you know what's fun?

Fabric wrapped rope art! The kind where you take cotton clothesline rope, wrap it with those leftover fabric strips that are too thin to use but you just can't throw away, and sew together in coil fashion using a wide zig zag stitch. So easy, so useful, so fun!

I made several as last minute Christmas gifts last week and in all the mayhem didn't manage to take many photos! Blarg. I made a big basket with handles for my grandmother, it used 50ft of 3/8" rope, seen in progress below.

The wrapping with fabric part is a bit time consuming, so after a while I decided to play around with just the rope and some brightly colored thread. This worked great and was SO fast. Next time I'll try variegated thread an see how that looks.

I made some bowls and baskets in various sizes, including the one above filled with mini charm packs, which I kept for myself. I'm gearing up to make a table runner out of those 2.5" civil war repros, I've been having a thing for them lately.

 

I then switched gears to create a set of four coasters all cozied up in their own little carrying case. I think coaster sets may turn out to be a very quick and easy (and cheap!) handmade gifting staple in the the future. 

Also some batik wrapped trivets, because those are fun and easy and totally useful, too! Endless possibilities. I didn't have any trouble fitting the rope under my presser foot, but I did raise it up just a smidge by messing with the tension spring.

As far as rope goes, my first batch was from Westlake Ace Hardware, 50ft for about $8, which seemed steep. It has a poly core but it's mostly cotton and behaved beautifully when sewing. Then my husband got 100 ft lengths for $4 at Walmart, which felt like a steal! It doesn't look as nice unwrapped, but sews just as well. 

Also, Happy New Year! I'm too lazy to round up all my 2013 sewing projects into some kind of mosaic or video, I hope you don't mind. It was such a wonderful year for me, the best yet by far! Here's hoping this year is just as good or web better.