Spring is coming!

Houses and trees

I am participating in 15 minutes Bee. Lynn wanted some scrappy houses for her month. I made three houses today. They are so much fun! I can see how this can get very addictive very fast! 

 

 

I also worked a little on my Red and Green  scrap quilt. 

 Borders look like the pine trees around the houses.. 

Reminds me of our wooded backyard with lots of fir and cedar trees!

Happy Holidays!

This bag began with someone's

leftover needlepoint/embroidery project.

I bought it.....

Thought about it.......

Took some more scraps and started sewing!

Now I have a little project bag for my friend!!

Red and Green on the Housetop!

Okay... With all of you working on the Christmas projects, I had to pull out my red and green scraps. 

All scraps. Large and small went in these blocks. 

Is it going to be ready before Christmas? 

NO.. 

How big? 

I don't know just yet.

All I know is that I will hand quilt this one too!

Because, I like hand quilting and finishing with curved edges.

It will be a present ... 

to me ...

May be next year around this time ...

Or 

the following year.

No rush!

Christmas Presents

These are some gifts.......

I made for .......

some of my.......

sewing girlfriends......

who are the best ever!

I used my little garnishes that I made from scraps and was going to put on the wrapping part of the present. After I sewed up the pin cushions they looked a little "naked" so I tried these on and really liked how they looked!
They are about 7" x 7" and I filled them with ground walnut shells. I made them big because they are as much art as they are useful!

Little Bit at a Time

I've been stitching together the teeny bits

 trimmed from my spiderweb piecing . . . 

The shapes are quite unpredictable!

Can we say Random?!

Not at all sure what I will do with these,

but I LOVE the colors!

Quiltdivajulie

Garnishes

I decided I wanted to make some hand made "garnishes" for my Christmas presents this year. All I did was free hand cut some circles and some batting, stack them on top of each other and do some free motion quilting on them. I added some french knots with DMC perle cotton in varigated colors.

I added some leaves, also done the same way. It was a great way to use up small pieces of batthing and scraps.

I will show you how they look on the packages once they are wrapped....but first I actually need to finish making them!

scrappy chinese coins table topper

When I finished the quilt on the wall some time ago, the leftovers got boxed and stored. They were a mix of thrifted shirts and trousers (linen), soft flannels, japanese fabric and more. Quite a mix. Trying to organize my stash, they resurfaced and I decided to use them up, aiming for a table topper to accompany the wall quilt.

As these leftover strings all had the same width, they came together quickly. I decided to frame them with some 100% linen (from stash), as that was an important ingredient in the wall quilt.

The linen was beautifully black (before washing) and a bit wobbly. So I optimistically marked the top for a diamond quilting pattern, using my chalk pencil. Pinned it, and started quilting. Had second thoughts, and ended up with very close parallel lines. Linen is a bit more demanding than cotton! Has a life of it's own...

The resulting 32" square table topper is quite wonky, compared to the top before quilting...

Still, it makes a nice, coordinated pair.

Have fun with the left- overs! I think they make the best start for some fun play with fabric...

Liberated Basket Quilt, 38" x 46"

Made in my first Gwen Marston workshop, mostly from leftover string pieces from a Kaffe quilt.

Not just the baskets...

 

I thought of adding this picture to the blog just as a reminder that this blog is about what a basket full of scraps can do.. Please feel free to post anything you have made out of scraps. It is not limited to basket quilts. It may have started out that way but let's broaden our platform and provide greater inspirations for each other and all who visit us.

We have done GREAT so far.. I love how everyone's baskets are so different and quite inspiring with their  individual style. I can not wait to see all the fun ideas you all have to share.

This is a place for your unique, one of a kind creations.

My quilt below is still under construction and might remain that way for a while.

  

'Confetti' is almost ready. 

I have stitched the binding on but need to attach the sleeve so that I can hang it for a proper picture.

 I think I got a little carried away with stitching.. 

I love it!

