Fabric bowls at STITCH retreat

I just got back from our very first STITCH retreat on Whidbey Island, WA, where some of us churned out these coiled fabric bowls. The retreat was fabulous, fun, inspirational, colorful, and comforting, but today I'll just focus on the bowls because I want to link them up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

Linda -- at the machine -- has been teaching how to make these bowls for years. She's the one who taught me a few years ago and I've been blogging about them and selling them and giving them as gifts ever since. But Carol (left) and Barbara were bowl newbies.

Here's Carol's first bowl as it progresses. She used a Washington Shop Hop bird fabric, but in some places she left the blue and white cording show because it goes so well with the fabric.

Here are a few starting to pile up. That's teacher's on the bottom with the handles. Speaking of piling up, look at those beautiful soft piles of sunset clouds over the water that we could see from our sewing area. Talk about color inspiration!

Here's the beginning of my bowl, which I made from a few batiks that my friend Sheila the Idaho Beauty gave me. Thanks Sheila! (Sheila is seeking advice on a quilt she's working on, if you want to stop over and throw in your two cents.)

Delaine's bowl reminds me of a garden, like our host, Anne's, garden. Anne was beyond generous and so gracious in offering the nine of us the run of her house for four days. (There are 12 of us in our art quilt group, but three couldn't make it.)
 

That's my blue bowl on the left and Linda's orange one on the right. Complementary colors and complementary personalities. I love being around Linda because she's so sassy (in a good way) and confident, and I tend to be too timid and cautious, so she gives me a needed confidence boost. 

Here's a bowl of another type -- one of Anne's gorgeous pottery bowls. We took turns making meals, and here Linda is making chicken salad for lunch. We had SO much food and it was all SO good and I gained two pounds but it was SO worth it!

I'll write more later about the retreat, but for now, hop on over to Nina Marie's blog and see what other fiber artists have been up to this week. http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/2013/05/off-wall-friday.html

Have a colorful day

Fall rituals -- bowls

Our 80-something-day streak of sunshine ended abruptly last week, so it's time to settle into the rainy season traditions. For me, that means surrounding myself with my brightest fabric and making coiled fabric bowls for the holiday bazaars.

 This is how it looks today from our back deck. The party's over :(

 

Here's how I work on the bowls. First I cut a bunch of 1-inch strips, then I wrap them around cheap clothesline from the hardware or dollar store, securing the ends with a touch of a glue stick. (I spend $1.50 a package for polyester or something else fake. It makes a stiffer bowl than the cotton cording in sewing stores.) 

After you've wrapped a few feet of cord, coil a few rounds to make the center of the bowl and straight stitch across it horizontally and vertically to hold it together. Then zigzag the coils together, feeding the covered cord into the machine as in the photo above. When you're ready to start turning up the side, tilt the bowl and overlap the next few rows a little. Make sure you're coiling it in the direction shown for this to work.

 

You can play with fun handle shapes like this, or just taper the end and do a smooth finish. 

Here comes a fall colored one, but I had to inject a few flashes of this green to keep it light.

 

 They're starting to pile up, and my neck and shoulders are starting to ache. The red and green ones always sell well for Christmas.

Here's a post showing more bowls from October 2010:  http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/2010/10/bowls-of-color.html

... and from October 2011: http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/2011/10/cookies-clouds-and-color-bowls.html

 

I had to give my aching muscles a break, so I started getting ready for tomorrow's book club. I only have to host once a year, which means panic cleaning. (I basically just clean when I'm having company.) Now my arm muscles are aching.

But the kitchen looks so nice now, with my chunky colorful dishes and mugs and the fall tablecloth. I guess it's worth the achy muscles. My husband is always banned from the kitchen at this point the night before I have a group over. That means we'll have to eat out -- darn!

 

I even slogged out into the rain to clip a few branches for a quick arrangement. I should do this more often!

Have a colorful fall day