was supposed to be a finish

oh, i tried. honest i did. but i didn't make it happen. and the above mess is what results when i'm madly scrambling to complete something by a deadline: scraps flung about, cuttings here and there, tools all over the place. not only do i not have a completed quilt, i have a mess on my hands.

my seester loree's baby arrived on monday and i immediately began work on the quilt. however, there hasn't been much quilt time to snatch here this week. i was so hoping to have the quilt finished to present at the placement ceremony last night. i worked away at it all afternoon yesterday as i helped the littlest girls with their school work. d4, bless her, kept encouraging me and even suggested i didn't need to put anything in the middle, i could just take the top as a blanket, it would work just fine that way.

so i went to the placement ceremony empty handed last night. the really important stuff happened without my quilt there. all the papers were signed, the families met and shared in the joy of this baby being placed into our family by his loving and brave birthmother, dessert was enjoyed. all without a quilt in sight. no big deal.

i'd like to take the scraps from this quilt and make some sort of keepsake for jed's birthmother. i don't know what she'd do with a mini quilt, but it's all i've come up with. any other suggestions?

seester time and some epp

my family had our annual girls weekend last week. it's a time when all three generations of females from my mom on down get together at my s-i-l's cabin for bonding over fun, food, chatter, religious devotionals, performances, hiking, crafting, and whatever else we can cram into one extended 4-day weekend together. it's awesome.

i brought along my new fabric picks for my epp project. i'm not sure if i like adding them in yet or not. still deciding. but i did work on basting them this last weekend. i cut one out already but figure any i don't use for this project i can use elsewhere, so no effort or fabric wasted.

now i'm going to introduce my seesters to you, those lovely ladies on my left sidebar. and there is some actual sewing in this post, a tiny bit at the end. promise!

our theme this year was "army", the motto "be all you can be." each year mom chooses a theme that everything is based on. and we always make t-shirts. it's fun to see everyone's different interpretations on the same basic tee. we went very simple this time with some basic vinyl cut on the silhouette by seester katee and ironed on the shirts.

 katee, the baby seester and a wicked-good hair stylist, also shared some new beauty techniques for the eyes. i am related to 4 very fashionable, well-manicured seesters. somehow i slipped in the group. they love me anyway. jodee, the photographer, was snapping shots of us after the make-over. and then my camera died - yikes! it's only the 2nd time ever that's happened. so i don't have a group shot, just individuals, to share. i wanted to include each seester, though, so you'll just have to scroll through all their beauty to get to the sewing.

 loree, seester #2, is closest to me in age, just 15 months younger. her new baby boy, jed, arrived on monday! so glad she got to spend the weekend with us first. (and i really should be working on the quilt right now!)

 oh, yes, here's my glamour shot. see, i do make up decently. i really ought to wear make-up more often, but the minutes they spend each day on their faces and hair, i spend sewing. and i have completed quilts to show after a while. fair trade, no?

 marcee is seester #3. this is her first time ever as a blonde and i still can't get over it. there was some sort of problem with her last hair coloring and she just went all out bleached. marcee doesn't sew, but with the help of her mother-in-law, who does quilt, she made two whole-cloth quilts for her family a few years ago.

jodee, #4, is the seester who resembles me the most. no, really! we do look alike. and she is the one i am the least like in every other way. except, i guess, she's a photographer and i like photography. she is in love with my "out on a limb" quilt, drooling over it whenever she comes over, but she has no interest in quilting. bummer.

that's my seesters. they are all creative and crafty in their own ways. we've even sewn on girls weekend before. this year we focused elsewhere than crafting. i did manage to get some epp shapes basted and one block sewn together.

i worked on this while we had our nightly adult devotionals. we talked about being content with our personal allotments and how obedience brings blessings.

next year i hope to have some sort of simple sewing project for all of us to do together - something to donate to a cause would be ideal. i'll have to keep my eyes peeled and my thinking cap on.

