One of the things I finished for my upcoming shows is some more Going Green Totes. These are ready made cotton canvas totes I buy, dye and embellish with my “Free Motion Machine Sketching”. There’s not much profit in these, so I never get them listed for sale on my website, but if you’d like to buy one from these pix, just let me know and I would be happy to send you a bigger picture and/or a paypal invoice (they’re in the $22-$25 range).

Oh, and I’ve started the run up to my most awesome birthday ever, on 11-11-11 with 11% off everything in my shop, just enter “11-11-11″ at checkout!

It seems like no matter what, I’m always squeezing a bunch of finishing touches right before a show…and most of the time, it’s finishing a bunch of my Going Green tote bags. I dye pre-made blanks and then add a colorful patch of my hand dyed fabric and “Free Motion Machine Sketch” one of my botanical or bird motifs – cutting right to the chase, which is is playing with color and doing a bit of artful “sketching”. I was able to finish about 70% of the bags I dyed last week, including some:

Lunch bags:

Market Totes:

Messenger Bags:

Large Market Totes:

Shoulder Sling Totes:

Gorilla Totes:

As always, I was making until the last second…in this case, the last second was Sunday afternoon, I had to take Liam to Claremont for an orchestra rehearsal, so I plopped the box of newly stitched bags into my car and spent some time in the park next to the rehearsal hall taking some quick photos…I’m sure the folks who saw me thought I looked ridiculous, but these pix are definitely  better than the ones I usually take on the floor of my sewing room late at night!

Spring break is over, and with a couple of deadlines looming overhead, I put the pedal to the metal this weekend and pumped out a lot of stuff. I’ve got 3 new pieces of actual art made just in time to submit for jurying – fingers crossed the pictures on the chip came out. But right now, I’m packing up for a morning show that I have to travel to Palm Springs for…so I’ll be up before o’crack of dawn tomorrow.

I did get some new going green totes made, and as they’re usually pretty good sellers, I had to snap some quick photos now:

I also got a lot of scarves ironed (I dyed them earlier last week). Wish me luck that all this last minute frenzy was worth it!

Yup, I’m down to 5 classes to teach, and the last show of the season I do is this weekend, a Holiday Boutique at the Redlands YMCA (S/S 9-4). I’m not bringing the “full monty” setup as I’m inside with a table, rather than outside in an EZ-UP, so it should be a much easier setup. I didn’t have any grand plans for lots of new things, and all my work dyeing lots and lots of scarves at the end of the summer is paying off, becasue although I’ve sold plenty this Fall, I still have plenty (of course, I still dyed 20 in the past 2 days for a couple of special orders and to fill in where there I’d totally sold out of Tiger Lily & Madrigals). I did get some more Going Green Gorilla Totes made, and I’ve dyed and embellished a couple of “newspaper boy” bags too. Hubby is in bed with a cold, so Stirling has been good company this evening.

Don’t forget, tomorrow is the last day for 20% in my Etsy shop, the sale ends at midnight PST:

My biggest show of the year, Art for Heaven’s Sake, starts one week from tonight. It’s a show I’m proud to take part in as 20% of all that I sell goes to the church, for local as well as farther afield use in doing good (hurricane relief, etc…). Any old who, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to leave a few things done on my to do list, but I’m happy that I’ve got some new art to show, as well as those freshly picked onesies I showed you the other day, which, on the recommendation of a couple of Moms in the know, are going to become outfits, the leggings for me to dye came in the mail today! (Both of these got a shout out from the lovely Linda of aLaMode Stuff, thanks so much! SHE’s the genius that suggested I hang them above a bed!)

I finished some Going Green Totes earlier this week, and I know if I didn’t grab some quick shots now, some of them would be sold before I got a picture of them:

On tap for this weekend – dyeing 50 more scarves and matching leggings for the freshly picked rompers, finishing up 3 messenger bags, then making some more going green scribblers. THIS I think I can do…wish me luck!