The Process

Arts shows and events have recently started asking applicants to submit detailed photos of their work in progress. It's an effort on the organizer's part to ensure that vendors are actually making the art they're selling, but it's also a great exercise for the artist to document the process of creation.

These photos show a few images of me making a vintage postcard pillow, starting with enlarging and copying the original image onto fabric; selecting accent fabrics and/or quilt blocks; cutting, pinning and stitching the pillow front together; adding embellishments such as ribbon, buttons or beads; hand-quilting the cover; adding the envelope-style back and stuffing it all with a standard 16-inch square pillow form.

A Studio Pantry

A brief Twitter conversation last week with @Dafforn, also known as the Kitchen Gardener, led us both to start thinking about organizing our studios as if they were pantries. She was re-stocking her pantry while I was debating whether to re-organize my studio one more time. Thus we came up with the studio pantry idea.

The approach makes sense: stock up on the things you use over and over again; add a good selection of spices; throw in a few exotic ingredients to encourage trying something new and have it all within reach and properly labeled.

My staples -- the salt, pepper, flour and sugar of my textile art -- are pins, needles, thread, buttons, ribbons, beads, scissors, rotary cutters, rulers. Other necessary ingredients are glue sticks, iron-on adhesive, fabric pens, pencils, markers.

The spice and flavorings -- accent fabrics, metallic threads, net or lace overlays, etc. -- are now together as are color-coordinated see-through boxes of large cuts of fabric and tidy baskets holding 2-inch, 3-inch and 4-inch squares and strips.

Tools and utensils are grouped together and the basis of it all, the bolts of fabric and batting, are within reach but not blocking access to the rest of the supplies.

I've struggled for years about how to best organize my studio. I think I've finally found the right idea with the pantry approach: keep everything that you use regularly within reach and put it back where it belongs once the "recipe" is complete.

Strict Show Criteria

The new year means slogging through all of the show applications for Spring, Summer and beyond. I usually find the process tiresome, but studying what the Palm Springs (Calif.) VillageFest requires of potential vendors made me take the process more seriously and wish every quality show had similar strict requirements.

The Palm Springs festival board requires not just a completed application and photos of products and booth, but a letter of intent, photos of the artist at work on those products to be sold, even receipts for raw materials used to make the products. It's all in the name of making sure those vendors who buy products and then re-sell them are not getting into the Palm Springs events.

I would love to see more of this. I spend a great deal of time, money, energy and creativity in making my products to sell to customers who appreciate hand-crafted artwork. I resent finding myself at shows with vendors who obviously did not make the products they're selling.

I spent three days at one summer show next to a couple who sold hundreds of different cast-metal pendants and charms, all of them imported from Eastern Europe. They even stored the pendants in the original shipping boxes that broadcast what the contents were and where they were from. Complaints to the organizers of what was billed as a juried fine art show were met with "they submitted photos just like everyone else; we can't police everyone and have to trust vendors to be honest." I can guarantee that I will never participate in that show again.

So I say make everyone explain their art, submit details and photos about the process and, in effect, prove it is hand-crafted.

Another development I'm seeing more and more of, and one I don't feel as good about, is local communities requiring individual vendors at arts fairs, even one-day events, to get a local annual business license. In the town of Winter Park, Colorado, that's a $60 fee on top of booth and application fees - enough to make some artists not apply for the usually popular Alpine ArtAffair and Colorado Craft Fair. I've run into the local licensing issue elsewhere, but usually at a $10 or $12 cost.

In a still-struggling economy, we'll have to wait and see what effect this has on shows, promoters and artists.

Having a Twitter Fit

I finally had to cancel my Twitter account and get rid of the @DayDreamCrafts profile that I've used for well more than a year.

The account had become so compromised and so corrupted that it was impossible to use. It wouldn't allow me to make updates to the way it looked, change colors, information or images. Some days, it refused to do anything. It just sat there like a sullen child refusing to move. It wouldn't even let me block those nasty porn or teeth-whitening followers.

I had none of these problems with other Twitter accounts that I manage, just this one, my largest, my own.