linking up with kelly at needle and thread thursday.

quilt top for a rainy day

 who says rainy days aren't fun?! not me! rain in the desert is like manna from heaven. it's always a cause for celebration in our household. we let the kids pause whatever is going on to splish splash it up in the downpour.

while they were running wild in the wet street, i was working on cousin sara's baby girl quilt, my second go at an improv pieced frame quilt. coincidentally, this quilt features some darling retro gals sporting umbrellas and slickers while they daintily play in the rain. perfect!

i only have two more frames planned for it and then the top is complete. those cute umbrella girls were a perfect compliment to my rainy morning. the sun came out in the afternoon and that's welcome, too. i had to stop work on this top, though, because my seester loree texted all of us that baby jed was on his way! so i had to start his quilt. i hope to have it done by thursday to present to them at the placement ceremony.

oh, and since it's wednesday, my other wip for the week is i'm going to make the pencil case for the patchwork, please zakka along 2.0. i'm using scraps from the rainy quilt for my pencils. i don't think i'll get it done this week, what with needing to complete jed's quilt and all, but i'm getting it started.

pincushion, finally!

i've needed a new pincushion for . . . i don't even know how long. since the dawn of sewing time around here, i suppose. this summer, some wrapped up binding has been standing in for the awaited arrival and the rest of my pins just live in the box. that binding is about to go on it's quilt and trying to get pins out of the box is a risky venture. so a pincushion was in order.

 i've got several patterns for some adorable heather bailey pincushions (supplies for some, too) as well as the countless patterns in my sewing library. but other than the strawberry i started years ago, i just haven't buckled down and made one. there always seem to be more pressing sewing projects to spend my limited time on. until this week!

i was browsing ayumi takahashi's book patchwork, please! and decided to make the pincushion on the cover. all it needed was a few scaps. i have plenty of those. i even had some linens stashed away from when we made headbands at girls weekend 2010.

 i selected some pink and pink-with-green fabrics from the scrap basket. for my linen, i chose a shot charcoal.

i've never done foundation paper piecing before or sewn a 3d shape, so this was out in exploratory waters for me. aside from it being maybe difficult to work with because it was small, i figured a simple project like this was a good choice for a beginner.

the books directions, however, were not extremely clear for a beginner like me. there was a certain level of assumed knowledge i was lacking and some directions that were just unclear. i was able to figure out how to do everything, but think the explanations could have been more precise and a few more diagrams would have been appreciated.

for example, in the paper piecing instruction section, you're told to temporarily glue the first scrap to the paper pattern, wrong sides together. then you're immediately told "with right sides together, fold the pattern down and cut 1/4" away from the paper." this thoroughly confused me! i thought it was a typo until i kept looking over everything and realized it just wanted me to fold the paper out of the way to create a 1/4" seam allowance on the scrap. "fold the paper down, right sides together" would have been more helpful. to me, at least.

when it came to the pattern for the pincushion, diagrams would have been helpful. having never done a 3d shape before, i didn't understand how to place all the pieces for sewing until i had played around with them a bit. but i did get there.

also, i do really think there is an incorrect measurement in that pattern. the little square patches are 2" sq, and you're supposed to end up with a patch 2 1/2" sq so that you have a seam allowance on all sides. yet the fabric scrap for the middle is supposed to be cut at 2" x 1.5", so i was missing the seam allowance in a few places.

the linen scraps were all to be cut the same size, which meant a lot of waste for the tiniest piece at the bottom and not quite enough for the piece across the top. i quickly discovered i could use pieces cut off the sides for the tiniest bottom triangle, which saved me 3 scraps. in the future, i think i would cut 8 rectangles as called for (2" x 1.5") and 4 rectangles at 2.5" x 1.5" instead of 16 at 2" x 1.5".

 i think that's why i had gaps in some spots, like in the photo above.  the gaps fell in the seam allowance, so when i sewed the top on, it all seems to have worked out, so i guess it's okay. but i'd rather be safe than sorry. if this were a project that was going to be washed ever, those little gaps might cause issues.

