Craft shows are a lesson in pride and humility.  You put your best effort into creating a product that is pleasing.  You set up a stand that is welcoming and attractive.  And you wait for the public to show.

And they come. And they look and they react. Here are the reactions in order of frequency:

1. They glance and walk by.
2. They glance and make negative comments.  (I can do that myself. I can do that better myself.  Can you believe she's asking money for that?)
3. They stop and look and say something nice.
4. They stop and look and ask what it costs.
5. They stop and look and actually BUY something!

Since I'm new at this, this order of things is just becoming clear.  And I'm getting to be OK with that.  The question is, how long I'm willing to be OK with that!  I don't have the answer yet.

Today the show was at the Ökologiestation - the place here in an urban forest in Bremen where kind folks show school children what is going on around them in nature.  They do a craft show twice a year and have only 10 stands.  It's friendly and intimate and low pressure.  Perfect!

And Werner is of course the perfect helpmate and the best partner for getting it all set up. 

But I was nervous!  Have I made enough?  Will the first ten people buy all the irresistible egg warmers and then none will be left for the next 5 hours?  Will I have to stand there with few offerings for most of the show?

Am I crazy?  (Don't answer that :) )

Well, I made enough, that's the truth.  I was happy with the number of pillow covers that I sold and so disappointed that my sweet and cute and irresistible egg warmers were so resistible. Wouldn't you want these on your table??

If you do, just let me know.  They're available.

Re-Purposed Ties

Barbara, my dear fellow-sewer and lover of old linens, had asked if we might bring back a few silk ties from the US.  She's working on a quilt, from old ties that she has been collecting over the years.  But she cautioned, If you go to the Goodwill, watch out!  Don't pay more than $2.00!!  OK.  I can do that.

You can imagine, I'm sure, that it takes a lot of ties to make a quilt.  And you may be thinking at the same time, who wants to do that anyway?  But creative people just see things differently. (I seldom put myself in that category of persons, sigh...)

But back to the ties. I had a hunch that between my various male in-laws, there would probably be a little stash of no-longer-used, no-longer-wanted, slightly out-of-date or soiled ties in Barbara's color - primarily red.  And I was not wrong!  Larry and Barry, seldom needing ties in their retirement, had some lovely ones to donate.  Joey, since he's trying to get rid of the banker-as-a-guy-always-in-a-tie image, also had a few he was more than willing to part with. So we had quite a collection to donate.

And so we went to visit.  Back to the site of my accident!  Barbara and Charlie were forever saying Watch your step!   I do. I did. I will. After the obligatory Kaffee + Kuchen (yummy homemade treats from last summer's fruit) we looked a the quilt-in-progress. 

It's basically a log cabin pattern, but done with strips in the stripes and continuing on and on - it's one huge log cabin block.

She opens the ties and presses them and adds iron-on backing to stabilize the silk and then sews them together to make the longer strips.  There are a few ties with some history of course.  And interestingly, she's saved all the labels which will become the binding for the finished quilt. 

Then we had a painting lesson.  I had already done some fabric "printing" after our first visit, but having a lesson was useful.  She gathered some flowers and leaves and then we helped make a "sampler" to take home for reference.  Even the sampler is pretty!

Now to make some of my own for the craft show at the end of March.  I'd better get busy - there's not much time!