Sadly, away it went. @DayDreamCrafts was so clogged with technical problems that I couldn't open and print my list of followers. I lost them when I deleted the account. They're gone. Don't ask about Twitter's Customer Support; there isn't any other than a lot of Frequently Asked Questions crap.

So now I'm starting over. I'm newly tweeting as @DayDreamCraft. Craft, singular. No S on the end. Go to www.twitter.com/DayDreamCraft and follow me. Please, do follow me. I had more than 700 followers and close to 500 whom I followed and I miss most of them. We exchanged funny, useful, poignant information about the life and work of artists, quilters, crafters, wine lovers, world travelers.

I'm slowly finding my old Twitter friends and re-following them, hoping they'll do the same with me. But it's a slow process. If you're on Twitter, please let others know where to find me.

Holiday Shopping Season

Here's where you can find me during the Holiday Shopping Season:

Nov. 1-29, 2009: Day Dream Crafts exhibit at the Fraser, Colorado, Library. Open during regular library operating hours. www.gcld.org

Nov. 5, 2009: Reception to launch month-long library exhibit. 6 until 7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served. Enter a drawing to win one of the products on display.

Nov. 6-7, 2009: Applewood Arts Holiday Fair. Standley Lake High School, Westminster, Colorado. www.applewoodartsandcrafts.com

Nov. 12, 2009: Grapes and Gifts holiday wine tasting and gift boutique. Verso Wines, Cooper Creek Square, Winter Park, Colorado. 4 until 8 p.m. 10% of sales and all tips benefit the Grand County Search and Rescue organization.

Nov. 14, 2009: Santa's Cellar Arts Fair. Broomfield, Colorado, Community Center. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. http://www.broomfield.org/recreation/special/santacellar.shtml

Nov. 21, 2009: Fraser, Colorado, Holiday Artisans' Fair. Fraser Elementary School. 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Dec. 5, 2009: Winter Farmers' Market and Holiday Gift Show. Boulder County, Colorado, Fairgrounds. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. www.boulderfarmers.org

Dec. 17y6, 2009: Grapes and Gifts holiday wine tasting and gift boutique.Verso Wines, Cooper Creek Square, Winter Park, Colorado. 4 until 8 p.m. 10% of sales and all tips benefit CASA, the Court-Appointed Special Advocate for Children in Northwestern Colorado.

Living and Loving Local

Every time I think I’ve completely saturated the local area with my pillows, quilts and other textile art products, something comes along to prove me wrong. The lesson in this realization? Local customers and clients are the most important. They need to be encouraged and maintained.

Local exposure, whether through nearby arts and crafts fairs, hometown exhibits or repeat-customer neighbors and friends, leads to greater exposure. I live in a resort town, which means every one of my pillows sitting on a local couch or hanging on a local wall, is seen by visitors from other areas. One sale leads to several more around the country. My products being sold in local outlets are seen by hundreds of people from elsewhere in the state, country and world.

Hometown customers also become partners – they take pride and ownership in a locally made product and their suggestions can lead to new or better work. The Tabernash Tavern, a popular restaurant in the Winter Park Resort area, placed a large order for fabric gift bags using their logos. I had pitched the bags as perfect wrappings for a bottle of wine or pound of their specialty blend coffee. The photo above shows how well they work with wine.

But the Tavern’s chef was the one who pointed out that they also perfectly hold jars of his homemade jams and relishes, and beautifully wrap one of his fresh-baked baguettes, all of which are sold at the restaurant’s front desk. Guess who’s now marketing bread bags? My booth at an upcoming Business-to-Business Expo will have new signs, new brochures and new exhibits showing multiple uses for what had started out as being simple wine gift bags.

That expo is an example of local business or chamber of commerce events that can benefit artists and crafters. I’ll be offering custom gift bags for businesses to use as client, customer or employee gifts this coming holiday season. And I’ll be encouraging realtors and builders to consider my vintage postcard pillows as closing gifts for property-buyers. Each pillow is made with vintage postcards depicting iconic images of the local area and its history – perfect for a new home.

