A week of finishes and fun

I’ve had a fairly busy week.  Mid-week I was going to post something and then FLICKR had an outage while they did a platform migration; so I had to patiently wait…..in order to share my photos on the blog post. The downtime was much longer than I anticipated!

Wrapping up the never ending placemat project  — The final batch of batik placemats has binding on them!  Happy to get them finished!  Now; what to do with them????  (Started these last summer, and they turned out to be a fun project for free motion quilting practice) Time to put the basket of batik strips away for a while. Total made – 18.

I attended a “sit & sew” on Thursday and Friday and got something “finished” during that dedicated sewing time.  Funny thing is; I honestly didn’t know what I was going to work on until it came time to load the car on Thursday morning to leave. I walked into my sewing room; saw my 2 unfinished Cardinal blocks on the design wall and made a fast decision.  Another started these LAST year….had 1 completed and 2 unfinished.

My 3rd bird is not finished; but I have big plans for it on Tuesday at my Queen Bees gathering!

The bird on the right is “last year’s” model.  The one on the left is the one I finished on Thursday.

When I was leaving to go to the sit & sew, I forgot to grab the finished one to bring as a “reminder” of how I did the quilting etc. I also failed to bring all the thread colors I might need.  I was “saved by my friend Cheryl” who had an array of choices and shared!

It wasn’t until I sat these 2 together to take this photo that I realised what I had done differently to the bird.  Bird on the right (Bird 1) is really standing out.  He has an extra layer of wool batting JUST under the bird portion and bird on the right is just one layer of batting.  Other than “fabric choices” for borders; bird on the right also has more quilting surrounding him and in the borders.  Bird on the right was quilted on my Janome 8900; bird on the left (Bird #2) on my Singer Featherweight.  Bird # 3 is also being quilted with the Singer Featherweight. When I started to quilt Bird #3, I had Bird 1 & 2 nearby so I could “remember” what I was supposed to do.

Bird # 3 will fly into the blog after Queen Bees!  The quilting is about half complete and then I need to put it together into an envelope style pillow. These take about an 18″ pillow form with the borders I added.    The pattern I used came from Mom and Pop Quilt Shop

I am headed over to the assisted living facility where my friend June lives this morning. This will be my 3rd trip in a week. She has been inspired to begin sewing again; and I have been “on call” for sewing assistance.

Hubby did some “tension” adjustments and general maintenance to one of her machines this week, repairing some broken latches on the bobbin access door and getting it “sewing right”. He inserted a nice LED bayonet style bulb that I had ordered, and it “lights up” the sewing area so much better than the old bulb. (Another back story….June’s machine was having serious tension trouble and I spent 3 hours trying to get things right last Saturday. Her hubby tried too; and in the processes the light bulb went out and removing it was a mess!  Those old bulbs rust in their housings and break between the brass and the bulb when you try to remove them. So; ordering new LED bulbs from E-bay was an absolute necessity. I got great price and service and from http://singer-featherweights-revived.com/index.html.  The store name on EBAY is “old times sew in stuff”.  The machine is not a featherweight but takes the same size bayonet  bulb. ) Thank goodness she had a 2nd machine to sew on, so I could bring the other one home to get fixed.

Anyway; June is making some gifts for her daughter in law and is on “deadline” for an anniversary mid June, and so I am providing “tech/sewing” support.   😉  She is finally feeling well enough to WANT to sew; and that is good news and makes me want to help her get going. She saw a pattern in a magazine for a sunflower mug rug 2 months ago. After she first showed it to me,  I assembled a container of her fabrics from my sewing room.

Well, like sewers and quilters everywhere, she has “grown the project” into something more and now she is making 4 placemats!  (Sound familiar??) I am taking “more” background fabric and batting today so she has enough!  (Originally I took her enough supplies for the “one” mug rug).

