My Blog

New Beach Totes

05/14/2012 12:00:00

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day. I sure did! My kids and husband know exactly what I like...Food!

I was treated to a fantastic buffett Sunday at 103 West AND they gave me new gardening supplies and flowers to plant!

I also had the opportunity this week to work with Hilary, my oldest and design some beach totes....which she has been selling! Yay!

We've been designing and making these totes for graduates, Mother's Day presents and they have made great teacher gifts.

Two of the styles are available on the website, but creativity doesn't stop there. I'll be adding more photos of our bags so if you see any you'd like to purchase, please let me know. We've picked out some great fabrics and at $60 each, these are a great bargain.

All the bags are made of durable designer duck canvass and are lined with quilter's cotton. A pocket is centered between the straps and the bags may be personalized. Choose embroidery (first name) or applique (first letter).

To purchase, just go to the Purchase a Nap Mat page and go all the way to the bottom of the page. Click and buy. Let me know what you think and Enjoy your week!

Customer Designs Nap Mat

04/20/2012 08:30:00

This week I had the pleasure to work with a customer who wanted to design her own nap mat. I welcome this opportunity and have done this before. It's really rewarding to see the final product, not only for me, but for the customer who selected her own fabric.

This customer, Megan, was really easy to work with and had a great eye for choosing fabrics that worked well together.

I had no idea what fabrics she ordered until they arrived Wednesday. I fell in love with the soft pinks, browns and off-whites she had chosen. By Thursday her nap mat was complete and shipped. I love it!

I think it turned out great and I'm sure her daughter will enjoy it for years to come.

If you would like to choose your own fabrics, just send me an email and we'll design your own one-of-a-kind nap mat!

Thanks for reading,

Rene'

New Product Launch

03/28/2012 12:35:00

Some girls get excited over new shoes, and I DO love sparkly sandles...my daughter calls them my B**** shoes, but I'm sooo excited about my new sewing machine.

Finally, after years of sewing on my good old Viking, I was able to upgrade this week to a Juki Commercial Sewing Machine. This thing flies!!! And even better, I'm now able to quilt through 2 layers of 1" batting...

Which got me thinking, "What a great way to streamline my whole operation!"

When I first started making my nap mats, I was using 1" batting and the length of the mats was 46". Many customers started requesting a thicker pad and longer length. The problem was I couldn't get the "quilt" to fit under the machine, so I created a nap mat cover with a removable pad. This included velcro and a fair amount of extra work and expense.

Most customers always upgraded to the 2" pad and paid extra for it and the additional length.

Now I'm offering ALL nap mats constructed in the All-In-One Design. All measure 21" wide, by 55" long and are all 2" thick. They are quilted down every 10-12 inches or so to keep the mat in place. It's so much easier to wash and care for.

I've also recently listed my mats on Amazon and I have a twitter account. Tweet me at @napmats.

I'm taking a short mini-vacation to Missisippi from March 31 - April 4, but I'll be back, refreshed and ready to sew!

Thanks for reading and Happy Easter!

Sweet 16 Quilt

01/19/2012 09:44:00

Sweet 16 Quilt

15 t-shirts were used to make this quilt in celebration of a daughter's 16th birthday!

Backing fabric and label

Colors of Aqua, Hot Pink and Lime green in Floral design were used for the backing.

Personalized Label

Favorite Movie: Dead Poet's Society

Hand Painted T-Shirt with Lace

This block was made with lace found on the bottom and sleeves of a sweet handpainted t-shirt. I stipple quilted the block then added the lace all around.

Greek Key Design on block

A little free form quilting on the corners of this block make it easy to read the team mates names.

Modern Millie Block

Free Form quilting to highlight motif

Serious Free Form Quilting

Completed Quilt!

Tacky Christmas Sweaters with Hilary

12/08/2011 10:16:00

My daughter, Hilary is home from KSU for the holidays. We spent a couple of hours yesterday creating these 'Holiday Sweaters' for a party she and her boyfriend are attending Friday Night. (after he sees our look for him...IDK) ha!

It was so great to spend time together and get tacky.... Fun Times :0

More pictures to follow. Maybe we can get Nick to wear this thing?

Thanks for reading,

Rene'

Finished!

Look how proud she is! LOL

Hilary's Tacky Christmas Sweater Assembly

After we ironed on her antlers and face for the raindeer, she glued on buttoms, ribbons and well,...crap.

Nick's Tacky Christmas Sweater Vest

Ironing on the snowmen and trees

Back of Tacky Christmas Sweater

wow...she loves the tree skirt...

Nick's Tacky Christmas Sweater Back

omg

Nick's Tacky Christmas Sweater Front

Poor Guy

Repurposed Blue T-Shirt

11/13/2011 11:09:00

Aside from making t-shirt quilts, blankets and napmats, I LOVE to re purpose clothing.

This project is so easy to do and you can turn a favorite t-shirt into a new tunic, just like the ones in department stores. I'll show you step by step how to create your own one-of-a-kind tunic for fall which work great over jeggings, leggings, and skinny jeans.

This is the before picture. Just a plain navy blue t-shirt.

Next, cut off the hem to leave about 14 inches under the arm seam.

Next, I used teal gauze. I wanted an unfinished, frayed, bohemian look and gauze is lightweight and perfect for this. I cut two lengths of gauze in 10" x 60" strips and sewed them together. Then I ruffled this length about 1/2 inch from the unfinished top edge.