Local library branches aren’t just a source for reading material or movies. Does yours host events or exhibits? Mine does and I’ll have a month-long show of locally themed pillows and quilts in November. There will be a reception, drawings for giveaways and the opportunity to purchase display items with a portion of the proceeds going to the library itself.

A library exhibit brings products to a whole new audience of moms with kids, teens, and adults who may not frequent arts and crafts shows. It also makes the art, and the artist, part of the community so that the next time someone needs a gift, they’ll remember the exhibit and place an order.

Trick or Treat!

Send your kids - and yourself - out in style this Halloween with these oh so spooky cute fabric gift bags.

They're perfect for adults going to Halloween parties and looking for a festive way to carry a bottle of wine or other beverage. The bags also beautifully hold a pound of coffee or other small gifts for the party hosts. But they also make great trick-or-treat bags, holding an ample amount of treats in easy-to-carry retro style.

Kids and adults will love the fabric reproductions of vintage Halloween cards that embellish each bag -- pumpkins and black cats and witches, oh my! Each bag is made of durable cotton seasonally themed fabric and fully lined. A ribbon is securely attached to the back with a button and acts as a tie at the top or, knotted into a loop, a way for little ones to carry the bag on their trick-or-treat outings.

Each bag is unique, combining various vintage cards with orange, black and Halloween-print fabrics.

These bags, as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas-themed fabric gift bags, are available for $10 each with no additional shipping costs. To see photos of others or to purchase yours now, post a comment here or email JDayQuilts@msn.com. A few bags also are available at Artfire.com - you can reach that site by clicking on the Artfire icon at the left of this page.

When Good Shows Go Bad

Arts shows aren’t much different from people – each has its own personality And, sometimes, a good one goes bad.

Such is the case with my most recent show. I won’t name it and open myself up to problems from organizers, but if you really want to know, just ask me.

The show attracted nearly 100 vendors, is located in a lovely wooded space in a mountain resort town and attracted plenty of tourists, locals and second-home owners looking for souvenirs or décor items. In years past, it was a show worth participating in.

My, how things have changed.

There was, frankly, a lot of crap being sold: store-bought kitchen towels with newly crocheted borders; store-bought flip flops decorated with yarn and a glue gun; mass-produced laser-cut metal things that twirl in the wind; large metal road signs with sayings like “Daschund Crossing” and “Parking for Irish Only;” unframed pencil drawings of Elvis or Jesus.

There were some diamonds among the rough, including gorgeous metal-wrapped and painted gourd pots, amusing decorative clay masks and creative “found art” items, but overall the quality of the show was pretty low.

And this was supposed to be a juried show.

Equally annoying was the seemingly thoughtless way the show was set up. Of 95 vendors, about 60 were selling some type of jewelry and many of them were assigned spaces next to each other. Soap-makers were located across from each other. Photographers were side-by-side.
Fortunately, no one had anything even close to being similar to my products, and my repeat customers sought me out. My sales ended up being fine. But the overall quality of the experience for customers and vendors was such that this is on show I won’t return to.

Christmas in ... well...August!

Am I really working with Christmas fabrics in early August? Oh yeah. Santas, elves, holly, snowflakes, reindeer, menorahs and champagne flutes for New Year’s Eve adorn the pile of fabric I’m cutting into gift bag-sized pieces. Pretty soon, probably long before Halloween, I'll be sick of red and green and gold and glittery.

All of which reminds me that holiday orders need to be made by Labor Day. After that, I can’t guarantee that I’ll get your order done by Dec. 25.

Want a pillow made with vintage images of your hometown? Let me know the place and the colors. How about a pillow made using your own postcards or family photos? Send me a .jpg version.

Having a holiday party? Wouldn’t a dozen customized gift bags be nice for family, friends or employees?

Looking for something unique and inexpensive to tie up a package? What about wine cork key-chains adorned with charms, beads and embellishments? Remember, they float!

So send me an email (JDayQuilts@msn.com) with orders, special requests or questions.

Corked

Oh man, did these things turn out cute! An experiment one evening brought on by being bored and by being embarrassed at the number of wine corks I've accumulated (all bottles opened by me at home) has turned into my best-selling product at the moment: wine cork key chains.

