Favourite Etsy Shop Friday

Favourite Etsy Shop Feature

Quiltville
www.Quiltville.etsy.com

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

My Name is Carlene, but you can call me Carly.

I live with my husband John, and 2 Chesapeake Bay retrievers.

We are a blended family with 5 children and 1 granddaughter.

My Mother taught me how to sew when I was 12, I taught her how to Quilt when she was 70. I work full time Sewing, Quilting and Designing patterns for my Etsy shop.

2. What made you open your shop and why Etsy?

My friend Terri found Etsy in 2006 when she was cruising the net looking for other options than Ebay. We both liked the idea of a site for Handmade Items and Quiltville.etsy.com was born.

3. Do you sell your quilts anywhere else?

Word of mouth brings people to my doorstep sometimes.

4. How did you choose your shop name?

I quilt in a small town in Wisconsin. Hence, Quiltville.

5. What are your favourite things to do?

Quilt, of course. I also Love to buy fabric and enjoy creating new designs and new patterns. I like to experiment when I bake. I like Gardening, Camping, Fishing, Boating, and Love it twice as much with my Husband, Children and Granddaughter.

6. What inspires you?

I am inspired by fabric; a new line of fabrics is like a flower garden in full bloom, choosing the right combination to make the perfect bouquet.

7. Of all the quilts you make, which one is your favourite?

All of them are my favorite, impossible to choose just one.

8. Which quilt is the most popular?

Quilts with modern/contemporary fabrics.

9. Which handmade possession given to you do you cherish?

I have an antique dresser about 100 years old. My father bought it for his Mother.

10. Name 3 other Etsy shops you love to visit.

The Keepers House - She make these Gorgeous fabric wrapped coil baskets, I own 5 of them and have given 3 as gifts so far.

Momomadeit - She makes Beautiful Aprons that fit perfectly. I own 4 of them.

All fabric sellers - it is impossible to name just one.

Thank you so much to Carly of Quiltville for being my featured Etsy shop this week. I have wanted to try quilting for many many years and for some reason have been too chicken to start. I look at the quilts in Quiltville and just drool. They are just so beautiful and the colour combinations are amazing. I think I will just have to save my pennies and buy myself one of these quilts. Im sure it would become a treasured heirloom. Take a look at this Etsy shop and you are sure to want one yourself. If you are quilter or braver than me, you can also purchase some of the quilt patterns and make your own amazing Quiltville quilt.

Handmade Christmas Presents Revealed

I have been meaning to post pictures of the gifts that I made for the girls for ages and today I am finally doing it. Here you see the alligator that I made for Victoria. He is big and squishy and turned out better than I thought. The colour work threw me at first but once I figured it out it was alot easier.


My only issue with this pattern is how short the tail is. I feel like I need to make another one just to redeem the tail. He is looking a little like a lizard who lost his tail. I would definitely add at least another 5 or so inches to his tail next time. I had visions of this being very long and tedious to seam together but it really wasnt that hard. I think because its knit mostly in Garter Stitch that makes it a quick seam up.


I apologize for this picture being on its side. Sometimes they do this when you load them up and I havent figured out how to fix it without having to go through a whole lot of trouble. This is a shot of his belly. Before I was questioning my choice in colours because I thought the eyes might get lost in the darker green but now I see there was nothing to worry about. Victoria was very surprised by her alligator and loves to give him big hugs.


Victoria finally got her little lamb that she had been asking me for and in the colours that she wanted. She had to be given without her little cardigan because I simply ran out of time. It has been started and will be given when finished. Victoria didnt seem to mind though.


Here she is from behind. Dont you just love her little tail. She was knit using some cotton yarn that I got from unraveling an old jumper of Megan's ages ago. She is a very eco friendly lamb.



Megan really loved this present. This is her lap table that I made. I really wanted to be able to take the black corners off but they were super glued down so I had to leave them on. She says she likes them on there anyway. This was made by getting a glass cutting board and hot gluing it to a pillow. I finally found the right size pillow that had a gusset and it turned out really well. This was my first time using a glue gun so Im sure if anyone else made this their gluing would be much neater than mine hehe.


Here is a lap shot so you can kind of get an idea of size. Im sure Megan will get alot of use out of it. We have discovered that I need to make one of these for Victoria because she likes to colour sitting on the lounge and is always looking for something to lean on.


This last present I made for Megan. She is into llamas at the moment especially white llamas. Dont ask me why hehe. My girls are not usually into the standard stuff. I printed out some photos that Megan and I took of a white llama on our zoo trip this summer. Megan is big into photography so I thought she might like some of her own photos to display. I found this frame for a bargain price of $2.50 so this was a cheap and easy present but she really really liked it. It just needs to get hung up.

All in all these were some successful handmade presents. They were fun to put together and hopefully will be enjoyed.

I'm Still Alive!

I know, I know, its been forever since I even posted anything on here. I have missed my little blog. I started babysitting my niece before the end of the year and I am finding her very time consuming hehe. She is now about 10 weeks old and has her parents wrapped around her little tiny finger. Slowly but surely she is getting a little easier to take care of. She is a baby who has learned to be constantly held and needs to be held to sleep. I think its being realized by the newbie parents that this was not a good thing to start and are now to trying to fix it.

I am hoping to post something with pictures either tomorrow or Thursday. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here and just dying to post something so stay tuned.