Art Show Table Covering

I have been invited to have a table at the Tucson Open Studio Tour November 10 & 11. I did it last Spring, pretty spontaneously, but this year I decided to step up my game and make my display a bit more spiffy, starting with a table cover.  Based on my experience last year, I decided to add some pockets and loops.  Here is the process:

1 - I chose fabrics I already had in my stash. You can easily spend more on your display then you can making during the show.  I cut the black fabric one inch wider all away around the folding table.

2 - I made some tabs and pinned them at the both front corners and the middle.  These loops will make it easier to hang signs down the front.

3 - I then made four pockets to hold things like pens, phone, money, scissors, business cards, etc. These things needs to be accessible, but not cluttering the table.

4 - I then pinned the muslin around the edge.  I had the muslin overlap at the back to provide access to storage under the table.

5 - Here is what it looked like so far.

6 - I added a ruffle along the bottom.

7 - Here is the final - though it needs some fancying up.  And I have an idea - stay tuned.

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Reverse Applique Pillows

Scott (husband) is having a garden party for some business associates and is fixing up the landscaping around his office. Anyway, he asked me to make a pillow from a dish towel. After I turned on the Fleet Foxes station on Pandora (good mix of Bon Iver, Radiohead, Fleetwood Mac, Explosions in the Sky),  I squared the towel off to fit a standard pillow form, I had some leftover fabric along the bottom and I thought I could cut out some of the shapes to make a couple of reverse applique pillows to go with it.

Shapes that I cut out -

I then ironed on some medium weight one sided fusible interface to give the towel shapes some sturdiness. 

I cut out two 15 inch squares, for each pillow front.  I found the middle by ironing each front into two crosses and then laid the shape in the middle, right-side down.

I sewed around the edge of the shape, about 1/4" from the edge.

This is what it looks like on the front.

I then snipped a hole in the brown fabric in the middle-ish of the shape. And then I cut around the whole thing, inside the stitching about 1/4 inch.

This is what it looked like.

After that I made two panels for the back.

The panels overlap so I could slip the pillow form in.

I laid the pillow top down first, facing up, then the longest panel facing down, then the short panel on top. Pinned them all together and stitched all way around. Then put in the form.

Here are all the pillows lined up on the garden bench.

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Zoe's Apartment

During our visit during Parent's Weekend, I was able to take a couple of pictures of Zoe's apartment. She lives on campus with one roommate.  They each have their own room and bathroom, but share a living room/kitchen.  It is really modern with grey walls.

 This is the view when you first walk in the door.

Her roommate and her father made this cute love shelf, that sits in the entry way, in front of a locked utilities closet.

The couch on the right came with the apartment. Zoe and her roommate and another friend made the mobile.

I made this lamp, well painted it and changed the shade, see previous blog post.

I made the "H" pillow, Zoe made the back pillows and stuffed the rice bag.  The side tables were two Ikea lack tables glued together with upholstery tacks lined up around the edges. You can buy tacks that are already pre-spaced you just need to nail in about every fifth one.  Easy to do.

Zoe and I dip dyed the curtains, starting by dying the Ikea curtains all grey and then bleaching out the top. Apparently the curtains had polyester so we couldn't get them to white, but instead to this yellow, which turned out okay anyway.  There is a border of fabric at the top that is a floral yellow pattern.

Well, this apartment won two awards "Most Pinteresting" and "Best Overall." Pin It