Basket Quilt

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

~Maya Angelou

Quilting

Quilted, bound, washed, and ready to gift. The basket quilt turned out better than expected. Jinny Beyer's books are my main reference but I can't find this five-patch basket in them. Although I sketched it on my own, I'm sure it has a name. I just don't know it.

The border blocks began this quilt. You could say it was designed like a kawandi - from the outside in. With that set, I had to plan something for the center. I love baskets and always drool over Audrey's but I don't make nearly enough. 

But I definitely didn't want a little brown basket. Once the blues and greens were decided, the block called for red to tie into the border. {And also because I love red.} Little red flowers run up from the base. Alternating the background let me mix both pink and yellow triangles inside.

 

Large as they are, the baskets are a bit too small but a diagonally printed stripe from my stash makes perfect sashing and helped fill in the shortage. And since it was still short, I added narrow coping strips in the background fabrics. I spent more time than necessary deciding to extend the center sashing through that outer coping strip. One other idea was to cut the sashing and let the outer strip encircle the entire center. Another was to use the stripe as the outer coping strip. {That died quickly.}

Basket quilt

The back uses up the last of the yellow on white background and is filled out with some green gifted by my friend Gayle.  More diagonal stripe binds the quilt.

Back of Basket quilt

The older I get, the easier I want the quilting so my usual spiral filled the bill. I don't have the inclination or the arm strength as the moment to try a lot of free motion quilting. 

Quilt Specifics:

Size: 45" x 45"

Quilt design: Baskets with Crossroads border

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: yellow Superior Masterpiece cotton

Quilting: Spiral with a walking foot

Approximate yardage: 5.5 yds

Things have been interesting here to say the least. DH had another surgery. We've been concerned about it and the recovery but it was a cakewalk.  They didn't need to do nearly as much as they anticipated and he's bouncing back much faster than last year. What a relief.

When he came home he noticed my laptop wasn't closing properly. I've been ignoring that but DH said the battery was expanding as it failed and could explode. Yikes! Let the computer rotation begin. DH gets a new computer and I get his hand-me-down {which he always calls "my new computer".} Of course, I also get full tech support since he knows the ins and outs of "mine." Still, it's been a week offline and a few days backing up and reinstalling files. Now I have to learn to use this one properly. 

I planted butterfly weed starters and hope they will take this year. I purchased some garden cloches to keep critters off them while they root. Every year I plant and hope they will take. The only success turned out to be a tropical milkweed. Those can discourage monarchs from continuing their migration. Grr.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Crossroads and Baskets

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

~E.B. White

Quilting

I'm still avoiding BB2 but eventually I'll get to work on it. Currently I chose to work with the red Crossroad border blocks. {No. It's still not the end. Sheesh.} Remember they didn't work well with the orange and brown squares on BB2. Audrey's many baskets inspired me to try one of my own. As usual I thought about appliqué and chickened out.

I designed the baskets to {almost} fit inside the border. Either coping strips or an inner border will be needed to fill it out. 

Since there wasn't enough background for all four baskets, I used two older prints: pink birds on white and yellow floral on white. Fabrics were mixed and matched until they looked right. The green, yellow, and pink triangles came from a scrap bin but the others were cut from stash. 

With the baskets mostly decided, I cut two strips: a black and white stripe and a multicolor stripe on the diagonal to separate them. While the stronger contrast of black and white draws me, the multicolor may work better.  Progress photos in the montage below.

Originally I planned to put one fabric in the center but changed my mind. The strips will continue across the center and one of these squares below will be the post. 

This needs to be pushed along because a new baby needs it. 

Reading

Dr. Kalanithi worked as a neurosurgeon when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. This memoir of his life and treatment was published posthumously. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Baskets of Friends

I'm still quilting the border of Trips Around the Block... and wondering what evil genius inspired me to try persnickety quilting designs rather than simple all-over free motion. What brought on my grousing? The quilt currently on our bed. It uses similar colors; the only reason I want to change it out is that it's too small for our new (enormous) bed.

Baskets of Friends

My Houston scrap bee exchanged these baskets in the 1990s although I didn't make the top for another decade. (Letting those blocks age properly.)

I designed one-fourth of the center using the original DOS-based EQ. Then I printed four copies, cut and pasted them together in this centered arrangement.

Baskets of Friends, detail of Mexican Star blocks

The alternate block is Mexican Star but that's not how I put them together. There was a pretty woven plaid in dusty green, blue and pink I liked so much I bought it three different times. Have you done that, too? There was so much that it's also part of the backing. Once I decided to use it for the crosses, I knew I didn't have the patience to fussy cut the plaid into the corners of the basket blocks. So I sewed quarters of the Mexican Star onto each side of the basket block. then cut corners off the basket block and treated the crosses like sashing. It's easier to see in the detail photos.

Baskets of Friends, detail

The pretty floral stripe was a sale fabric from High Fashion Fabrics in Houston. Why was it on sale? Well, this stripe alternated with four-inches of mouse-grey enclosing a narrow "lace" like hem-binding tape. You can see more of the fabric next to the blue Star centers. It looks pretty cut up but wasn't as attractive on the bolt. Despite six or seven stripes across the width of fabric, I ran out and had to create inset triangles on the outer border rather than extending it all the way around. Because the outer border was reduced, I also ran out of greens for the checkerboard. Rooting around in my stash, I found some light blues. How fortunate! It looks much better this way. (Running out of fabric forces creativity, doesn't it.)

Oddly enough, when I moved back to Houston (again) High Fashion had another bolt of this same fabric. Was it reprinted or just hiding in their warehouse all these years?

Baskets of Friends,
detail of mitered border stripe and back of quilt

I free-motion quilted the center in a baptist fan pattern, used parallel lines on the floral stripe and meandered the checkerboard border. Baskets of Friends was in Paducah for the 2003 AQS show.

There were still baskets left. A friend with a young daughter made them into this garden path set. Isn't it interesting how we can start with the same blocks but end up with completely different quilts! It's always such a joy to see the variations people design.

Garden Path basket quilt

Fret not; enjoy the day.
Ann