it was pretty easy sewing that little box together - i was surprised! i thought i'd have difficulty manipulating the pieces so they didn't get sewn together in the wrong places, but i had no problems at all.

when it came time to stuff the box, i got out my stuffing scraps. this box of strings and cuttings too small to be good for anything else has been piling up in hopes of being used as stuffing in projects that require some.

 so instead of polyfil, i used the strings. the washed bits from my epp project were especially soft and cushy feeling. so glad there was a use for them! i even used the leftover pieces cut off of this project when the piecing was all trimmed up.

 so here she is - not as crisp looking as ayumi's cover girls, but not too shabby, either. i did have a small mismatch along seams, so one of the patterned fabric pieces is slightly off in the center, but the button seems to be covering that up. ayumi used fabric covered buttons for her pincushions, but i didn't have kits for any small enough for this project. not wanting to delay with a trip to the store, i selected a sparkly green button from my button stash. (oh, yes, i have one of those, too.)

overall, this was a fun and quick project. heck, if i can do it, anyone probably can! i will likely make more of these if i have a need for a quick gift. i do like that it uses up scraps and that i got to dig into my stuffing scraps and button stash, as well.

in general, the book is completely adorable! there are several projects i'm itching to make, like the storybook quilt and pencil cases (zip pouches - another first!). and i really, really want to figure out where ayumi gets all her great fabrics. japan? i hope not. i sure wish she'd credited the sources so i could get my hands on some. her fabric taste is awesome.

my only other wish for the book? a cd with all the patterns on it so you could print out what you wanted instead of photocopying or tracing them. that would have been the icing on the cake. i might just have to join the zakka along 2.0 now!

linking in with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

a small but real finish

the last few Fridays, I've had no "real" finishes to share - just fake ones that let me slip through the door and get some linky love from wonderful quilty people out there. but this week I really did finish not one, but two projects! so my link in with finish it up Friday is totally legit. (you can see my pincushion tomorrow.)

presenting "patch the puppy" quilt!

this is the first time I ever attempted improv piecing.  I was inspired by beth's patchwork frames baby quilt at plum and june. I was even going to follow her tutorial for the pattern. but when I sat down to sew, I didn't feel like making exact measurements for cuts or doing the patchwork ring. too much work for the mood I was in. so I just took her great idea as a jumping off point and went with whatever happened. I let my 11 yr old daughter (d2) select the order of fabrics for me.

 i'm pretty happy with the way it turned out although I learned a thing or two by what I don't like as much about it. namely:

1) it's not wonky/off-centered enough in the frame sizings. some of the strips almost look like they were meant to be cut the same but weren't. next time, i'll make the constrast between the strip widths greater so the boxes stand out more from each other and the off set nature of them is more noticeable.

and 2) I wish i'd got more color contrast in those 3 center rings between the whites. those 3 strips are so close in color that they almost make the other blues not fit because they match and the others don't. it's got to be either matchy or not matchy to work best, I think.

also, not a major issue, but I realized the other day when my baby tried to walk across it and I panicked that she would get it dirty, that this very light color scheme might be difficult for the mother to keep clean! oh, well. it looks sweet and very baby at the least.

for quilting, I chose to keep a soft feel to the quilt by just echo quilting the insides and outsides of the frames. I was trying really hard to sew accurately, so I made myself sew on "turtle", the slow setting on juki. it took ages and ages. but I think it helped some.

I love the little center accent patch of puppies from aneela hooey's sherbet pips line. I've got loads of pips that I've yet to cut into so it felt good to use this here. and it inspired my name for the quilt, too.

i'm torn between using "patch the puppy " and something with "spot", though, because I like the p alliteration with the first one and I think if I used spot it would also refer to all the polka dot/spotted prints in the quilt.

but "patch the puppy" it is.

