6/13/2018

Well it has been a adventurous year in the shop, we now have trademark licensing for US Air Force, US Marines and US Navy. Sale are on track seeing as the Navy is a new addition, we are still struggling to get out items found on Etsy especially with their new changes.

The web site has been updated with the newest craft fairs to date, these can be found under the craft fairs 2018 tab.

We are trying to make new items as time allows but with upcoming Craft Fairs on the list and guaranteed sales for some of the items I make through that avenue not a lot of new items are being posted in the Etsy Shops. I try as new items are created to add them to my Instagram feed, if you are not already following me follow this link: https://www.instagram.com/gabbysquilts/
and check out to see what is new, all items can be available to purchase just by emailing me if it is a item that I don't clearly mark as being put in one of the Etsy shops, if it is marked as a new Etsy item you can just check my profile for the Etsy link and follow that to make your purchase.

I am in love with this new shop I found on Etsy, I just love her items and I am sure quite a few people have already found her as well, her patterns for baby, kids and adult sweaters are very well written and easy to follow, can't wait to try out some more of her patterns, I have to finish the one I have started first thou, LOL, so because it isn't finished we can't post any pictures yet.

This has been completed just recently and will be relisted in the handmade shop as soon as time allows:

Well we have to sign off for today, I have to check orders and return emails. I will be back as soon as time allows, til then have a good start to summer and remember the sunscreen :)

7/10/2017

Finished the second quarter USO donation tally and sent the check out in todays mail.

Aprils total- $18.30
Mays total- $9.50
and June- $14.20

Total check amount $42.00

Sales were down for Military as well as for everything else in the shop, Etsy has been ramming through some very massive changes to how the customers put items into their carts to how they view our items, which now show our competitors items when a person is viewing our item that they might have followed back from a link or social media site.

A lot of shops have closed down and moved off site, but there are always new ones opening so I don't think etsy is going to go anywhere anytime soon. In order to bump sales I have even found it necessary myself to move off site. I still have both shops on Etsy with items in both but have found it necessary to "spread" the wealth to other sites to see if we can bump up sales.

My primary web site which has the links to each of the separate selling shops that I operate:
www.GabbysQuilts.com

Etsy custom military shop with sewing and craft supplies:
www.GabbysQuiltsNSupply.etsy.com

Etsy handmade shop with military baby , crochet and lanyards:
www.GabbysQuilts.etsy.com

Ebay with precut cotton fabrics for quilting sewing and craft uses:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/gabbysquilts518/m.html

Artyah with my husbands handmade wood items and the rest of my handmade items that I make as time allows:
https://www.artyah.com/seller/gabbysquilts

We are also getting ready for Craft Fair season and listings for the local sites we are vending can be found on my web site under the tab craft fairs 2017, my husband will be bringing his new wood items to display as well. Hoping for a good season this year as we have added a few new venues that we haven't participated in before so we shall see.

I'll leave you with this cute pattern I found for those of you into sewing :)

http://www.handmadiya.com/2015/09/zipper-wallet-diy-tutorial.html

Til next time have a good summer and I will be back soon with any new updates.

Quarterly Donation total and shop news

The total tally for USO donation has been tallied and check is in the mail. We came in a respectable total of $53.00. Sales are down considerably from last year, not sure if all the changes that Etsy continues to make, in what they assure us is a more streamline approach, is having a impact or if it is the economy ? All I can continue to do is assure my Military customers that the tally is being kept and the donations are being made, USO is even giving away free items with the donations which I have decline and put the whole amount into helping our soldiers :)

For shop news, as I have made reference to above Etsy is making some very large changes to the site, if anyone has any issues making purchases or getting your messages about your custom orders to me, by all means email me @ gabbysquilts@yahoo.com, if they go missing on Etsy :( I can find them in that location. It seem trivial but I have gotten messages from customers that with all the changes their messages when sent bounce back to them.

New fabric, notions and patterns are still being loaded into the shop, but you will notice the largest change in the site when shopping for those items, it has been rumored that Etsy direcst you to Etsy Studio unless you directly type in the shop you are looking for. I have checked out their new site, in which we have been told that we supply sellers will have our items on there only sometime in the future, and I have to say good luck in finding anything, as of my last check search wasn't working and you had to go back to the main site to find the items you were looking for. Why they would have a site available where search doesn't work is beyond me, but this is Etsy we are talking about after all.

New for my military customers are luggage tags, still working on the prototypes but have a light weight one worked out and the supplies are coming in for the heavy duty one in the coming weeks.
Here is a picture of the light weight one:

The biggest difference between the two will be the weight of the tag, this one will have the option of having the name embroidered on both sides and is 2 strips of material sewn together with the luggage clip at one end and a metal band clip at the other.
The heavy weight on will only have the option of having the name on one side and the material will be sewn to a heavy weight cotton webbing with the luggage clip at one end and the metal band on the other.
I am thinking the lighter one would be good for carry on baggage, tote bag, or back packs. The heavy weight one would definitely be strong enough to go onto the actual check on luggage totes and military tactical bags and back packs. My son was actually home for a visit as I was working out the prototype and was impressed with the lightweight one so far, and of course left with the instructions that when the prototype of the heavyweight one was worked out I had to send it to him for his approval, LOL :)

Well that is it for now, I'll be back soon with any new updates and or pointers on how to navigate the new changes on Etsy, thats if I can figure them out before they make any more changes :)

Have a nice Memorial day, and remember this is Military Appreciation month so remember to thank them for serving.

February shop News

Finally finished the books for January, working a part time job now so it is a little bit more difficult to get the time to close the months books, but I guess NY state won't really care as long as they receive their sales tax payments on time, LOL

My military customers made a sizable contribution to the USO pot for the beginning of the first quarter, 2 more months to go and we will submit the donation. January s figure was $55.80, which is a really good figure for the beginning of the year.

