Great Day With A Friend

I had a great morning at my friend Sonya's house. She taught me how to make a melon basket. It was very refreshing being able to do something new with a lovely finished project in a day. Sonya is a patient teacher and a very experienced professional basket maker. She does sell some of her baskets on her etsy site.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sonyaanderson1

The basket I made is resting on a scarf I made for my daughter from Christmas present yarn she gave me. I think this basket will make a great little knitting basket for me.

Quilted Compass

Here is the quilted Mariner's Compass that hung around as a 2+ year old ufo. This is one time that I'm glad a ufo was stumping me. It had a chance to age letting me think about what design approach to take. In this case I kept thinking about fall and fall colors when I looked at it, because of the mustard colors in the star. I was never happy with the piecing on this star and that's why it was not included in the show quilt it was made for "Party to the Stars". Maybe it was destined to greatness being alone.

Mariner's Compass UFO in progress.

I know it's been quite a while since I last posted. Christmas is a super busy time for me personally and professionally. Customers need their pieces and family starts arriving. So here I am starting my January vacation only doing a few customer pieces and working on a traveling exhibit that will be in Rhode Island at the MQX show this spring. No pictures will be posted of the finished items, so you need to go to the show to see them, until after they finish traveling.

In between piecing I put the wayward unfinished Compass on the longarm. You can see some of my ingredients in the first picture. The second picture shows the loose layering. I should be able to quilt it sometime today and post a picture again. It will be embellished also.

I hope you find time this winter to do something for yourself. Take time to enjoy the cooler weather.