When I left her on Tuesday, this is how far we had gotten. One placemat ready to turn, and one sunflower ready to stitch down. Since then; she decided that the sunflower needs to be “removable” ; so I picked up some “sew on velcro” and will add it to the placemat and the flower. Will certainly make it “easier to wash”. And like anyone who has sewn, she has “re-invented the sunflower” as she progressed. Needless to say; it is FUN watching her making sewing and design decisions again!  She has been “out of the game” for nearly 2 years and I am ready and willing to get her busy again.  She needs a lot more help these days; but who doesn’t at their mid 80’s?  I just love that she is inspired again!

Last weekend, after I spent time with June, I convinced the hubby to take a bike ride. We have such beautiful state parks; and there is one nearby with great tree covered trails and bridges where you can stop and enjoy the water view too.

I might have not told him “exactly” how far it was to make the whole loop!

I did treat him to a nice dinner later, at the beach!

It was nice to get to the beach “one last time” before the start of the summer season. Memorial Day is the official start and the roads and beaches will be jammed.  We enjoyed a quiet evening before the crowds take over.

                       Summer season has begun in Rehoboth Beach!  

We buzzed the neighborhood across the road once during the week together on our bikes,  so he could make more bike adjustments.  (And to help work off the tacos….wasn’t enough exercise….)

On  Wednesday night I rode with the #LIFECYCLE Community Bike Ride.

This month, in spite of that “road rash back on May 7th”; I have gotten 42 miles in.

Last night there was a “glow ride” in Milford. This was sponsored by #LIFECYCLE .

What is a glow ride?  Check out the story about the glow ride from the local news  and see what the “glow” is all about !!!) – https://youtu.be/PjzY_6Ya-uw

I did one glow ride last year, but I didn’t want to fight the holiday weekend beach traffic to get home afterwards.  Instead, we made a short trip to pick up some new “glow lights” for my bike and hubby installed them after dinner. They look so cool! And I am ready for the next Wednesday evening ride!

The “still” photo below gives you a general idea –

It is hard to explain how cool they look, so I have linked a video I filmed in our driveway – Wheel lights in motion

I think when I suggested these lights he thought I was nuts; but after he took a spin around the driveway; he saw how much FUN it was.  Next week is a rather long ride and I now need to work on getting the “right” combination of headlights on the bike!  More about that later.

Go out and have some fun!

After dinner update — Look what we accomplished today – I think they look pretty darn good!

She needs to “quilt” or “top stitch” the place mats and  tack the backing on the sunflowers.  The sunflowers will be removable from the place mat for washing.

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PHOTO LINKS Temporarily broken

Quick post – I depend on FLICKR.COM as a “pro” for storage of photos for my blog. Yesterday (5/22/19) at 7 pm Flickr website went down to migrate to a “bigger and better” platform; and this was to take only a few hours. Over 24 hours later the platform is not yet operational and my better than 9000 photos are out there in the mysterious world of zeros and ones….floating around; waiting for themselves to be “set right”.   Because my blog posts photos “LINK BACK” to the FLICKR website, you will encounter the “website address” instead of the photo.  Clicking on the website address won’t get you to the photo either.

Hopefully all will be right with the world tomorrow. You may see similar outages on other blogs.

 

Binding and more binding

When I do stuff; I often get carried away. I started these in July last year.  I had a lot of batik scraps and strips.  Making blocks that just seem to multiply.  Scrappy sewing fun!   Maybe I should have turned the blocks into a quilt as you go project; but then again; maybe not.  I did a table runner; but still had lots of blocks, so  I had a lot of fun making some wonderful placemats last September.

Then, life got busy.  A few months ago I managed to get the binding on enough to “set the table”. That was February I think.  

I still had a stack of 12 to tackle. and they languished. Post quilt show; I have been trying to tackle some of these languishing projects. Mostly to get the baskets of projects off the floor under the design wall!!   My first 6 that I bound a few months ago had very scrappy binding. 

I made some binding for the placemats “a while back” but never got “round to putting it on”. And I quickly realized it wasn’t enough. I realized I better just break down and cut some yardage to get more bound. I feel like I’ve I’ve spent the last week making miles of Susie’s Magic Binding.  ) It is that wonderful 2 piece binding that you machine on and it looks terrific on most projects.)  So, beginning last weekend, I used what was already made; and then got out some yardage to make more. Once I had a bunch made,  I grabbed a placemat and the roll of binding and got started.

