chimesblog

I recently marked down a LOT of items on my etsy shop for an Independence Day Sale.  I decided to extend the sale into a summer sale.

As always, shipping to Des Moines and Ames is free.  Just contact me before buying so I can adjust the shipping price and arrange a drop-off/pickup.

Here are the items I’ve got on sale:

Wonderland by MoMo Charm Lap Quilt

Regular price: $150
Sale Price: $100
1 Available

Lotsa Hearts Handbag

Regular price: $18
Sale Price: $10
1 Available

White Fiestaware Musical Flowers Cup and Saucer

Regular price: $15
Sale Price: $10
1 set Available

Birdies and Coffee Cup

Regular price: $8
Sale Price: $5
5 Available

Vintage Flower Fiesta Bowl (turf green or gold)

Regular price: $10
Sale Price: $7
2 Available (one green, one gold)

Tea Time with Gram Cup and Saucer Set

Regular price: $15
Sale Price: $10
1 Set Available

Birdies and Coffee on Vintage Lime Green Pyrex Cup and Saucer

Regular price: $15
Sale Price: $10
2 Sets Available

Custom Etsy Banner and Avatar

Regular price: $15
Sale Price: $10
5 custom designs Available (below are examples of banners I’ve done)

You can e-mail me at calee@chimesdesign.com or PM me on twitter (@chimes) OR convo me on etsy if you’ve got questions, concerns or special requests.

ALSO — heads up!  I’ll be doing Market Day in Des Moines on July 25th and will be having a special that day ONLY at Market Day.  All dishes will be buy one, get one half off.  I may be cooking up some more specials, and even a raffle or giveaway… STAY TUNED!

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In honor of the 3-day weekend and of our forefathers… I’m having an Etsy sale! As always, shipping to Des Moines and Ames is free, just contact me beforehand to arrange a pickup/dropoff.

Feel free to share this around!

Here are items that are on sale:
Wonderland Quilt

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27132485

Lotsa Hearts Bag

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26505809

Flowers and Music White Fiestaware Cup/Saucer

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25808834

Birdies and Coffee Cup

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25807559

Flower Fiesta Bowls

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25796749

Tea Time with Gram Cup and Saucer

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25796541

Birdies and Coffee Cup and Saucer

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25796407

Custom Etsy Banner/Avatar

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22289621

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Not really, but I always feel special when something I do ends up on somebody else’s blog.

A while back I blogged about a block I sent in to the Jolly Jabber Block Lottery.  I sent it in a while back. Today I was catching up on all my blogs in Google Reader after the weekend in Chicago (which I’ll blog about later once I get photos from my girlies).  I got to FatQuarterShop.com‘s Jolly Jabber Blog and saw my name was mentioned! They were updating on the block lottery and picked a few blocks that had been sent in so far.  I’m not sure if they only had a few to choose from so mine was chosen or if they just really liked it…either way, I was kind of excited!

(here’s the block for reference)

Okay…so I found the group on flickr. They don’t have a lot just yet, but mine is clearly one of the cooler ones.

Check out the original blog post on FatQuarterShop.

Did I mention I sent in my first official block?  I’ve only made quilt tops out of non-block patterns before. I’m currently working on a quilt for my sister with this block pattern (different fabrics though).

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I  can’t believe I never blogged about this!  I posted this on craftster.org a while back.  I did these over the last 2 weekends.

Coin Stack baby top for my neice’s 1st b-day (in October).  There’s a lot of fun fabrics in this — these were fabrics I’d bought to do the charm pack swap, but I couldn’t do it because I’m doing the metal swap on craftster right now and that’s my first swap — rules are yo have to have one completed swap with good feedback before you do multiple swaps.  I’ll be in on the 2nd round of a charm pack swap though! I’ve got the fabric cut already.

Hello Betty top for my mom. I’m using the brown for the backing (ideally would have used the brown with orange flowers, but everywhere is SOLD OUT!) and the turquoise for the binding (was going to use orange w/ the brown flowers, but I like the turquoise better w/ the solid brown).

the colors are really off.. :/

again..colors are really off.

I’ve got the Hello Betty quilt ready to be quilted…but I’m not sure where I’m taking it. I need to find another quilt lady around here. I found an awesome one in Cedar Rapids, but I’m going to reserve her for special quilts. She charges a fair price for the work that she does and she’s really nice, but I think I can find somebody a bit cheaper for quilts I want to have just a simple all-over stipple pattern on.  I’m too chicken to quilt myself. I might try it with my hardcore quilt top this month since I’m borrowing a good sewing machine from my grandparents, but I also don’t want to risk breaking their machine…so I better not.

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This is heinous, but I had to start somewhere. I’m going to probably tie quilt this beast and give it away or use it for a camping blanket ( in case I ever get to go camping again!) or a picnic blanket. 

Care Bears, LGBT, Spiderman and Bob Ross CLEARLY belong together.

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After my rant yesterday and after consulting my most respected design peeps, I decided to add some REAL graphic design offerings to my etsy store.

I’ve had an etsy store for a while, but I’ve basically used it to list things I’ve made that I really don’t want lying around the place and prints of some of my favorite posters. I’ve made a few sales, but nothing too fancy.  I usually relist everything because, hey, it’s 2 bucks or so… and if I happen to make a sale, it’s at least a 10 dollar profit.

I decided to offer etsy banners, business cards, letterhead, postcards, invitations and web sites. Yes. Web sites.  I may regret that later, but I only have 3 up for sale. I think I have 5 of the rest of the items for sale.

I’ve also posted with the listing VERY explicit instructions for each of the items for sale. I’ve posted the typical timeline and what they will get. The website is a one-time-only fee of $300 for the design of a template for a CMS (wordpress, drupal or joomla) and to teach the client how to use it. I believe I included 2-3 mockups with the cost and a 3-month timeline. With the rest of my materials I’ve posted a 3-5 or 5-7 day turnaround for design and a 3-day turnaround for changes AND, most importantly, each listing comes with ONE round changes.

So with that being said, I might have to create a listing for 2 additional things: 1) an additional round of changes ($10) and 2) monthly website updates ($25-$50 per month).

I set my prices based on the amount of work I’ll put into these things and based on $10 an hour. I had to keep them halfway competitive with other people on Etsy, but even with such a low cost (to us designers) I’m still way above everybody else’s prices.  I’m hoping people will be sucked in by good design and I’ll get a few sales.  If not, it was $5 to list all these things and it was in attempt to prove a point…and possibly get some cash.

Now that I have this up though I can send some freelance clients there to purchase a “package” if they want work done.  I have a few friends that I will always do free work for and they know who they are, but friends of friends will most likely get sent to my etsy store from here on out.

here are my newest offerings..along with a new banner and avatar. woo hoo.

Here are some of my original listings as well.

Speaking of friends and freelance, my friend Adria has been a fabulous fabulous fabulous client.  I love her to death. She’s been making me all sorts of stuff in exchange for my freelance work (although I told her she totally didn’t need to!).  Either way, I’m excited to receive some of her awesome gifts.   She made me a quilt from some Amy Butler fabric, which is totally my FAVORITE fabric.

I totally swiped a picture off her craftster.. ha. Hope she doesn't mind!

It's sooo pretty!

I created some banners for her store. I don’t have them on me now, but she blogged about it (and totally plugged my etsy store!) here.  I do have screenies of her etsy store.

she sells handmade quilts and more!

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