Making fabric baskets is easy and fun.  They make a great gift. You would probably keep a few for yourself.  The basket can be used for candy, office supplies, flower pot holders or anything that your imagination can think of.

The supplies needed are two pieces of contrasting fabric.  They can be any size from 8″ . square to 12″ square.  A piece of batting the same size as the fabric and four buttons are also needed.

Place the two pieces of fabric together, right sides together.  Place batting under the fabric and sew around the edge with a 1/4″ seam.  Leave a 3″ to 4″ opening so that you can turn the piece right side out.  

 

 

Trim the batting and the corners before turning the piece right side out. Press carefully.  Topstitch the edge, sewing up the opening.  Quilt the piece.  You  could practice free motion quilting or quilt in straight lines.  I added piping to the edges of this basket to see if I would like it.  It does add another element, but does take longer to make.

 

Fold the piece in half.  Measure and mark 2″ on the fold and up the edge.  Draw a line between the two marks. When sewing on the line, back stitch to lock stitches in place.  The 2″ mark is for a 12″ piece.  You would mark a smaller triangle for a smaller piece.  The measurement is how tall the basket will be.  You might want some baskets taller and more thin or some shorter and fatter.

 

 

Refold the piece the other way and repeat what you did on the first fold.  This is more awkward, so I pinned the points to keep them even while I marked and sewed.

 

When you fold the piece in half, the inside fabric will be the outside of the basket.  The fabric on the outside will be the inside of the basket. It does sound backwards.  I’ve made a lot of baskets forgetting this.  They were pretty anyway, but not what I had planned.

Before you turn the basket right side out, tack the points down, all going in the same direction.

 

 

Turn the basket right side out.  Fold down and tack  the points with a button, sewing completely through the basket and point.

 

   

 

Enjoy or give away.  It is a nice gift that uses very little fabric.

If any of the instructions are confusing to you, just let me know and I’ll try to help.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

Last week’s Splendid Sampler block was Flowering Tree by Amy Friend.  Amy is known for her paper piecing and modern quilts.  Last year, Amy came to our Guild.  She talked about modern quilts and gave a class where we paper pieced a table runner.  It was fun and easy.  Amy’s instructions are very clear.

Amy suggests leaving the paper on until you sew it into the quilt.  It will keep the bias edges straight.  I did pull the paper from the center so that I could press the center seam open.

I didn’t have flowering fabric that I liked so I made my tree with red/orange so that it looked like a maple tree in the fall.  It is very bright.

 

After I finished the piece, I was putting the scraps into my overflowing mile a minute fabric bin.  I decided to not put the scraps away, but make mile a minute blocks right away.  I also used other scraps from the bin.  I made nine blocks and made them into a table topper.  It’s machine quilted already so it won’t go into the UFO pile.

 

I’ve enjoyed the Splendid Sampler 2 block of the week.  Each one uses a different technique.  Some I like, some not so much.  They will all go together very well.  Just one 6 1/2″ block a week is easy after trying to keep up with the Canadian 150 project.  That was three blocks a week.

I’ve been spending part of the day on the porch swing, pulling the papers out of the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt.  If I make another one, I will pull the papers from the center as I sew them together.  Live and learn.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I had made over 20 Gaa-barge pieces.  They were made from scraps that were left over from other projects.  Also left over thread .  Anything picked up off the floor or taken out of the waste basket.  Most were made with traditional quilting methods.
I decided to make an underwater scene with cut out fish from a leftover scrap.  A peacock feather became a piece of coral.  I did some thread painting and it turned out very nice.  After I made the underwater scene, I wondered if I could make a landscape out of the tiny bits and pieces of fabric that should have been thrown away.  When I was working, I had several photos taped to my work station.  They were of places that I had been and enjoyed.  Maybe I could use the photos and commit the scenes to fabric.  The scenes were small so the first thing that I did was enlarge them to 8″ by 11′.  It seemed the perfect size for a small wall hanging.

The first one that I made was terrible,  It was a mountain scene in N. H.  I had written a mission statement before I started the Gaa-barge project and it stated that no matter how bad a piece was, it would remain in the project. This one is still with the others, mainly to remind me that not all quilts are successful.  Some are really, really bad.

 

I worked out a technique that was satisfying and actually taught classes on how to make a Landscape Gaa-barge quilt.  The students enjoyed the process and made some awesome pieces.

