Coiled Baskets, Bowls, and Trivets

I made this little red and white coiled bowl ages ago. I wrapped fabric strips around clothesline and formed a coil. To secure the coil, I took little hand stitches in between the stacked coils. Since I'm not a fan of hand sewing, the bowl didn't get too big. But the technique intrigued me. I did a little more research and found a way I could make these bowls with the aid of my sewing machine.

Materials Needed:
Clothesline or other cording
Fabric Strips (approximately 1/2" - 3/4" wide, any length)
Two clips (binder, clothespin, Wonder clip)
Sewing machine with zig zag stitch

Once I found out how to construct the bowl using my sewing machine, I started collecting clothesline. Cotton is the best, but the polyester stuff works too. You can buy macrame cording or other types of cording as well. Check your craft or fabric store for options. Clothesline can be hard to find, but now I see it everywhere. Your hardware store should have it if you get desperate.

My basket of strips. Most of these are selvage edges that don't have the color dots or writing. I collect and use those for other projects. I have one bag under my cutting table for strips and I store the the selvages with color dots in a different place. I dumped the bag of strips into a laundry basket so I could pick and choose colors. You could also cut strips from fabric in specific colors. Longer strips are a little harder to work with, and you don't want anything wider than an inch. No need to measure, but 1/2" to 3/4" wide works best. Wider strips are harder to wrap around the cording. The wider strips tend to bunch up.

The polyester cording unravels, so I usually melt the raw end with a scorpion lighter to reduce bulk at the end. Scorpion lighter optional.

A few of my sources suggest cutting your first fabric strip at an angle and gluing it in place. It doesn't have to look perfect, you will never notice it in the final piece. Gluing is optional, you can just cover the end of the cording with the fabric strip and start wrapping it around the cord. Continue wrapping the fabric strip around the cording covering all the cording and secure the fabric strip end with a binder clip, clothespin, or Wonder clip. Now it's time to sew!

Tightly coil the cording and set your sewing machine to sew a zigzag stitch. If you have a needle down mode, set that. I make the zigzag stitch width a little wider than the normal setting. You can play around with it and see what works. The zigzag stitch is stitched to catch both sides of the cording, so adjust as needed. The beginning is a little hard, but after a couple of times around, it gets much easier and faster. Continue stitching and turning/coiling your cording. When you get close to the end of the fabric strip, add another and secure with a clip.

When adding a new strip, cover the tail end of the previous strip with the new strip. Hold everything together with a clip so nothing unravels. Make sure you leave yourself enough cording to add a new strip. I was cutting it close in the photo above. The coil stays under the presser foot the entire time. This is where having a needle down mode comes in handy.

Keep going until the base of the bowl or tray is the size you want. You will keep the coil flat as you stitch. You can kind of see the white thread zigzags and how they catch two rows of cording. Use coordinating thread for less contrast. I'm not sure any thread would have coordinated with my multiple colors and that clear thread always fails me. I have a wad of it in my thread drawer.

To make the bowl shape you simply start tilting the coil toward your needle. Keep the angle consistent for several turns around the bowl and then start tilting the bowl toward your machine to build the sides. For a bowl shaped like the one I made, make subtle tilts toward your machine as you add more fabric-covered cording.

Toward the end of my bowl, I've tilted the bowl at almost a 90 degree angle to get the sides of the bowl higher. You could make shorter sides to form a tray, or higher sides to get a deeper bowl.

Finished! This bowl measures 11" in diameter and stands 4.5" tall. Don't forget to change your needle after your completed project. The cording probably dulls it.

There are plenty of great tutorials on the internet for coiled projects. I've listed a few below, but I'm sure there are others out there. I hope you give it a try. It's very easy and you can watch a movie or listen to a book while you zigzag away. Mindless sewing is sometimes just what I need.

How to make a coiled fabric bowl.
Handled fabric bowl.
Fabric coil coasters using hot glue.
This one uses 1/2" cording and is hand sewn.

If you need more inspiration, here's a collection of images of coiled baskets.

Swamped

Crazy real job responsibilities, but I still found a bit of time for for farming. I'm growing pumpkins now. Couldn't get approved for poultry. I'm scared of chickens anyway.

Toiling with coiling. Now I remember why the last bowl I made was so small.

Moving Forward

My Easy Street mystery quilt fabrics so far. I may throw a pink in there if the opportunity arises. I even found some batik orphan blocks for the back side. It looks like everyone is having fun with the mystery and Bonnie says we're only halfway through.

 I'm all caught up with step four.

 Even cut the green squares needed for a future step.

My shoe box o' everything. I was a little over zealous cutting triangles for the last step.

Speaking of being caught up, the Christmas tree is up. I almost skipped it this year, but apparently my children (and mom) will call you Scrooge if you don't drag all your crap decorations out of the attic. Doesn't it count that I have Christmas in my heart all year long? I do enjoy seeing all the fun ornaments we have collected over the years. Plus, I needed a little comfort after Friday morning's tragedy. I know those directly affected won't feel comfort for a long time, but I hope they know everyone is thinking of them.

Quilter's Corner in New Milford, Connecticut is collecting fun pillowcases to give to the children of Sandy Hook Elementary. I used Crafty Gemini's burrito, roll-up pillowcase tutorial which includes really easy French seams. I always thought French seams were fancy pants and out of my league, but they are quite easy and encase all the raw edges. Ooh la la.

I used a cute print from Little Golden books. These books and characters made me and my children smile, so hopefully they'll bring a smile to the recipient.

450!

Hard to believe it's my 450th post. What a yacky doodle.

I used this wonderful needlebook tutorial by Nana Company to make a simplified version. And yep, I put the hair elastic thingy on the wrong side. I can't tell you how many times I've done that. No biggie, I actually liked the patchwork side better. That cartoon chick was starting to bug me.

I had leftover cabbage from making potstickers, so for dinner I thought I'd whip up a simple cabbage soup to go along with grilled cheese sandwiches. The soup was killer! It's not your Weight Watchers cabbage soup diet soup, but I bet it's still pretty good for you. Let's see if I can remember what I put in it.

Cabbage Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup diced jowl bacon or 2 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 large glove garlic, minced
2 carrots, sliced (I didn't have any carrots, but I would have added them)
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 can stewed tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1 quart low sodium chicken broth
3 beef bouillon cubes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups water
3 cups sliced green cabbage
romano cheese, for garnish

In your soup pot, saute bacon in hot olive oil until bacon is rendered. Add onion, celery, garlic and saute until onions soften a bit. Add carrots, peppers and stir to combine. Add tomatoes, chicken broth, beef boullion cubes, tomato paste and water. Let mixture simmer up to an hour, checking for seasoning. Add green cabbage the last 20 minutes of cooking adding salt and pepper to taste. Grate or shave romano cheese on top before serving.

Recipe notes: If you haven't tried jowl bacon, get some. Not the kind with teeth, that's just icky. Pigs don't brush their teeth! I made that mistake once and not much grosses me out, but pig teeth in my food is just icky. Vegetarians, leave the bacon out.

I leave the cabbage until last, because most people don't like the texture of slimy cabbage. Your cabbage will still have a bite to it if you add it toward the end. This soup has tons of flavor, but do taste the broth while it's cooking to adjust seasonings. The addition of cabbage will make the broth blander, but remember you're adding salty romano cheese.

Most soups are better the next day and this soup is no exception. I just ate a bowl for breakfast. Wonder when those pounds are going to start melting off?

Finally got a copy of this book. Oh wow, the quilts are amazing! I'm off to dig out my solids.

Monday, and yes my Christmas tree is still up.

Oh chicken piccata, how I love thee. I always forget how easy this dish is. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are usually kind of tasteless, but add some lemon juice, chicken stock, butter and capers to sauce it up, and they turn delicious! There are many variations of this recipe, some bread the chicken cutlets more, but I like the simplicity of the flour dredge. It makes an amazing sauce to drizzle on egg noodles, rice, pasta or bread. Fresh parsley adds a bunch to this dish, but I was smack out of it. I kind of panic when I run out of fresh parsley. I will remedy my lack of parsley tomorrow.

