Quilt Show This Weekend!

Don't miss the Stray Threads quilt show this weekend!  I'm the featured artist - come by and say hi, I'd love to meet you!  Here's the postcard with all the details:

Tulips are running late

this year, but the Daffodils  are beautiful!  Here's a quick photo of some that are growing in my garden.

I'm hoping the tulips will bloom soon, because we're looking forward to the Tulip Festival again this year.

What a difference

stain can make!

I purchased three colors of Weavers Stain months ago, but did I use it?  No, it's been waiting for me, so yesterday it was time to try it out on some of my baskets.  First, I stained some scraps of reed, making color swatches of a sort, to give me an idea of the true stain colors, as well as samples with two coats and coats of two different colors.  Boy, was I surprised!  When I ordered maple, oak and walnut, I thought they'd be shaded from light to dark, walnut being the darkest, but I was wrong and maple actually came out darker.  The stain can be found on many basket making supply websites, but this one has more information on the ordering page.  Anyways, here are my resulting baskets.

Oak stain used on my Quatrafoil Garden Basket.

Bountiful Garden Basket stained with Walnut Weavers Stain:

Another designer's Garden Basket, stained first with maple (too orangy for me), and then with walnut to tone it down, but not darken it too much.

Basket for Janice, also stained with Walnut:

If you'd like to see how they looked before staining, click on the "basket weaving" link on the right hand side of my blog, or here.

Basketmaking with Friends

Cathy, Ellen and I had fun creating these baskets that will keep our basketmaking tools ready to go wherever we need them.  Mine is made from natural, smoked and black reed (top), Cathy's is made from Smoked, orange and other dyed reed, and Ellens is made from red, smoked and multi-colored reed.  They were all woven on a wooden base that was especially designed to hold basketmaking tools.  [The designer has another design for gardeners, but both have the same weaving pattern on them, and she also has a plaid basket design for tools.]

A close-up of mine:

We also worked on Quatrafoil Garden Baskets, although Ellen was called away so she wasn't able to finish hers with us.  Hopefully, she'll be able to finish it soon.  Her dog, Gordy kept an eye on our work and wanted to be in the pictures.  Isn't he adorable!  We opted for the fancy rim pattern instead of the handle decoration, so maybe we'll have to make the other variation someday.  

Cathy stained her basket and I love the way it helped blend the colors.  I've used spray stain on mine, but it's outside drying, so I'll have to take more pictures once it's dry.

Close-ups of my basket: