Second Rope Bowl

 And the handle theory worked.

I was gonna throw the remaining rope out to the garage to tie up some raspberries - or something. Noticing that maybe I only used 80 feet for the big bowl, why waste the remainder of this cotton rope in the garden?

Re-threading, I tried out some metallic thread. Another tutorial had problems with it and I did at the edge of the bottom when it suddenly broke. Good time to re-thread, so I tried a variegated purple and I love how this smaller bowl turned out.

My african violet likes the bigger bowl?

 See how much smaller this bowl is?

This is how I sewed it, but I actually liked it better flipped inside out. The red at the bottom is more vibrant. This was a regular red thread in my bobbin. The metallic adds a subtle degree of sparkle but it was banished to the bottom as being too subtle.

I managed to get the handles equidistant but one was bigger than the other.

There are no mistakes with this bowl making. I threw it back under the presser foot and sewed the handle to the body for perhaps 3/8" and Ta-Da!

Beautiful.
Kathy's notes::::  This smaller bowl sewn with 4.8 width on the metallic, with 4.5 on thread change-over.    Length was 3.0 - 3.5



****Sandra was also thinking about sewing a rope bowl and had some good questions:::

Her inquiry;    "I've seen different versions of those bowls on Pinterest and I've been dying to try making one, if I can find the supplies for a reasonable price (which isn't always an easy job here in $$Canadaland$$!).  Yours is gorgeous - did you just know automatically (by feel, maybe) when to start shaping and how much to angle the rows, or did it take a while for your brain to work it out?  How hard was it on your hands and shoulders?  I get terribly hunched shoulders when I freemo quilt (although I haven't done it now in years) but my main problem now is my hands - they tend to get cranky. "

My long-winded answer:::
It took a solid hour - maybe 1 1/4 hours to make the first one. The smaller one took 15 minutes.

 I had been thinking about it for months. I knew I did NOT want to try the fabric wrapped version. Other than securing the bottom and angling the bowl 'plate' UP at 6". it was very organic. Look again at my Pinterest board. I added some ideas. Odd # stripes is from landscaping and window dressing advice: group in 3's and/or 5's.

You can only sew until your bobbin runs out. I used five on the the large bowl, most of two on the small bowl.

The body hurt is all at the beginning where you are hunched over trying to get the zigzag to catch both coils. When you angle the bowl up and start the shaping, then you can consciously sit tall in your sewing chair, relax, and find your sewing rhythm. My clear foot has two red dots on it on either side of the center 'opening' (toes). I working on letting the dots guide me.

Easier to get tense at beginning because of the curve sewing.

Because of the bobbin changes, it's easy to take breaks. The design was very organic.

I would say the body hurt of FMQ is way worse. All of these people who have awesome quilts send their quilts OUT to be FMQ'ed. They don't do all the work themselves.

Good questions!


**** lucky me: I have four places in my small town to buy cotton clothesline. 2nd and 3rd places were cheaper. I am trying some 3/16" wide stuff now. The first rope was 7/32" diameter - so a little bigger. I'll hit up the 4th place in the next day or so.