6 are the same and one is different…….   (Did I mention I needed a LOT of binding?)  

I never really sat down and calculated just how much I needed until I ran out after the first 6 in the picture above. Then I started back in with the scrappy binding. (That is why the top one is different)  After all; I still had a LOT of strips to play with.

So; a few more feet of binding got made yesterday (34 feet I think) and I am ready for another few days of binding.  It takes me about an hour start to finish each one.  The join takes me longer than anything else honestly if I am not focused.  I use the “binding tool”  and have discovered it (or me) leaves too long of a tail, so I baste; fit; adjust; trim; baste etc.  The ONLY hard thing with Susie’s Magic Binding is LINING up the flange at the join.  I get lazy and forget to put a pin through both layers. After screwing around with 1 placemat on Thursday and messing up the join, my memory returned.  I stick a pin right where I want the line of the flange to be and it works every time. That made the last 3 I stitched yesterday work well.

These 5 are ready and waiting for available sewing time!

That will be the “end” of this strip / scrap batik project.  Afterwards; I think the remaining strips will go into a box with similar colors for string blocks, down the road.

What are you working on this weekend?

 

Saddles, Dances, Donuts and more

Ok; so my last post (Back in the Saddle Again) alluded to me being “cleared to ride” my bike and get back to normal life.  Well… I had a lovely 7 mile ride that same day,  with my daughter and granddaughter, until  this happpened….

….my big EGO crashed and fell and bloodied my knee.  Nothing like being 63 years old sitting on the ground, under the bike and embarrassing yourself.  My faith in humanity is restored when 2 drivers parked their car and came running over to the trail edge where I sat on the ground, trying to collect my dignity, and breath. My daughter is so wise to carry a first aid kit.  We cleaned my leg up; slapped an available band-aid on part of it; and picked up the bike.

I was able to walk and so I got back up on the bike and road the last 3 miles back to the trail head parking.  Then, when I tried to get off the bike, I realized I could not put any weight on my left leg and my daughter insisted I go get an x-ray.

Since the local hospital was 2 blocks away, I drove over to the ER; used the valet to park the car; and got “wheeled” into the hospital by the valet.  Good grief….a skinned knee…Well, after several hours, and x-rays; and clean up; I drove myself home. (The best part of the journey was the valet who brought the SUV right up to the door and helped me hoist my EGO back into the driver’s seat!  (That man got a tip!!!)

The good news is nothing was broken; although I could not put any weight on the leg until the following day. The abrasion went from just below the knee cap down about 8″.  The black & blue; a week later; extends around the entire knee; front and back; up the thigh a few inches and down to my ankle.  The darn abrasion doesn’t want to heal; and I have to keep “dressing it” and wrapping with an ace bandage.  So…..I have been on hold for the last week from riding.  BIG SAD FACE.   Maybe tomorrow I can ride……in the driveway and around our property…..we shall see.

The incident kept me “out of the sewing room” for a few days too; because it was just TOO much to hike to the garage and climb the stairs.  Now; by Friday, I was more able; and I got out to “play”!  The Scrap Dance Minuet clue came out on Friday; so I managed the stairs.  Over the course of a couple of days I got all my sewing done for Step # 4.

I have a few “extra geese” because I might have made a dozen “spares”.  I also made a few more 9 patches in prettier spring floral prints. I have some that are a little too “fall like” to suit me at this point.  I am doing a king size…..I do this to myself….I started with the throw size but have SO many scraps I just kept making 4 patches and flying geese. I started this while my finger was recovering from surgery and rotary cutting was a challenge.  I just worked on the cutting a “little at a time”.   I could probably make a few more king size; but I would have to switch to off white for the background.

Now I wait for the 2nd Friday in June for Step # 5.  Are you sewing along on the Scrap Dance Minuet Mystery?  It is not too late to start, especially if you have lots of scraps hanging around needing to be used!  Try the table topper size or a throw size if you want to sew along. Click on the link about to get the directions.  I’m going to guess that the pattern directions will come off of the blog post after the final reveal, and be available later for purchase; so if you like what you see; get it now.

