Handmade Mart

We headed out to Silver Spring, MD (next to DC) for the first ever Handmade Mart. It was one of the best craft shows I've ever been to. When we got there volunteers helped us unload the van and some other people helped us set up the tent. There were bagels and some fruit for us too.

All of the tents were set up along one side of the street down at our end. I was surprised at the amount of traffic. It was really crowded! But because the street was so wide, it didn't seem bad --everyone had room to walk and for most of the day, we were in the shade. We were across from a noodle shop so lunch was amazing. Perfect weather, great music, frozen icy stuff, yay!

The rompers I made in May were a big hit at the Squidfire's show so I added some new designs and people again really seemed to like them. I have two of the designs photographed so I'll add them to the shop this week.


As you can see, they are really comfortable for both romping when you're supposed to be sleeping, and for a short snooze:


We decided to only bring one table to make room for the pack n play.

I put the beans in front of the table in one of our laundry baskets and that worked well. We used both clothing racks so there was plenty of room for all the goods too.

The yetis hung from the back wall of the tent and they were almost all gone by the end of the day. My friend is printing up some more of these and I'll have them soon.

Squidfire's May show (yes, May)

Better late than never, huh?

There have been some major computer issues here in Lemonland. Finally, the new computer is loaded with programs and files and several hundred pictures that have been molding in folders and on the camera.

The Squidfire's show was amazing. As usual, Baltimorians are super nice and very friendly. We had a great spot with a nice patch of grass behind the tent so we could chill with the little one in the shade.

We shared a spot with Kim of Shortees/Smartee Pants. We had so much fun. It was really nice to hang out with a fellow crafter and mom all day. Her son is just two months older than Baby Lemon so I got the scoop on what's coming next (one nap, beastly teeth, walking...). Kim makes amazing clothes from recycled t-shirts.

The best part of the day was a visit from one of our biggest fans:
She is the daughter of Sweet Pepita, a really amazing crafter.

Thanks to everyone who came to the show! The new rompers were a big hit so I made more for the Handmade Mart. Now that we're technologically stable again, I'll get some photos of the new stuff and add it to the Etsy shop.

Vendor Q&A on the Handmade Mart blog

They posted my little interview over on the Handmade Mart blog with my application pics.

Head on over and take a look.

Squidfire's Spring Art Mart

Find us on the park side of the street!

Team Lemon will be sharing our tent with Shortees who makes some pretty awesome stuff out of recycled t-shirts. See the previous post for a preview of the newest Lemon Cadet loot.

More info on the Squidfire's site.

A sneak peak . tails

Somehow I managed to finish two (TWO!!!) new designs for the Squidfire's show this weekend (Yay, Baltimore! and more on you tomorrow).

I've been wanting to add some huge tails for a while now but I was having a hard time breaking away from the beans. The heart guy is wearing a suit from one of my favorite Alexander Henry prints and the yellow guy features one of Jackie Shapiro's cool animal prints. The tails are made from vintage-inspired dotted swiss. As always, I've hand-embroidered the faces and carefully stitched the edges with my fab Huskystar. I'll post more pics after the show.

Zadie's nursery on the Ikea Hacker blog

I submitted our changing table hack to the Ikea Hacker blog months and months ago. Since I never saw it posted, I just figured it was a bad idea or something.

Today, it magically appeared.

We are still loving this. It works great, we love all the storage in the bins, and when Little Beastie is out of diapers, we'll be able to take this apart and make further use of it.

If it's not on your Google Reader already, you should make a point to add this cool blog. It's crazy what people can do with the stuff in that AS IS room (our first stop on any Ikea trip).

Quilting Along . nicely

a blocks in a pile

I'm making great progress on the Quilt Along. For one thing, this is WAY easier than sewing a dress for a little girl. You get to cut with a rotary cutter and ruler and everything is straight. But at the same time, you have to be really precise or anything you do wrong will get magnified by the end -- this doesn't happen with clothing where one mistake is simply one mistake. (I'm in denial about the actual quilting part).

I got most of my pieces cut out and placed on the organizers. I didn't understand how directional prints would work in the quilt so I'm waiting to cut out the last two blocks until I'm a little less tired. I need to make a new cutting diagram because I'm not sure if more ladybug fabric is on the way. I'm also not sure If I will have enough of the apple print so I need to measure what I need and what I have a few more times before whacking into what's left.

Since I already bought a pattern from the Oh Fransson Etsy shop for Zadie's toddler bed quilt, I decided to make my organizers slightly more reusable. I used stickers for the numbers so that if I need to add more squares or use fewer, I can just switch out instead of getting confused (plus I hate my handwriting).

I love working on this. I think the fabrics have come together very nicely. But as you can see, I've already made some mistakes. I thought I was doing such a great job and I was all proud of myself. Then I ironed my seems open and realized that they didn't line up! Oh well.