I almost forgot to post about these! Back in April, when I was really sick with bronchitis, I read on Soulemama's blog about the rope bowls and baskets she was making. They were so cool and looked so easy to make. I actually had some rope that I had bought to make a fabric covered rope basket (do a search for Bali Bowl to see what I mean) several years ago. I even had the fabric all cut to size, but it had been sitting in the closet forever. When I saw this idea, I knew it was time to forget about the fabric and just do a bowl with rope and thread.
I also have lots of older spools of thread (mostly Mettler). This is stuff I don't use anymore, except in projects like this where the weight and fuzziness of the thread don't matter so much. I do clean my machine frequently when I use it and gosh it's linty stuff! I also used some Sulky Blendables, thread that I don't use much except for art quilts which I'm not making much anymore. My absolute favorite thread these days is Aurifil 50 wt (orange spool) which I'm happy to say the Stitchin' Post now carries, so I can get what I need there with an employee discount. I use it for piecing and machine quilting and I have a nice selection of colors.
Anyway, with these bowls, I decided to just wing it. Soulemama mentions a CreativeBug tutorial that you could watch, but I didn't do that. I just tried it and it worked! If ever you should miss a connection and have a gap in the rope, you can easily go back over it later, so there really isn't a possibility of messing these things up. I used my regular sewing machine foot on the widest zigzag stitch. Getting started is a little tricky, but once you've got a little ways it's just around, and around, and around!
Finishing off the end can be a fun way to add a little decorative hand stitching, or a button or other embellishment. See the links to Soulemama's blog above to see lots more possibilities. These two used up all the rope I had and I haven't gotten more yet, but this is definitely one of those projects I can see myself doing over and over. I do love the quiet, all white ones that Amanda did, so I may try that next time even though it will probably mean using my good thread for it. By the way, be prepared to use a LOT of thread!