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Now for my October round-up of favorite posts:

Go for Your Dreams the Georgia O’Keeffe Way

Fabric from Your Child’s Art

Crafting with Poetry

Quilt Art Display Leads to Newspaper Story

Incorporating Pets Into Your Crafts

Did you have a favorite post of mine during October?

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October Round-up at Arts & Crafts

How about letting us know, in the comments, what your questions are.  If you only have one question, that’s okay?

For instance, I wonder how many people do traditional quilting and how many have branched off into mixed media.

What is your favorite quilting pattern?

Do you like to make large bed quilts or smaller wall hangings?

Are you into quilted and patchwork clothing rather than quilts?

Let us know what your questions are!

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What Are Your Quilting Questions?

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You often can’t predict what will happen, due to circumstances beyond your control.  However, there are some things that you can control that will help or hinder your success.  

I’ve been involved in fairs when I operated a quilting business and more recently fairs and book signings as an author.  I’ll share a few tips.  If you have tips on strategies that worked for you, I invite you to share them.

• Arrange an attractive table/booth with simple, yet colorful displays.
• Offer hand-outs (people like something free).  These might include bookmarks, business cards, free pattern, a bio sheet about your business and you, information about your product, brochures.
• Be friendly and smile.  However, don’t be a pushy salesman.  Some people like to chat, while others like to browse in silence.  Learn to read people and discover those who want to chat.
• Invite a friend to accompany you whom you can chat with.  Then customers can join in or not.  (This also enables you to have a break occasionally and someone to help with set-up.)
• Don’t talk about bad weather, poor crowds, lack of sales (if this occurs).  Make those who stop by feel good because they came your way.
• Demonstate or work on some aspect of your art or craft.  This often attracts people to your area.
• Dress appropriately for your audience.  Some authors dress in character or have a particular hat, necklace, vest, etc. that they wear depicting their craft.

What has helped you have a successful craft fair?

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Arts & Crafts Fairs Series

• Many can be attached to mixed media pieces.
• Some can be background material for attaching others.
• Use old wood and arrange some of the relics on it.
• Some people attach keys, buttons, watch findings and similar items to quilts and fabric art.
• Glue them together for three dimensional art.
• Create memory shadow boxes of old items belonging to a family member
• String them on mobiles

The possibilities are unlimited; simply use your imagination and creativity.

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Projects Using Rust & Relics

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This also falls into today’s recycling world of using older items to make new.  (Something the pioneers and those who lived through the Great Depression did as a matter of course.)

Clock and watch parts make likely items for unique art.  Save your old, unworkable ones.  Look for them at yard sales and auctions.  If that’s not enough, you even can find them at some collage and scrapbooking supply stores.

Among the watch findings are: screws, spokes, faces, springs, hands, bezels, etc.  Most mixed media artists prefer the older ones, but if you’re into space age art, you might use the digital parts.

Use these items alone or mix and match with others.

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Clock Face & Findings for Art

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By scrounging family attics, second hand stores, auctions and recycling facilities, you’ll find many items you can upscale into art.

For instance:

• keys
• broken jewelry
• old or distressed wood scraps
• metal boxes
• hinges
• nails and screws
• hardware cloth
• wire
• kitchen utensils
• stones – colorful and dark
• metal tags
• cancelled stamps
• belt buckles
• buttons
• many more
• old paper and newspaper clippings
• old photos

If these items don’t look old enough or fit into your theme, distress them or add dabs of rust colored paint.  You may want to spray rusted objects with a sealer to prevent further deterioration.

How have you utilized rust and relics in your mixed media art? 

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Crafting with Rust & Relics

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(This is that handy household item that’s plain on one side and slightly waxy on the other.  We called it waxed paper when I was a youngster and used it for wrapping sandwiches, covering bowls in the refrigerator and a heavier version for wrapping items for freezing.  There were no plastic baggies nor plastic wrap available.)

Penny Halgren has a great article, Using Freezer Paper to Make Quilts, at her How to Quilt site that gives information on using freezer or waxed paper for quilting…for tasks such as applique and making templates.

It’s available at the grocery.  However, many quilting supply stores carry it now.

How have you used this paper for your fabric art?

Check out

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Freezer Paper for Quilting Tasks

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Take nature walks, browse around your own yard, find memorabilia of other years and create lovely and unique collages on various backgrounds.

You might use fabric, cardboard, shingle, colored paper, foil, bark and other background materials.  If they’re too flimsy, put a firmer material behind them.  Then add leaves, pebbles, twigs, bark, paper cut in autumn shapes, burlap, twine, yarn and other objects that will combine into an artistic piece.

Sometimes you may have a theme.  Other pieces may be simply an attractive arrangement of the objects you have on hand.

I saw some autumn collages made by second graders the other day.  These were glued on colored paper attached to cardboard.  Then the youngsters cut out leaf shapes, added some they’d collected outdoors.  They dabbed the arrangement with paint.  Most had something Mom could hang on the wall for an eye-catching art piece.

What have you done for autumn collages?

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Collages from Autumn Collectibles

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What are the many ways you can incorporate a pumpkin theme in your craft work?

• Decorating pumpkins with paint
• Drawing pictures of pumpkins, pumpkin patches or pumpkins and children
• Making pumpkin jewelry, particularly earrings
• Using fabric with pumpkin designs for fiber art and mixed media.
• Utilizing pumpkin decorations for a fall theme or Halloween party.
• Making pumpkin cookies or cake and decorating these with jack-o-lantern faces.
• Making a pumpkin costume for Halloween.  When we were growing up, my sister carved a large pumpkin, cut the hole in the bottom and put it over her head for her costume.
• Writing poetry or stories involving pumpkin or jack-o-lantern themes.
• Taking photos of pumpkins.

Does your crafting involve pumpkins?

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Crafts Involving Pumpkins

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 Are they adequate, enough to do the job and keep you ”resting on your laurels?”  Or are you striving for excellence in your results?

Laura Spencer has written a thought provoking post on this topic at her blog, Writing Thoughts.  In Are You an Adequate Writer or an Excellent Writer, Laura talks about writing.  However, I realized, as I read the post, Laura’s points could be applied to a craft, a business, a sport…most anything you attempt in life.

Are you putting your best into what you do or are you simply doing enough for adequate results.  Not bad results, but not your best if you gave it “your all.”  Even if you’re working at your art or craft as a hobby, are you striving to learn more and become better at what you do?  Will you stand out in the crowd?

What do you think?  How do you rate yourself?

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Is Your Craft Just Adequate or Excellent?