Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Wonderful Wednesday - The Thread Catcher Editon

WARNING!!!  Picture-heavy post!!!

Welcome to another edition of Wonderful Wednesday!!  This week's post is about the making of quilted gifts.  More specifically, it's about the making of more baskets.

As you may recall, I have been on a bit of a basket making kick this month.  A couple for me posted HERE.  Then I moved on to gifts for my Knit Group.  These were made by adapting Christina Cameli's Little Quilted Bucket pattern.  You can read about them in THIS post.

Once these quilted "yarn bowls" were made, I moved on to even SMALLER "thread catcher" baskets using only one of the two panels required in Christina's pattern:

With Knit Group taken care of, I moved on to thinking about making gifts for my Weekly Quilt Group.

And THAT...

Led me to a WHAT IF... moment!  As in, "What if I use this leftover portion of the failed attempt basket to make an EVEN SMALLER basket:



You KNOW that I love a good mini, right???  Well, I went into hyper-drive making these little baskets:


I had some leftover red, too:


Quilters like color, so I made a "thread catcher" basket out of a bit remaining from the back of my Rainbow Picnic Quilt.  Shown below at the "I" stage of the process.  That's after the corners have been cut out, but before any sewing has begun:


Here's the completed basket:


I was limited in the number of fabrics that worked for the binding of this one.  At the time I finished it, I thought the dot "went", but now I'm not so sure.  What's YOUR opinion?  Not that I plan on changing the binding now!  This baby has already been delivered:


This seemed to fit the next recipient:


I did "topography" quilting on this field of flowers:


Apparently, I stayed up too late while working on the next turquoise "thread catcher"!  Fortunately, I noticed there was a problem which diminished the need for stitch removal:


Here is the completed quilt sandwich...


... and the finished basket:



Hmm... that's different:


Moving along... only ONE person requested yellow:


What fun I had quilting this cheerful basket:


ANOTHER turquoise made with MORE pre-quilted scraps from my big aqua/turquoise scrap basket done in a wishbone pattern.  I'm really getting some mileage out of that project:


You may not have noticed anything different about the photo above?  (Also in that "yuckie green" pic a couple of baskets back!)  Look closely because that basket (through a cutting choice) turned out rectangular, instead of round.  Who knew?!?!  By changing the corner cut-outs, you can change the shape:


Someone is feel blue:


Aqua, anyone:


Another evening, another technique...


Let's try TWO at a time:


Alas, I only got a photo of ONE of the completed baskets:


Oops!  Here is the other one... upside down...


... And right side up.  This "thread catcher" was salvaged from that first failed attempt:


Would you believe there's more???

Well... Just ONE more:



I did some fun accent quilting in the flowers:


And, with that, Santa's Sweatshop is officially CLOSED til 2018!!

I had a wonderful time sorting through my fabric scraps to come up with pleasing groupings for each little basket.  HERE are my friends with their "thread catchers."  Together...



Oops!  A couple were missing after the first round of distribution:


... And separately...

Madame Turquoise:


Mrs. Blue:


Little Ms. Sunshine Yellow:


Ms. Purple Power:


Mrs. Positively Purple:


Mrs. All-the-Aqua:


Ms. Aquamarine:



I had a wonderful time working in Santa's Sweatshop, as my friend Needleb likes to call my "elf sewing."  LOL!  I will add additional photos as I see the rest of my friends.

Until next time...
Ho, Ho, Holy Basket Making, Batman!!!

13 comments:

  1. Whew, I'm tired just reading about it, but I'm going to try it, soon.

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  2. These are too adorable for words!!! I do have a question...how did you connect the ends of the binding? As you know, I can't do it on a full size quilt, much less an itty bitty round one :)

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    Replies
    1. Sue, that is one great thing about these - the "binding" is joined before you put it on.

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    2. Oh sweet! Thanks for replying Gene. I went to the tutuorial (duh) and see that now. Off to make some buckets..
      :)

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  3. These little baskets are so cute! Are they tricky to make? My eldest daughter has got her very own sewing machine from Santa and she'd love them!

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  4. Have you turn magician Joyful? Looks like you're pulling these little baskets out of a top hat. They are all sooooo cute! ;^)

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  5. Love all the cute names of photos of your people! Great job on making a million little baskets!

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  6. Very fun photos! Your thread catchers are adorable. Hopefully Santa's helper has a chance to rest up before next year's gifts come due.

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  7. What fun to see your friends with their thread catchers!

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  8. They look great, but I have seen how Christina makes them - so the "I" shape is confusing me. How did you adapt it?

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  9. Oh but what fun it looks like you had!!! I love the pictures of each recipient with their new bowl. Good job!!!

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  10. Did you know that a group of plums is called a "basket"? Like a flock of birds, a basket of plums. So what is the collective noun for baskets, because you sure did make a bushel of 'em! Very fun to see them all lined up, and each in the hands of their smiling owner :)

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  11. Lovely gift ideas. They look great in the different sizes and colours. The quilting finishes them off perfectly.

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