Unsealing My Lips - an Announcement!

 At last! I can share some news that I have been excited about ever since last fall.

See that bottom right photo on the BreyerFest workshop page?

That's me - I am teaching a workshop for BreyerFest: Prost on how to make Pony Pads!

When Breyer contacted me in early November, they invited me to teach an in-person seminar at Kentucky Horse Park. I was willing, but I felt that asking Breyer to have 20 plus sewing machines on hand for me would not be feasible. (To say nothing of the irons and ironing boards that would be required, too.) So, I suggested I do an online seminar instead. Breyer agreed.

Daughter-in-love Vanessa is a professional photographer with her own studio downtown and she agreed to help me with the seminar's recording and production. 

Last weekend she came over to film the seminar. (I made an oblique reference to it in this blog post but at that point I could not share what project we were working on together.)

I was a little nervous beforehand but as a teacher, I've taught many seminars in the past and teacher-mode soon kicked in.

Breyer sent me an email yesterday and said that since the workshops have now been posted, I could begin promoting mine. 

All collectors who purchase tickets will be able to watch my seminar. That includes virtual tickets, so if you want to see it but aren't attending BreyerFest in person, you can watch it that way. (Virtual tickets go on sale later this month.)

As I understand it, that is the only way you will be able to watch - I won't be able to put the video on YouTube for you all to see when BreyerFest is over.

I've attended many BreyerFests, but this is the first time I've presented anything. I've always thought that if I ever did, it would be in connection with collectibility or vintage Breyers. 

Never did I dream that my other hobby of sewing would bring me into the Breyer spotlight.

Holiday Stitching & Custom Orders

 On November 1, I put a notice up on Horsiemama's Haversacks & Mercantile that I was closing for the month of November so that I could make some holiday gifts for my family. I had several custom orders to finish and mail first, but I got those done a few days ago and sat down with the embroidery machine and got busy.

My first project was to embroider holiday guest towels.

I will give these to friends and my sisters and sister-in-love, plus I plan to keep the Thanksgiving one and one of the Christmas ones for my home.

There are more of these as I made at least two towels with every embroidery design, but I didn't think ya'll would want to see duplicates.

Oops! Need to iron that one on the right before I give it to someone!

I also finished some custom embroidery and sewing before I got to my own personal sewing projects.

A Purdue holiday ornament for a friend who is a big Boilermaker fan...

... and a large foldable pony pad in one of my all-time favorite fabrics.

Another friend wanted a large foldable pony pad in this teal fabric with performance horses on it.

She also ordered several haversacks and blankets, too.  They're all done and mailed.

I'm now stitching something for the grands who are coming for Thanksgiving (10 of the 16 will be here.) The project is connected to one of my favorite Christmas songs, the one I did a little fun series about last year.

Stay 'tooned!

Great Lakes Congress: Mercantile Prep

 I sold a lot of haversacks and pony pads at Happy Trails. That's good - except that Great Lakes Congress is this coming weekend and I have reserved a vendor's table. After I inventoried what was left, I realized that I desperately needed to get back to the sewing table and restock before Saturday.

Luckily, I had fabric already cut out and ready to stitch.

That saved me a lot of time. (And space. Cutting fabric requires clearing part of my craft table.)

I was finishing the haversacks up when I got a call from a local source of sewing supplies and they said that the foam I use for pony pads had come in.

What great timing! I grabbed my purse and headed out to get that foam.

Seven pony pads later, I had an assortment of 12 x 18 

and 15 x 20 pads, all foldable for easy storage and transportation.

I was starting to breathe more easily. I felt better that I had enough merchandise to sell at the show.

Horsiemama's Haversacks and Mercantile is ready to go, but I have done nothing in the way of selecting and preparing the models I want to show. (I've only glanced at the class list once!)

So, today's activity will be rounding up my show string, tagging entries, making documentation, and packing the show tubs.

Pony Pads - Can You Make This?

 Recently I was working on an order of haversacks for a friend. There was some fabric left over and she asked me if I could to use it to make her a pad for the models she takes to live shows that are fragile and need to be laid down while waiting for their classes. 

I understood that concern. I show a lot of chinas and had been using a kitchen drying pad for years for that purpose. It is small enough to not take up too much space on a crowded show table but thick enough to provide the cushioning I want.

My friend had suggested that I quilt some batting to fabric and take it from there. I considered her request but decided that that would add so much time into making her pad that I would have to charge more money than I wanted to. (I try to ensure that everything I make to sell is not only good quality but affordable as well.)

Surely there was a better way than quilting. I pulled my own pony pad out of my show tub and took a look at it. I like that it can fold into thirds for easy packing. Quilted items don't always fold as easily or as nicely.

Time to experiment on my own pony pad and see what I could come up with. And I really liked the results.

Basically, I made a pillowcase for it, inserted the kitchen drying pad, and closed the end. Closing the end was the only real challenge. I considered folding the unfinished edge to the inside and then top stitching it closed, but I prefer the smoother look of non topstitched items.

I decided to turn the unfinished edge under, turn it again, and then hand stitch it closed. Bingo! I really like how that finished the pad neatly.

To make the end even nicer, I folded the corners under before stitching. (Sort of like how you do when wrapping a gift.)

Despite now being covered in fabric, the (former) kitchen pad still folded into thirds easily.

The finished pony pad with some pieces from my collection. 

I have some ideas in mind for some final tweaking, but overall I think this will work well.