Hello, again!

I'm very excited about two of my projects right now.  Here is a preview of both of them ...

First is the Red, White and Blue blog hop that starts on July 1st.  This is the first time I've participated in anything like this.  I'm so excited for this, especially because my day to post is on July 4th ... Independance Day!  Not only is this my favorite holiday, I've always had a special love for the colors of our flag.  That day I will be sharing a patriotic square of my own creation and using that design to make a festive table topper.

Second is a quilt-along.  I am making a ruffle quilt with Rachel from Family Ever After.  She was my first official follower and I love her blog.  I was a little hesitant about it at first, but the more I work on it and look at my fabrics, the more enamored I become.  I'm so glad I took a leap and decided to participate before I knew what it would look like!

Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!

More Pinspiration: Fabric Baskets

Over the last several months I've really come to enjoy Pinterest.  Having a virtual bulletin board is an easy way for me to file my ideas away.  Since I follow around 100 blogs on a regular basis now, I come across ideas I really like on a regular basis.  I only wish I had more time to pursue it all now ...  Here is the latest.

http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html

I saw this super cute basket and knew I could do this.  The tutorial is super clear and detailed.  Growing up, my mom always taught me to follow the original recipe first and then add embellishments.  One of these days I'll learn ...  I had a stack of 3" squares lying around from another project fail that I decided to try out.  Following the tutorial, it was very easy to create a re-size using the scraps on hand.  It turned out OK, but not great.  It is bigger, but too flimsy for the size.  I'll probably end up using it with a birthday gift for one of the kids' friends.

Next time around, I mostly followed the tutorial again, but added a few things based on my first experience.  Again, I used all scraps--mostly from Sam's trek quilt.  Here are my own embellishments:

*  I used lightweight interfacing on both the quilted outside piece and the lining.  It got a little tight when turning everything out to the right side, but I took things slowly and it still worked out perfectly.

*  I practiced my machine quilting on the pieced squares.  It is the perfect piece for that since the back side is covered with the lining--no one except me (and now a few of my closest friends) has to know that the tension on my bobbin is wacky.

*  I don't know where I got the idea for this, but when it came time to make the boxed corners on the bottom, I used a piece of scrap cardstock measured from the corner, then placed it over the corner seams and traced with a marking pen where to sew.  It was much faster than measuring from the point each time then using my ruler to join the points on each side or trying to find just the right placement with my quilting ruler.

I took these in to share with a couple of ladies at the kids' school and they thought they were super cute, too.  They stand up perfectly and are the right size for holding small collections like hair accessories, makeup, extra spools of thread, small crochet or sewing projects ...