Friday, December 12, 2014

Oh what fun!

Working down my November list, I switched back to baskets this week. Nothing fancy, just sticking to the basic formula for a round basket with slightly angled sides. With a Christmas jazz station playing in the background, it was most delightful to sit at the machine, wrapping fabric strips around clothesline and zigzagging the coils together. So relaxing...


I started with the blue bowl since I had that fabric set aside since my first foray into these baskets. These two are ones I can't foresee working into any quilts, so no hesitation on my part cutting them into strips. It still fascinates me how these prints transform.


It went without a hitch and I was so pleased with the result. That's saying something because I usually find some fault, something I've miscalculated that doesn't ruin the final result but leaves me a little disappointed. Not so this time, so I dug into my stash for candidates for the second one. Both of these are lovely fabrics, a quarter yard or less, that probably came in a scrap bag purchase. At the time, I'm sure I thought I'd eventually work them into something, but now I know they likely will not. So it is both fun and gratifying to find a way to transform them into something useful.


So what's with the mason jar, you may ask? I bought some short ones to fill with goodies instead of the standard 8 oz jars so they would fit inside a basket like this. The baskets are about 4-1/2 inches across at the base and 3-1/2 inches high - perfect!

5 comments:

Christine Staver said...

Sounds like a lovely relaxing day with some great results. I always love your little baskets. I plan on having plenty of those kinds of quilt making days after the holidays. I need to take a little break from art quilts for a while after this master class.

Sherrie Spangler said...

Sounds like a wonderful day -- baskets and music.

The Idaho Beauty said...

Thanks everyone!

Michele Matucheski said...

Nice job on these. Somewhere I have a coil of cloth clothesline. Sue Brier (sp?) wrote a few of the books on this technique. She lives in my town. She came to quilt guild one night to speak about the process of getting the books published. Really interesting ... We tried it one night at Conversations in Cloth many years ago.

Cheryl Gebhart said...

Your baskets are really lovely. I've made one of these and really like it, but it was pretty hard on my wrists, so I probably won't be making any more.