I have been working on double sided embroidery for the embroidered wrist lanyards, US Marines are done and are on the table waiting to be sewn and have the hardware attached, I am still working on the positioning of the US Air Force ones but am hoping to have them done by the middle of the month, they are actually on the table for tomorrow but we will have to see how many orders come in for custom orders first before we make definite plans on doing them. Orders come before play in my shop, hahaha.

Found a really cute tutorial online for a rip + strip placemat tutorial, I am hoping to find time to give it a try, if you want to give it a go here is the link to follow to do your own:

Rip + Strip Placemat Tutorial


Well that's it for now, I promise I will return soon with any new things I find and worse case scenario it will be to update the running total for the USO donation for the Military, til then happy sewing :)

Shop News for the New Year

Hi Folks,

Well 2016 is off and running, most of the tax paperwork is done, final Military donation for the year was made and for the last quarter , with sales contributions of $69.90 from my military customers and I pitched in a final amount to get us to the $100 level. With the total donation for the year coming in at $598.00 my Military customers rocked the USO this year, hoping that 2016 we can do it again.

Looking at some different variations on what we are already carrying, with lanyard machine issues constantly cropping up I am forced to keep what we can make on the small side, so look for some new mini key fobs for the different branches with dual branch embroidery on both sides of the fob, I am going to see about making some small size quilts with coordinating fabric for the different branches and their logos and maybe if we have the time I can introduce personalized Christmas stockings this year.

We start this year off participating in a Team Event on Etsy, the Quiltsy Destash Party, please if you have the time and either sew or craft some real bargains can be had by shopping the stores participating, some are just cleaning their sewing rooms and others, like me, have had to down size to fit into smaller places when we moved over the past year.
Check it out here:

The Great Quiltsy Destash Party

Starting Date: January 15th, 2016

The party ends when its all gone!

Place: The Quiltsy Team Pages on Etsy

We are a team of quilting entrepreneurs dedicated to making quality products, advancing our love of quilting, and supporting each other. In 2016 we will be working to showcase new products and ideas, promoting our shops, and changing the way you think about quilting! All this creativity means we are opening our quilting studios up to you. Fabrics, Patterns, Quilt Books, and Kits are all available for the taking. We welcome you to start your shopping and browsing at any time by clicking on the links below.

https://www.etsy.com/pages/quiltsyteam/destash-quilt-books

https://www.etsy.com/pages/quiltsyteam/destash-patterns-and-kits

https://www.etsy.com/pages/quiltsyteam/destash-fabric

https://www.etsy.com/pages/quiltsyteam/exciting-new-fabrics-patterns-and-tools

https://www.etsy.com/pages/quiltsyteam/gifts-for-sewing-enthusiasts

Please also feel free to browse our handmade items as well at:

https://www.etsy.com/pages/quiltsyteam

Find us on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/QuiltsyTeam

Thanks for stopping by and giving us a look. Happy Shopping!

Shop News

We have some new items coming in from the supplier that will be loaded onto the web site, just got notification that they shipped so I can't wait.

Some of the new items are Fashion colored fun tapes, these will be coming in some really neat colors and would be perfect for gift giving for a sewing or crafty friend or maybe for yourself. The colors that the vendor has listed are fushia pink, melon orange, lime green, purple and blue, can't wait to see them.
Red Heart has introduced a new line of yarn called Scrubby and the notification from the supplier said all the colorways would be coming except for Royal blue, so look for these colors to be loaded as soon as they arrive; coconut, black, duckie yellow, orange, ocean blue, lime green, bubblegum pink, and cherry red. I have only seen the black and coconut and have made one scrubby from each of the skeins, my husband loves them for scrubbing his frying pan in the morning after making his bacon and eggs for breakfast. My daughter wants me to make her one for a exfoliating scrub for her face to see how that works, so that is the project for tonight :)

Military paperwork has been completed, the US Marine Corps just sent through the approval for licensing for another year and the royalty report for Air Force is complete and sent. The donation tally has been done and a check for $125.00 will be going to the USO as soon as I get a chance, and the total donation amount thus far for the next quarter is $29.00. Sales are down all across the board on Etsy so that is the reason for the low numbers, haven't seen sales numbers this low since early this year hoping it doesn't continue for too much longer.

Well we are done for now be back as soon as I can with anymore news of items or products that we found that are new and interesting or that I might have had the chance to finish making. Remember all these products are going to be added to my web site, which you can find here: http;//www.GabbysQuilts.com

Til next time :)

Rough week

Well, it's been a rough one.
My son is trying to enlist in the Air Force, and we had a appointment with the recruiter today to go over his scores and have him fill out his wish list for what he wants to do when he is done with basic training.
We didn't make it very far into the appointment, when the recruiter brought up the subject of my sons medical history. Now, I have brought both my kids up to tell the truth, well that philosophy is not going to help my son much when it comes to enrolling in the military. We now have to get a slip of paper from the doctor stating that my son is okay to do basic training, because of a condition he came down with when he was a baby. When I have talked to people about this, I was asked, why didn't you lie about it. What kind of society are we bringing our kid up in where they have to lie to do things, you tell the truth up front, that way if something happens they can't say they didn't know about it.
He is perfectly fine now, he outgrew the symptoms when he was in elementary school, but because we put it in his records we now have to have a doctor say the same thing. I have been repeated told up to this point that it is our fault, according to them, you don't tell the truth when dealing with the military. This is the men and women who put their lives on the line for us, makes me wonder what they had to lie about to get to where they are now :\