Today is my daughter, Meagan's 25th birthday. It is hard to believe that it was a 1/4 of a century ago that I became a mother. I will take the afternoon off of Saturday and my DH and I will meet Meagan at the Gardner Ale House to celebrate her birthday the way we usually do, at their Oktoberfest. What can I say...family tradition but in the mean time...the push is one to get ready for the Garlic & Arts Festival which is now 9 days away.
Back in August I blogged about the flurry of activity surrounding getting my booth ready for my first outdoor show. During my booth consult with my friend Lydia, who has done tons of these shows,we figured out that my booth will have a 6 foot table along the back and another 6 foot table along the side. My DH built me a 5 foot long box to set on the back of the table so the display would have two levels. I set the tables up this past weekend and arranged what inventory I currently had and then made a list of what I still need to make to fill in the gaps.
I embarked on making another market tote today. My main hope when starting this bag was that it would go more smoothly than the last one I made. I had discovered last week that I had misplaced the directions for making the tote. I measured my personal market tote, wrote down the pieces and sizes and cut it out...no problem. Now it was time to sew it. It had been a few weeks since I had made this tote so I was working from memory. It did not go as well as expected and the seam ripper was in frequent use. Fortunately it came out looking professionally made in spite of all the difficulties. I made some notations on my had written instructions and felt this one would work out better.
Yesterday I made another market bag out of the carrot fabric to replace the one that had sold and realized that what I was working with was Halloween colored fabrics. Why not make a coiled basket or bowl out of what was left? I am always amazed how different the fabrics look once they are wrapped around the rope. This carrot fabric did not let me down in this regard. It changed into something rather different but VERY pleasant. Since the idea was to make a Halloween candy bowl, I used all of the fabrics that I had used in the market bag. I wanted to not do just strips so I alternated the green strips (22" long) with the carrot fabric strips (18" long) and got a very unexpected result. As the fabrics were sewn into the coil, they lined up with themselves giving me a divided bowl - the green on one side and the carrot fabric on the other.
My husband took an extra day off over Labor Day weekend so we headed off to the big city, Boston. No trip to Boston is complete without taking in a game at Fenway. We had tickets to see the Red Sox play the Tigers. On our way down to the game, we stopped by at our daughter's place to meet her new kitten, Caspian. I had not been around a kitten in a while so I had forgotten how much fun they are.
One of the things I really like about making the coiled bowls is how different the fabric looks once it is wrapped and sewn. The print ends up looking completely different.. Here is a good example. I have had this wonderful tropical print for years. I also had a small amount of this red batik let over from a batik tote bag project. These two fabric looked really good together so why not make a basket?. One thing I notices once I started wrapping the fabric was that the mottled background of the blue print showed up more, NICE! The other thing that my DF Margaret, who has been making this coiled baskets for a while told me is that batiks work well in them...I proved her right with this one. BUT, it took me over 4 hours to make this puppy!.
These has been a flurry of activity in anticipation of my participating in my very first outdoor show this fall, The North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival. Pop-up canopy purchased : CHECK. Tables and other display furniture in house: CHECK! Knowing how to arrange said tables and other display furniture for good traffic flow and to best show off my work...AHHHH, I think I need a consult! In spite of her being crazy busy (she's doing the same show I am doing) my friend Lydia showed up at my door today to lend me her eye and expertise in the art of setting up a nice booth. Who better to ask for a consult since she has over 30 years of experience doing these type of shows and has done this festival since it's inception 15 years ago.
I have always liked stripes so it was time to try my hand at a stripped coiled basket Since I really like the way this looks, I am sure this will be the first of many more to come. I purchased a medley of 20 fabrics in a jelly roll and took them with me on vacation so that my friend Margaret and I would have plenty of different fabrics to play with when she was there for her visit. I made two almost identical baskets while I was on vacation. I went a little brighter with this one.
Since it is a bit rainy and dreary here today here on vacation I thought I would take the opportunity to report in on the bowl making session with my friend Margaret on Wednesday. First off I must say that it is always wonderful to get together with an old friend one has not seen in something like 30 years. We were amazed now we just sort of picked off where we left off. She brought a lovely array of her own bowls for me to look at and wow..she is really good at making them and picking out wonderful fabrics to make them out of. We had a great time figuring out what fabrics to use on the bowl we were going to make. Since we both love batiks, we chose one of the green fabrics from the jelly roll medley I purchased and a wonderful fall batik. Don't know why my machine chose NOW to act up but we had a few technical difficulties. Maybe may machine is like me, it doesn't travel well - HA!
For the very first time, I will be taking my sewing machine with me on vacation next week. We are off to the Poconos. My husband and I met in Pennsylvania back in the 70's. We have driven through the state many times on our way to other places but this will be our first time actually spending time there since we both graduated from Bowman Technical School which was in Lancaster, PA. My husband Tim became a certified master clock maker after graduating and I got my certificate in hand engraving. The great thing about the Poconos is that they are not far away from where my friend Margaret lives in Allentown, PA. If you recall, she was the one who got me going on the whole fabric bowl thing.
