working with what's on hand

Except for when I first started my business and had to supplement with an influx of my own cash, Primrose has been self-supporting. That's not the same thing as making a profit, although some months that happens, too. What it means is that I have enough to buy the materials I need without having to borrow money from other sources or from myself. So what happens when things slow down? It means that I buy less stuff and make do with what I have on hand. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Lately I've been going back through past purchases to get them ready to sell. Sometimes, in the case of the baby sheet that I purchased already embroidered with Bambi characters, that just involves hemming the sheet. More often, it's completing the stamped for embroidery projects that I have way too many of. This baby bib with a cat holding a balloon took about an hour to finish. Then I soaked it (it was pretty dirty) and hung it out in the sun to dry. It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

My current project is a set of four napkins with a flower (mums or dahlias?) in one corner of each. It's a nice mix of easy stitches—stem, lazy daisy (straight up for the flower petals and upside-down for the leaves), and French knots. I work a little bit on it each day and it's going fairly quickly. These will need a good soak, too, and then hemming.



I hope to get lots of embroidery done this summer so I'll be sharing more of my projects with you. And look for more patterns, including the balloon cat shown above, on my website soon.

What the heck—let's do another pattern sale for the month of June. Buy one pattern and get another (of equal or lesser value) for free. Just include a note in the comments section of the order form telling me which pattern you'd like.