100 Baskets

At last I have finished the baskets. Starting this quilt so many weeks ago, in early July, I had no idea that I would be so slow at finishing them, and I really dragged through those middle ones - the 40s, the 50s, the 60s - they took forever. As I neared 75, the end finally seemed attainable, and I plodded on. At 85 or so, I realized that I did not have enough parts cut out, so that slowed me further.

This afternoon, I stitched #s 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 and 100. Whew!

Here's a couple of pictures marking the milestone. They are stacked in piles of 10. At first, I had them in a certain order, as there are 3 variations of baskets, but now they are mostly randomly stacked.

I have some decisions to make before moving on to sashing these baskets into rows. First, I have very little of the white background fabric remaining, so what to do?

One option is to take my bit of white and shop for more, hoping that I can find something to match.

Another option is to sash with some of my Roman Holiday jelly rolls. I have a full jelly roll and a half of another one. The pattern calls for very narrow sashing - 1.25 inches. So I could cut the jelly roll strips in half. Easy to do, and I know I'd have plenty. But the pattern calls for using the neutral; will I be happy with colorful sashing? Since it's RH, probably.

A third option is to dig into my stash of whites and off-whites to see if something I already own would suitably substitute. I will probably dig around later today to see what I can find.

Are you wondering about the occasional printed neutral? I began this quilt using my Roman Holiday scraps from an earlier project and a more recent Etsy-purchased charm pack. If I did not use the lights from the charm pack, what else would I do with them? A lot of light bits with no darker colors would be a senseless waste of Roman Holiday! So I decided that they could be used in the basket HSTs and would show up randomly throughout the baskets and, ultimately, all around the quilt.

I have not had a particularly regular presence here in blog-land, but believe me, I have been stitching. And now that I have at last finished the baskets, perhaps I can show you some variety in my content. Variety has been totally absent while making these 100 baskets. Gosh, I'm glad to have them done!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

40 Baskets

My basket block production is moving right along. I now have 40 made, with 60 yet to go. It seems like I am really slow at doing these, but if I can just stay steady at them, they will eventually all be done. I am certainly not going to quit! The pace is what I can handle at this time. If I can do more, I will.

Here are some shots of the growing stack of baskets.

I do enjoy making them. I press after each step, so that slows down production. I also don't really do strip piecing as I am laying out an entire little basket one at a time so that I am sure the triangles are all going in the right direction. That slows things down, as well.

I do love that I have three varieties of baskets going here, and I change them up every so often to keep things interesting. I am keeping a tally, as well, on how many of each basket I have made, although what difference it would make in the long run doesn't really seem like it would matter. Just so long as I end up with 100 baskets, I will be fine with the random variety.

Short and sweet today, Peeps! I have the card girls coming over tonight. I need to get to the store and make my final preparations. Tomorrow morning we have quilting at Becky's and after that I will be going to Circleville for the Good Time Quilters Quilt Show. It is always a delightful show with lots of fun stuff to see and buy.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Three Basket Versions

Picnic at Daybreak, the current pattern I am making, requires 100 basket blocks made three different ways. This has been fun seeing them take shape. I will be short and sweet today, and just get on with showing you the three versions. Scroll back to yesterday's post to see the pattern.

Block 1 has the fewest HSTs. Isn't it pretty in pale blue?

All my baskets are going to have either green or brown bottoms - the large HST. The small HSTs will be all the other colors in the Roman Holiday line.

Block 2, below, has one more HST added. In the example pictured, I tried using all yellow prints in the basket. I like this, but I don't intend to be "planned" in making all these blocks.

Block 3 has yet another HST added. I have made about 20 of this block so far. I really like this one. Heck, I should be honest - I like all of the combinations in all the versions! I guess with fabric this amazing, I just can't go wrong!

Did you notice the neutrals? I mostly have a wonderful Kona cotton cream-color for the background fabric, but a few of the neutrals from the Roman Holiday line were slipped into the HSTs and those will show up in random fashion throughout the quilt. I think when we see the big-picture quilt, it will make a lovely bit of added interest here and there.

I try to think like our grandmothers would have - they "made do." No fabric was wasted; substitutions were made out of necessity; and "close" was good enough. I did not want to waste the lighter fabrics from the line, so I am incorporating them into the small HSTs.

That's all for today, Peeps! We are off to see our daughters in Columbus, and then to a classic movie at the historic Ohio Theater - tonight's feature: A Streetcar Named Desire.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Endless Half-Square Triangles

Sharon and I designated July to be our month of sewing a quilt top using our precious stashes of Roman Holiday, a gorgeous fabric issued over 10 years ago by 3 Sisters/Moda. Both of us collected it, hoarded it, petted it, and have actually used it for some quilts already. But plenty of fabric remained, so we agreed to use this beautiful stuff together this month. It's so much more fun when one has a partner in crime; we encourage one another and keep each other accountable. I highly recommend this to anyone needed a nudge to get going on something.

Sharon is zipping right along with her quilt, Daisy Chain, a pattern designed specifically for jelly rolls. Click here to see her early work. 

For my version,  after determining that I would make a basket quilt, I found a free pattern that appealed to me on the Moda website; I downloaded it and have now made a good start.

This particular pattern calls for using Moda's Cake Mix recipe - a pad of papers designed for use with a layer cake of fabric. I did not have any layer cakes of Roman Holiday, so even though I bought the Cake Mix pad, I am not using the it. I did however, take from the cake mix the correct dimensions for cutting; I have made significant progress.

Making 704 2" half-square triangles has been something of a daunting task. The process is by no means difficult; it's just that there are sooo many. *sigh*  From a light and dark pair of 5" squares (charm pack size), I can make 8 of these triangles. I feel like an assembly line in producing these. But its very gratifying to see these little buggers pile up.

Triangles cut from 5" pairs of fabric.

Dog ears trimmed. 

Press open, seam allowance to the dark.

Trim to 2 inches.

Trimmings.

More and more and more...

Fully prepped HSTs tossed into a tub.

Neutrals are both printed and solid.

And, still more and more and more...

A careful and conscientious quilter would have kept track of how many of these she'd made. I would not be that quilter. I probably need to make more, but for now I am moving forward with basket construction.

More on that soon!

Happy Quilting, Friends!