Next, I laid my ruler on the attached ruffle and cut it on a diagonal with a 5 inch length in front and back and 10 inch length on each side...And cut it... I sewed a straight stitch about 1/2 inch from the hem line and left it, because I wanted it to fray.

The final step was to add something around the neckline. I cut 1" strips from the gauze, ruffled them and attached.

VIOLA!

This is so comfortable and it really was easy to to. It actually took longer to write about it than to actually do it.

Let me know if you make one of these or have any questions.

Thanks for reading.

Enjoy!

Janiebee now at The Purple Ladybug!

10/12/2011 12:03:00

I'm so thrilled to announce that janiebee Nap Mats may now be purchased at The Purple Ladybug in Lawrenceville, GA.

The store recently relocated to the same building as DSW and are next to Ted Montanas. Their address is The Avenue at Webb Gin, 1250 Scenic Highway. Lawrenceville. Email them at purpleladybug1@bellsouth.net.

The store has a beautiful layout, a warm, friendly atmosphere and is filled with all sorts of goodies for your little ones, boys and girls, size newborn to 14. Valerie Barham is a super sweet lady and has been a pleasure to work with.

The Purple Ladybug offers several brands. Desigual ,Wildflower Petite Couture,Anita G, Spoiled Little Momma,Adorable Doubles, Hoo Loves You Baby, Paisley Pinwheel and many, many more!

You may call The Purple Ladybug at 770-972-9488 or check out their facebook page. If you're a facebook friend you'll get 10% off!

Thanks for reading :0

My First Festival

10/06/2011 10:23:00

The Duluth Fall Festival was held in Duluth, GA, September 24th and 25th of this year, and I was lucky enough to be chosen as a vendor.

I had been designing and selling my janiebee quilted nap mats for about a year and was working part-time for a law firm. One of the paralegals there suggested I try some festivals to market my nap mats so I completed the vendor application and was accepted! This was in the Spring, so I began making nap mats day and night. Summer came and it was all I could do to fill my on-line orders. I was selling from my ready made stash, plus filling custom orders. June, July and August were crazy! My sewing room had turned into a nap mat FACTORY.

By the end of August, I only had 18 mats made for the festival, and my goal was 100. I was starting to freak out, so I decided to quit my part-time job and concentrate on promoting janiebee.

I spent all of September sewing and gathering the things I would need for my booth: a really cute white tent, some hanging racks, hangers, extra biz cards, some of that indoor/outdoor 'fake' grass and some cute appliqued signs, (which I made myself.)

My husband, Randy, was very encouraging and even helped me cut and serge. We had a lot of laughs over that. He kept telling me, "I think you're gonna sell out!" In the back of my mind, I was counting dollars and already had my eye on a commercial serger. But, other days I thought, "What if I don't sell any?" I didn't know what to expect, but was preparing myself either way.

Randy and I set up the booth on Friday night, and on the morning of the festival my youngest daughter, Hailey, and I woke up at 6:00 am, drove to Duluth, and set up shop. As you can see, she was thrilled.

I Looove Festivals...especially the food. Just a rundown on what Hailey and I ate that day. Funnel cakes, Lemonades, Cokes, Bags of sugared nuts, Pizza, Corn dogs, Chopped Pork BBQ Sandwiches, Frozen Lemonades and Cotton Candy....Rolaids.

The festival opened at 9:00 and I got my first sale at 9:30! I was thrilled and texted my husband.

I was in a good location. There was a huge oak tree shading my booth and right next to me was a sweet young woman, her husband and their 12 DAY OLD baby. She made and sold a hair accessory called ezbun. It's a very cool product and I bought 2 myself! It was amazing to see 15 or 20 people gathered around her booth watching her demonstrate her hair ties. She would do someone's hair from the crowd, and when she finished they had the biggest smile on their face...instant ego boost...it was like a magic show..I think some people even clapped. :0 She was selling those things left and right and I was getting a lot of traffic...but no more sales. I was getting great feedback and handing out lots of business cards. Unfortunately, most people who were interested had already bought their nap mats....yeah, should have thought of that...note to self, "do a Spring/Summer festival".

Everyone kept saying, "What a great idea!" and "These are so cute!"

By the way, I have some 'cute' puppies for sale too!

Around 2:00, Hailey decided to demonstrate my product. She 'demonstrated' it for about 2 hours so I took this picture to show how hard she worked. Thanks Hails, Love ya girl!

I did sell some kids' clothes and I think I covered the booth rent, but I'm pretty sure Hailey and I ate up all the profits...literally.

On Sunday, Randy came and helped.

And guess what? I sold another ONE...to the ezbun lady!

Just a rundown on what Randy and I ate...corndogs, beer ,margaritas, beer ,margaritas. By closing time, I tripped over my tent and nearly wiped out on my fake grass.

I did get a couple of custom orders and at least 250 more people know I'm out there. I know this, because I gave out a WHOLE BOX of business cards. So, all in all, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got it out of my system, and Yes, I'll probably do some more. I also can't say enough good things about the organization of the festival and the generous volunteers. They were exceptional.

By the way, I took 60 finished nap mats to the festival... I brought home 58 WAAAAaaaaaaa! I was really bummed out for a couple of days, but hey, I'm not giving up. Everything's a learning experience and we just gotta Keep Calm and Carry On :0

I'm selling these ready made ones for $60 ($20 off), so if you're interested, just leave me a comment or email me.

Thanks for reading!

(and don't forget the puppies)

Rene'