My big basket of fabric which helps create my little baskets of coiled fabric.

Baskets, baskets and a few more baskets....

After making over 100 little baskets - I had to make a big basket! The top two baskets (with the cherries) are random fabric and allowed me to enjoy the full process of bringing the sides of the baskets up and curving them in. These two still need handles and will be taken to the craft show in Elgin in October.

This big fella is my ode to pumpkin. Last year I made a pumpkin, a good sized pumpkin complete with a sculpted stem. It remains one of my fabric baskets.

Wrapping it up with friends...

Last night I tried again to deplete my overabundance of 1" fabric stripes with the help of three friends. After dining on delicious pizza and enjoying some good wind-down conversation we all gathered around Kandi' dining room table in the quaintest home. Its large with great rooms that have a history that envelopes you when you come in the front door. Her home reflects her love a quilting and you would be hard pressed not to find a beautiful quilt to look at and admire.

We set up our machines and started wrapping cords to make baskets. The magic of the evening resulted in Becky finishing her basket which was composed of lovely shadows of purple. Then Judy finished her basket made with burgundy and green fabrics. Kandi finished her first basket and went right into her second basket. When I left at nearly midnight, it was plain to see she was hooked and would be going to work bleary-eyed the next day.

I brought my camera to record the projects and their progress but never thought to pull it out.

Thank you Kandi for hosting, Becky for welcoming and helping me get all my 'stuff' ready and Judy for her stories about General Dodge and her volunteering at the Dodge House. You inspire me.

I posted from the bottom up.

Enjoy the story from the bottom to the top picture.

When I worked with a piece of fabric that told a story on its own, I just added a few pieces to compliment it.

Christmas in the Manager was another attempt at the thread caligraphy. Where the bear came to life, in this one the donkey and the cow took on a mind of their own. Fortunately, neither Baby Jesus nor Lucy seemed to mind the manger animals looking a bit odd.

Bear Stays Up for Christmas was a fun pocket to make. The sketch on the pocket was a handmade drawing of the bear on the cover of the book. I had just taken a class in thread caligraphy and found the fun of using my satin stitch feature on a 45 degree angle. The open eye is a shiny black button. The pocket is a soft, fluffy cotton flannel to mimic the snowy landscape. When Lucy is looking for her bear book, it appears the bear is waking up just
enough to greet her.

Christmas in July. No - that is just how early you have to start to get 24 book pockets made before Thanksgiving rolls around. Lucy's Christmas books are arrayed on her parents' couch so I could show my sister-in-law, Bobbi, what my version of this very special project looks like.

As I had written earlier on my blog, this project began when my sister, Pat, had her first grandchild. She made 24 pockets, each with its own Christmas story book inside for her grandson, Joseph, to read. One book each night was to be selected to help countdown the 24 days to Christmas.

This was over 14 years ago and it was an idea I knew I was going to borrow for my grandbabies when they arrived. My kids were too young to think of marriage much less children at that time. Seven years past and it was Margaret's turn to become a grandmother and she made her first granddaughter, Klaire, a set. [She has since then made four full sets; one for each of her grandchildren.]

Another seven years came to pass. You would think I would have been buying Christmas books all along to get a goodly supply of all types of Christmas stories. Not. When my daughter and son-in-law announced that my first grandchild would be here in March of 2009, I was sure I was going to make a set. Unlike Pat's and Margaret's that were constructed of felt, mine are made from quilted blocks.

This is how the process goes at this grandma's house. ....