Sunday our Senior quilt was presented to the graduate at church.

The piping on the edge of the binding really shows !  I love doing Susie’s Magic Binding Technique!  If you don’t want to hand finish binding, I highly recommend this method.  I use it on everything!

On Tuesday I went with 2 friends to the Embroidery Club and we made an “in the hoop” pin cushion.  The pattern came from Embroidery Garden   and was fairly easy to follow.  It always helps that our Embroidery Club leader, ANNA, has great tips for keeping the project moving. This pattern suggests either felt or fleece.  I made the blue one at the club; and came home and made the white one at home. I used stabilized quilters cotton for the top of the white one; and think it would have been better with felt. I used the colors I had at home in my “box of felt”.  I might need to replenish my supplies !

This “in the hoop” pattern did require the use of a regular sewing machine after the embroidery was finished; the donut turned right side out. You had to stitch “around the center” to make the donut hole.  You then cut out the hole and ended up with a nice “ring shape”.  We stuffed with poly-fill and whip stitched by hand the small opening along the edge.  I found that the eraser end of a pencil helped get the filling in around that center.  The white cotton top donut has a little fussing on the edges and the fabric tended to wrinkle while I was stuffing and pushing the filling around. I don’t think I would try it with cotton again. Felt doesn’t fray and just looks a bit nicer. The finished donut is about 3.5″ across and 1″ high approx.

These would be fun if you had a child with a “play kitchen” and they needed some more “play food”.  My box of felt squares hearkens back to Felt Food for a 2 year old when I made a lot of play food for the grands in 2013.  Some of those felt food items are still floating around.  At least one carrot made it’s way back to me during a grandchild visit; and the cats are enjoying batting it around!  I can see; revisiting that blog post that my early efforts in making play food could be greatly improved with the use of the embroidery machine!  The ones in that post were all done with a regular sewing machine and visiting lots of other blogs to get patterns and ideas.

What are you working on this week??  Have you made play food for kids?  What are your favorite embroidery machine design sources?

 

Back in the Saddle Again

It seems like months have gone by where I have had little to report in the “sewing and quilting” world on my blog.  Many of you who have followed the blog for any length of time are aware I had surgery on my right hand in October for trigger release on 2 fingers. This was followed up by surgery on Valentines Day for the big problem with my long finger; where the arthritis was so bad that bone spurs were growing etc..

Last Tuesday (April 30) I had a follow up with the hand surgeon.

As I sat in the waiting room, with my fingers crossed (sort of) I wondered what he would say. 10 weeks in a splint was “enough for me…and I was getting impatient. First stop was the x-ray to check on bone growth –

The technician always puts the x-ray up on the computer screen and I can’t resist studying it while I wait for the doctor to come in.  You can see that nice 28mm titanium screw that is now a permanent part of my life.  When the doc zooms in on the x-ray he is looking for “new bone around the screw” and no hollow areas.

When he came in and checked both my hand and the x-ray, he threw the splint in the trash!  I am SO happy!  That long finger is now well on it’s way to healing!  The “titanium” screw he placed in the finger thru the first joint is now bonding nicely with new bone growth and improving every day. This is great news as the splint got in the way of a lot of fun!  AND he released me to go “live life”.  Of course, I had to ask specifically – CAN I RIDE MY BIKE???  Permission was granted!!  So; I am “back in the saddle” so to speak again.  (You may be wondering what this has to do with quilting….I’m getting there…..patience).

My shiny new Christmas bike, a hybrid by LIV, has been calling my name in the garage. Every nice warm spring day I have heard her call, and I have been SO GOOD.  I finally got to get out on her (I call her Fancy FLO) and ride!  My first ride was on Wednesday night last week with #LifecycleDE in their Community Slow Cruise.  First time out and 6 1/2 miles.

It was great to be in Milford DE and welcomed back by riders I got to know over the last year.

My next ride was the “next day” and I did the Thursday Morning Wake Up ride.  My daughter leads that ride with her toddler in tow, and there were only 3 of us riding.  She took us on a little bit long route around the neighborhoods of Milford.

