Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Basket Play

As usual, I'm behind with my Basket of Plenty for July/early August.  There was rain -- days and days of rain.  Some days were so dark we needed lights on inside.  Artificial light makes it hard to see and choose colors.  And then we had family in and out of town for three weeks.  Interaction with family is definitely a higher priority than choosing fabric and appliqueing a quilt block.


I chose the fabric for the basket (which, in real life, tends a little more to teal than in this photo) and cut and stitched the bottom half before the rain.  The bird is basted but nothing else is definite in this block.  I hope I can choose fabric for flowers before we have rain again tomorrow and then I can play with placement.

These are the pattern pieces for this block.  The leaves and several flower shapes are obvious but some of the pattern pieces can be combined to make six or eight different flowers.


You probably can't see it well (unless you click on the above photo to enlarge it) but along the side of the paper with the bird I've penciled in a few possible arrangements of the pattern pieces to create different flowers.  Decisions, decisions.

This quilt-along has been a fun and interesting challenge.  There's so much variety from block to block and I don't want to use the same fabrics for each block as I might for more traditional pieced blocks.  Baskets and flowers just want variety.  And yet not knowing what the blocks will look like in advance makes it hard to plan what the whole quilt might look like.  But it's fun to play.  With all the options for variety in the pattern pieces I suppose there are enough to make dozens and dozens of basket blocks.

There's just one more block in this quilt-along after this one so I guess we'll be finished with the applique blocks by mid-September.  I don't know if Cheri will suggest a layout or not.

I'm linking this post to
> WOW at Esther's Blog
> Let's Bee Social #188 at Sew Fresh Quilts
> Midweek Makers #83 at Quilt Fabrication
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.
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10 comments:

  1. That turned out so cute! I haven't done a single basket yet because I can't make a decision on where to put the applique pieces--lol!

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    1. Thanks, Karen. It's still in progress at least as far as the placement of the birds and the colors and which flowers.

      I'm having trouble deciding everything about each block, Karen, which is why I'm working to or past the deadline for each block! Thank goodness it's not a true "dead" line or I'd be dead several times over!

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  2. I'm sure you will figure it out--you always do. So far it looks great!

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    1. Thanks, Janet. For better and sometimes worse I do always attach fabric to background. LOL. I look at some of those first blocks and see things I need to change. It's probably not good to look at early work in light of learned skills months or years later....

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  3. This new basket block gives so many pieces to create an original design. It will be fun to see what you come up with.

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    1. Hi, Robin. I think the options are what make this sew along so fun. Though all of us who are making blocks use the same pattern pieces, every block looks so different. I'm still stumped with this one, though. What I had in mind doesn't look like I thought it would.... More playing to do.

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  4. Replies
    1. Thanks, Missy. I hope it still looks pretty when I finally choose fabric and flower patterns!

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  5. The basket project is coming along nicely - thank you for sharing your progress on Midweek Makers

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I appreciate your comments and look forward to reading what you have to say. Thanks for stopping by.

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