Quilts, Quilts & Baskets - Friday is here!

This has been my longest break from blogging so far and I have missed it! I have been working hard on homeschooling, getting things ready for Christmas, and trying to finish up a few more UFOs for my LQS's contest.

The lighting in the pictures of these first two quilts is horrible and I apologize for that!  These short days are making picture taking so difficult! The shadows were not working in my favor yesterday and I couldn't lay them on the ground because all of our snow had melted and I didn't want to lay them on the muddy grass. I won't have that problem any more for a while because we got 6 inches of snow today! I am excited to have a white Christmas. Christmases aren't supposed to be brown when you live in South Dakota!

Anyway, on to the sewing. This first quilt was made using the Charming Stars pattern at Moda Bake Shop. The fabric is a 3 or 4 year old line from Moda called "Lovely" by my favorite designer, Sandy Gervais. I love how happy the colors are in this fabric!

This quilt is very special to me. I won this fabric ("Cuzco" by Kate Spain) from Kate Spain herself in a blog giveaway about 18 months ago. I wasn't so sure I liked the colors in the fabric when I started, but it has really grown on me! It's such a bright, happy quilt and I'm sure my kids will be fighting over it soon enough. The pattern I used is "Jellybean" by Thimble Blossoms. Love Camille Roskelley!

And finally I decided that I needed a break from quilting, so I thought I'd make a fabric basket for a Christmas gift. I used an online tutorial that I can't find the link for at the moment. (I will add it if I find it.) These were very easy to make, except for making my own templates. I've never been great at that and this time was no exception. Despite measuring everything twice, my inner and outer didn't match up on the first basket. I fixed the problem somewhat on the second basket, but it still didn't match up like I'd hoped. For this one, I used "Noteworthy" fabric by Sweetwater and the basket is a size medium, which is about 7" square. I interfaced it according to the tutorial directions using a stiff iron-on interfacing on the lining and I'm not happy at all with how flimsy it is. I really have no idea what I'll do with it. It will most likely end up being a scrap basket.

This basket is my second try. It is a size small (~6" square) and is made from "Honky Tonk" fabric by Eric & Julie Comstock of Cosmo Cricket. I used fusible fleece on the exterior fabric of this one and I like it so much more! This one is for my Grandpa for Christmas. I knew I had to make something for him when I saw this fabric. Grandpa is 91 years old and has been a long-time fan of Louis L'Amour western novels. This fabric has a western flair, plus little cacti to remind him of the many years that he wintered in Arizona. I hope he likes it. I know he will like what I put in it! He has quite a sweet tooth and I plan to put his favorite candy in it - Butterscotches!

I also have some of this mustache print set aside. I'm not sure what I will make from it yet, but it will probably be for Grandpa. He would appreciate the humor in the "western" style mustaches.
http://www.fatquartershop.com/honky-tonk-pearl-snap-must-stash-yardage


I'm linking up today with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. Follow me over there so we can all be inspired by everyone's finishes.