More fabric baskets

In case you're not tired of my baskets already here are some more I just made last night and finished just this afternoon.

Enjoy!

Fabric purchases

My friend surprised me for my birthday (in January) with a visa card for $50 which I wanted to spend at Purl Soho. When I was going to use the card the guy said it's not working. I told him that it's $50, but for some reason he did not get it and instead of putting the amount in the register and swiping the card again, he just swiped it and it was declined. I called the card company and the automatic system confirmed the $50 balance. Since then I forgot about the card until recently I  found it in my wallet. I was browsing The Intrepid Thread website and laid  my  eyes on some fabrics I planned to buy. I wanted to see if my card was working this time, so I kept playing with the shopping cart until my total came to $49 and change. I've put my information in, and magically it worked! I was so happy. It was on Monday afternoon, today is Thursday and the package arrived. I got all excited and took pictures of it :) (Yes, I'm still like a kid inside when it comes to presents)

It made me feel special with a hand written note by Julie attached to it.

I slowly opened it and I found the stack of fabrics:

Yumm!

And now one-by-one:

Oh, and She even surprised me with two 5" squares which are also delicious!

I just wish I knew which collection they're from. Any idea? Anyone?

Now off I go to finish the 3 fabric baskets I started last night while watching Face-off for the 4th time in the last 4 days :) Every time I sit down to my sewing machine and turn my TV on Face-off is on and I just can't resist! I was sewing until 1:45 waiting for Fiance to get home from fishing. Will post pictures later! Have a sunny day! :)

Simple Easter basket

Last night I felt like creating something and I  thought I'll try to make the same Easter basket in a simpler version. This time I skipped the patchwork part and made the top from one piece of fabric. I kind of like it since I can display the pattern on it as opposed to the patches where I only had one fabric that I could fussy cut to fit the squares, on the rest of them the prints were just too big. It went a lot quicker and I was happy I could come up with this technique. To me it's just appealing. Hope you'll like it, too!

I will make a boy version also hopefully tonight! I'll keep you posted.

Changed my mind...

A few days ago I posted when I was answering Rhonda's 11 questions. Then I felt like I can't come up with my own questions, but later realized that I would like to post some to see if people would play along. I know I don't have many readers, but the ones I have I really appreciate. Soooo, if you have a few minutes, please consider to answer these questions so I could get to know you better.

Here they are:

1. Who do you aspire to be like and why?
2. What was the last goofy thing you did?
3. If you could travel anywhere tomorrow, where would you go?
4. What is your motto?
5. What do you like to do the most in the quilt making process?
6. What would be your recipe for creativity?
7. Where do you get most of your inspiration to quilt?
8. What question makes you anxious?
9. What do you always avoid?
10. What was the last book you've read?
11. Where would you like to live after getting retired? (if you're still working, of course)

I'm looking forward to some answers! :) Thanks for playing along! (No pictures today)

Questions answered

I've been idle this week due to not being home. My  friends went for a trip and asked me to stay over to look after their 2 doggies and a kitty. I've been taking long walks with the dogs and even longer cuddles with the cat :)

Spring is in full bloom this week so I took  some pictures with my phone on our walk a few days ago. Unfortunately I can't share the smells with the pictures, they were amazing!

I  had kind of a rough morning today. We decided to neuter our boys since they're more inside cats than outside. I just can't deal with the 4 AM singing every day anymore. They go outside, but come back in after a while and would not be OK to be outside 24/7. We were planning to slowly increase their outside time, but it just does not work that way. They stay inside most of the day and just like to  lay in front of the entrance door and sniff at the bushes when it's sunny.

They were terrified when we put them in the box. I had to pull over after 5 minutes of driving to put them on the seat next to me so I could put my hand through the cage and pet them to let them know I'm there. It  was wearing me down, I've never had any animals neutered before so I just didn't know what to expect. They were done so quickly that I was on my way home with them within an hour and a half. They're recovering and it just makes me really sad that I can't be with them right now. One of them is my baby since I had to bottle feed him since he was  born (Mama cat abandoned him), he thinks I'm his Mommy :) We  love them both dearly!

I'll be back  to normal on Tuesday and will dive into the sewing room with full speed! I miss my sewing heaps. I did some hemming and small house-type sewing by hand, but it's not the same when it doesn't involve a sewing machine  or at least a quilt! I could do a big dent on catching up on podcasts. I've been listening to Pam's Hip to be a  Square podcast and I'm on episode 43 already! I only started a week ago on Friday (been driving around a lot).

