Turkey Tracks: Basket Blocks for the Parts Department

Turkey Tracks:  August 18, 2016

Basket Blocks For The Parts Department

I’ve always wanted to make some basket blocks.

The first one I tried will finish out at 5 1/2 inches.  I cobbled together a pattern from several sources.

Remember I am making multiples of four so my fellow members in the “parts department” group will each get one and I will have one.  And remember that the idea of creating a “parts department” comes from Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran–and they have several books illustrating and giving ideas.  One is COLLABORATIVE QUILTING.

The 1/4-inch seam on the basket bottoms was “iffy.”  I realized I had to sew higher up with a larger triangle and then trim to fix that.  That seam needs to come right at the basket point.  But I ran out of this cream fabric, so…

If I find more of it in my travels, I’ll fix the bottom of the affected blocks.

Here’s why it is a good idea to trial out a few blocks so you see what the issues are.

Next I moved on to a 3 1/2 inch block from Bonnie Hunter.  She did a WHOLE QUILT of these babies, “Lucy’s Baskets,” in a leader/ender project in MORE ADVENTURES WITH LEADERS AND ENDERS.  I am in AWE as the handles are HAND SEWN.

The mustard fabric is one of the Japanese fabrics I am growing to love.

The blue and yellow fabrics are Japanese.

Fellow J&E Riggin passenger Jean West gave me the green fabric–which she got at Fiddlehead’s in Belfast when we stopped there.

The white fabric on the handle was embossed and proved to be a bit thick for these handles.  Another lesson learned.

The green fabric is Japanese.

Perhaps we’ll wind up using these tiny baskets in a foursome.  Look at the secondary pattern in the middle.

Or, not.  They can be combined with fabric blocks as well, so that each one shines on its own.  It might be nice to put a surrounding frame on each one too.