I used an amy butler aqua dot on the back and an adorn it dot for the binding. normally the print on the binding not being straight would bother me, but for some reason it doesn't here. it was the best color choice by far from my stash, so I used it.

I love a quilt that comes together in a few sittings. this one was about a week total of sewing here and there as I got the chance. now to get it delivered!

also linking in with Kelly at needle and thread thursday

small wips

 in the binding phase of this little fella. it was slated for my expected-any-day-now nephew, jed, but my sister came and fabric shopped my stash for a custom order. no worries, there were 3 more i needed to make anyway. this one will go to either sam or trace.

attempting this mini pretty - first non-quilt sewing project in absolutely ages. and a foray into foundation piecing.

linking up with freshly pieced's wip wednsesday.

a little help

i try to involve my kids in my sewing as much as possible. my aim is to not only give them happy memories and associations with sewing, but to teach them as i am learning, too. besides, i don't want to be lost in my sewing world why my children grow up unnoticed on the sidelines. if i can sew and spend time with them, it's a good thing.

my own mother was a prolific and accomplished seamstress who made most of our clothing for several years. once there were 8 of us, the wardrobe making slowed down to mostly sunday  or special occasion dresses. i do remember the trips to the fabric store, the pins in the shag carpet (and our feet), cutting out patterns, the whir of the machine. however, beyond our involvement in selection and maybe some pinning and pattern cutting, she did the sewing herself.

i know she meant to teach us and rather thought she was as she went along. but really, i had no idea how to sew other than the few lessons i had from home ec units. i knew how to thread a machine and that you were supposed to line the arrows on the pattern pieces up on the fabric grain. mom did teach me to cross stitch, just not to sew. despite my lack of learning, those early experiences instilled in me a positive outlook on sewing and a feeling of competency should i choose to give it a whirl.

this is one of the reasons i try to involve my own children so much. although they all show interest at times and will help periodically, i have one little person who routinely shows up at the machine. i have to be very careful when she's around because she loves to push the buttons on the machine, unasked, while  i'm sewing. this is dangerous!

i'm always on the look-out for tasks to involve her in. she thinks the small dusting brush for the machine is her personal property as i've given her the job of removing lint (in safe areas). "oh! i need to get the fuzz off!" she exclaims whenever she wanders over.

she's learned how to remove basting pins for me, a task i gladly leave to her. when it's a big quilt, she can do it as i am quilting. however, when she tried to do it with this baby quilt, it kept pulling at my stitching. so i just left them in and turned it over to her when i was done. she took her own sweet time removing them, which i enjoyed watching.

last night she also helped me pin a 4sq i was putting together. she thought it was so fun to count all the pins (great homeschool lessons since she really needs practice with this). it was a little unsettling when she wanted to remove the pins as i sewed, but i felt it important to take the extra bit of time to allow her to do the task. i also allowed her to push the machine buttons for me at the appropriate times when directed by mama. we constantly talk safety, which is slowly sinking in.

hearing her exclaim, excitedly, "you're teaching me to quilt, huh, mama?!" was worth all the patience allowing her to help requires of me.

free fuglies

my friend lucy-angel of charm about you has organized another fugly fabric swap. if you have any fabrics that have been sitting around unloved and unused for too long you can help them find a new home anywhich way you choose and link up to the party to offer them to other sewers/quilters who can love them more than you could.

my offerings were internet orders that didn't look the way i expected when they came or some joann sale purchases before i really sewed at all. i know someone else can do something cute with them, i am just not interested in holding on to them. getting the shelf space back would be nice!

