French Basket

I've been looking for one of these baskets for a while, I could have bought one online but I didnt really want to pay the prices they are asking. My daughter has a number of these in different sizes, she uses them for carrying washing, toys and beach stuff as well as packing them full of their luggage when they come up to visit us. She bought hers in France.

Yesterday when we were out visiting a market town near where we live we found there was a French street market and I found this basket at a very reasonable price.

So today I went through my fabric to find something to line the basket with, I found some Toile de Jouy that I have had for some years. I used a piece of denim to make a pocket for each side. I will be packing it up on Monday when we leave for a few days trip in our little caravan we are travelling over to the Cotswolds

Toile De Jouy

Some years ago while we were living in Bournemouth, I used to visit Dorchester Market, this was a great place to find fabric. I bought lots and put it away until I needed it. I have used it to make lots of curtains since. I had a few pieces of Toule de Jouy fabrics of different colours and designs.'Toile de Jouy originated in France in the late 1700s. In the French language, the phrase literally means "cloth from Jouy en Joas", a town of north-central France. Although it has been continuously produced since then, it experienced a marked upsurge in popularity around the year 2000. Previously only a decorating design, designers have been recently experimenting with toile-patterned apparel as well, although toile-patterned shirts were widely worn in the 1970's'

Some of the paler colours I used to line curtains and this adds a nice touch when the lining is seen where they are hanging. The piece below was a small piece so I decided to make a quilt, lining it with fleece fabric (no wadding) and quilting through. I began this a couple of years ago and have just got it out again and finished it