Sunday, June 1, 2008

A Tisket, A Tasket, What to Put in My Basket?

One of my girlfriends has a very special girls night each year for her birthday. For weeks I had been debating what to make her. Last year I made her these mother daughter bags. Then I made her daughter the pink kitchen. Boy did I set the bar too high! No, just kidding.

I knew all along that I wanted to use photos for her gift. For a while I had been playing with picnic and thinking of making something using the photos on zazzle. The search was over when I saw the fabric basket at Pink Penguin and this fabric basket, made using photos.

I printed the photos onto muslin using wonder under as the paper backing. I still want to try using freezer paper to do fabric printing. Ralphs did not have freezer paper and I am *really* trying to use what I have anyway.

By the way, I heard on the news that while other retail stores are showing slow sales, Joanne's Fabric had better than expected earnings this quarter. I could have told them that. Troubled times call for craft therapy.

First Fabric Basket
I have always been a "divergent learner" so naturally, I did not follow the tutorial exactly. I wanted the pictures to be bigger so I used 3" squares instead of 2" squares. Now, my bigger basket is also floppier.

Also, I got so excited when I figured out "boxed corners" that I became overly zealous and forgot to attach the fleece interfacing. To fix that, I put the fleece in the basket lining and did some quilting around the pictures-after the whole thing was assembled.

Have I mentioned that I may be a bit A.D.D?
Photo Fabric Basket


All is well that ends well, right? I think it looks pretty cute. I like the colors and the overall impression. But what do I put in it? I thought it would be good for holding mail and I was going to fill it with a note pad and some stationary. Now, it's sort of too floppy for that function. I thought about a lot of ways to stiffen it, but since I quilted the whole thing together, it's done. And, frankly, I am done with it.
Photo Fabric Basket

Now it's more gift bag than gift. Spa goodies maybe? Snacks? Any ideas are welcome!

7 comments:

Nutsy Coco said...

Very cute! I think some spa goodies would be perfect for it.

Handi Dandi Mandi said...

That turned out so adorable! I think no one in their right mind can turn away spa goodies and maybe some chocolate to go with it. If it's another crafter, some crafty stuff could be fun too.

jodi said...

I have no idea but it is a beautiful bag.

Jodi Ohl said...

Beautiful basket--I say it's a great pamper me basket-fill it the shredded papers and add lotions, nail polish, bath salts etc:) I know I'd love a gift like that!

ayumills said...

Your basket is so cute! I like how the patchwork part is really interesting looking. The color is very nice too. It doesn't look that floppy. If you put something soft, it should work just fine, I think;)
Thanks for sharing your basket!

Ginger said...

Ahh that so cute!! Well done my friend

BEELICIOUS said...

Love these!!! So Darling! You did a Great job:D