Word on the Street - May 28, 2013

May, where have you gone?  We've been busy bees this month, and this past holiday weekend was no exception!

Liz has a follow-up from her rug dyeing experiment - a picture of the final result! 

Bonus: This item was sold to a lovely lady we met at the Flint Handmade sale!

Well, this rug was a trip.  In a classic move of trial-and-error, Liz learned a lot from her rug-making experience.  Here are Liz's tips for making a big crochet rug:

• Dye your fabric before cutting it, especially if using a fabric that tends to get stringy when cut.
• Crocheting something like this rug, which has several strands of fabric strips instead of one long piece, followed by dyeing and washing will result in lots of holes and strings and it will end up looking shabby - not very functional.
• Adding an additional string of yarn along with the fabric may help the rug be more durable and add a little visual flair.

So, needless to say, this project was a bit of a hot mess.  The new color was a great success, but the process took a toll on the structural integrity of the rug.  After dyeing and washing, Liz laid out the rug to dry on a drying rack, then painstakingly took it all apart.  This involved lots of time, cutting, detangling, and swearing.  Once unraveled, Liz attached pieces of fabric by stitching small bits of embroidery floss on the ends of two pieces, then wound the whole long strand of fabric into one big ball.  Then, along with some white yarn, she crocheted the rug all over again. 

Liz is hoping to make more fabric rugs soon, but now has a better idea of how to go about the whole process.  Order of operations, people.

Erica has found time in her busy schedule to start another quilt--this time for her cousin Chelsea. Instead of finding fabrics to put together, she found a great pack of flannel receiving blankets that were on sale, and coordinated so well they couldn't be passed up! Erica hasn't started sewing yet, but the most time consuming part--the cutting--is finished.

Chevrons are SO fetch right now.

But cutting is the second step in any quilting project. Planning WHAT to cut is the first! Here is the method to Erica's madness (the third draft):

One day, Erica will buy graph paper...

In Erica's opinion, the best part of any craft project is the happiness it brings to others. Her first quilt for Baby Claire was a success! And her brother Tom loves it too!



Samantha is too busy altogether these days, but you can bet that she's been crafting up a storm as well.  More updates on Samantha's crafts, La Croix, and everything else next time.

That's what we've been up to this week!

Flint Hand Made Spring Craft Market Part Deux

Flint Handmade.  We love you.  We had such a blast at this sale and felt very confident in our display.  Everything was organized so well, and there was a real community spirit among vendors and shoppers.

Erica and Sam packed up the car and drove from Mount Pleasant the night before. 

They had a small adventure of driving around in circles for about 10 minutes because they had two different (wrong) addresses for the sale. Luckily, the day and the neighborhood were beautiful. 

Even though we weren't the most organized, Flint Handmade was. We got checked in, found our booth, and rejoiced.

We started setting up, debuted our new banner, Liz joined us, we cut coupons and got our new display going. 

After, we went home to Liz's for some fun relaxing (and pricing and other organization and prep). We watched Pitch Perfect and Liz's cat Lola registered her interest in our products (particularly the ones with cat nip in them.)

Finally, the day of the sale was upon us. With some coffee and Lacroix to fuel us, we set up shop!

Favorite moments: setting up (mostly) the night before the sale, the lovely Rachel at the booth next to us who makes delightful jewelry and accessories and was great company all day, superb organization by Flint Handmade which included the option to have volunteers run your craft space if you needed to get some food or make a bathroom run, and, as always, there were some great quotes from the day. Here are the highlights: 

I can't stop thinking about Pliny the Elder. - Liz

It was like Tim Gunn "Make it Work" plus Hulk-smash. -Sam

My pillow looks like the Shroud of Turin. -Erica

A few friends stopped by the sale, including Liz's fiance, Eric.  He bought a little something from each of the ladies, which was very unexpected and sweet.  Liz's sister, Amy, and friends Matt and Rachael stopped in too.  We love all the support that our friends and family have shown us at our sales over the years.

Lola loves her new catnip mouse.

We are quickly becoming huge fans of indoor craft sales: no wind, no sun burn (or wind burn for that matter), no excess heat or cold, and no rain.

Thank you to all of our new followers, and all the great people we met at Flint Handmade! As always, we will keep you updated on any upcoming sales you can find us at, as well as what's going on with us!



Flint Handmade Spring Craft Market

Oh man. Your Locust Street Crafters had so much fun at Flint Handmade yesterday! We still haven't quite recovered. It was a great sale and we have lots of pictures and stories to share later this week.

Thank you to everyone who made it such a great sale: the people of Flint Handmade, all the great vendors, and everyone who stopped and said hi!