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Basket of Love

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I wanted to share a follow up to my previous post (Dec 30) “Throwing Pottery” on the Sewing Machine.

There are additional details on the fabric basket I recently “threw” on my sewing machine: It was part of a wedding gift for a dear friend. Now that my friend has received her gift I can share the additional photos/story!

What began as this –

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Became this once five (5) little scrappy batik heart pillows were added to make it the tierneycreates Basket of Love:

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My friend has a modified “Brady Bunch” situation going on. When she wed her wonderful finance they joined their families and became a blended family of five.

So I made each family member a little scrappy fabric heart and on the back of each heart I added a pocket so they could use the hearts to share little notes of love and appreciation to each other.

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For fun I even made up five generic “sample love notes” and placed them in the pocket of each heart.

Working on this piece and sewing in general was a nice bit of healing for me as I deal with the grief of the recent loss of my beloved mother-in-law and the loss of my Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer. As you all probably know, grief comes in waves and it seems better to be sewing than just sitting around when one of these waves hits.

My friend and her fiancé are wonderful loving parents and I know their joined family and new home is likely filled with lots of love, but it made me very happy to make a gift that does more than celebrates their marriage – it celebrates their new family!

Postscript

We had a couple days of warmth (up to 61 degrees F) in Central Oregon but now a deep chill has set in. Not as bad as parts of the US where a terrible Arctic freeze/chill is leading to record lows, so I will not complain.

We have quite a bit of “hoar frost” in Central Oregon. Every time I hear the words “hoar frost” I laugh to myself. I remember when I first moved to the Pacific NW in the late 1990s and heard the term “hoar frost” for the first time. I thought my friend was saying something else completely in regards to the frost (hint: sounds like wh___). And I thought: “Wow, in the Pacific NW they really hate frost!”

In case you have not heard of “hoar frost” before, according to the Google dictionary it is:

a grayish-white crystalline deposit of frozen water vapor formed in clear still weather on vegetation, fences, etc.

Here is a tree loaded with hoar frost from my morning walk:

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I want to close this post by mentioning how much I have enjoyed reading “end-of-year” summaries by my blogging buddies. I might write up one myself when I feel ready.

Hope you all are having a Happy New Year so far!

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

24 thoughts on “Basket of Love”

  1. What a lovely gift! I am not up to making such a beautiful bowl, but may I borrow your idea of making the hearts?
    One day, I hope to be able to throw a fabric pot.
    We have had three days of below freezing temperatures.
    I ventured out yesterday and today just to get re-energized.
    I am in the process of revamping my beginning of the year goals and thoughts.
    I know, it’s a bit early to change…or is it a bit late to start over…whatever…
    Just have ants in my pants and don’t know what I want.:)

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    1. Of course you can borrow my idea, I likely borrowed it from someone else at some point, ha! Three days of below freezing for your part of the country sound crazy – wow! Are you revamping your goals to include “staying warm”? Just teasing 🙂

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  2. Wonderful gift! I love the idea of a place to leave special notes. Jim and I used to, and still occasionally do, leave notes for each other — the kind that say something more than “I left for my meeting at 9:40. There’s some sandwich meat you should finish for lunch.” It’s an idea you could put into a lot of different gifts, especially pillows. That plaid pillow for my son has a chest pocket on it. That would work!

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    1. Thanks so much Melanie and I still have a couple notes TTQH left me when we were younger as well as a fax (does anyone remember faxes, ha!) he sent me when I was on a business trip just checking on how I was doing. 🙂

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  3. It was my wedding gift!! From my dear and longtime friend. And we love it — what a meaningful gift to receive! Can’t wait to try it with the kids. Makes me all misty… Thank you, Tierney!!

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  6. What an excellent idea to make this special gift extra, extra special! And I had to giggle at your comment on hoar frost 😂 It’s amazingly pretty though – we hardly ever see it in Ireland because it never gets cold enough!

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  9. Tierney, I think your basket is so cool! I’ve never made one on the sewing machine but I have made the ones where you wrap fabric around cording. Mine were never as pretty as yours. What a sweet idea to make the hearts and then to add the pockets. Very clever. I’ve never heard them term “hoar frost” before but I have seen it here many times. Now I know what to call it. I hope your heart is healing! As I write this comment I can see the photo of your two dogs in the right margin of your blog. So many fond memories. How is the adopted brother Mike doing?

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  10. Beautiful work, Tierney! Wonderful to see the added pieces of the fabric basket project. This is an incredibly thoughtful and beautiful gift, and I’m sure it will be treasured by the family that received it. You’ve given them a wonderful way to express their love. 🙂 And that frost is beautiful in the way it covers the world in crystals. Quite stunning!

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  11. This basket filled with hearts is so wonderful! I love how they can put little notes in the heart…what a great gift to a new family. It helps them create new traditions and share their love for each other. I think sewing is very therapeutic and also helps keep fond memories alive and well in your heart. Still thinking of you….

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