The photo was taken in Provincetown, Massachusetts on a trip that we took with my Mom and Dad,  I have such fond memories of out trips together.

 

 

The wall hangings are an interpretation of the photo and are not an accurate copy of it. Thread painting adds a lot of detail.

I keep the photos in a baggie that is stapled to the bottom of the wall hanging.

I have several of these little scenes and will probably make more when I find a landscape to copy.  I started one and am bogged down with it.  It is sitting in a drawer until I feel the urge to finish.  Quilting should be fun and this piece was not.  I was trying too hard to make it perfect.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

It has been a most productive day.  We did have a thunder storm with one lightning and thunder hitting at the same time.  It was a loud crack.  Miss Molly was already hiding so I really don’t know if it frightened her more than usual.

Of course, the sewing machine and other electronics were unplugged. I finished the bottom row of the Dear Jane quilt.  It just has to be ladder stitched onto the main body of the quilt.  I have three blocks to sew for the side rows and then I can sew the third row around the center of the quilt.

Before the storm hit, I caught up to today’s date on the temperature quilt.  I also finished the center of the Melissa quilt. The borders are next.  That should take just as long to quilt as the center.  It should be done by the end of next week.

Moda Blockhead 2, block #10 was designed by Jo Morton.  It is a 12″ block called Duck and Ducklings.  It went together easily.  I’m using the Japanese fabric for the Moda blocks.  Most of them go very well with the printed fabric.  I try to use that fabric in most of the blocks, although,  some blocks do better without it.  I look forward each week for the Moda pattern.  Most are made up quickly.

I did flip around a lot today, depending on the weather.  At least, I didn’t have to go outside to weed or water the gardens.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

I have very few 30s fabrics.  It’s not that I don’t like them.  I just prefer to use other types of fabrics.

When I saw this pattern, I knew that it needed to be made in 30s prints.  That was the time period that women wore aprons.  I’m not sure where I saw the pattern.  It was  one of the wall hangings that just had to be made.

The top of the block is supposed to be the apron ties.  The apron is appliqued on and outlined with ricrac.

 

The pocket is open and there is a piece of lace peeking out.  It is also outlined with ricrac. This fun wall hanging hung on the back of my extra dining room chair for a long time.  I should bring it out again.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Several years ago, I made an appliqued wall hanging with hand dyed fabric.  I did prewash the fabric and thought that It was fine to use. The appliques were three dimensional and it was fun to make.  After the top was appliqued, I hand quilted it.  The quilting pattern was drawn with a blue water soluble marker.  When I sprayed water on the piece to remove the marking, the dye crocked all over the white background.  I was devastated.  Carbona to the rescue.  I haven’t found a Carbona product that didn’t do what it said it would.  I made a paste with the Carbona crock removal and applied it to the white fabric with a q tip.  It took quite a bit of time because I had to make sure that I didn’t touch the colored fabric.  It will remove the color.  After I removed all the color from the background, I washed the wall hanging with dye catchers and it came out just fine.

     

  

I gave it to my Mother and she had it on the wall above her bed in the nursing home.  It was one of her favorite pieces. I think of her when I see this wall hanging.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

 

 

My vegetable garden is very small, but I am enjoying what it has produced.  For supper I had yellow beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and raspberries.  The lettuce has bolted and what I had tonight was the last.  There are a lot more green tomatoes.  I hope that they ripe slowly so I can eat them until the first frost.  There are more yellow and green beans.  There is another large bucket of raspberries to pick tomorrow with a few more less ripe ones to come later.  I can see some of the raspberry bushes drying up.  I may be able to prune them out this fall and not wait until next spring.  My herbs are all doing very well.

My Mother’s Grandmother Flower Garden quilt top is finished.  I was glad to sew the last stitch.  It seems as if I have been sewing it forever.  The papers and basting need to come out and them I will prepare it for hand quilting.  I could machine quilt it quicker but where it was hand pieced, it needs to be hand quilted.  I’m not sure if any of the yardage that I have in Maine will go with the quilt, so I probably will wait until I go to N. H. to start quilting it.  I do have many more UFOs to work on so I will not be out of work.

 

The top and bottom is straight and the edges are scalloped.    

