Prepping for Arts Festival Season

I am one month away from the start of my handful of arts festivals.  Last week I decided it was time to get an updated booth photo.  IMG_0168After watching the March WINDY weather for weeks on end I finally saw a day, last Saturday, when winds appeared to be below 10mph and the sun was projected to shine consistently all day.  IMG_0140I take my booth photos in our driveway which faces south.  It was quite chilly at 8am when I began set up but we live on a hill so even when low winds are forecast, we know we will get some wind and the morning hours are usually most calm.  Once set up with quilts hanging, I waited until high noon with nice sun shining straight into my booth for the best photos!

I also took time to unpack all my festival supplies to be sure I don’t need anything. For four years I’ve schlepped lots of tube boxes standing up in a plastic crate as the “bag” into which I put quilts I sell .  However, I’ve been using bigger boxes the last six months because my quilt batting is thicker so I can’t roll the quilts as small as before.  My bigger boxes don’t fit under my compact pedestal stand in my booth.  I need a new packing material for booth quilt sales.  I decided to order tube plastic which I can secure at each end for the rolled quilts.  The tube plastic comes in the world’s largest roll (of course!) so I’m now the proud owner of over 1600 feet of tube plastic!!!  Sure hope it works!  Since most of my quilts will need 3′ or less of the tube plastic for wrapping, it appears I have enough plastic for 500 quilt sales at festivals!!  That should take care of this need for the next 10 or more years.

I’ve also decided to try a different hanging approach in the canopy.  Last year I used safety pins attached to the top of the sleeve at either end but sometimes I couldn’t get the quilts to hang nicely.  This year I’m using clear plastic twisty ties in a loop at either end of the dowel which hangs almost invisibly on the small “S” hooks on my mesh.  These tend to fall off the dowels when packing, unpacking, and moving quilts around so this may be an extra step in the booth before hanging instead of a prep step at home.  I still think it is worth a try.

Lastly I realized I needed to give my surplus quilt stand another coat of black paint to cover all the spots where paint was chipped off from heavy use last year.

NOW….I think I’m ready!

 

 

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