Great big scrappy fabric basket

The last 10 days have gone by in a bit of a blur. Returning to work is hard....it takes so much time to get used to the pace of a working day again, doing all the family stuff in the evenings and even having to travel for a couple of days for training. So crafting has been a bit hit and miss here in the last couple of weeks and I haven't gotten close to replying to emails unfortunately.

But I did manage to get one of this month's scrappy projects finished for my Put Your Scraps to Work challenge .....a lovely fabric storage basket made out of scraps, for my scraps. Seeing as the scrap pile was completely out of control, I needed something new to put them in and decided to divide them up by colours - cool, warm and neutrals & multicoloured/novelty. As I said previously, I really want my scrappy projects to be practical as well as pretty so a basket was a great project to start with.

 I meant to post progress pics of this, but what with the travel and the kids and falling asleep on the sofa within an hour of sitting down in the evenings, I just didn't get to. So here's a recap - you'll have seen some of these pics before if you follow me on Instagram or FB.

I started off just piecing random scraps together. It is improv in terms of the method - no plan, I just put pieces together - but I didn't go completely crazy and wonky, I kept it reasonably squared off to fit with the shape of the basket. Some of my fave scraps went into these panels; I love the hedgehogs, and the tree, all the dots. The bear and the whales and owls. I really had fun making it.

I decided to try matchstick quilting. It's pretty haphazard, not a straight line in there (I believe the official word is "organic"). I really love how dense it is. And how it turned out. I used Aurifil medium turquoise 50wt thread. I'm normally very boring with my thread colour choice, sticking to neutrals, but decided to give this a whirl and I have to admit I absolutely love it. The turquoise pops off it and gives the quilting an extra nice feel.

I used Nova's great pattern to make these. I did think a bit before buying it, as fabric baskets are not the most complicated thing in the world to make, and I've made them before. But I love how all the measurements are done for various sizes, and there are lots of options there that there are additional measurements for too. Well worth the few euro for it when I keep using it over and over again.

 

 I made the 9" basket and I could probably go up a couple of inches as my Expedit bookcase would take a bigger basket, and I certainly don't have all my scraps in here yet. Aren't those little scraps there pretty? I love looking at this from different angles. I keep seeing favourite prints. See that tiny bit of blue and red paisley over the navy Saffron Craig print with the birds? That paisley is a Tanya Whelan and one of my all time faves. I sadly put the tiny last bit I had in there....and then someone was selling it in the IG destash on Sunday night and now I have 3/4 yard of it again...hooray.

I used a few large scraps for the lining. Honestly, apart from the green dinos, none of them are prints I really like a whole pile, but I wanted to use them as I suffer from quilter's disease (I cannot throw out perfectly useable, if ugly, fabric) and they won't really be seen as I'm anticpating that this basket will most likely fill as fast as I can empty it. 

I am very pleased with this. Love how it turned out. And love how useful it is.

How are your scrappy projects coming along? Are you making progress? Don't forget I'll be posting a linky on the last day of the month for you to show off your makes. I had a few questions about the degree of finished-ness required to link up. This is a very relaxed kind of scrap challenge.I just want people to have fun and use up their scraps in the process. So blocks, quilt tops etc are all fine to link up. It doesn't have to be totally 100% finished (although it probably works best if you are finished a "stage" rather than right in the middle of piecing something).

Can't wait to see what you've been making :-)

Small is beautiful!

I have been trying to concentrate on small and easy projects in the last few weeks, seeing as my energy to sew is a little thin on the ground - the sort of projects that are not too taxing and are fun to make. In the last week, I managed 2 ( a major achievement, although it mighn't seem like one!) little projects in full, and finished off another small project too (more about that later this week) So here are the first two - both made in less than an hour each, but which made me smile.
First up - I needed a small extra to go with my pouch for the PLP5 swap. After dithering a bit about what to do (I seem to spend a lot of time dithering at the moment - which project to do, which fabric to use - its very frustrating and very unlike me! I think its because my sewing mojo is half asleep at the moment.) I decided to make a fabric basket using Ayumi's tutorial, as I have one that Kirsten made me in a swap last year and I use it all the time and love it. Even if my partner might have some already, they are something you will always have use for in my opinion!

I wanted something whimsical and I found a couple of leftover charms from the Japanese charm swap I did last year that I was saving for the right project. I fussy cut some 2" squares out of them and they worked exactly as I hoped they would.


I was pretty happy with the basket, so my package is now on the way to its destination.

I also got my fab package all the way from Australia - from the lovely Gina
 - Happy Go Lizzie on Flickr. I was so thrilled with this pouch. Gina included the jewel tones I said I was loving right now and lots of hand stitching - I just love it and the extras  - look at that cute mini pouch and the pincushion! Thanks so much Gina :-)

I also made a bit of an impulse Kindle buy over the weekend - figuring that if I couldn't sew, then I might as well get back reading again. Reading used to be my fave hobby until it took a back seat to sewing, and its pretty achieveable in bed and on the sofa! Of course, having bought it I needed a cover. I found a good tutorial by Whipstitch and loved the design.

 

This literally took about 40 minutes to run up - it was super simple. I could have taken a little more care if I wasn't in such a hurry to get it done before the new series of Downton Abbey started last night (wasn't it fab?) I actually didn't dither over the fabric for this one, believe it or not. The typewriter fabric kind of fell out of my fabric box and I knew instantly it was perfect! When I was halfway through making it, I brought in the Kindle to check for size and had a moment of serendipity when I realised that the screensaver had turned to the typewriter keys - so I just knew it was going to turn out perfectly.

 

What I love about this design is that there is room to hold the Kindle for reading.......and there is also an internal pocket to keep it safe inside when you're not using it, giving an extra layer of paddig to the screen.

 I really had fun with this one, but I also am looking forward to making a few other covers just for variety. I have lots of ideas on this one so you might see a few more covers in the coming weeks.