Handmade Easter Baskets

When I was a little girl I adored my Easter basket and couldn't wait to find it filled with Cadbury Creme Eggs each year. My basket was woven with yellow and pink rubbery plastic tubes. If you are thirty-something you can probably relate to what I am talking about. You might have even had something similar!

When it came time to buy Easter baskets for my boys I desperately searched for the same woven type of basket that I had grown up with. I found a plethora of Lightning McQueen, Buzz Lightyear, Star Wars and thin wooden woven baskets that were bound to put splinters in my tots fingers. To me, none of them were acceptable. When I can't find something I like, I make it instead.

Although my boys are still young they have looked forward to getting out their Easter baskets each year and haven't even asked about the themed baskets they see at Target. I am so happy.

The baskets were woven with wool yarn over plastic grid sheets and lined with felt. I slipped a piece of cardboard between the woven plastic and the felt to give it some strength. I whip stitched the pieces together with yarn.

Quilted Bird House and Toy Bird Rattles

When a beautiful little baby girl Lily was born and her mom (my cousin) decorated her room all in birds I decided to make this quilted bird house with a few bird rattle toys to go along with it as a baby gift.

I used scrap fabric, a few pieces of felt and a lot of thread to sew this creation. This is a combination of machine sewing, hand sewing and embroidery. I worked on it each night for about 2 1⁄2 hours and it took me about 7 days. I had fun taking pictures of it in the newly fallen snow before shipping it off to sunny Florida.

You will need the following items to construct the birdhouse:
- Scrap pieces of patterned cotton fabric – if you are buying fabric you will need no more than 1⁄4 yard of each pattern.
- 4 or 5 sheets of felt
- 4 bundles of thread
- Scrap batting – if you are purchasing the batting you will need very little – about 1/3 yard to be safe.
- Sharp scissors
- Sewing needles
- Sewing machine – it could be done all by hand but would take longer to do.
- An embroidery book if you don’t know the stitches by heart.
- A pattern of pieces you need to sew the birdhouse and birds.
- 4 bells – if you want the birds to be rattles when completed.

I originally posted this on Instructables so if you are interested in the steps to make a bird house like this one here is the link:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Quilted-Bird-House-with-Toy-Bird-Rattles/