When I was at our guild's quilt retreat this past weekend, one of the members there (Carol Ann) brought some fabric bowls that she had made, which I found fascinating. She's made some beautiful ones, absolutely stunning. She's a wonderful person, one of those kind of people you just want to be around for hours and hours because she just has an infectious personality that draws you to her. Anyway, after talking with her a while and learning how she makes these, I decided I'd try one myself.
So here's my first effort. I started it last night and finished it while ago. Probably took about 3-4 hours total, most of which is spent making the cord. You start with some 3/16" cotton clothesline cord and wrap it with 3/4" strips of fabric, gluing it along the way while you wrap the fabric in a spiraling down manner. When you get to the end of the fabric, you just glue the end down and then wrap on another piece and keep going. Then you start swirling the cord together in the center of the basket and zig-zag stitch it to hold it all together. I put a couple of handles on mine as well by bumping out the cord on either side.
It measures 13" across by 3" high. I figured I could use it to hold notions and stuff in the sewing room, but you could use them all over the house to hold stuff. What do you think? I was pleased for my first try.