Chinese takeout - there is at least a yard each of these

merry Christmas! - 1 yd ea
found a home



a lonely piece that is cute but has no mates. looks a bit dark and grey here, but is more of a light blue. the print is large (see snips at top for reference)

i would like to send them off at least in the groups they are photographed in, but if you really are dying for something, i'll break it up. am offering each individually or collectively, whatever you want, to anyone in the domestic USA who asks for them. sorry, but this time i can't ship international (unless you are Lucy b., Liz g., or Deborah g. and really want something) because i don't want to pay big bucks to dispose of them. i don't mind sending them regular US postage, though.

so if you see something you like, ask away! please make sure you are not a no-reply blogger or that you leave me your email or i won't have any way to contact you and will have to offer them to someone else.

even if you don't have any fuglies or want any, stop by and wish lucy-angel a happy bloggy 2nd birthday. she's got some great giveaways going to celebrate. tell her "hi" for me!

finishing touch

 this afternoon i had an appointment to meet a lady who recently moved into our neighborhood and attends my church. (my other friend, linette, and i've been assigned as her visiting teacher, which is like being assigned to be a friend - it's awesome.) i wanted to take her a small something to say "welcome," so i planned to bring along one of my favorite chocolate bars in both it's dark and milk versions. instead of putting them in a gift bag, i raided my scrap basket for a piece to tie around the chocolate into a bow.

i found a bit that was about 3/4" wide by the width of fabric, which was trimmed off the backing i recently used for the 3 panel baby quilt. it had brown (chocolate) as well as pinks and greens in it.

with the bow tied around it, cute frayed edges and all, it made a sweet little package. i promise the bow looked a lot cuter in person. somehow it looks messy and less shabby chic in the photo.

i thought it made a unique and pretty finishing touch to the chocolate.  i've used scraps to dress up at least 2 other gifts (here and here). it's a fun way to use up scraps and represent yourself well in your wrapping.

other than that, i actually spent the whole morning sewing with my dear friend jill for the first time in months. we got a lot of catching up with each other done, but no finishes. maybe next week.

this fella almost made it to the finish line. i had planned on getting up early this morning and completing it, but my husband kept me up way too late. marriage and sleep before quilting.
i'm on the second to last round of echo quilting the squares. as soon as this is posted, i'm heading right back there.

linking in to crazy mom quilts! i know, i know, my "finishes" are being quite widely and liberally interpreted lately. life got in the way of the quilt finish i had planned this week. it'll be done next week for sure.

the light of liberty

#1 - P  tungsten light  1/80  2.8f  +2/3 exp  iso200

this is a photo shoot process post. it's heavy on photos (28) and words, too, to describe my thinking. you've been warned! i've linked in with plum and june's photography workshop party. this is a more technical post. i also wrote a basic, entry-level photography post here.

while admiring beth's mini summer quilts at plum and june, i realized briar rose was now available and i didn't have any yet. yikes! even though i'm trying to fabric diet, i hopped on over to fabric.com to get some. however, as darling as the line is and as much as i adore heather ross's designs, i decided i could live without a lot of briar rose. my willpower kicked in and i only selected two prints to coordinate with the pile i already have set aside from previous lines. whew! i patted myself on the back for being so good.

then, . . .
for some reason, i checked to see what liberty of london lines might be available. uh oh! lots of new tana lawns. that's where the willpower (mostly) flew out the window. i ordered 5 - 1/2 yard cuts of some irresistible prints. oh, shame on me! why, oh why does that stuff have to be so expensive? and gorgeous and completely irresistible to me? utter temptation.

#4 - P  tungsten  1/80  f2.8  +2/3exp  iso160

well, the whole caboodle arrived yesterday afternoon during our family cleaning hour. i didn't have time to look at it, so i set it aside, forgetting it until this morning. the dog woke me up at the crack of dawn, so i had some quiet time to myself. i got to sit down with my new lovelies and just admire them to my heart's content. they truly are exquisite. i can't help repeatedly running my fingers over their silky texture. and the colors! the dainty florals are my favorites. something about the delicate line drawn flowers appeals to me.

ah, it was a special time for just the two of us this morning. ha, ha!

