Baskets

Last night I went to sleep with a feeling of accomplishment...

The rim is on the Goodness Gracious casserole basket,

and that's not all... The rim and stakes for this basket have been waiting for me, and I decided I'd better get it made before I cleaned up the basket supplies and switched the table to quilting. This one is called "Krista's Oval Basket", and is from the book "The Ultimate Basket Book" by Lyn Siler. I'm amazed how quickly it wove up, and even more amazed that the rim angle was a perfect fit for the handle! I was so afraid it wasn't pulling in enough as I started bringing the basket inward, that I started placing the handle inside for a test fit after every few rows. Amazingly, it came inward just enough, and I love the way it came out!

Usually, I sew in my studio, but the Madrona quilt isn't working out very well in there, as I don't have a design wall that is large enough (or a wall, where I can stand back to get a good look), so I've temporarily taken over the family room floor, and don't want to take the quilt up and down the stairs each time I need to sew a seam. The dining room is close, so it's my temporary sewing space - at least until it's ready to quilt.

The trees have been removed so I can work to widen the upper portion of the background, and add interest to the lower area. Originally, the panel was at least a foot larger than needed in height and width, however, they now wish to display it on a much larger wall, and I need to extend it to it's tallest and widest proportions. So... I'm back to working on the floor, and once the background panel is finished, I can return the tree designs. Here's a picture of where I'm at on this quilt now (sorry about the lousy picture, there's no space to get up higher to take a better one).