There is a fantastic video that LIFECYCLE posted of our “morning ride” on Instagram – Thursday morning wake up ride

The bike trailer my daughter pulls has one of my granddaughters seated in it. She loves to be “out in the open”.  (Yes, in that video I am the GEEK in the bright yellow vest—-I like to be visible to automobiles!)

Then yesterday; I got the dear husband out to ride in Lewes DE on the new section of the Georgetown Lewes Rails to Trails. The segment he and I rode on was all in the town, but you honestly felt like you were out in the country in some parts, as we saw horses and barns on the North side of the trail in some areas.

Hubby rode for 3 miles and I got an extra “nearly” three miles in a loop at the end. I road down to the canal and looped back.  The library in Lewes has a “trailhead” parking area with public restrooms; so it is a good starting point.

Last night my hubby helped me “bling” my bike rack.

Last week, coming home in the dark from Milford with the bike on the rack, I felt like it was not being “seen” by vehicles approaching me on the highway. It sticks out past the hitch about 3 feet. I ordered some reflective “trailer” tape on E-Bay this weekend and it came in on Monday.

Even with the rack in the stowed position; it should be a bit more “visible” to motorists driving behind me.   This rack holds 2 bikes and with bikes on; or stowed I am a little more comfortable about being “seen”.

Now; about that “saddle”  … the seat of the bike is often called a “saddle”….and I am most happy to be riding again. Having the splint off, I can now comfortably hold the hand grips and engage the rear brake on the bike.  Also; having the splint off makes it much EASIER to work in my sewing room!

Post quilt show, I have spent the last week working on “small things” that have been building up. I got the binding on the Carolina Hurricane Quilt (yesterday’s post) and the “Senior Quilt” for our church presentation coming up next Sunday. (More details on this project – Senior Quilts 2019

Of course, I used “Susie’s Magic Binding” for it as well.  (See yesterday’s post for link to this method of binding all by machine) (Yes, I can make it, apply it in a day!) (NO HAND STITCHING FOR ME)

I worked on those Flying Geese (yesterday’s post) and then I decided to tackle something that has been making me nuts for at least 8 years. In the picture below you will see a mat bag I made the first years I was quilting.  I had found a free pattern on the internet and modified it to fit my needs.  It is a great bag, but the handles were terrible.  I really knew NOTHING about making bags or handles.  I’ve been thinking about “fixing” them for years, but never got “around to it”.

The NEW handles are on the bag; and below the bag are the puny little wrinkled up handles that I cut off.  The problem with the old handles was they were “JUST fabric” with nothing inside.  Ever since I made the “Chubby Charmer bag” last year, I knew how I was going to fix the handles.  I know with the 2 layers of batting and the 4 layers of fabric and the heavy stitching they will do just fine.  This bag is big enough to carry my cutting mat; rulers; shape cut etc.  No longer will it be a pain in the hand or shoulder to carry!

While clearing things up in the sewing room; I discovered the “STACK” of fabric I put in a basket under my desk to make dog beds from.  I use the trimmings from all the 2nd Time Around fabric and things I am trimming of my own to stuff the beds.  Also scraps of batting too small to deal with get stuffed into dog beds. All that ugly, none quilt fabric got put to good use.

We dropped these beds off and two BAGS of more ugly decorator fabric from the 80’s & 90’s to the “dog bed lady” in our guild on our way to ride bikes!  I still have a small stack of fabrics for dog beds and will no doubt find more hanging around.  I have a couple left here to “fill” with batting scraps and other trimmings as it comes available.

There is certainly more to do in the sewing room.  Don’t faint Nancy B., I vacuumed up there on Sunday afternoon!!!  (She would be so proud!!)

So, you see, I am truly back in the saddle again!  As I wander around my sewing room, I am picking up projects half done, and starting to “chip away” at them.  But wait, it is time to get moving this morning…there is another bike ride with my daughter and granddaughter and I need to pedal!  Happy to be moving forward in the sewing room and moving forward on my bike!  More old projects getting done tomorrow!

