ECommerce Help For Small Businesses

For my readers who have a Small Online Business, I thought I'd share real quick, a service that I found to help increase traffic to your site. 

Arcadecache - Affordable SEO help for the Small Online Business Owner.

I was having some trouble with my Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  SEO is learning to work with Tags and Keywords so that your site shows up in the search engines and people can find you!

Anyway, Arcadecache is a very reliable and affordable service.  They are well versed in helping Etsy and Ebay shop owners as well as those who have their own domain like I do. 

If you're not getting much traffic or sales, you might want to try Arcadecache.  I'm quite pleased with the fast and friendly, reliable service that they've given me. And they're quite affordable!!!

Custom Crazyquilting

I had a couple of custom orders that I finished up this week and thought I'd share photos for everyone to enjoy!

First is one of my Crazyquilt Cat Dolls.  The request for a cat doll in seafoam green:

Believe it or not, I don't have a lot of fabrics in seafoam green but at least I had enough for this little kitty doll.  A I don't think there's any color that goes better with seafoam green than pink!

Next, I had a custom order for a cellphone pouch.  The request was for a pouch in pinks, mauves and blue/greens with a hummingbird:

I must say, I think this is one of the prettiest cellphone cases I've made yet!  The trim at the bottom was hand-crocheted by mom.

Ladies, I'll get your orders out in today's mail!  Thank you so much!

How To Assemble A CrazyQuilt - Step 1

Since I'm putting my Marie Antoinette CrazyQuilt together, I thought I would share step by step, the process that I use to assemble my crazyquilts.  I know other crazyquilters have shared their process but I'm sure we all do things a little differently.

How To Assemble A Crazyquilt

Step 1

The first step is to trim and square up the blocks.  I use a self-healing mat and a rotary cutter:

You may be wondering why I have so much extra fabric.  I like to stitch in hoop.  Many crazyquilter's don't but for me, without a hoop, my hand gets tired  Using a hoop also keeps my stitching from distorting the blocks.  The excess foundation fabric is so the block fits in my 12 inch quilters hoop.

I always allow a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  Again, many crazyquilters leave the traditional seam allowance of 1/4 inch. I prefer to leave a 1/2 inch seam for crazyquilts.  The reason for this is due to the variety of fabrics and thicknesses.  A 1/2 seam will lay flat no matter what fabrics are used.

The blocks for my Marie Antoinette quilt are 9 inch blocks.  With a 1/2 inch seam allowance, my blocks are trimmed to 10 inches.

 Now that my blocks are all trimmed up, I will start sewing it together.  Due to the weight of my crazyquilts, I sew my quilts down onto yet another foundation.  I'll show you how in Step 2.

Cards With Glitter

I thought for today, I would share a few of our new handmade Cards With Glitter.  I usually go over to mom's a couple of times a week and one of our favorite things to do is to make cards.  We use vintage greeting cards, recycled newer cards, rubber stamps and loads of sparkly glitter:

These and lot's more can be found in our Cottage Boutique!  Don't laugh, but we're already working on some Fall cards!  We have to work a season in advance!

I had planned on squaring up the blocks for my Marie Antoinette quilt today but I didn't get to it.  Bubba is in the process of repainting the hallway and some of his stuff on the counter in the kitchen where I do my fabric cutting.  Instead, I did some stitching.  It's supposed to be nice tomorrow.  I think I'll do a bit of yard work and then try again to work on my Marie Quilt.

Designer Cellphone Cases

I finally had time to do the finishing on these cellphone cases that I stitched last week:

I don't think I could pick a favorite as I really love them both!  Any cellphone, IPhone or Blackberry Phone will fit in these pouches which measure 6 inches high X 4 inches wide.  They are fully lined with a large snap closure.  My purses and pouches are padded (between the layers) for added protection and stability.  I use iron-on fleece!

I have another style of cellphone cases that I make and I sewed up a few blocks a couple of weeks back.  I'm looking forward to stitching on those.

First, I want to do the finishing on my Marie Antoinette quilt which I plan to start on this weekend.

I guess that's my news for today.  We went from 95 degrees yesterday to 65 degrees today.  I can't believe it's June and I have to keep switching back & forth between my Heat and my A/C!  Isn't this some crazy weather?