test bunnies

Sometime last year, the retail space next to my current biz opened up and it was such a steal rent-wise that I couldn't pass up jumping on it to open a small (very) needlecraft boutique. Our town has two quilt shops within city limits, each of whom responded with a resounding, "WHOOOO?!!!" when I called to inquire as to whether they carried any AMH, Kaffe or Amy B. fabrics. Seriously, I know. I have no desire to compete with JoAnn fabrics, Michael's or Hobby Lobby, all of which we have here. I just want to provide crafters and quilters with the ability to touch some of the lovely fabrics available before purchasing them, and to also not have to wait for them via the postman.

It's very difficult to be selective in the process of building inventory, especially with the tons of fabric lines available. As for everyday supplies, I plan to carry few. But one thing I want for sure are some kits. Kits are great for all ages, if they're planned right. I was lucky enough to find some great patterns available for wholesale purchase from Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls, I've had the patterns for ages now and just took advantage of a huge sale at JoAnn's and tortured the cutting girl by needing 2 yards of every single felt they had. (Although she was very nice and didn't seem to mind at all.)

So a couple of weeks ago, we turned an otherwise TV filled Friday night into craft night!

Although we took it upon ourselves to trace the patterns not onto tissue paper, but freezer paper instead and ironed them to the felt to make it easier to cut those little shapes. I'm hoping Hilary won't mind if I assemble kits for these that will include several pieces of felt, the pattern of course, freezer paper & embroidery floss and sell them that way. I think these would be great birthday party favors or slumber party activities or whatever! I also want to make two ginormous ones to use for display purposes, so I need to ask her that as well. As soon as I beg her to release her cross stitch and embroidery patterns for wholesale purchase...

We did a bunch. Well, two for each of us...

Totally fun colors.

And tiny hands were kept busy for hours.

So far I'm digging them! It was such a fun project and so, so simple! These are the ones I did, and tomorrow I'll post pics of everyone else's. We've also got the turtle pattern and the doll booklet patterns and I hope to get to those this week!