A cork, a couple sturdy long screws, charms, beads, glue and imagination led me to create dozens of these fun key chains. Many different wineries, many different charms.

I drive an old red truck, have a goofy Chocolate Labrador Retriever and I love to travel, so the key chain I made for myself was from a cork pulled out of a bottle of the Cline Red Truck Red wine, a charm with the word "journey" and a Labrador Retriever charm.

There are key chains with a typewriter charm for the writers among us, horses for the pony crowd, knife and fork charms for foodies, grapes for oenophiles, high-heeled shoes for fasionistas, old typewriter keys, paint pallets, stars, hearts and on and on and on. The key chain pictured here features a lobster trap charm.

And best of all, the key chains float! Great for boaters, beach dwellers or anyone who's around water. I've tested it in the sink with three or four keys and the cork still bobs along on the surface. I'm seeing a new marketing campaign!

Find my keychains at http://www.artfire.com/ or just click on the icon on the left side of this page to go right to my ArtFire studio. Have a request? Leave me a note here or send an email to JDayQuilts@msn.com. Keychains are now available at the introductory price of $6 each or two for $10, plus postage.

Charmed

Want to make a scrap quilt? Looking for some new fabric squares? Just like to collect new fabrics? Have I got a deal for you!

I've been cleaning out my increasingly unmanageable stash and creating charm packs of 20 4-inch squares of 100% cotton fabric prints with various themes. Get yours for just $4 -- that includes shipping costs!

I seem to use a lot of 4-inch strips for borders on my pillows and quilts, always cutting too much or having just a little bit left over. Sure, I can use them in other projects, but not as quickly as they pile up. My mess is your gain!

Packs of 20 squares are available in the following themes:

-- Western/Outdoors (mountains, wildlife, skiing, flowers, etc.)
-- Wine
-- Dogs
-- Cats
-- Dogs and Cats

Each pack may contain an occasional solid or tone-on-tone print that complements the rest or may contain more than one cut of each fabric.

There's probably more to come as I continue to cull: tone-on-tone, 30s prints, plaids, cowboys/cowgirls and who knows what else I'll find.

If you're interested in purchasing a pack or several, send an email to JDayQuilts@msn.com. I accept checks, money orders and payments through PayPal.

Building Relationships

How is an arts/crafts show like dating?

A bad show is like a bad date – people look, talk, touch and then leave.

A good show is the same as a good dating experience – relationships get built, trust develops, laughter ensues.

Silly analogy, perhaps, but the biggest key for successful arts and crafts shows is the relationship between vendor/artist and customer.

My products need a little explanation. My quilts, pillow covers, totes and gift bags require some talking, some descriptions of the process used to create them, some demonstration of their multiple uses.

I was surprised at my last show to hear another vendor tell me I was at a disadvantage because I spend too much time “selling” my products. She, on the other hand, was happy her pottery didn’t need explaining so she could just sit back and relax. I prefer to think I have the advantage with a lot of talk and demonstration and opportunity to engage the customer. Isn’t “selling” why we’re at shows?

How many times do you see or read about vendors who ignore their customers until the point where money may change hands, who sit in the back of their booths reading, eating or talking on the phone, who send out such a bad vibe that customers walk out? They’re usually the ones to complain that a show was bad.

A show last year put my booth across from a guy who made beautiful mirrors that should have gotten a lot of attention. His artistry, the product’s quality and his pricing were all attractive. But he sat in the back with his i-pod on, rarely greeting potential customers, smiling or making eye contact. At the show’s end, he declared it terrible and vowed never to return. I, on the other hand, had my best show of the season. I went home with a sore throat from all the talking, but also with a lot of money.

I saw that artist at another show later in the summer, again ignoring customers and again complaining about how his bad sales had been, for that show and the entire summer.

I certainly don’t want to become Billy Mays nor do I want arts shows to be carnival-like with vendors barking their sales pitches, but I enjoy the personal interaction in showing off my products, helping someone find the perfect gift or accessory for their home and developing relationships that usually lead to additional sales in the future.

