Oranges - kind of...

I was really hoping today to blog about oranges. Last year I enviously watched my friend make beautiful gifts with dried out oranges and so this year I wanted to give it a try, unfortunately I don't have my end product yet- oranges take ages to dry. So instead I've decided to blog about a PIF gift that didn't get a mention.

I think it's a suitable blog entry for two reasons:

1. It's an easy homemade gift just in time for a festive period.

2. It is incredibly pretty and orange so still partially what I wanted to blog about.

It's a collapsible food basket. My mother in law has one that she bought from France that she puts bread rolls in and is a fancy centre piece for something quite basic so I thought I would give it a try. And as a food basket needs food I made rock cakes to go inside.

I know my friend's kitchen is decorated in golds, oranges and earthy colours which is why I picked the fabric and I've already made her an apron using the same ribbon edges so soon her kitchen will have lots of matching accessories. The inside is a different fabric which is lighter and I really like the contrast of the two fabrics. You can see the inside better here:

What is so lovely about this is that it's two pieces of fabric, sewn right side together, turned inside out and ribbons attached in the corners to make it pop up. Easy! The ribbon part is the most time consuming- working out where to put it to get the right height. Equally it would be easy to make a set of these in a variety of sizes - now there's an idea!

No rules only guidelines

I was fortunate enough that when growing my mum recognised my creativity and even more fortunate was I that she encouraged it. To this day she still buys me the best presents, last Christmas was a glue gun- and tells me she wants one of everything I make. Which is very encouraging even if I'm sure they join the calendars made out of dry pasta that I made when I was 5.

When I was about 10 my mum asked me if I wanted to go to cross stitch class- of course I did(!) I was nervous at first but being the over enthusiastic child that I was, and still am, I made friends and loved it instantly. I went to that class every Saturday, my mamma would take me, leave me there and pick me up to go back to hers on the bus. I carried on going well into my teens and it changed from being taken, to meeting mamma at the bus stop, to making my way home by myself, a very proud day that was!

One of the things I learned at this class was that cross stitch should be as neat on the back as it is on the front.

Now let me tell you, as an eager 10year old this was not fun news, it meant I couldn't take all the short cuts I desperately wanted to take in order to be the first to finish- yep, I was that annoying kid too. But, Mary, the owner of the shop persevered with me and taught me patience, something she must have had bucket loads of! And I'm thankful that she did. Into my adult life I've very much taken the value and applied it to the crafts I do now. If the back looks a mess it takes the shine off the overall product. My last PIF was the framed 'Vintage' and the front was beautiful, but because I used a frame the back wasn't as nice. This month's PIF is much better. This is the front:

(it's a pen/paintbrush/knitting needle holder for those of you that hadn't worked it out yet)

And this is the back:

Pretty darn cute even if I do say so myself! I was originally going to try to glue the ends into the main pot but thought a bow might be much nicer. I don't like bragging but clearly I was right.

It's really satisfying seeing something come together, especially when they look as good as the tutorial photos, even better when you change aspects and it still looks good. That's why I think crafting will always be better than baking, no rules only guidelines!