M daylight  1/100  f4.0  iso200

as i caressed my darlings, i looked up at the entryway and noticed the amazing morning light shining through. i have these large wicker baskets lining the entry; one for each child to keep their shoes and such in. the sunlight streams through the window in the morning, setting the golden baskets aglow in such a lovely way. it reminded me of laura's photo shoot post. and liberty reminds me of laura. suddenly i wanted to combine the fabric with the baskets and light. it seemed a perfect match.

M  daylight  1/100 f4  iso200
i zoomed in a bit to try and capture how the light gleams on the basket handles and the dust motes dance in the air

it turned out much tougher than i had anticipated. having two different aspects i wanted to include really complicated the matter. i could get one or the other, but featuring both together proved illusive. i think i asked too much of the photo. in truth, none of the photos capture the details of the fabric designs enough for me. still, it was fun playing and working on my skills.

i took 50 photos, but only included 28 here.

M  daylight  1/100  f4  iso200
closer still on those handles - i still didn't capture the magic light, though

the very first photo in this post (#1) is the first one i took. and i do like it. but it doesn't showcase the fabrics as much as i wanted to. the yellow print, my favorite, is out of focus thanks to the shallow depth of field i got with my 2.8 f stop.

 i tried putting the fabrics in a row on the backside of the basket so they would all be in equal focus:


#2 - P tungsten 1/60  2.8f  +2/3exp  iso160

but to get the basket included, i was too zoomed out.

i zoomed in, including only a bit of the basket:


#3 - P  tungsten  1/60  2.8f +2/3exp  iso160

 but i lost the points where the basket was lit up and sort of sparkly in the bright light.
 i also tried the angle in the 2nd photo of the post (#4). that one looks rather like dishtowels in a basket. i was trying to include a bit more of the basket, but i don't like the way the handle covers the fabrics.

at this point, i was frustrated with the styling, so i went back to where the light sparkles on the handles. i placed the fabrics slightly differently and tried again:


#5 - P  tungsten  1/8  2.8f  +2/3exp  iso125

the aqua capel in the back is still too blurry. and the handles are dead center; i prefer off centered.

i was shooting in P (program) mode, letting the camera pick my settings, but with the exposure compensation bumped up for more light. it was tricky because i didn't want to totally blow out the handles yet the fabrics still needed to be bright enough.

while looking at my settings, i noticed the white balance was set to "tungsten light", which is for light bulbs. oops. i switched to that last night while photographing something else indoors sans flash.

#6 - P  daylight  1/80  2.8f  +2/3  iso125

 hey, that's a lot warmer looking! more of the golden quality of the light shows. but you still can't see all the lovely fabrics clearly. and the whites are less crisp from here on out with the white balance shift. it's a choice of what to sacrifice.

i moved the fabrics again to get them closer together:

#7 - P  daylight  1/123  f2.8  +1 1/3  iso 125

still not happy about the blur. i decided to go completely manual so i could move the aperture setting and still control everything else. what the heck.

there was a lot to think about as i was not only trying to find good styling but the proper settings. sometimes one or the other is sorta taken care of for you and you can concentrate on one. otherwise, you have to keep switching your mental focus. it's a fun challenge and brain exercise.

#8 - M  daylight  1/100  f4  iso200

i opened up the f stop a little so more of the photo would be in focus. however, it was still pretty shallow and because i focused on the fabric in back, the front two are still blurred. it's a nice shot of that pretty june's meadow in yellow/white, though.



#9 - M  daylight  1/100  f4  iso200

i framed this one a bit differently, but was still having depth of field issues.


so i went back to the laundry look at the back of the basket:

#10 - M  daylight  1/100  f4  iso200

 the light coming in the window was shifting all this time, as light will do. now i had serious contrast issues going on. yuck. the fabric is not bright enough and the basket is too bright. also, that draping looks sloppy.

i tried a couple and gave up. instead, i lined them up along the handle side and moved around so i could shoot more straight on:

#11 - M  daylight  1/100  f4  iso200

 argh - photo bomber! the toddler was up at this point and adding yet another aspect to my mental calculations.

remove baby, shift frame slightly:

#12 - M  daylight  1/100  f4  iso200

 getting better but i wanted more light to brighten the fabrics.

 i moved the shutter speed number higher:

#13 - M  daylight  1/200  f4  iso200

 dang. that was the wrong way! shutter speed numbers need to get lower for more light, aperture numbers go up. so much to remember.