Flower Power

The dandelions are finally turning to fluff in the Colorado high country, meaning my days of dying fabric with the weed’s yellow flower heads is coming to an end.

But the result is a big pile of soft lemony yellow cotton fabric just waiting to be used in quilting and other sewing or craft projects. Colors range from a light yellow to a brighter one, depending on the dye process and strength of the all-natural dye bath.

The fabric – pre-shrunk and washed to eliminate bleeding or dye migration – is available in one-yard and fat-quarter cuts. A full yard is $10 and a fat quarter sells for $3.00. They’ll be listed on Artfire.com in the next day or two (click the link to the left and go right to my Artfire.com studio) and available with NO SHIPPING CHARGE! That’s right, FREE SHIPPING. The offer applies to U.S. addresses only but I’m also offering half off the cost to ship overseas.

Please place your orders through Artfire.com. If you’d like to receive FREE swatches to see and feel the dyed fabric, post a note on this blog or send a private email to me at JDayQuilts@msn.com. Just give me your mailing address and I’ll send you a generously sized swatch. If you have questions, let me know.

The dandelion fabrics are part of the new natural fabric collection from Rocky Mountain Botanicals, a division of Day Dream Crafts that creates new fabrics using only natural dyes. Look soon for reds and pinks from annatto seeds; blues, pinks and reds from berries; browns from a variety of plants and more. The Colorado Colors line features fabrics dyed only with natural products found in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. New fabrics are available seasonally based on available raw materials.

I’m also developing a Pounded Plants line of botanical print fabrics using naturally derived images of Rocky Mountain wildflowers and will have them available at Artfire.com in the next few weeks.

Recessionary Pricing

I’m turning next weekend’s arts/crafts show into a social and financial experiment. I’m going to lower my prices and see what happens. This is anathema to many artists who worry about being justly compensated for their time and talent, but challenging economic times call for new approaches.

Thanks to a lot of downtime in the past few months, my inventory has become huge, so I really need to move a lot of products. I’m willing to sacrifice price for volume. I will still make a profit on each sale, not a huge profit, but a profit nonetheless. And I’d rather make a small profit than carry home and store a huge inventory.

Since I got rid of my merchant account late last year in a fit of anger and frustration about the ever-increasing bank fees, I can risk making a little less money on each transaction knowing I don’t have to pay the bank for the “privilege” of accepting credit cards. Of course, that could back-fire on me if people aren’t carrying around cash or checks, but I’m willing to take the risk at this upcoming show to learn how much of a difference in makes in this economy.

I have artist friends who have never taken credit/debit cards and seem to do just fine. They’ve built a following of repeat customers who know what form of payment to make. I have other friends who pay steep fees to be able to take Visa, Master Card, even American Express and Diner’s Club (does anyone really use a Diner’s Club card anymore?). They are terrified of any potential sale walking away because the buyer can’t use plastic to pay for a $3 bracelet.

Those friends are equally terrified of having checks bounce. In the nearly 10 years that I’ve been selling my textile art at shows throughout the West and on the East Coast, I’ve never received a bad check. I trust my customers to make a valid payment just as they trust me to make a quality product.

So we’ll see how next weekend’s show in Grand Lake goes and what effect the economy has on sales and types of payment. Not taking credit cards may mean I miss a few higher-end impulse purchases, but I’m hoping the lower prices will make up for it. I’ll post my observations, for better or worse, in the week after the show.

Show Time!

What’s the perfect length of an arts/crafts show?

Are one-day shows worth the effort spending hours setting up and breaking down only to be selling for a single day? Or are they a good opportunity to test a market? Does it make a difference if they’re close to home or father away? Does sleeping in your own bed make a one-day show more acceptable than having to stay in a hotel?

Conversely, are three-day shows too long? Are sales on that third day worth the extra time? Are they acceptable for long holiday weekends but not otherwise?

I ask all of this because a new show is being started here and the organizers are debating whether, because it’s new, it should just be one day.

I’m not sure what the answer is. I’m planning to commit to the new show no matter how many days it runs because it’s nearby, in a great outdoors location that attracts a lot of tourists and planned for a weekend when I have no other commitments. But I know several artists, particularly those with heavy products such as pottery, who say they will never do a one-day event.

