Market Day

Today was the first market of the season!  I've had a long summer of being (happily) tethered to the sewing machine.  I was eager to finally show my wares in public.

As I mentioned in this post, I recently bought a white EZ up tent.  Aside from setting it up in our yard a couple of times just to see how it works, this was its Quilting Violinist Market debut.

 I'm pretty pleased with how this setup worked out.

I had a lot of new merchandise to put out today, plus I did a redesign of my table layout.  I put the tables together in a "T" formation in the middle of the tent, rather than separating them as I've done in the past.

Those are the new embellished dish towels hanging on the left (see this post).

Even my banner had a new spot.  I had been tying it
to my front table, but with the new layout it needed a new spot.  I like how being in front of the quilts makes it "pop", but it doesn't block the view of the quilts.

(I just showed my husband this picture, and he said he's going to figure out how to hang the banner on the front of the tent.  So this arrangement might be changing, stay tuned!)

This setup for placemats and Office Lunch sets has worked well for me for a long time. These are right up front, and catch people's eyes as they walk by.

These display walls are made from wire closet shelving pieces, turned on their sides and lashed together at the back with zip ties.  I use clothespins to hang everything (including the quilts).

 All of the new Little Things got corralled into containers and placed on the tables.

Between having a lot of new merchandise to display AND having a new table arrangement it was a lengthy setup time this morning, at least 1 1/2 hours before I was Ready For Business. (Don't worry, I arrived good and early so I was ready when the market opened). I had "kind of sort of" planned how I was going to place everything but the fact is I couldn't be sure until I was actually at the market and setting up. It will get faster as I get a routine going.  



Autumn has yet to arrive in Tampa so the day was HOT, and you can see from the pictures how sunny it was.  Weather like this can keep the crowds away , so it was not a super busy day.  But it was fun-- as always, I met a lot of nice people, handed out a lot of business cards, and had a great time.  Next market:  one week from today!