Another Fabric Basket

Here is a second fabric basket/bowl that I made recently (see earlier post here). This time I made it with all of my selvage trimmings from fabrics I've used. (Never did know quite why I was saving all those, but now I have a use for them!)

It was a lot of fun to make this basket, because the fabric strips were just chosen randomly, no color planning went into it at all.

Usually, strips a little wider, say 3/4" are best to make these baskets. And since I am fairly stingy when it comes to cutting off my selvages, many of my strips were more like 1/2". But that only meant that I had to use a few more strips.

Here is a close-up that shows some of the printing and the "color dots" that appear on the selvage.

And here's another close-up. You can see letters quite clearly here.

Now, this clothesline is available for purchase in a few different sizes. It ranges from about-enough-for-a-basket-with-some-left-over to GREAT-BIG-LONG.

And the clothesline doesn't come in a nice, easy skein (as in yarn). It's just a big loop, and that can get fairly hard to handle at times. After sorting out this 200-foot mess a couple times, I knew that I had to do something about it.

Thank goodness the FedEx man had just left a package that day, and I used the box to make a sort of spool on which to wind my clothesline. It's nothing fancy, but it works pretty well. At least it's not some long snake of a thing getting all wound around itself.

I can't wait to make more baskets now! I'd like to try something in an oval shape.

Redwork

I have finally tried doing some redwork! I've always admired it, and meant to try it, so I finally did.

I bought some plain white toweling fabric at a fabric store, then set about looking for redwork (or any uncomplicated embroidery) patterns on my computer.

My light box is a piece of paper and fabric taped onto a window. I used a brown Micron pen to trace the image.

Drinking tea is one of my favorite pastimes, so I found a cute little picture of a teapot. (I added the steam coming out of the spout.)

On the other end of the tea towel I embroidered a messy little jam pot. I thought that went very well with the teapot. The little seeds on the strawberry were fun to make!

My thanks to MisterStitches for helping me resize things on my computer, so the jam pot wouldn't be bigger than the teapot!

Up-cycled Denim Skirt

Here is a little tiny skirt that I made for BabyStitches with some recycled blue jeans. I found the directions at Tea Rose Home.

After I followed the directions on the blog for cutting out the skirt pieces, I called DaughterStitches to find out how long to make the skirt and how big around the waist should be. I had to cut off more than half the length or this skirt would have been dragging on the floor!

I especially loved the directions for the flowers that were given on Tea Rose Home. By using the right side of the blue jeans, the wrong side, and the part underneath the pocket, I was able to have three different colors of blue for the three flowers I put on the skirt.

I sewed them together just a little ways from the edge, so that they would fray when I washed the skirt.

And here is a cute little label I put inside, "Grandma Made It," alongside an extra, single flower.

(SisterStitches gave me these labels--aren't they fun!?!)

This marks my 100th blog post! Woo-hoo!! Wasn't sure I could last this long, but it's been almost a year now. So glad I have this blog. It's a lot of fun.

Sneak Peak of a Quilt for BabyStitches

My quilt for little BabyStitches is coming along. It's a scrappy quilt like this one which I made a few months ago. I love the pink and light green fabrics that DaughterStitches chose for the quilt. I am almost done sewing the little scraps of fabric down to the front of the quilt. Hope to get it finished up real soon.

AccuQuilt Cutter

Our quilt guild recently purchased an

AccuQuilt Cutter for our use. It is basically a die-cutting machine which cuts different shapes out of fabric. It's very cool--cutting several layers with awesome accuracy in a jiffy without having to use a rotary cutter. A wonderful machine! The photo below shows the machine plus some of the different die shapes that can be cut. The bottom right-hand diagram is showing how 2 1/2" strips can be cut all in a row.

I used it the other day to cut some diamonds for my Tumbling Block Quilt. I took several stacks of fabric with me over to visit the AccuQuilt cutter. What I came home with is shown below.

I have four different tumbling block sets, with 24 of each of the three diamond colors. That adds up to 288 diamonds. It took me about 45 minutes to cut all these, with no aching in my wrists or shoulders. It's amazing! This is not a power machine; it cuts when I turn the crank and roll the fabric through, with the particular die shape I've chosen, of course. And the crank is easy to turn, too. I had four layers of my fabric lying out to be cut through all at once. It is capable of cutting more than four layers of fabric. I think I've found a new friend!

Above are my two stacks of diamonds, with a playing card to show you how tall they are. This machine cuts like a hot knife through butter!

This many diamonds might actually keep me busy for a while. The pieces are all wonderfully accurately cut, too,which should help with my hand piecing.

Let There Be Light!

Now, I'll be the first to admit that my sewing studio is pretty nice. I have lots of space, several sliding glass doors and skylights to let in natural light. And there are plenty of electric lights to use when I've "run out of light." With a lot of lights, and most of them being above where my 5'3" stature can easily reach, I tend to let more than one burn out before I drag in the ladder to replace them. However, recently I noticed that there were three light bulbs out, and they were all right near where my sewing machine resides. Something had to be done.

This all is not as easy as it sounds. First I have to bring in the ladder. Sometimes I have to rearrange furniture (or stacks of fabric!) in order to put the ladder where I need it. Then I climb up the ladder and remove the offending bulbs. Because I do not just have all these bulbs on hand. Our house would look like a hardware store if we stocked all the different kinds of bulbs that we use! Side note: one of the burned out bulbs was a halogen bulb which had actually exploded in its socket. I had to have some help to get that one removed. See--it's not easy!

So after removing the bulbs, I take them to the hardware store to buy replacements. Which the store may or may not have. Usually I leave the ladder standing during this interval, because I'm going to need to climb back up there again, right? When I get home from the store I climb back up the ladder and replace the bulbs.

And now it is amazing how much light I have on my workspace! The photo shows two lights that were previously burned out, and I'm more or less sitting in front of my machine to take the photo. Having good light is such an essential element in any work.

Word to the wise: Not because I've learned this the hard way, but it's a good idea to have your cell phone in your pocket if you're climbing ladders and you're alone in the house. At any age, it's easy to lose your balance or take a mis-step and fall. Cross my fingers, I haven't fallen yet, but I do realize that I'm rather vulnerable if I'm home alone and there's no one to call out to.

A Good Read

Just finished reading a good book, The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue. I always love a good novel that has to do with the quilting world, and this one really came through. It's a good mystery, and a good story about a younger woman who is new to quilting. There was a passage in it that really made me appreciate quilting and quilters in general. I will quote it in part.

"(Quilting) was creative, it was practical and it was tradition. Passed down from one generation of women to the next going back hundreds of years, no matter the circumstances.....the women...with their unique styles, often strange personalities and strong friendships."

(excerpted from page 257)

It makes me feel good to be part of such a group. I have made the best of friends with the quilters I know.

I see that Clare O'Donohue has another book out called The Drunkard's Path. I'll have to look for it.