I do think three-day shows are torture. By the middle of the third day artists are ready to just go home. Everyone’s tired and sales usually are minimal. The last time I did a three-day show over Memorial Day weekend I swore I’d never do one again. I haven’t.

And what hours should a show keep? Does keeping booths open until 8pm make much of a difference in sales? It hasn’t for me. The music at an event may be attracting people in the evening, but it’s usually a crowd looking for entertainment, not art.

I think shows that wait until 10am to open are losing a lot of sales. Those early birds are usually the ones who want to shop, not just look around. I like those that open at 9 (and I still seem to make sales at 8 while I’m setting up or reorganizing).

As for closing times, 6pm seems fine for the show’s first day, but an earlier close on the last day helps artists from out of town who are anxious to get on the road. They’ll leave anyway -- who wants a show where people are breaking down hours early, an act that often chases customers away from the whole show.

I don’t envy show organizers trying to figure out the best operations and logistics for their location, their artists, their customers. It’s not as easy as some people may think.

Golf and Gifts

This is one of the coolest, original ideas I've heard for an arts/craft show in a long long time.

Art Out of Thin Air, the energetic year-old artists' organization in Grand County, Colorado, is holding its first member show at the new Pole Dreek Golf Course Club House in Tabernash.

The show will be held from July 2 through July 23, 2009 with a Show Opening and Artists’ Reception on Thursday, July 2 that sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun.

Each artist is allowed to show two items for display and sale (or not). If an item sells, the artist can replace it with another through the duration of the show.

The show not only gives local artists exposure to an audience that may not usually attend arts and crafts fairs. It's also an audience known to have money and taste. In return, the public golf course gets to show off its new clubhouse while its filled with art and people.

I'm thinking my hand-quilted pillows using vintage golf posters reproduced on fabric may be the perfect things to display.

The fee to participate is minimal: $25 to show one artwork or $30 for two. The money will be used for advertising and other necessities. In a great gesture, Art Out of Thin Air organizers promise to return any money left over to the artists.

The deadline to acknowledge your intention to participate is Friday, June 5. Grand County, Colorado, artists who are interested in participating should contact info@artoutofthinair.com

Charge!

I finally gave up on Wells Fargo Bank late last year and cancelled my long-held merchant account. The fees were just getting ridiculous. A fee for this, a fee for that, a fee for something else, on top of the percentage of sales they sucked from my account each month. And all those fees or percentages seemed to increase at an alarming rate.

So far I don’t think I’ve lost a significant number of sales by no longer accepting credit or debit cards. But as I head into the big summer show season, I’m wondering what kind of hit I may take. It could go two ways, I figure:

-- With everyone tight on cash, credit card use will be heavier and I’ll lose sales.

-- Credit card interest rates are killing people’s finances so they’re using them less frequently, meaning they should have the cash or write a check to pay for their purchases and I won’t lose many sales.

We all know many arts and crafts show purchases are spontaneous. A customer needs to really like and want a product to consider walking over to an ATM to get cash or back to the car to get the checkbook, then returning to my booth to buy something. They may say “I’ll be back to get it,” but they often aren’t.

I’ve sometimes directed people at shows to my online sales, but that, too, removes the spontaneity of purchases. While I’ve been surprised by some of the follow-through for those types of sales, I’d rather make them on-the-spot in my booth at a show.

So, if the first couple events next month indicate I’m losing sales by no longer accepting plastic, I’ll have to reconsider. The research is headache-inducing. So many banks and card processing companies to choose from but few that offer exactly what I want: low fees, low percentages and the ability to put the account on hold for months when I’m not doing shows.

Anyone have any merchant account provider recommendations or suggestions?

Buy Direct

See that ArtFire icon on the upper left of this page? Click it on and shop for Day Dream Crafts products right from this blog. Quick and easy.

We'll be adding new products to our www.ArtFire.com studio regularly. Look for more wine bottle bags, lunch bags and quilts as well as some very cool pillows made with fabric reproductions of vintage postcards, travel posters, photos, labels and advertising.