Catching up on the Scrap Dance Minuet Mystery Quilt

I have had some time in the last week to get all caught up on the Scrap Dance Minuet Mystery Quilt.  If you are interested in the pattern or details about the mystery, visit the link above and check out the From My Carolina Home blog.  

I am dancing toward a king size quilt, so I had LOTS of flying geese to make.  I used the method in the pattern for construction of more than 200 geese.  The whites of the ‘wings’ are scrappy, but I worked hard to make sure I had “matching” wings as I was doing the construction.

I used the Studio 180 (Deb Tucker) “Wing Clipper” tool to do all the trimming.  In fact, that Wing Clipper has made the rounds of the members of the Queen Bee’s who are also working on the mystery.  I am handing it off to the “next” QB member today at the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild meeting.  It is a VERY handy tool for trimming the geese.  I don’t think Pam or Nancy L had quite as many to trim as they were pretty quick.  I know Sharon is working on the same size as me and she will be trimming for a few days!  The rotating cutting mat was helpful too when trimming.  I filled a container with the slivers I trimmed off and vacuumed up a lot of those tiny bits yesterday!  Funny how some bits will fly off the cutting table!

After all my trimming of the FG was done, I opened my container to put them in with the 4 patches from March.  I decided to sort the 4 patches by color. That was harder to do because they were SO scrappy.  I keep looking at the two stacks with the “darker” greens/browns and can’t decide about them.  I may take another look later and remove them and in exchange make some more with more “spring like” colors.  Scraps are abundant at my house, so replacing them if they are not pleasing won’t be a problem.  I can always incorporate the “darker” greens/browns into something else.

The next “Step” in the Scrap Dance Minuet Mystery Quilt come out the 2nd Friday in May; so I am caught up and ready to dance again!

I wanted to share with you the completion of the quilt the Queen Bee’s did for the Carolina Hurricane Quilt project –

The quilt blocks were constructed by the members of the Queen Bees and quilted by member Sharon.  Marta made the nice label.  I have had it sitting; binding made for 2  months, waiting for an opportunity to get the binding on. That happened this past week, and it is now “ready to ship”.

The photo below shows the entire quilt “pre binding”.  (Gosh, that was February….red face) Between surgery on my hand, recovery, travel, and the quilt show….it just languished in the sewing room.  Post quilt show, I was able to completely clear my big table which left me space to lay the quilt out, and get the binding pinned on.

My husband laughed when he saw how many times I moved between my sewing machine and the big ironing board and the big table.  I don’t know how others do it, but I like to spread a quilt out and work down a side with my pins/red clips when turning the binding over for stitching. Because I use “Susie’s Magic Binding” method, everything is done on the sewing machine. The only hand work for me was stitching 2 edges of the label.  The other edges of the label are under the edge of the binding.

12″ blocks  – 72×96

If you would like more information on the Carolina Hurricane Quilt project; visit From My Carolina Home

The need is still great and perhaps you can help in one of the many ways suggested at the above link.

That’s it for today! Guild meeting in 2 hours and I have to finish up sandwiches for our Spring Luncheon today!

Are you working on the Scrap Dance Minuet mystery?  What is your favorite way to trim flying geese??

Quilt Show success!

The quilt show for Ocean Waves Quilt Guild happened “last” weekend.  If you are a “regular reader” you know I have spent “months” getting ready as part of my role in the guild with the Second Time Around committee.

Lots of donated fabric came in; and lots of volunteers have been over to my house to press trim, measure, price and fold fabric for the show.  The end result was over  40 boxes of fabric to be set up and displayed and sold for the good of the Guild. This helped offset some of the overhead of putting on a very professional looking show by the Guild. It’s an expensive endeavor and the costs continue to climb for things like rental of pipe & drape; programs, insurance etc.

A guild holds the show for several reasons in my opinion – 1) to have a local place for members to display their quilts in a public setting; 2) to share with the community all of the amazing talent; 3) to raise money for the guild to offset the cost of the speakers and teachers  who come to  monthly meetings and to help finance  charitable efforts.  A show of the scale that our Guild puts on is huge. Over 300 quilts; 30+ vendors, and over 1300 attendees and a national speaker is a lot to manage.  Our show chairs did an amazing job.

