Today was the first day of the first annual Door County North Country Fair: Wings of Life. I have been working for the last couple of months, but especially this month, toward this weekend.
I have spent every spare minute at home sewing wall hangings and such for my Wanda’s Journey line of products made from T-shirt pictures that I got from Wanda Mango after she forgot how to sew. The few times I have been able to write on Facebook or post a blog lately, I’ve told her story and how I got a bunch of her sewing supplies including a stack of T-shirt pictures she had collected. I don’t know what she had intended to do with them, but I decided to turn them into something I could use as a fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Association in her honor. I didn’t finish all the sewing until sometime after midnight last night!
The day started out very slowly. People would stop at the booth on one side of me to buy flower bouquets, or they would walk past me to buy raffle tickets for a quilt to benefit the Liberty Grove Historical Society on whose grounds we were holding the fair, but most of them didn’t even glance my way. Mark had been helping set things up for my manager, Mickie, and when he came back, he said, “Man, it’s hot in here!” We rolled up the wall on the side next to the flower stall and I not only got a breeze, but I also got a waft of old-fashioned English roses. I don’t think I’ve smelled roses like that since I was young! Eventually, Mickie asked me to roll up the other side wall so that people could see the quilt raffle. I had to chase a few things down that blew off my table or the display behind me, but that wind sure felt good on a humid day!
With my tent walls open, I was able to entice more people to come in and look at what I had and to tell Wanda’s story. That’s when I began making sales. I had made so many wall hangings that not all of them would fit around the walls before, but as each wall hanging sold, I would replace it with one of the extras. The goal I’m aiming for with my fundraiser is $1600… $100 for each hour of daylight on the longest day of the year. By the end of the day, along with donations I got online previously, I am almost halfway to that goal. I hope I can get closer by the end of tomorrow.
When I got home at the end of the day, I was exhausted. It suddenly hit me that the many hours I’ve been sewing toward this day are finally over and I can relax. So do you know what I did? I walked into my sewing room and started thinking about my next sewing project! Then I sat down and fell asleep in my rocking chair. I still have one more possible venue I can try to sell Wanda’s Journey at. I imagine I’ll still have things left toward next year’s Longest Day fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Association. There’s still time for any of you who want to donate to my page, http://act.alz.org/goto/campquilterkits-com. I have some quilt blocks I can give in exchange, or if you don’t want a quilt block but want to donate, that’s OK too. Join me in fighting the darkness of Alzheimer’s!