 

 

 

This is one of the blocks that my Mother pieced.  I like the way she lined up the stripes. I can tell which blocks she pieced as she used yellow paper.  I used white paper.  Of course, when the backing is on there will be no way of telling who did what.  It will be one quilt made by two generations.

 

I still have several hexagons left over.  I have plans for them.  There is a pattern that uses hexagons as the border.  The quilt is a 12″ sampler quilt.  I can substitute Kimberly Einmo’s 12″ blocks for the one in the quilt and then make the border from the left over hexagons.  That is in the future.  It is fun to plan ahead.

Melissa has been on my sewing machine with nothing done on it for two days.  I need to finish it and move on to something else.  I’m not sure why such a small quilt is taking so long to finish.  Maybe, I should concentrate on it and get it done.  It was made for a Guild challenge which is due in September.  The challenge was to make something with a technique that you have never used before.  This quilt is fused applique using the leaves galore ruler.  I have had the ruler for years and didn’t know how to use it.  After having a class with Sue Pelland, I can use it and I do enjoy using it.  I can see using it to cut out leaves for needle turn applique.  Also for marking wavy lines for quilting.

I should line up all the rulers and gadgets that I just had to have and figure out why I thought them so necessary for my quilting.  There are a few that I do use.  Maybe I could downsize my sewing room.  Probably not.  You never know when you might need something.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I saw a deer in my back yard this morning.  I knew that they were back there, but had never seen them.  One of my neighbors says that they are around my shed at times. I just never look out or work in the garden at the right time.  I know now why I take pictures of my flowers every year.  It’s so I can remember how the flowers are supposed to look if something happens to them. The deer must have gone to the front of the house, because they had a feast on my Hosta.  This is a picture of the hosta that was taken last year.  

This is this year.  It looked as if the Hosta was string trimmed.  This is a month’s growth.

Several years ago, I saw a pattern at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  The vendor also had the background fabric which went from dark blue to medium blue.  It was perfect.  I used batique fabric for the fish.  The fabric had occasional dots which I used for the eyes.  It was hand quilted.  A friend asked me to put it into a show, so I did.  Later I heard that several people went to a quilt shop in Bangor looking for the pattern and the fabric.  They soon ran out and started asking if the customer had been to the show.  It caused quite a stir at the time.  This was the first time that I used batique fabric.  It also combined two of my favorite techniques, applique and hand quilting.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

It is August and I should change the little wall hanging on my wall.  The July wall hanging will have to hang there until I go back to N. H. later this month.

 

 

 

The Moda Blockhead pattern came yesterday.  I didn’t like it.  It was too plain. 

Who says that I have to sew the block as they designed it?  With a few tweaks, I think this is a much better block.  

 

 

 

The Simple Sampler 2 block came today.  It was very easy.  I really do like making flying geese.  There are so many ways to make a flying geese.  The Lazy Girl flying geese used to be my favorite way to make one.  Now, I prefer the Kimberly Einmo flying geese ruler.  Deb Tucker also has a flying geese ruler that I hear is very nice. I’ve never used it.  These flying geese were made by cutting out a rectangle and then sewing squares on the diagonal on each end.  I try, at first, to make the blocks with instructions given by the designer.  At times, I use my own methods.

I have started to quilt “Melissa” today.  I drew a pattern that I liked.  Then I copied the pattern  with a water erasable marker.  When I took the pattern away, the marks disappeared as I looked at them.  The water in the hot and humid air erased the marks.  I changed the pattern and quilted part of one block.  I think that I might like the new pattern better anyway.  At least it is a start and I know what to do with that quilt.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

Last week’s Splendid Sampler block was called For the Love by Sharon Burgess.  It was inspired by flowers in her garden.  Sharon does paper  piecing and this piece was supposed to be English paper pieced. I  have been working on the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt for a long time,  It is English paper pieced and I did not want to make another block in that method.  I copied the pattern four times and the reverse four times, combined them into one piece and then used the leftover fused fabric from Melissa’s quilt.  The pieces were button hole stitched on the machine.  It was quick and easy.

This week’s Splendid Sampler block should be published tomorrow.  This week’s Moda Blockhead 2 block was published today.  I’ll sew them tomorrow and then I will be done for this week.

Today, I flipped from one project to another.  Nothing was finished, but a lot was accomplished,  It is raining and should rain most of the night,  It will be too wet to work in the garden tomorrow.  Maybe, I can finish something.

Have a great day and happy quilting.