You can see, the Second Time Around committee is just one of the many “moving parts” and without all the numerous volunteers, we could not have been as successful as we were.  If you were one of the volunteers working with Second Time Around, over the last week or year, I can’t thank you enough.  If you donated fabric to the Guild, your items were well received.

Here is a “peak” at some of the activity from my little part of the show!  2 days before the show opened, I had drivers come with SUV’s and “load up” with boxes and totes.  Banker boxes are the perfect size for our age group of 60+ backs to lift and carry. Fabric is HEAVY!

The morning before the show; those same drivers delivered to the school where the show was held.  I had them come at staggered times so we could get them unloaded and the boxes etc into the building. Preliminary set up of the booth was done by 3 of us.

We staged boxes where we needed them so when the “volunteer work crew” came in the afternoon they could start right up setting the tables. We used dollies and carts to get all the totes and boxes into the building; step ladders to hang our signs and display items on the pipe & drape, milk crates and baskets to create risers and elevation for display, and several bolts of muslin to “cover” the bigger school tables. Those tables that are provided for each “booth” by the pipe & drape company are narrow and short; so we arranged for additional “school” tables and that really helped to fill our  40 ft booth.  We also used 2 playpens for our “fill a bag” with scraps and ties.

Setting this all up and making multiple trips to the drop off point outside the school gave us ALL some exercise!

Every one of us got a good “workout” for the set up day!

If you click in on the photo below; you will see some signs with our pricing and “suggestions” on how to use scraps & ties.  For more info, you can look back at my earlier post Final Prep for the Quilt Show that has details on those signs

The string quilt top in the photo below is one of mine hanging to “spark ideas” for scraps.

We had a serger donated and we sold it; along with LOTS of fat quarters.  My team did a great job “marketing” the booth.

We had lots of panels to sell and figured the drying rack was an effective way to put them on display!

We even sold “wreath kits” for the wreaths we had made back in January. (More on those on my post here – Feeling a little crafty ).  They SOLD OUT!  We also sold 2 vintage quilts and were delighted when the appraiser came over and offered a pricing suggestion.

All in all; set up day went well, and the next 2 days of the show were a blur of sales. By 2 pm on Friday; all 40+ boxes of fabric were out on the table for sale.  The volunteers were restocking as fast as I was “ringing the cash register”.    The “shopping baskets” I got at Dollar Tree were a huge hit. The volunteers handed baskets to shoppers.  We sold bags and bags of scraps and ties and buttons.

My only opportunity to walk around and look at the quilts in the main gym was on set up day for a few minutes, while they were still being hung. I did get to look closely at the quilts in the smaller gym where my booth was located. My phone for taking pictures was unavailable to me because it was being used for “credit card” transactions. So; no show pictures to share.  If you are a Facebook user, you can take a peek at the photo’s shared by someone from a nearby guild – Quilters by the Sea Guild Ocean Pines MD

When the show ended on Saturday; the volunteers “did the work” boxing up anything that was left-over. We did NOT bring much home. Take down was in the hands of my co-chair, Nancy. She kept everything organized while I dealt with getting money counted and turned in. Thankfully my dear hubby was there for the worst of the loading and organizing into vehicles.  Those racks; baskets; step ladders; extra folding table; stool; cash register and empty boxes all had to be “brought back home”.

We had taken a load of boxes home on set up day; and after all was unloaded at home; we broke them all back down to store in a giant tote for “the next show”.  Leftover fabric will end up back at the quilt guild in September when we resume selling at the 2nd Time Around tables before the meetings.  I plan on taking a break for a month or more after the show. I want to do a little sewing!  More about that next post!

Thanks to the 280 members at Ocean Waves Quilt Guild for the fantastic work making quilts to show and for all your hard work putting on a very successful show. My eyes glazed over seeing the work of the members, and then I saw the quilts.  

Curious – does your guild do shows?  Have you ever been involved in the organization of a show?  Do tell.