Back then the grass was still green and the goldenrod was in full bloom.
The sheep were happily heading out to fresh pasture.
I was in the throes of preparing to be a vendor at the FLFF. Besides preparing as much fiber as I could, I felt the booth really needed something to appear more professional and cohesive than in past year. Rustic is nice, but the look was getting kind of worn. I decided that new table and shelf coverings were in order. I made a fast trip over to the Gunlocke Funiture Outlet Store in Wayland. Because this company makes high end office furniture and has done so for decades they have accumulated a ton of seconds, leftovers, cancelled orders and parts at bargain basement prices. What I was interested in was their fabric section. They literally have HUNdreds of rolls of fabric left over from the furniture it was intended for. Prints, solids, every color imaginable, light weight, heavy tapestry type material....you name it and it's there on industrial size, extra wide rolls. Everything - yes, every type of material on a bolt - is $3 a yard. Leather pieces (as in, the sexiest feeling leather office chair your butt has ever touched) are $1 a pound. It's nirvana if you have lots of projects in mind. A little daunting if you are only looking for one specific type of thing, as I was. But...... I found it!
Almost seven yards of a warm beige, faux-leather-texture material, perfect for tabletops and shelves. Plastic-y enough that you can wipe up spills or dust with a wet cloth, but it doesn't look fake. I'm pretty sure I could paint designs on it too, but I wasn't quite delusional enough to think I could get that done for this event. I also scored 3 yards of another neutral color material that I made into a cloth backing for the large shelving unit in my booth. It all cost a grand total of $30.07. Woo!
And then the big weekend arrived. Friday night we had a sharp cold front come through, complete with torrential rain, high wind and a 3-hour power outage. Except for some vendor tents with mortal injuries everyone weathered the storm and hoped for clearing skies by morning.
Both days were lovely and sunny, breezy and cool - perfect for fiber shopping!
My shelves were full thanks to the great effort from Acorn Works. Here Julie's checking out the arrangement of roving colors. Note new table coverings! :-)
When Andy wasn't busy helping shoppers select lamb for the freezer.......
...... he was happy to debate the merits of one pelt over another with shoppers. It was a very busy day.
Sunday morning was quite foggy and the trip to the ladies' bathrooms was shiver-inducing to say the least. I did notice that some spiders had gotten into the spirit of the fiber fest and left webs between each and every hosta in the flower bed there. My photographic abilities don't do it justice.
After the festival there was unpacking of course, making notes to myself to get more of this or try a different one of those. We had meetings two different nights, appointments during the day, ran all the ram and ewe lambs over the scale again to check weights, had another farmer's market type event yesterday....plus all the regular sheep chores, getting started on firewood for the winter, keeping appointments that were made for "after Fiber Fest, when things are back to normal", getting some orders and samples of wool out.....in general, still running but now on a different road.
The passing of the fiber fest says it, the calendar says it, and now the weather and hills say it too.....I can't pretend any longer......it's really autumn.
Happy Fall!
