The quilters went wild for Ficklesticks at the first ever Long Beach Quilt Festival! My booth was thronged with fabric fiends! Several allowed as how Ficklesticks and the booth was the greatest and most interesting spot in the show! They were so kind and enthusiastic about Ms Ficklesticks' endeavors! The booth was so full at times that the merchandise was trumped by backsides! Granddaughter Maddie ran the credit card machine with aplomb. Ms Ficklesticks regaled them with tales of being a lapsed quilter and a former real estate agent, gone nutty! We sold ALL the books we took before the show was even finished. I sold 100 pounds of wire, turners, pliers, and my finished work. The hit of the show was the posies on tie-dyed elastic cord necklace. Second place went to either the cherry necklaces or the 36" twisty bangle bracelets. Someone even convinced Ms Ficklesticks to sell the green hat with poinsettia hatband that was featured on the cover of the book!
The booth looked great and had the advantage of being on a corner facing the dining area! It was very eye-catching with a striped see-through (shower curtain!) table drape, a big square drying rack from IKEA full of necklaces and baskets and hats, a giant poster of the cover of the book surrounded by a giant ficklestick daisy, a "paisley" and several weavings, bright colored round soft drink tubs filled with kits, and wire and tools and bracelets, candy jars and fish bowls filled with ficklesticks gumballs, posies, sparkly oysters and pearls, giant sunflowers, a ficklesticks birdcage hanging from a birdcage stand at the corner of the booth, (It sold before the show even opened!),round "polka dot" table-toppers and rugs of assorted bright colored IKEA bathmats, IKEA "trees" that were turned into a cherry tree and hangers for brooches, a place for stunts and acrobatics by tiny witches, santas, ballerinas and brownies (who passed out tiny chocolate bars), and some very groovy sparkly and dotty posy-shaped fabric covering the bolt butts of the booth next door. For something done on the cheap, which creative Ms Ficklesticks is known to be good at, even I(she) was impressed.
The long drive back to Berkeley was delightful, with a stop in Santa Barbara to see the mission Maddie wrote about for a class assignment in school. Then another stop at Arroyo Grande to see a quilt shop, visit an ice cream parlor where they actually make their own. Ms Ficklesticks, like the true ice cream afficionada I am got a scoop of merlot raspberry truffle. A visit to the Arroyo and the swinging bridge completed the visit.
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