Good morning! We interrupt your regular schedule of morning and evening blog posts for this important message!
I (Kayla) am mom’s technical help for the blog which gives me the login information for hacking. (Wink!)
Mom has been battling thyroid cancer since 2015. She has recently learned that the thyroid cancer has metastasized and is now growing in her lung (Read her latest update here). She will spend most of January going through treatments, driving to Mayo clinic in Rochester, and having to take lots of time off of work.
Mom has met so many amazing people through blogging for the last decade and folks have been reaching out asking how to support her during her upcoming treatment.
We invite you to send her a card of encouragement. It was so amazing when Dad was sick to see those physical reminders of love and prayers from people around the world. Blogging is weird in that you share connections with people you’ve never met. A card would mean so much and helps her readers “come to life.”
Here is her address:
Jo Kramer 111 2nd Ave NE Waucoma, IA 52171
If you are considering sending a gift card for gas, she has access to Casey’s and Kwik Star/Kwik Trip here in Iowa and Minnesota.
Folks have asked about a Go Fund Me page to support expenses related to treatment. Fortunately, Mom has tools related to her blogging that allow her to easily accept donations without those high fees. You can donate through PayPal here or Venmo @Jeanne-Kramer-11
Thank you so much for your continued support of Mom and our family. We feel so loved by you all.
I’ve been very busy with the end of the term (my high school runs on trimesters), but I had to drop by Mom’s blog and brag on my students who did so well with their sewing projects this term!
Two years ago while I was home on maternity leave with my son, Jasper, I made the choice to move from teaching Family and Consumer Sciences at the small school in the district to teaching Health at the larger school in the district. The school is only a few miles from Spencer’s family and the new position meant prepping for only one or two classes instead of 14, and no more grocery shopping.
I love teaching all of the freshmen in the building, but I found myself missing the hands-on courses with my students. Last year I proposed a new exploratory class and my (amazing!) district approved it, including the purchase of a dozen sewing machines and loads of supplies!
This was my first term teaching sewing again and it was such a blessing. It has been a very hard term with my family being sick with Covid and having a Covid spike in our district, but for two hours every day I got to “hang out” with my “kids” and have fun.
Notice that my videos and photos are embedding from my social media pages. You can follow us @wdhs.fcs on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
First, students made felt magnets to learn hand sewing.
Then they practiced their seam allowance by making nine-patch blocks. After they could show an accurate seam allowance they moved on to pillowcases.
I had several students who went above and beyond and even made their first quilts! Mom shared charm packs with me that blog readers sent and my students LOVE them. One charm pack and one yard of flannel make a baby quilt that my students were so proud of! I had many students start sewing at home, too, so I sent some extra fabric with them. Thank you so much for sharing!
People are always asking what I need for my classroom. Truthfully, my district is awesome and gives me everything I need, but I sometimes feel shy to ask for what I want. I love having extras to share with students who get bit by the sewing bug in class. I added myself to Mom’s Charity Quilting page and I have a Classroom Donations page on my website too.
Now that the term is over, the students spoke loud and clear in their course evaluation: MORE SEWING!! I am happy to oblige.
Thanks for letting me brag! I will miss these students so much. They were a great group.
P.S.
The winner of the stickers was Virginia. HERE is the link to my Etsy Shop if you’re interested in taking a look at the stickers again.
Good morning! Thank you for checking out the auction and trying the new format. In case you missed it, here is a little backstory on what we’re up to today. Hopefully this will be more organized for Mom’s charity quilt shipping auctions in the future.
Shipping is flat rate as shown for domestic. International postage will be calculated and invoiced.
Be aware of when the auction closes and be accessible by email: Today’s auction is live as soon as the item is listed beneath the BID HERE comment. It soft-closes at 8 pm CST Sunday evening.
Bookmark the auction post
After you bid:
Check back on the post to see which items you had the high bid on promptly after the auction closes at approximately 8 pm on Sunday evening.
Fill out this form if you had any winners before Monday evening at 6 pm.
Keep an eye out for an email with your payment instructions and please pay by Tuesday evening at 6 pm.
Pay promptly so I can ship promptly on Wednesday.
I hope this works out well! If you are a winning bidder you might notice an extra question in the form. What sticker sheet would you like?
Small items are photographed against a 1″ grid to show measurements.
Table runners are photographed folded in half.