Friendship Basket

Do you remember this lovely basket that Sujata made? Well, she sent it to me as part of a block exchange on the 15 minutes play blog. I've been having such fun this weekend, playing with this block and a mixture of scraps from her and other blogger friends.

Those little churn dash blocks are 4". I've never made a block that small in my life! But they are just so cute, I decided I really like the small piecing idea.




Here are soon-to-be potholders, made with the scraps from the churn dash blocks--scraps of scraps! Those little triangles are about 1/2".

Thank you Sujata!!

Work in Progress

Here is what happened to the leftovers from the back of the basket quilt.

I decided to make it into a little wall art for myself .

The little house I started is no longer lonely. It is part of a neighborhood and it is growing.

While there is too much to do between now and Thanksgiving day, this is just the right size of project for me.

And, a little bit of hand quilting works well too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

leaves

I added a few leaves today.

My berries are now happy

and I'm going to call this....

DONE!!!

oops.....

gotta quilt it!!

Thanks go to you, blog friends.

Thanks for steering me away from my

flower idea.

I like this much better.

Scrappy Baskets

I started this quilt in a workshop with Freddy Moran last fall. It was going to be all dot scraps, but a few stripes and florals crept in. The white floral sashing is a home decorator remnant I bought in Sweden.

The block pattern is in the book, Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again. In this method, you sew scraps onto newspaper triangles.

lonely berries.

I'm hoping those little berries will not have to wait

too, too long for some flowery company!!

They need it.

Poor little things!

Maybe they'd even like a few leaves.

Probably so.

Flickr Group

Hi Everyone!

If you have a flickr account and would like to post your pictures in the group, here is the link.
I have posted some of my pictures and you are welcome to do the same.
I hope this works!

 And... here is the new basket!

Looks little too coordinated but it is just the beginning...

Blue Basket Quilt

My quilt top is together! It took me a lot longer to get it to this point than I thought it would.

These are the blocks before they became the top. I show you this mostly because it is a better representation of the colors than the first picture.

I am thinking of using this for the border. I am really enjoying this quilt!

15 handles is a top!

It's a top- yay! I may not have time to quilt this for a while, but wanted you to know at least the top is done. This was lots of fun!

3 Baskets Full

A tasket, a tasket , A little yellow basket...

I wasn't sure if my squares looked like flowers so I asked my partner what he thought they were.

" Little squares of fabric from the quilt shop!" he answered.

I figure the only 2 things I really enjoy shopping for are flowers and fabric so I don't mind which they represent.

Little Red Riding Hood has left her basket on the table.

Toffee Apple Polka Fun!

What fun!! But for today I'm done. I'll be back again another day, with show and tell from basket play.

Cheerio,

Rachael.

A beginning

So far, my baskets had come out pretty subdued, but it seems that these fabrics are the one's I hit first. I will skip the handles and put something in the baskets. Need more play time to know where I am going.

16 blocks done. I forgot one handle, but I'm not going to worry about it. I'll get the blocks together soon, I hope!

A Little Amish Looking

Okay I started yet another project. I will say this was a lot of fun and I want to make more! I used all hand dyed because I have a lot of scraps laying around and I seem to be wanting to work with them right now. It is not going to be all blue and green, this one just happened to work out that way.

Quilt for Meera

I did not mean to copy you .. I mean it..

It's just that the fabrics in the backgrounds are seersucker and I wasn't sure if they would hold well.. 

And your quilt is so pretty..

I looked for the large floral.....and since it was a gift for a baby girl,

I thought the floral fabric would be just right..

This fabrics was perfect. 

Baby's room is green and orange with Shasta daises on the wall

 

 Now I am STUCK....

I think the border was a great idea!

K says it does not look like a quilt for baby. Anything mild I choose for the back is not going to cut it.

Whatever I come up with.. is too loud and busy for a baby.. 

I have not made many soft pastel baby quilts. 

I don't know how to!

Tell me what to do. Anybody?

I am sorry, it looks like I copied you.. I did not mean to..

I just thought I would have an out in open conversation with Nifty.. If you didn't already know that!

I know, she wouldn't mind.