Next week (which for me starts on MONDAY)  I'll be working on:

• more Easter baskets, this time I won't be piecing nine patches, but use a whole piece of fabric for the sides
• trying to make a wrap Easter basket from Katie's tutorial
• start  piecing the backing for the log cabin quilt
• more organizing in my sewing room

Despite the fact the I'm away from home I have a little more time to read. I've found these questions on Rhonda's blog so I thought I might just play along and answer them.

Here we go!

1. What's your favorite part of the quilt making process?

Binding, hands down! There's  no better feeling than stitching the binding on and when you're finished, you're DONE! Besides,  I love to do handwork.

2. If you had to pick one favorite quilt who's/which one would it be?

Bohemian Rhapsody by Ricky Tims. I love the look of applique, feathers and hand dyed fabrics and he combines the three.

3.  If you had to pick one favorite quilt who's/which one would it be?

I  also love Karen McTavish's whole cloth trapunto quilts. I think they look amazing! (Don't have a specific favorite)

4. Give me an example of something you have made that you are really proud of?

My last finished quilt called Lili's flowers. I used chenille technique on it and people were going crazy, so I  had to make a tutorial  which was featured at craft gossip :)

5. Who in your life do you most admire and why?

My grandparents. They have so much determination. They always had so much energy and just kept going no matter what without a complaint. Now they're old (Grandpa almost 89, Grandma 82) and slowing down.

6. If I were coming over for dinner what would you cook me?

Either my killer turkey burger  (no bun) or some special Hungarian dish, I would let you choose :) 

7. If you could buy any fabric bundle you could right now (someone else was paying) what would it be?

Good Fortune by Kate Spain. I just haven't seen any fabrics by her that I didn't like. She's my favorite at least for now!

8. What's your favorite movie?

Now this is a tough one. I'm not famous for making up my mind :) Probably the Lord of  The Rings trilogy

9. If money was no object, what's your favorite holiday?

Again... so many places to see! Australia and New Zealand to start with :) Why is  Zealand underlined in red????? I even googled it just to make sure of the spelling :)

10. What part of your body do you like the most?

My eyes

11. What  inspired you to first start sewing/quilting?

My Mom went to tayloring high school. When I was about 11 She started to work from home to make heavy duty working gloves. I watched  her a lot and wanted to learn how to sew. So when She wasn't working I sneaked down to the  basement and started to sew myself. When She noticed because I goofed up something She banned me and offered her treadle Singer sewing machine. I made a lot of clothes for myself through high school and when I started to work. Then one day my cousin showed me a simple patchwork quilt made from squares in a store window I thought to myself oh, it's easy, I can make that! But  I just never tried quilting... not until about 5 years later when I started to watch  Simply Quilts on TV in 2000. 

Since I'm not famous (yet, haha!) I will not post any questions. I  just wanted to show Rhonda that She still has some readers who care to answer her questions. Thank you Rhonda, it was fun!

Easter baskets.... DONE!

After an afternoon of sewing I can finally cross the first finish off my list of to-do's. I was eager to  just get over these fabric baskets that I made for the kids we're having over for Easter. I'll put some grass and chocolate in them to make them even more fun :) Fiance convinced me that it's a good enough size to gather some eggs in them on the Easter egg hunt so I didn't change the sizes.

These 2 are for the boyZ:

And these are for the 3 girlZ:

My helper #1 has managed to squeeze himself in the smallest plastic he could find empty... :)

I think I'll need some butter to get him outta there! :D

Cute Easter basket, first try

I've been itching all week to get to my sewing room and get something done from my list to be made and post it on the blog. I  was searching equally on blogs and Pinterest to find a cute Easter basket tutorial. I've found several, some of them were really cute ones! I decided to go with this tutorial. It's from 2008 which I only noticed at the end when I had a question. I just  couldn't get the handle instructions right so I made it my way. As usual :) Also I  changed a pattern a little bit and only did 1 handle instead of 2. I think  it came out pretty nice! The next one I'll make will be either twice as big, or 1.5x. I think this is on the small side. I had a VERY hard time turning the whole thing inside out through the 2"opening with the fleece and everything. Poor basket wrinkled up considerably. I had to press it when I was done to take the photos. Also I think I'll put some stabilizer to stiffen it up a little.

With making this basket it was my first time:

• making a bag of any kind
• making a handle
• boxing corners

All in all I'm happy the way it turned out. If you need a tutorial for a cute Easter basket, check it out!

Finally some pictures of the finished product, enjoy!