Bread Basket

A friend of ours just moved into a new house, and we will be going to visit them the first weekend in August and I thought I should make them a nice housewarming present.

I didn't have colored reed that I wanted, so I dyed the reed (and a bunch of t-shirts).  For the dyeing, I filled a stock pot about 2/3rds full or water, then added 1 cup of vinegar, 1 cup of salt, and 1 package of RIT navy dye.  I brought it up to a simmer and started putting stuff in to dye.  It only took about 5 minutes to get a nice rich color into the reed.

Then, I weaved this bread basket.  I let it dry and then I stained it using Early American Minwax stain.  I am so thrilled with how this turned out that I want to make another one to keep....perhaps another month!  I cannot wait to give this to my friends!

Easter Baskets

Allison and I made Easter baskets this month for my children.  Allison made the one on the left and I made the 2 on the right.  They each took about a day to make.  With the help of a  pattern from here and some step by step instructions from this book, we made our first round baskets.  I stained them using a light oak stain.