My Little Labels

I have decided I'm going to try selling some homemade items at a Holiday Bazaar next year, which means the time to start making those items is NOW.  :)

I want my items to have a  professional look to them, so I decided I wanted some labels to sew onto my projects.  Not big huge tags, but little ones like you see sewn onto the hemlines of some shirts, or sticking out from the trim on a bag.  Then I came across a link on Pinterest that talked about exactly the kind of labels I was wanting.  That blog writer recommended this Etsy shop, where she had her labels made:

Worldwide Label

This shop is located in Hong Kong, and I guess they must deal with large volumes of label making because (to me) the communication was pretty slow.  I'd ask a question, and it might be 2-3 days (sometimes more) before getting a response.  Of course, I'm always on the computer and I'm very much a now.Now.NOW kind of person, so to me a response time longer than a day is "slow".  So take that into consideration LOL.  However, despite my impatience, they were very professional, answered my questions well, and the end result blew me away.

Finally, after much anticipation, my labels arrived!

Aren't they just too cute?  They turned out beautifully, exactly what I was wanting.  And they're the perfect little size to add on to my sewn projects.  Of course, I had to try them out as soon as I got them out of the box, so I made some rice-filled neck ice/heat packs and sewed a label into each one.

Here they are!  My first items with my tag sewn on.  How cute did they turn out?  Oh, I'm so excited!

I have 300 of these little labels to use up, so I'd better get cracking with making my items.  :)

Thimbles Up!

Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville is having a "Thimbles-Up" Linky Party, as described in this blog post.  We're to post about our thimbles, what we have, why they work for us, and so on.  What fun!  How could I NOT join in?  :)

The picture above shows my thimble, which I use for hand sewing my bindings, hand quilting (not that I do a lot of that, you know), pretty much any kind of hand sewing I need to do.  This is a Roxanne Thimble, and it's the best thimble I have ever owned.

Before finding this one, I always had issues with finding thimbles that fit well and also lasted a long time.  I never liked "traditional" thimbles, they didn't stay in place and just felt odd on my finger.  Until I discovered leather thimbles, I simply sewed without a thimble and suffered the pain and torn skin on my finger. Leather thimbles were the first thimbles that I could tolerate.  They fit well enough, but after time I would wear a hole through the leather and then I'd be back to wearing a hole in my finger LOL.

Then I heard about Roxanne Thimbles.  I saw one in person, and I knew I had to give one a try.

I love the pretty details on the front and sides of the thimble.  I also like that the front of the thimble is open and gives my fingernail room.  That was a complaint I had about the "traditional" thimbles you commonly find, they were never all that comfortable... especially if I let my fingernails grow past the end of my fingertip.

I also love how many dimples there are on the back of my Roxanne thimble.  No matter what angle I'm coming from, I can always find a dimple for my needle to rest in.  I don't think I've ever had the needle slip on me while I'm sewing.  The fingers on my other hand are thankful for that LOL.

And besides, it looks so pretty when it's on my finger!  I've been known to forget that I have it on and wear it around the house LOL.

Now, if you're considering buying one of these, I will warn you that they are expensive.  I got one of the silver plated thimbles (which is also the least expensive), and that currently sells for around $50.  I know, that's a lot for a thimble... but if you do a lot of hand sewing or quilting, IMHO it's worth it.  It is the last thimble you will ever need to buy.

They are sized like rings are sized, so you can pick the one that fits you best.  While you can order one online, I would recommend that you find a local dealer that has some that you can actually try on to find the best fit.  They're a good weight and feel fantastic on your finger, but they're not so heavy that they make your finger feel weighed down.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my favorite thimble.  Now let's get back to sewing!  :)

My New Iron

This is my Oliso, my current iron which I bought on the recommendation of a friend.  It is a really neat iron, honestly.  There are feet under the iron that raise it up off the ironing board until you touch the handle, at which time it lowers itself to the ironing board and you can happily iron your quilting, your laundry, whatever.  It's really neat and the iron has been doing a nice job.

Unfortunately, my Oliso is dying.  When I plug it in, half the time it doesn't even finish heating up before it goes into auto-off mode.  Even when I do get it to heat up all the way, often times it will go into auto-off mode within a minute or less after I've been using it.  And conversely, sometimes I will leave it for long periods of time as I cut out more fabric... and not once will it go into auto-off mode UNTIL I'm just about ready to use it.  And the steam function just isn't working well any more, even though I've descaled it very recently.

The other unfortunate thing is that this is not a cheap iron.  I bought this to replace a Rowenta (also not a cheap iron) whose water compartment had burst and was hemmoraging water all over my quilting.  (I know, some people say the fastest way to kill an iron is to put water in it, but I love using a burst of steam to really get those seam allowances pressed crisply.)

I've decided that since these expensive irons don't seem to last any longer than the less expensive ones, I'm just going to get less expensive irons from now on.  I'd rather pay $25 every couple years than $100 every couple years!

So, without further ado, here is my new iron:

I know what you're thinking.  "Huh?  That's NEW?!?"  Yes, it is!  I just bought it at Target yesterday for about $28.  It's a Black & Decker "The Classic".  It's pretty retro in styling, and to be honest I really like the way it looks.  It's got some good weight to it but not as much as those heavy Rowenta irons.  And of all the irons at Target, it was the only one with a soleplate that looked like this:

You see the two rows of holes for steam to blast onto the fabric?  All of the other irons only had one row... not enough for me.  I wanted to be sure that the steam actually hit the seam I'm pressing, not just the fabric all around it.

Now, I just need to eat some lunch so I can have lots of energy to play with my new iron.  Yes, I'm excited to have a new iron.  I know, I'm weird that way.  LOL!  Happy quilting everyone!