#14 - M  daylight  1/60  f4  iso200

 ooh, i like this exposure! very pretty.

i got that angle down and decided to attempt the laundry shot again:

#15 - M  daylight  1/60  f4  iso200

#16 - M  daylight  1/60  f4  iso200

although i like the way the light bounces around here, it's just not what i was going for with the picture story.

what you can't see happening in all these shots is this:

M  daylight  1/60  f4  iso200

  . . . my cute little assistant. she was continually trying to replace my lens cap (bugs her when it's off) or style fabric for me or climb on my head.

because the light had moved, i decided to move the basket itself. also, i had two more liberty prints i wanted to photograph. in the interest of time, i added the darks to the lights for a complete group shot. the aperture/f stop got changed, too, for more light.

#17 - M  daylight  1/60  f2.8  iso200

 that need to balance the light on the baskets and the exposure on the fabric was a problem again - i don't like either here. the fabrics definitely needed more light and to all be in focus (more depth of field).

so i closed the aperture down to f4 (greater depth of field) and had to switch my iso higher so i could still hand hold the camera and not get any shake. if i had moved the shutter speed, i wouldn't have been able to hold the camera still enough. most experts say don't hand hold below 1/120, but i have a steady hand and feel comfortable taking it to 1/60. i'll actually even attempt lower if it's not a vitally important shot or i don't have an option.

#18 - M  daylight  1/60  f4  iso400

 now, this looks a tad too bright here on the dark teal mitsi at the left and also on the yellow june's meadow. but i like it on all the other fabrics.

and here, when writing the post, i noticed something important. the above shot looked perfectly exposed and pretty sharp on my camera's little lcd screen but less so on the computer. i think one major reason for this difference, besides size, is that on the camera the shot is surrounded by black, which makes it pop more, and here it's encompassed by white, which is dulling it slightly. that's something to keep in mind when shooting, i guess.

i tried one last angle on this styling to see how it looked. in order to not cut the fabrics off at the bottom but not have to include so much empty space at the top, i went vertical:

#19 - M  daylight  1/60  f2.8  iso400

 again, what you can't see is the way i'm laying on the floor to get this shot. but i couldn't lay flat on my back, i had to be raised a smidge to get the right angle. this was tricky enough photo yoga without the baby involved, she made it near impossible.

#20 - M  daylight  1/60  f2.8  iso400

 angle improved, the fabrics looks wrong.

i tried draping them and going horizontal again:

#21 - M  daylight  1/60  f2.8  iso400

 all that empty space on the right bothered me. i added a 2nd basket to fill it:

#22 - M  daylight  1/60  f2.8  iso400

 that blocked my light and looked dumb.

i removed the basket, placed the fabrics closer together, returned to vertical orientation:

#23 - M  daylight  1/60  f2.8  iso400

 oh, almost! the aqua capel looks yucky.

redrape the capel, crop in a tad, shift frame a touch :

#24 - M  daylight  1/60  f2.8  iso400
fabrics, l to r: emma and georgina in teal/dl blue; capel in aqua/wh; June's meadow in yellow/wh; floral fusion wh/yl/pnk;
misti  in dark teal

well, the light must have changed again because this is a bit lighter and i didn't adjust any settings!

everyone was awake and breakfast needed to be made at this point, so play time was over. i had to put my camera and pretties away.

if you actually read all that, or even just skimmed down to the bottom, which one do you like best? and why?

now i get the fun of deciding what to do with these darlings! it has to be perfect. i'm blank on ideas so far.