Thrifty Business

I hit the jackpot at my local thrift shop today -- many yards of unused cotton fabric from someone’s abandoned or unloved sewing stash.

There’s a fruit print that’s predominantly grapes and will make a great lining for my wine bottle gift bags or the back of a pillow made of fabric reproductions of old wine labels. The yards of solid dark green, navy and burgundy fabric are perfect for pillow backs. The kitschy 50s cabin/canoe/bear/moose and cowboy reproduction prints will come in handy. And the half-yard pieces of oddball novelty prints -- Ms. Pacman, tractors, lizards -- may find a use in some future project. OK, maybe not Ms. Pacman, but the tractors have potential.

The shop and a couple other thrift stores in the Denver area have my business card taped up near the cash register. They know to call anytime someone unloads grandma’s attic, mom’s no-longer-used sewing room or an out-of-business shop’s inventory.

I’ve come home with yards of top-of-the-line quilting fabric, bags of patchwork pieces and their templates cut from cereal boxes or magazine pages, boxes of batting, vintage quilt blocks, baskets of thread and jars of buttons, all of which were re-used and upcycled into pillows, quilts, totes, bags and collage artwork. Most of the finds average to about $1 or $2 per yard, far cheaper than the jaw-dropping prices now found at quilt shops and fabric stores.

Everything goes into the wash before I use it, even if the products had never been used. They often take on the musty smell of storage, had been used as a cat bed or have been picked over by one too many sticky fingers. Washing them well is not negotiable. Even buttons and sometimes spools of thread are tossed in a mesh lingerie bag and washed on a gentle cycle.

The best detergent product I’ve found is not the expensive quilting-only washes or gentle-cycle products, but a small blue plastic bottle of liquid called WIN. It’s not available in stores, only online (try Amazon).

WIN is designed to take the stink out of sweaty well-used synthetic sportswear. All those “wicking” fabrics designed to pull moisture away from hiking, biking, running, skiing, snowboarding or snowshoeing bodies also pull the stink right into the fibers where it stays. One wash with “super oxygenated” WIN takes out the odor without damaging the fabric, making it perfect for quilts and quilting supplies. Use the gentle cycle of your machine and warm or cold water.

After a quick press and nice fold, the new finds get added to my fabric stash piles, revealing none of their low-cost thrift shop origins.

Arts Show Season Starts Soon

My first arts and crafts show of the 2009 summer season is just two months away. It’s the Festival of Arts and Crafts in beautiful Grand Lake, Colorado, June 6 and 7.

This is a sweet little event held in a gorgeous town park with views of the snow-covered peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park and the sparkling blue waters of Lake Granby. Area wildlife often walk through town and having to shovel moose or elk droppings out of your booth space before setting up is one unique element of this show. The organizers do their job well. The free pastries and coffee each morning are a nice touch.

I love using this show as the start of my season. It lets me test new products, play with my booth design and get feedback about both from returning customers and returning vendors who’ve become friends as well as friends who have become customers. Grand Lake is an easy and gorgeous 45-minute drive from my home.

Early June may seem late for just getting started with the summer show season, but this is Colorado, where weather in the mountains can range from hot sunshine to snow and wind any month of the year.

Three years ago, we awoke at Grand Lake to find six inches of snow on our booths. Many artists left, but a few of us brushed the snow away, bought dry socks at a nearby store and opened our booths with surprisingly good sales that afternoon. A year earlier, I spent the weekend in shorts and t-shirt, constantly fanning myself to cool off under the summer-like sun.

Early June also is the time that reverse-snowbirds from Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona start returning to their summer homes in the mountains and start looking for new ways to decorate those homes, providing the show with a build-in customer base.

Two months to go means evenings and weekends full of sewing. I customize my inventory of pillows, bags and other items for each show, reproducing vintage postcards and travel posters of that area on fabric and then quilting them into one-of-a-kind home décor items. Fortunately, Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park have been popular tourist spots since the early 1900s and great postcards are easy to find.

For details about Grand Lake, go to http://www.grandlakechamber.com/index.html.