Jewel's Baskets

Back in 2008, when I was still quilting professionally, and shortly before we moved, Jewel asked if I would quilt a quilt she was piecing. I agreed and put her on my schedule - always about six months out for custom work. Her time on my schedule came and went and she hadn't brought the quilt to me. There are a lot of reasons a person might change their mind about having me finish their quilts, so I didn't say anything.

Some time later, Jewel's daughter Robin asked me if I had Jewel's quilt. Jewel had forgotten where it was. The missing quilt turned out to be an early symptom of the Alzheimer's Disease that killed Jewel in early 2011. I contacted Robin after the funeral was over to say that I knew she would find her mother's quilt, and when she did, I would be happy and honored to quilt it for her family. Robin let me know when she found it, and put the final borders on the quilt. I just got back from delivering the quilt to Robin.


Jewel was a beautiful woman, and I knew Jewel's Baskets would be beautiful and a pleasure to work on. Her quilts were always pretty, made with rich colors in quality fabrics. This one turned out to be a king-sized quilt with plenty of room for traditional quilting.

Robin is an accomplished quilter, and she likes to incorporate circles in her designs, so feathered wreaths were the obvious choice for the setting blocks. I made a swag to fit the side and corner triangles.


To let Jewel's work be the star of the quilt, I kept the quilting to a minimum on her baskets. They got simple cross hatching while the flowers in them got simple continuous curves, with leaves quilted on the green fabrics. The red inner border has classic Egg and Dart, based on a circle.


Robin pieced the backing out of seven different floral prints. Sorry about this photo, but I had to rumple it up because it was much larger than the 2 king sheets I laid it on for protection on the driveway, the only place close to big enough to see the entire quilt.


I know Jewel's family will treasure her quilt.