Look at these Meyer lemons my mom gave me. She grows them. They are huge and so juicy.

A little salad and bread (before I toasted it) isn't going to hurt either. I also made some egg noodles and green peas. Not a bad quickie dinner. And tons of leftovers. I really should have had 10 kids. I know, bite my tongue, but I always cook for 12. My mom was/is the same way. I was an only child and my mom cooked like we had a whole crew of kiddos. It is kind of nice that anyone can stop by and share a meal. The kid's friends know they can always get fed here. Inspector Gadget and I eat leftovers for breakfast and lunch every day, so not much goes to waste.

Hills Creek Quilter has finished her Dear Jane top. It's absolutely gorgeous. Go see! If you would like to learn more about the history and fascination with the Dear Jane quilt, go here.

Another fun compilation of crafty goodness is Skip to My Lou's Made by you Monday. I like to leave the tab up all day long and flit over when I need a break from work. There are always great recipes, crafts, DIY projects and more. Just keep refreshing throughout the day and you'll find plenty of great projects and inspiration. I bombard my Pinterest boards on Mondays. Blogland is filled with craftiness! So now you know why my Christmas tree is still standing.

Brrrr!

Get your craft on! The Long Thread has gathered her Top 100 Tutorials of 2011. There are sewing projects, quilting and paper crafts and other crafty goodness to keep you from laundry. ;) She had me at the first mouse pincushion tutorial. Gotta make that later today.

Before I put my cotton candy and apricot scraps away, I made one more AAQI quilt for our guild challenge. Stripy bindings always make me smile. I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with. The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is going to have a good showing for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

It froze here last night. Rare for central Florida, but it happens. I chopped all my basil off the plant so it wouldn't be ruined. Now I have to figure out what to do with it. Salad caprese for sure, but I saw something about drying it in the nuclear wave. I have a lot of basil. That half-dead basil plant Inspector Gadget rescued from the the trash was quite prolific once it was planted.

Twenty Years Ago

Twenty years ago today, Inspector Gadget and I were heading home from the hospital with a little baby born just the day before. I can remember thinking, "they're really going to let us take him home?!" "By ourselves?!" This picture is proof that we didn't break College Boy, but I did make him feverish by having the heat too high in his room that first day home. Or how about his first tepid bath where he screamed the entire time? I certainly wasn't going to burn him up again with scalding bath water! Ha! Parenting has been fun. All in all, I think he turned out pretty cute.

Those silly Mayans. I'm still not cleaning behind the refrigerator just in case.

This morning's little project was a heart bookmark by the talented Karen at Sew Many Ways. Might be cute to tuck into a Valentine's Day card.

Everyone is back to work and school today. I guess the holidays are over. Someone tell that to my Christmas decorations.

Hacking Around the Christmas Tree

I am such a hack. Saw these adorable little owls here, which were inspired by these cuties. It's a talented blogland out there.

Ever have days when you feel like this? Bones sleeps so oddly. That's his pillow bed to the left. And if the UPS guy rings the doorbell, he charges to the door usually with the blanket on top of him.

I finally finished an AAQI quilt. Yumi and I challenged each other to work with solids. I went with a minimalist look. Her beauties have been here for a while. Now to get these quilts registered. I should make one more to keep up with Yumi. Maybe I can ignore some housework this weekend. ;)

I've been meaning to show you this beautiful Thanksgiving table setting my For the Love of Solids partner styled. That's my table runner! The AAQI quilt design kind of reminded me of the runner. I hacked myself.

Elfing Around

The little project yesterday was this adorable kid's tool belt.

I finished up these tree ornaments. Go look at the Lemon Tree Creations versions using old wooden thread spools. They are adorable. Have I told you lately how inspiring the internet is?

Hollywood made this wall hanging in kindergarten. I thought it was such a cute idea for little ones. Her kindergarten teacher was the best. I lost the dowel (or probably used it for something) years ago, so I just pinned it to my laundry room curtains.

The kids' handmade ornaments are among my favorites. I wish I had put dates on these cuties. My mom has versions of them on her tree too.