Civil War Week 13 - Little Blue Basket

Hard to believe we're one fourth of the way done with this Civil War Block of the Week!

I cropped my photo and rotated it so the basket gets to be oriented basket-fashion.


I wanted to make sure my readers who aren't familiar with pieced basket blocks see the point.
And there were a lot of points.

Among the fabrics I selected for this project back in January was a tan/cream print showing a cat in a garden with a basket of flowers. I was not able to fussy cut it so the cat and the basket showed up together, so I nearly didn't use it for the block. But I liked how the spider web and bee would appear under the handle, so the cat was included after all. I like to think some great-great-grand niece or nephew will have fun finding these little pictures some day.

I appliqued the handle on entirely by machine - the inner line of stitching is hidden in the fold. For the outside edge, I used #100 dark blue silk thread and a tiny buttonhole stitch.

Those who know me well may have thought they heard me sigh upon opening this week's Civil War Block of the Week posting - I've never been a fan of pieced baskets. Now the rest of you are no doubt wondering, "But, didn't you make that Carolina Lily quilt with pieced flowers in baskets?" I did - a picture of the completed quilt can be seen at Norris' and my joint blog at the link: Lilies Quilts where you'll also see one of Dorry's two quilts from this project. (mine follows hers). I used different photos here than I did in that post.)

In truth, I've never been interested in quilts made from either pieced baskets or flowers. I made the quilt as my part in the international Round Robin group I have participated in for 6 years now. The group decided on the Carolina Lily and related blocks and we each made two blocks for each other. There are 5-6 other quilts (or quilts in progress) that resulted from that block exchange . The point of group projects like these is precisely to challenge ourselves to make quilts we would not ordinarily make.

I asked for blocks with different colored baskets and light colored backgrounds. This allowed me to design a quilt that left a lot of room for interesting quilted textures.


And then you might also be remembering the quilt called Reston -or three similar ones. I quilted four Restons. This was a Block of the Month project designed by Ann Weber, a pattern designer from the Reston chapter of the quilting guild I was a member of when I lived in Northern Virginia. These quilts hung together at the big show there last summer. Ann's website currently shows several of the quilts -including mine and Phyllis' that I quilted - and others made by other members - at this link.

As with the Lily quilt above, the point was to make a quilt I wouldn't ordinarily make. Again, the baskets provided places to play with quilting designs.




(click on the pictures to get a closer view of the quilting).

The Reston quilt is very special to me now - My mother helped me by doing all the applique prep for the 44 leaves and 64 berries on her last visit here in North Carolina. She was not feeling much like going places, but she could still thread a tiny needle and we shared many working hours sitting in front of the fireplace here. This may be my one and only completely hand-appliqued quilt.