elizabeth_mn

We've been having issues with the Girl turning over her huge plastic toybox and standing on it, then (of course) falling off, so I decided to make some canvas ones. They are smaller and un-stand-on-able.

The one in front here is done, the two in back need to be topstitched and pressed.



(My good friend/co-dancer/babysitter/surrogate auntie to my kid painted the creepy-eyes girl for me for xmas.)

And the first one in action!



They are all done, finally.  I spent way too long on these.  Maybe a week, or maybe two?  They really only took a couple hours but it was spread out 15 minutes at a time.

I used a tutorial from The Sometimes Crafter  but I made mine a little bigger; I started with squares about 19" so my baskets are about 5" high and 8.5" wide.  I stiffened the canvas with heavy sew-in interfacing and put a square of Peltex just on the bottom.



My linings are a bit baggy, but otherwise I think they are so cute!  Entirely serviceable as toy boxes.

I know I promised myself I'd be quilting by now, but I really wanted to finish these, and I would like to get some skirts done as well. But I have backing, batting, thread, and a design, so when I make the time, I am ready!

My sister's birthday is 2 days before mine, so we always get together about a week after for dinner and cake. I managed to finish this basket I was making for her and gave it to her yesterday.



It's a square-based basket, which is so much slower than a round or oval one because the square bottom must be pieced at the corners, and building up the sides is a little more picky at the corners. This is the second square one I've made. The top edge is a little wavy, which annoyed me a little, but oh well. I don't know how to prevent that happening. 

( More photos )
I also took a couple pictures of the pink basket I finished a couple weeks ago. I made it to store my cookie cutters, pastry bag, and other odd baking supplies in.

     

It's just a basic round basket with the top 2 rows made into attached handles.

The technique for all of these came from the book It's A Wrap. 

I had a really nice weekend. On Saturday I made this little fabric bowl:

 


The ball on Saturday night was a really good time! I wore my wedding dress.  It was a fancy dress ball, and lots of people had really extravangant costumes!  There were lots of good dances: lots of figure dances and English country dances. I tried to advertise a bit about the Twin Cities Costumers' Guild, met another LJ friend, lmcbeth without even realizing it! (It's always a little bit awkward when someone knows who you are and you don't remember them, but I hope all is forgiven now.)  She was in a fabulously cute Venetian dress.

Sunday was loafing, mostly.  We went to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age.  I quite liked it.  I think there were a few too many open necklines, but I guess the modern movie-goer likes to see the (partially) bared bosom.  For the most part, I really enjoyed the costumes; a lot of them had a simplicity that I really like in noble costume.  I mean, it's easy to just keep on piling crap onto a dress - trim, jewels, beads, etc. - but it's harder to make a simple, plain, finely tailored dress look really regal.  When it does, though, I think the effect is much better and makes the 5,000-jewel-encrusted dress look tawdry and overdone.

Anyway, now that I've seen it I can go read everyone else's reactions.