Starting out creating is never easy. Sometimes you have to have the inspiration and sometimes you have to make the inspiration. We have things in our studio we have lovingly started to call our UFO’s. (Un finished objects, a big hit in the crafty creator community right now) We both have issues with ADHD to varying degrees so we tend to start big projects and then Squirrell.
One big project that was started by April last year is a beautiful wall hanging. She had completed the Halloween wall hanging of this type but had yet to finish the Christmas version. She had completed the embroidery for the projects and made 12 beautifully designed embroidery panels. She buys these panels from Sweet pea and buys the panels she wants and likes from them and then we use our embroidery machine to embroider the panels. Each panel takes a labor of love to complete and sometimes takes up to an hour and 75 thread changes!
After completing the panels though the real fun begins! She has to decide how she wants the panels laid out! She also performs what she calls lawless quilting, kinda like pirates they are more guidelines than rules, and begins her process. She laid out the panels in different ways until she found a pattern that was aesthetically pleasing! After adding a border, and another 5 inch border she backed the entire newly made panel with fluff and flannel and quilted it. After it was quilted and sufficiently stuffed she bound the edges in a blanket stitch.
Now, because it had been a year she had some of the original fabric but not what she wanted to bind and border it with. She luckily used to work at Joanns and still knows the employees there! They know us by name and when we are getting ready for markets we are in there almost every other day with something new we need or forgot to pick up the day before. (squirrells in the brain for sure). Once she got there she brought her project and they suggested the lighter fabric you see it bound in as well as framed in. They always do such a great job at helping out customers and giving them an amazing second opinion.
We know we need to get better at this and this is that attempt. Building our brand has not been easy by any means but trying to make this work has been rewarding. Learning how to run the business how we want to and not ‘the traditional way’ or ‘run it how you’re told’ has been a challenge, but never something we are fully willing to give up on. Enjoy today's UFO and we'll come at you next week with a new one! I can't wait to show you what we have been up to and what we are looking for in the future!
