One Day Class Description:
Rita's Basket

A little applique can go a long way. It can turn an ordinary basket into a work of art. Pick a basket or two or more and make a quilt or make a few more to use them to set around the center basket. Applique a bird or butterfly, a rose or tulip and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of working on a smaller project.

Rita will help you to coordinate your favorite colors and improve your sewing skills. The basic stitch, sharp points, skinny stems, nose free curves and fray less inverted shapes will be a breeze to sew so you can have fun stitching basket after basket.

Main Conference Class Description:
Rita's Basket

For thousands of years baskets have played an important role in women's lives, to harvest fruits and vegetables, gather flowers , collect laundry, store sewing tools or place a new born baby into a baby basket.

In quilting baskets were a popular motif in printed chintzes and quilts from the beginning of American quilt making and were often depicted in Baltimore Album Quilts overflowing with beautiful flower arrangements.

During this period the basket emerged as a pieced block pattern and from here on was used in every imaginable form.

In this class we will combine the structured form of a pieced basket with the free flowing form of applique. Join Rita to hand piece the basket and fill it with flowers of various designs, multilayered, embellished with embroidery and inking to create a three dimensional image. Learn how to make split leaves, sharp points and skinny stems, nose free curves and fray less inverted shapes. Create your own basket of flowers in your favorite colors, all you need is needle and thread and a few scraps of fabrics ( and a large suitcase !!!).