookout for a new style of tote for our fall season.  We've each made a new pattern, and we would like for you to vote on your favorite.

Tote #1   Fabric: Gray, Beige and Flax Linen (exterior). 

Color Block Tote

It's bigger than you think!

Casual but classy

Tote #2 

Navy Zig Zag

Fabric: Simply Style Navy Blue Zig Zag Ombre by V and Co (exterior). Ombre Dots by Riley Blake (interior).

It's so big, it's almost a skirt! 

Ombre dots on the inside

Today is also the start of our favorite college team's football seasons.  Joy lives in Champaign, IL and is a huge fan of the Fighting Illini at University of Illinois.  Basketball is more the sport of choice for her, and she is suffering through the football season.  Jan lives in Columbus, OH and is a huge fan of The Ohio State University Buckeyes. Jan's household prefers football and suffers through basketball season.  It gets a little dicey when our teams play each other.  Sometimes on our visits to each other's houses, the unsuspecting homeowner will find the opposing team's stickers all over the place.  It's only amusing if you're the one who has hidden the stickers.  hehe

Back to our craft show schedule.  If you would like to see our creations in person, here is our schedule.  We'll post more info on facebook as these dates get closer.

Nov. 1&2 (Jan & Joy)
Chris Cringle
University of Illinois
Champaign, IL

Nov. 30th (Jan)
Not Your Mama's Craft Market
Union County Fair Grounds
Marysville, OH

A Saturday in December (Joy)
Joy's Holiday Open House
Champaign, IL

Take a minute during a commercial break or in between plays and vote for your favorite tote!!!  As always, the voting is anonymous.  We don't know who votes.  So just vote!!

First Sale of the Show Contest

A couple of weeks ago, we sold our goods at the Chris Cringle Craft Show in Champaign, IL.  If you've ever been brave enough to sell anything at a craft show, you know that at times it feels like you're not selling very much.  When the show starts, it usually takes awhile to get your first sale.  People are slow coming in, and they want to look around before they start buying.

Here are a couple of pictures of our booth.  We tried to make it colorful and fun.

Basket of Coin Purses

h. Camille Booth

This is our third year to have a booth at the craft show.  We have noticed that some people come back every year and buy from us.  There are a couple of regulars who come back every year.  Let me tell you about one of them.  I don't remember her name.  The first year, she came alone.  She looked at our products when she first came in, but she didn't buy anything.  She came back a little later and bought a wristlet.  I'm not sure why, but I remembered her face.  Last year, she was our first customer.  And she brought 2 other women with her.  They all made a purchase from us.  They seemed to like fabric with animals.

Guess what!  They were our first customers again this year.  And they all 3 bought something.  One of them purchased this very cute dog coin purse.

One of the other ladies (the one who has bought from us for all 3 years) picked out a cool blue elephant tote.  Her sister saw her holding it and wanted it.  Big sister wouldn't budge.  She saw it first, but younger sister said "but it's blue and has an 'F' on it."  Big sister still wouldn't budge.  So, I stepped in and saved the day.  I said to little sister, "I can make you another one just like it."  She had to think about it for a minute, but then said "Ok,  if you can make one exactly like it, I'll take it."

I rushed home that night and ordered some more blue elephant fabric.  It really is fun Japanese fabric.  It arrived in the mail 3 days later and I made a second blue elephant tote.  It should be in her hands at this very moment.

This month, we're asking you to vote on the first item we each sold at the craft show.  We've learned that people always want animals on their totes or coin purses or wristlets.  Who knew!?  Which would you prefer?  Red dogs?  Blue elephants?

Vote now.  Remember, as always, we don't know who votes or who you vote for.  Just vote!!

Oh, one more thing.  The second person who has purchased from us came to our booth this year.  She picked up something to buy and wanted to use her credit card.  We accept credit cards using our Square on an ipad.  We had really bad wifi reception and had trouble staying connected.  When we tried to get the sale to go through with her credit card, it just didn't work.  We tried several times and then she asked us to hold the item and she would be back for it.  She never came back.  Boo hoo!!  We lost a sale.

Pillow Challenge

If you look at our planned monthly sewing challenges, you'll notice that we change them.  Often.  We were supposed to do a rickrack challenge this month, but we're busy working on inventory for a craft show.  So...we decided to change our challenge to pillows.  We're both making some pillows for the show.  And who doesn't love a good pillow.

You can see that the pillows are both really cool, but really different.  We're the same.  Even though we're twins, we're different but very cool.  Both of us.  And so are the pillows.

Mitered Square Pillow

Christmas Pillow

These pillows will be for sale this Friday and Saturday, 11/1 -11/2 at the Chris Cringle Craft Show in Champaign, IL.  If you're in the area, stop by our booth and check out our merchandise.  You might need to pick up a pillow or two.  Or some other really cool item.

We're only a week away from election day.  Maybe you've already voted, and if you haven't, be sure to do so.  It's your right and privilege and duty.  Also, remember to vote for your favorite pillow.  They're both pretty cool, if you ask me.  And I only made one of them.

Remember, your vote is confidential.  We don't know who votes.  So, just vote!

Baby Gifts

I'm getting my hair cut tonight.  The girl who cuts my hair is expecting identical twin girls in July.  I'm taking her baby gift to her tonight, just in case those girls decide to come early.  Way early.  I know their mom is afraid that's going to happen.  She already has 2 girls, ages 10 and 12.  And now she's having 2 more.  I'm sure her husband is going to love all that estrogen in the house.  He needs a man cave, for sure.

I found this cute owl pattern and just had to make a couple for the girls.  For some reason, owls seem to be a hit with people.  I've never figured out why, but my motto today is "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".  So I made owls.

And I made owls.  Christmas is less than 8 months away, so I've started working on my inventory for the Chris Cringle show that we're in in November.  It's never too early to start preparing for that.  So I made a few extra owls to take along with me.

We're busy working on our elastic project for our May sewing challenge.  I think mine is going to be really cute, if I can figure out how to make it.  I don't know why I pick things to make and then have to create my own pattern.  Why do I do that to myself?

The pics of our elastic challenge will be posted in a couple more weeks.  Stay tuned for more of our sewing endeavors.