Click here to see us on Facebook 
Follow Me on Pinterest
Today is my daughter, Meagan's 25th birthday. It is hard to believe that it was a 1/4 of a century ago that I became a mother. I will take the afternoon off of Saturday and my DH and I will meet Meagan at the Gardner Ale House to celebrate her birthday the way we usually do, at their Oktoberfest. What can I say...family tradition but in the mean time...the push is one to get ready for the Garlic & Arts Festival which is now 9 days away. 
Back in August I blogged about the flurry of activity surrounding getting my booth ready for my first outdoor show. During my booth consult 
with my friend Lydia, who has done tons of these shows,we figured out that my booth will have a 6 foot table along the back and another 6 foot table along the side. My DH built me a 5 foot long box to set on the back of the table so the display would have two levels. I set the tables up this past weekend and arranged what inventory I currently had and then made a list of what I still need to make to fill in the gaps.
I embarked on making another market tote today. My main hope when starting this bag was that it would go more smoothly than the last one I made. I had discovered last week that I had misplaced the directions for making the tote. I measured my personal market tote, wrote down the pieces and sizes and cut it out...no problem. Now it was time to sew it. It had been a few weeks since I had made this tote so I was working from memory. It did not go as well as expected and the seam ripper was in frequent use. Fortunately it came out looking professionally made in spite of all the difficulties. I made some notations on my had written instructions and felt this one would work out better. 
Yesterday I made another market bag out of the carrot fabric to replace the 
one that had sold and realized that what I was working with was Halloween colored fabrics. Why not make a coiled basket or bowl out of what was left? I am always amazed how different the fabrics look once they are wrapped around the rope. This carrot fabric did not let me down in this regard. It changed into something rather different but VERY pleasant. Since the idea was to make a Halloween candy bowl, I used all of the fabrics that I had used in the market bag. I wanted to not do just strips so I alternated the green strips (22" long) with the carrot fabric strips (18" long) and got a very unexpected result. As the fabrics were sewn into the coil, they lined up with themselves giving me a divided bowl - the green on one side and the carrot fabric on the other. 
My husband took an extra day off over Labor Day weekend so we headed off to the big city, Boston. 
No trip to Boston is complete without taking in a game at Fenway. We had tickets to see the Red Sox play the Tigers. On our way down to the game, we stopped by at our daughter's place to meet her new kitten, Caspian. I had not been around a kitten in a while so I had forgotten how much fun they are.
One of the things I really like about making the coiled bowls is how different the fabric looks once 
it is wrapped and sewn. The print ends up looking completely different.. Here is a good example. I have had this wonderful tropical print for years. I also had a small amount of this red batik let over from a batik tote bag project. These two fabric looked really good together so why not make a basket?. One thing I notices once I started wrapping the fabric was that the mottled background of the blue print showed up more, NICE! The other thing that my DF Margaret, who has been making this coiled baskets for a while told me is that batiks work well in them...I proved her right with this one. BUT, it took me over 4 hours to make this puppy!.
These has been a flurry of activity in anticipation of my participating in my very first outdoor show this fall, The North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival. Pop-up canopy purchased : CHECK. Tables and other display furniture in house: CHECK! Knowing how to arrange said tables and other display furniture for good traffic flow and to best show off my work...AHHHH, I think I need a consult! In spite of her being crazy busy (she's doing the same show I am doing) my friend Lydia showed up at my door today to lend me her eye and expertise in the art of setting up a nice booth. Who better to ask for a consult since she has over 30 years of experience doing these type of shows and has done this festival since it's inception 15 years ago. 
I have always liked stripes so it was time to try my hand at a stripped coiled basket Since I really like the way this looks, I am sure this will be the first of many more to come. I purchased a medley of 20 fabrics in a jelly roll and took them with me on vacation so that my friend Margaret and I would have plenty of different fabrics to play with when she was there for her visit. I made two almost identical baskets while I was on vacation. I went a little brighter with this one..JPG)
Since it is a bit rainy and dreary here today here on vacation I thought I would take the opportunity to report in on the bowl making session with my friend Margaret on Wednesday. First off I must say that it is always wonderful to get together with an old friend one has not seen in something like 30 years. We were amazed now we just sort of picked off where we left off. She brought a lovely array of her own bowls for me to look at and wow..she is really good at making them and picking out wonderful fabrics to make them out of. We had a great time figuring out what fabrics to use on the bowl we were going to make. Since we both love batiks, we chose one of the green fabrics from the jelly roll medley I purchased and a wonderful fall batik. Don't know why my machine chose NOW to act up but we had a few technical difficulties. Maybe may machine is like me, it doesn't travel well - HA! 
For the very first time, I will be taking my sewing machine with me on vacation next week
. We are off to the Poconos. My husband and I met in Pennsylvania back in the 70's. We have driven through the state many times on our way to other places but this will be our first time actually spending time there since we both graduated from Bowman Technical School which was in Lancaster, PA. My husband Tim became a certified master clock maker after graduating and I got my certificate in hand engraving. The great thing about the Poconos is that they are not far away from where my friend Margaret lives in Allentown, PA. If you recall, she was the one who got me going on the whole fabric bowl thing.