Festival Stitchers EXPO Stitching

In our community, we have two Expos a year where clubs can show off what they do and possibly attract new members. The craft clubs can sell items their members make following certain rules.

One of the rules is that members cannot make more than $500 a year (among all clubs). So, our club table at the Fall Expo will look kind of stark since our best contributors sold well at the Spring Expo and can't put as much out.

In our case, and other clubs as well, the member keeps 90% of the sale and the club gets 10%. Sales help the club and in order to have our table look fuller and help our club's coffers, we came up with something members can make and the club will sell at 100% profit - Luggage Tags. I made two examples to get an idea of design size.

My design using DMC 991, 993, 356 & 754. I call it Southwest Luggage Tag 1 (so creative)!

Gecko on Wall by Jenny Rasmussen.

I had to adapt the Gecko design by moving the corners to fit the tag, but I think it came out ok. I used DMC 993 and Kreinik #4 braid color 027.

Not all of our members want to stitch to sell stuff, we have about 5 people who consistently sell.  But many of those who don't want to stitch to sell, are happy to make smaller items for the club. We did combine this with learning something. For example, last year we made wool applique stockings and learned the blanket stitch.

With the luggage tags,  we are learning how to work with perforated paper and if desired learning to find or adapt designs to fit the tag. 

The club provided the luggage tag, perforated paper and an identification card. 

I printed out an information sheet which included information about the best design size to use. I also provided some designs of my own and other freebies they could adapt if needed.

The club purchased 25 tag holders and after one meeting we only have eight left! I am sure those will be picked up by those who were not at our last meeting. 

I also stepped up my game and stitched this towel to sell. The design stopped after two arrows on each side of the bird, but I thought it looked empty, so I added more. The towel is a light sage green that does not show up so well in the photo.

Happy Stitching!!