A Good Week

Last week was a good week. Finished the layout on the ten-year-old quilt and started assembling the top (more below.)

The progress on the Kickstarter campaign, or experiment, has been gratifying - I'm halfway there and have 11 days to go. So, if you can, please use this as an opportunity to add to your stash of dyed or PFD fabrics, or schedule a one-on-one class. And if you can't, can you share the link? I'm going to use the funds for coaching to make my business better. I love what I do - the making, selling and teaching - and really want to keep doing it as long as possible. I need to do it better. Do I deserve the support I've already gotten? It has been humbling to have so many folks give me such a vote of confidence. Deserve - no, not just as a matter of begging. But the other way to look at it is as a 'sales drive' with the proceeds earmarked for this specific project. So I hope you can "shop-pledge" through Kickstarter before Friday, August 8.

My sister came to visit for a couple days (so I actually cleaned) and we went to the Quilt Odyssey show in Hershey. I took a few photos with my phone:

This quilt is made with Radiance, and the sheen is wonderful. And of course the design and execution are awesome. Margaret Soloman Gunn made this.
Also saw this quilt by Lee Ann Paylor - nice to see an online friend's work in person.

And - almost forgot! My Pythagorean Prism quilt (made of hand-dyed and commercial Radiance, and it's a reward on Kickstarter) will be part of the BAQS exhibit at Chatanooga! Here's a detail:

Thanks for looking - and sharing and clicking and re-posting!

The Brass Ring & Economics of Quilt Show Vending

Some of you may have seen this already: I have entered DippyDyes into Intuit’s ‘Small Business Growing Strong’ contest. They will grant $5000 each to a total of 15 small businesses to help them grow. You can see my wish and vote here, and please vote as often as you can. Why should you? Not because I’m any more deserving than all the other entrants. Dyeing is my passion and I want to share it with as many people as possible. I’d also like to be able to do this as a living. That means more on-line sales, plain and simple, plus more teaching gigs, and to get those means more exposure. What better place than Houston to find it?
Right now, getting to Houston and back, paying for the booth/s, having reliable transportation, etc, will cost over $3000 before I make a single sale. For an idea of how that compares, I did a summary of the three shows I vended at this spring. After subtracting booth fees, hotels and mileage, my gross profit was about $2800. Subtract the estimated cost of good sold, and the net profit comes to about $640. Remind me why I’m doing this again?? Well, I know why, but it’s certainly not logical with such low profits. Committing to going to Houston on my own looks even less logical – it’s great advertising, but not a real profit-making venue. So, I can try for the brass ring (now I AM dating myself), or never go to vend at Houston, or build up to it as a “few years down the road” goal. Can’t hurt to try! Thanks for your support.

New class at Innovative Beads Expo

Next Sunday, May 20, I will be teaching my felted and beaded coin purse kit at the Innovative Beads Expo at the Allentown Fairgrounds. There's a picture there of a coin purse in progress; here's another one that I'm working on now:

I have another, but it's in my purse. This project features a hand-dyed piece of Peltex, wool roving and beads, and is for beaders who haven't felted and felters who haven't beaded and quilters who may not have tried either! Hope you can join me!

Off to Cincinnati in June

I’m trying a new-to-me show with ‘The Original Creative Festival’ in Cincinnati. I’ll be in booth 106, as of this writing, and I am going to be introducing some new fabrics for garment sewers, as well as my snow-dyed and discharged fabrics, polyesters and wool roving. And I will be teaching ‘Dye Boot Camp’ again – come and join the fun!

Radio show archive is available

You can now hear the radio show -  I am in the archive. It was interesting to do, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity! I'm not listening to myself tonight - too strange. Thanks for checking it out!

Talk Radio to start the New Year!

Wow – the time has flown by. I have some exciting news to share – I will be a guest on American Patchwork & Quilting Radio, hosted by Pat Sloan, next week, Monday, January 9, 2012, beginning at 4 PM EST. I have listened to several of the shows in the archive, and today I listened to it live. Pat has lots of great guests – I hope I do as well as they did. Pat sent me a list of topics to discuss – I’m sure we’ll have no trouble filling up the time slot!

Here’s a link:

You can listen live, or check it out later in the archives. Woo-hoo!