Piddling Away at all the Prep Work

If I had to decide what to write based on what I thought people would mostly likely want to read about, I'd be a dead duck.  I just piddle away at way too many projects, playing with my oldish fabrics and thinking it's a way cool hobby. Look at this basket handle fabric for instance.

Choosing a background and the handle fabric for my Scrap Basket.

It's hideous.  Really.  I pulled it out of the totes on a whim thinking that maybe I could better understand what my basket handle needed to look like if I tried using fabric instead of flat looking paper for the auditioning process.  The reason I chose this fabric particularly? It was one I've almost thrown away so many times I've lost count.  I mean, look at it! It's an early 90's calico that never should have made it's way home with me.  So if I waste a big chunk of it just playing the what if game, who cares?  Nothing to lose.

Playing with some applique ideas....

Except wow.  I'm so impressed with what it does here! How exactly does this happen? I am super thrilled at finding the perfect basket handle and it was a complete and total accident. Needless to say, I did not take that tack with the flowers.  I refuse to validate that mistake by duplicating it in any way.*wink

And a little bias for stems.

So much prep work before the fun begins.  I found a green fabric that seemed to work well for bias stems.  I don't usually do anything fancy for bias.  Easy peasy is my motto: Cut lengths on the 45. Sew long ends together. Fold in half and sew as close to the edge as you can get away with (I move my needle over to the right a couple clicks.) Next I fuss with the bias until the seam is directly in the middle but on the bottom side of where I want to iron.  Finally I iron it all perfectly flat.  The end.  Like I said, it's nothing fancy, but it does the job and I don't have to try to force an metal bias bar anywhere it doesn't really want to go. hehe

Necessary prep work for the hand pieced Bow-tie blocks.

I'm also slowly chipping away at some more prep work for the hand pieced bow-tie blocks.  It's not difficult, but it all needs to be properly done and put into my handwork bag for random piecing moments.

My least favorite part.

My oldest son is coming home from college this weekend for his four month internship and I want some hand work ready for the trip over to the airport in Spokane. We haven't seen him since January so I'm sure we'll leave extra early in all our excitement!