Ah Collingswood…

LOL- I accidentally got my booth neighbors face in this picture, she was really nice.

My first time at the May Fair turned out similar to what I had suspected. I like to guess, like when you guess how much gas is going to cost you in total as the tank is filling up. The morning was very slow and most people wait to the last few hours to make any purchases because they want to hang out all day at this busy street festival. I really didn’t get to walk around to see a lot of the other vendors, but I had another bag and purse vendor just 2 booths away, and it seemed that every other vendor was jewelry.  I was lucky enough to have a few loyal customers stop by. This is always exciting, because I feel like such a tiny blip on the radar, and for people to see me and want more of what I have is thrilling.

I forgot how eclectic this little town could be. At the 31st annual May Fair I set up my booth  just a few yards from where I used to live on Haddon Ave., about 10 years ago. Some things about this town have changed dramatically. Like the scope of businesses, and the new available housing. Yet so much has stayed the same. As the people at this street festival started streaming past my booth I remembered the unique characters that I would be lucky enough to observe on a daily basis when I resided here. This little town really has it’s own flavor.

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Crazy Good

The Art Star Craft Bazaar was great!

Fantastic weather and a well organized event. Megan and Erin really do an A+ job of putting this event together, great vendors, excellent advertising, helpful volunteers, and a jumbo crowd of shoppers.

Plus the people watching is probably the best of any show in the area.
I do enjoy seeing new fun eyeglass frames. I saw a pale pink pair on someone that I would like find for myself. Plenty of interesting hair-do’s to check out . Lots of tattoos, it seems women have way more ink than the men or maybe the are just much better at showing it off with the correct clothing choices. Also getting to check out the clothing and bags of real live people is great fuel for my own creative energy. I’m going to need it to get my inventory back up for the next show.

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Autumn in Moorestown

A mostly rainy day followed by a few hours of sun. Many shoppers still came out despite the rain,  it was extra disappointing that many vendors near me were no-show. I would change how main street is set up for this show. From east to west: food, crafters and then fancy cars without the big spaces in between. Still a good show though.
This type of weather makes my hair crazy-like sticking out sideways.
So when I saw this picture of myself on their website I was surprised that the hair was only half crazy.

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Big truck in a tiny town

I was at the “Giant” Ocean Grove craft show yesterday. A huge thank you goes out to my friend Pamela who woke up at 5am to help me out, I don’t think I could have done it without her (seriously). I received some wonderful feedback from browsers and shoppers. It’s always great when people give you positive comments about what you love to do. This show is definitely giant, maybe too big. It is a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere and the crowds were certainly out yesterday.

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Messenger bags from new prints

A handful of small messenger bags from new fabric prints, 3 handbags and one tote (new design).
Totally random placement- I hang the bags on this wall as soon as I finish to get them out of the way.

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Prints for the new season

All of this in only 4 days!
Hand printed and ready to be cut…

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Etsy front page excitement

Finally made it to the front page of Etsy… only to sell the item seconds later resulting in very mixed emotions.

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New Bags for Spring

Indigo with Flower Applique

Finally got my new sewing machine. I have been waiting to make more bags, so here we go.

Lining of Indigo with Flower

Indigo with Leaf, same lining as above

Handmade ceramic button

Leaf Applique

Navy blue brushed cotton with leaf applique and coordinating ceramic button.

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Derranged Hello Kitty Sews

This just in… Consumer reports will be doing a review of sewing machines in their March issue due out sometime in February.
So I will wait another month before making a buying decision on a new machine.
I hope this is an extensive report and not some watered down review that focuses on some “value” machines.
-from the emails consumers is getting on this subject it looks like they have a broad base of questions to answer…

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Embroidery for the mac

My Hand Embroidery

I’ve been looking to purchase a new sewing machine, my old one has very few options and a lot of tension problems. I have wanted one that can also do embroidery, but I want to do my own designs. This is not as easy to come by as you would think, especially when you are working on a mac computer. You would think you could use something in adobe’s creative suite to edit embroidery designs.  I have already spent lots of money on these programs and years out of my life learning how to use them.  This is possible, but the software is geared towards having a custom embroidery shop and the cost is astronomical.
After some searching I found Embroidery software for the mac and it just happens to be software for what’s called the “home sewer.” They have  a program that converts files to any sewing machine format. There are a lot of formats. A lot. Unfortunately this software is only for existing embroidery files, i.e. sets of embroidery designs that come prepackaged. While this is certainly a worthwhile program, reasonably priced and something I will purchase in the future, it only gets me halfway there.
I still need a program that I can create embroidery in. Through a process called digitizing you take your artwork and using it as a template, create a digital embroidery pattern. The process involves laying out how the needle will travel through the design, the kind of stitches the machine will use, the direction of the stitches, the color of thread, and I assume some other stuff. The whole process is like drawing without lifting your pencil off the paper.  Affordable software for digitizing on the mac, as of yet, does not exist.
I contacted Embroidery software for the mac, to see if they could answer any of my questions about creating my own designs. They suggested hiring a local embroidery shop to do the digitizing. I really can’t find one, so if any one knows of a custom embroidery shop in south jersey that they like, please let me know.  I will say Brian at www.macemb.com was very helpful with the myriad of questions I had. It is surprising to find such excellent customer service. Someone who takes the time to respond, is knowledgeable, and personable. He is also working on a software program for digitizing on the mac. I would love to hear from anyone who works on a mac using embroidery. Please share your experience.

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