The shipping price given is for domestic orders. There will be a discount for combined shipping. International shipping will be calculated.
Happy bidding!
Quilts
1- Log cabin quilt + $15 shipping
64″ x 72″
I wish I knew more about dating quilts because this looks like a treasure! It is in great shape. See some closeups of the blocks to see a few pinpricks. It appears to be wool. I love the backing!
2- Strings quilt + $15 shipping
60″ x 80″
I’m not ready to call this a cutter quilt yet, but some blocks have damage as pictured. The binding (bright orange!) is a bit frayed. Again, I love the backing!
Embroidery
3- Gray floral wool embroidery + $4 shipping
This seems to be an incomplete throw pillow kit of wool on linen.
4- Tiny covered bridge embroidery + $2 shipping
5- Floral yellow bouquet embroidery + $4 shipping
This one also appears to be an incomplete wool on linen pillowcase.
6- Grandmother embroidery + $4 shipping
7- Bluebird embroidery + $4 shipping
The embroidery is beautiful but there are rust pin prick stains throughout.
8- Bread embroidery + $4 shipping
Mounted on cardboard and in great condition.
9- Dutch children embroidery + $10 shipping
Doilies
10- Red blue strawflower doily + $4 shipping
Some spots as shown but embroidery is in great condition.
11- Small square doily + $2 shipping
Spotting as pictured.
12- White octagon doily + $4 shipping
Spotting as shown.
13- Blue/gray oval doily + $4 shipping
14- Swan doily + $4 shipping
15- Yellow edge doily + $4 shipping
Some spots as pictured.
16- Black center doily + $4 shipping
Spotting as shown.
17- Pink edge round doily + $4 shipping
Runners
Runners are photographed folded in half.
18- Blanket stitch floral runner + $4 shipping
Flowers are in great shape but white border embroidery is coming out. Large spot as pictured.
19. Green and rose runner + $4 shipping
Beautiful heavy hand with small spot as shown.
20. Lilly pad runner + $4 shipping
Thick and great condition with no noticeable flaws.
21. Purple edge blue bowl runner + $4 shipping
Embroidery is in great shape but spots as shown.
22- Fan runner + $4 shipping
Fan part is in good shape but black outline is unravelling as pictured.
23- Peacock runner + $4 shipping
ALMOST perfect with a thick hand. Spots as shown.
24- Swan runner + $4 shipping
Thick, textured fabric.
25- Bow runner
Great condition but seems like polyester.
Thank you! I will keep an eye on the comment section over the weekend if you have any questions.
Usually when I call or pick up a call from Mom I say “Why hello, Jo Kramer!” and she says “It’s Kayla Pins!”
One afternoon I called and asked how she was and she said she was absolutely awful. Dozens of things went through my mind but then she said she was overwhelmed with her blog auction. While I was grateful it wasn’t worse (I mean, it’s always something with this family!) I felt bad that she was struggling.
My role is to protect Mom from technology and I took this on as a new mission. She wants to keep her auctions on the blog so she doesn’t have to pay fees to Ebay and Etsy and is able to keep more for the charity quilt postage fund. That said, she doesn’t have access to those tools to automatically send invoices and handle payments.
I did a few things like making detailed bidding instructions and building a form for winners to request their items. Then I volunteered to “help her” and have a sample auction to test the new procedure.
This is a joke, of course. She is helping me by letting me clear some items from my inventory quickly instead of making individual listings for each.
I know that I don’t have the space for quilts or the expertise to be able to sell them to serious collectors, but I can’t resist them when I find them! This means I have a stockpile of beautiful things that I am paralyzed to sell. I love Mom’s blog readers. I can put up a quilt and tell you… I think this is a log cabin quilt. It is made from wool and velvet. Here are the measurements. And you can use your expertise to decide if it’s right for you. I’m afraid of selling high-value items on huge platforms like Ebay because I’m worried I will disappoint people by not having the right details.
So, on tomorrow morning’s auction, expect to see…
Antique and vintage quilts,
Small linen doilies that would work great for quilt labels,
Some of my mom’s favorite flosstubers love Deborah Harry’s project bags made from repurposed linens. They sell out immediately!
Stop back tomorrow morning. The blog post will not be automatically scheduled for first thing in the morning like Mom usually does because with the new format I have to publish the post and add comments to start bidding. The auction post will outline the new test format. In the meantime, you can check out the new guidelines page here.
