Get er done!

I don't know why we all have so many things on the go. I guess we just keep getting excited about new things and sometimes it just takes a long time to get them finished. When DD was originally recuperating from her torn ACL, etc knee, I brought up my rag cutter and some fabric I'd used to make a "muslim" of a pattern I was thinking about using in production. I'm so glad that I didn't get rid of that fabric. This is going to be awesome in placemats. The other day I had a few minutes so pulled the basket out and started sewing strips together.

I have a table for my sewing machine that actually has storage in it. It looks a bit weird but that's plexiglass on top of the sections that hold thread. I really like that table. It keeps my thread nearby and I know what I have. Whenever I had a few minutes free and was in the studio, I sewed a few more strips together.
The basket is now empty and all those strips are in balls. So, yesterday I was in my studio and saw that some of the fabric had gotten into another basket. The rag cutter is back in the living room and I'll be cutting more while watching tv up there!!! Can't seem to get that fabric finished into strips!

I had a deadline for getting my piece in to the Folk Art Center in Asheville for the new members exhibit that goes up Sept 11, I think. Deadline was Wednesday to get it to them. The warp's still on the loom (although I worked on it yesterday and have about 20 inches left to weave)

The warp wove nicely and I cut off enough for the jacket and then finished it up quickly. The little handbag has less embellishments than I'd originally thought I'd use. I had bought some wonderful ribbon in Atlanta that would have added a nice touch. However, as I put this one together it didn't need that ribbon. I have more fabric and will try to incorporate the ribbon into the next bag.

I decided to call this outfit Seablue Night. I'd covered the mannequin with black knit fabric to fake like a skirt and to hide the silver part of the post. I know that Nikki, who's curator, will do a much better job of displaying the jacket on the mannequin. I was in a hurry to leave on Monday after I finished it to get over the mountain to Asheville and just threw it on the mannequin.
Driving over to Asheville is always a joy. Construction didn't hold me up this time. The trouble with driving alone is that you don't have a chance to take pictures. Forgot about it at the center.
Another thing I did in Asheville was to go Stephens Upholstery. The Guild Fair in July was full of controversy. Two years ago the Fire Marshall had a fit about electricity and we all had to change our lights and extension cords to make them happy. Now they were at us about our curtains around our booths. They have to be flame retardant and we have to have a letter stating that as well. We got several emails from the Guild about how to solve this problem. They suggested a place in Asheville for fabric. Since I was there anyway I dropped in. They were incredibly helpful. Because our booth comes with white panels all around the back of the booth, all I needed was enough for my dressing booth. She had some that was thick enough to not be see through and in a natural at 60" wide. That meant I only needed 6 yards!!! I was in there Monday about 1pm. I paid for the fabric, got my letter of "authenticity" and left. She called the company to have them ship it to me. You won't believe this but it came Tuesday afternoon already. Now I just have to cut and sew the panels with flaps to go over my 2 x 6 foot panels that I use in my booth.
I love it when  a plan comes together!!
Tina blogged on Wednesday when I normally do and I"m blogging today since she's out of the country for about 10 days. I'll be back to Wednesday next week and I think that Linda will write next Friday instead of Tina. The following week we're going to be back to normal.
Carol