Sunday Morning Sun #9

I know it's been awhile since I made a new sun, but the project was on hiatus over the holidays. For this one I drew the  card "use complementary colors". That was the easy part, choose two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel. When these two colors are combined, they cancel each other out and produce a gray. I chose purple and yellow. Now to do something with my sun that I haven't done before.

I made double faced rays and twirled them around before sewing them down by hand. There was quite a bit of pinning and unpinning before my final sew downs. I made this "girly" face to go with the wavy rays. The face was sewn with a free-motion satin stitch in a very narrow width. 

I sent pictures of my previous 8 suns to CBS Sunday Morning about 5 months ago. I hadn't heard back and was going to write when lo and behold I got a reply a couple of weeks ago. She said that she liked them and that they would be put in a file to be used in the future. So I will have to keep a close watch. I do watch the program if I am home and record it for when I am not. 

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

After Christmas Bonus

I know that Amaryllis are usually considered Christmas flowers, but I usually like them after Christmas because then they aren't competing with all the other decorations for attention. I did have one this year that bloomed right around Christmas only because they were so inexpensive at Shoprite, already potted and ready to bloom.

A couple of weeks ago the store had them again. I bought one that had two stems about 6  inches high with big buds. It continued to grow, both stems at the same time. Right now I have eight fully opened flowers and another big bud to open. I have it on the end table in the family room where it really stands out against the off-white wall. It's about two feet tall.

I usually like yellow and pink flowers in the house after all that Christmas red, but I am happily enjoying this bonus.

Coiled Chicken Basket

This little chick was a big pain in the neck to make. I had written instructions that were very confusing so I borrowed my friend's chicken and used hers as a model.

                          Barbara used scraps of yellow, orange and tan. So cute!

I used four different prints of white and black. I made the tail shorter and fuller, making six loops instead of three. I also made the handle thicker and a little further back so that it was more balanced. 

I will be linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Coiled Fabric Baskets

Finally something new to show you. A member of my FiberWorks group gave a demo a few months ago on how to make fabric coiled baskets. I thought that it looked like fun, but somehow never got around to trying it until this week while stuck in the house with frigid weather and a blizzard.

They really are easy to do. I made this blue one first. Strips of fabric cut on the cross grain are wrapped around clothesline then sewn on the machine. If you go online you can find a lot of directions. There are different variations and you have to find what suits you best. For this one I wrapped a lot of clothesline while watching TV, using blue and yellow print scraps. I rarely use prints in my quilts anymore, but I have bins of them stored under the guest room bed.

The base of this one is eight inches wide and uses a straight side technique. It makes a pretty big basket, good for fruit or balls of yarn.

I made coiled handles separately and glued them on with acrylic medium. 

This one was made with a 3 1/2 inch base and I wound the fabric as I sewed so that I could get a striped effect. I changed thread color as I changed fabric. I tipped the bowl as I got to the top so that the edges turn in, sort of like pottery. This is narrower and taller than the blue one.

Here you can see the different fabrics I used. I sent away for a book from Amazon, which has some good directions. Next I want to try a square. My friend also made a very cute chicken that I am going to copy with some color variations.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday. Please go see what some talented people are doing.