Delectable Baskets: Quilt Finish

June 26, 2019January 11, 2026 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

Delectable Baskets • Quilt #220
Approximately 70″ wide by 90″ high

Delectable Baskets gets its name because each basket is filled with food — well — food fabrics. I’d been collecting for over twenty years, so I had a few to choose from. In February 2018 I was Queen Bee for the Gridsters, and put up a post about making basket blocks, deciding that I wanted to use my collection of fabrics with food motifs. I sent each of my beemates a couple of squares. (There is a free basket tutorial on that post, if you are interested in making some baskets.)

Not only did my Gridster Beemates send me blocks, but a few other long-time friends sent them also; I had so many blocks that my quilt grew and grew, and then it was overflowing, a lovely dilemma to have. So I pruned it a bit, as I was aiming for twin-size, and still have enough baskets for an upcoming wall-hanging.

Cathy of CJ Designs did an expanded Baptist Fan on it, leaving it nice and soft, which is a good thing, as I intend it for use in the guest bedroom, which is currently the quilting-and-thread-storage bedroom. I promise that maybe I can share.

The back, using some Phillip Jacobs (on the right) and some Marimekko (from Crate and Barrel’s outlet sale some years ago). The signature blocks (the white Xs) are pieced into the Phillip Jacobs, or at least I think that’s who designed that fabric. At any rate, the print is a lovely-as-can-be radishes.

Thank you to everyone who sent me blocks. Delectable Baskets has been on my radar for a couple of decades or more, beginning with visits to Fabric Patch quilt shop, the vendor mall in the early years of Road to California, a couple of Southern California Shop Hops, and an occasional trip to Utah. There were no mail-order shops then, as there was no internet then. We bought fabric from JoAnns which it wasn’t then (maybe Cloth World?). I accrued fabrics a yard at a time, a piece at a time, a slow compilation.

This quilt was finished in an era where everything is on hyperdrive. The internet runs, assists and invades our lives, helping and hindering us in our quilting. Sometimes we are in a quilt bubble, making the same quilt (see my Flag Quilt from last post), using the same colors, same fabric lines. Other times it brings us news of friends in Australia, in Japan, Canada, Germany and certainly from around the United States, and allows us to meet and be friends with people all over the world.

Our gathering of Gridsters would not be possible without the internet, and all members, past or present, contribute to my life is a positive and beneficial way.

I am happy to know you all, Gridster Bee member or not. Thank you for enriching my life, making it a veritable feast. I dedicate Delectable Baskets to you.

Free Quilt Pattern · Quick Quilt · Quilts

Bee Happy QAL Progress • June 2019

June 13, 2019June 7, 2020 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

The wheeled devices in the So Very Cute Project I ~~lost my mind and~~ decided to do are completed. It’s nice to see it before it goes to a Time Out in my closet, so I can get some Real Quilting Work done.

But before I tell you about the basket of flowers in the back of the truck, you need this chart from Whip Stitch:

Head to her website to read all about it, or download it here. Trust me, you’ll want this, as the weensy little instructions with the Clover bias tape makers will drive you batty.

This is Lori Holt’s logo for this delightful project. Notice the dog in the back of the truck.

Notice how the people who live in my quilt realized that they needed the space in the back of the truck for hauling baskets of flowers.

Make 1/2″ mini-hexies for the flowers, fussy-cutting a couple. Cover some triangles, sized in relation to the flowers, then give each a pleat in the lower edge before sewing them on. I used three “leaves” and five flowers. I used the lower edge of piece D8 as a pattern for the basket, then turned it upside-down to get the wider edge at the top.

It is really dense in that section, with the layering of fabric. I’m one who cuts away from the back whatever I can to lighten it up for quilting:

BeeHappy_June_6 — one more wheel to cut out

The Guidesheet for this week can be found in the tab above, Bee Happy Tutorial Sheets, under Projects for 2020.
See you later, Bee Happy-Sew-Along-gator!

I’m still working on this quilt, which I call Ladybird, because it reminds me of a ladybird beetle (sometimes called a Ladybug).

I finished the first book (long, but good) and am now onto another:

And this happened. Yes, no more PT. Now I’m getting ready for my project for tomorrow, Flag Day, the day when we find our rolled up flags in the front hall closet, and hang them out front, a prelude to the month of July, when it’s all red-white-blue all the time.

Okay, my wannabe flag quilt morphed into this flag-like wall hanging. I say flag-like, because I read one Instagrammer say that she had to make another less flag-looking quilt because her family didn’t want to lay hers on the ground for picnics.

I opened up my QuiltPro program, guessed out the proportions and figured it out. There is no pattern in my worksheet, because I do assume that you’ll figure out how to make this, if you really want to. Again, if either of my arrangements bother you, make one that you like. I was inspired by a lot of what I saw on this post from Quilt Inspiration, where you can find lots of free flag and flag-like quilts for your patriotric needs.

Here’s my worksheet, with all the dimensions, in a downloadable PDF file:
Betsy’s Creation_OPQuilt I named it after the original creator of the flag: Betsy Ross.

Happy Flag Day!!

Quilts

Trapped in the Dungeon of Cute

June 9, 2019June 7, 2020 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

Working on this quilt makes me feel like I’m trapped in the Dungeon of Cute. I discussed this with my friend Laurel, who is also doing this, and she said wistfully said, “Yeah. But it’s so cute.” It is, so I keep working on it.

That first section, sun-bee-butterfly-jam-jars-long-flower-two-trees-churn-dash-pinwheels-flower, is all stitched together. I’m trying to get the second section finished before I leave it for awhile.

Obviously the different between the top photo and this one is that I’m trying to get that truck and camper block pinned up, but the other difference is that I re-did the star on the flag. Ms. Holt has us back every shape with interfacing, stitch all around it, clip and turn, press and appliquè. I did it with the star in the top verion; that’s why I had to re-do it. I say, there are multiple ways to appliquè, so do your favorite method. Mine is a combination of needle-turn (à la Becky Goldsmith) and also using freezer paper.

To say the directions are frustrating would be an understatement; they look complete, but are missing crucial information, like the truck piece is too long. I’ve worked out several weeks worth of instructions for Laurel and I, and have put them in PDF handouts. You are welcome to them: Bee Happy Tutorial Sheets. They are found up above under the tab “2020 Projects.”

I put in pictures belonging to Lori Holt, as they are an additional guide to this pattern. I acknowledge her at every turn, and don’t give away anything that’s not on her blog, but hopefully I make it clearer.

Believe it or not, but the Bee Happy block was the easier than the Jam Jars block or the Truck-Camper block. The missing dot on the exclamation point will be a small button.

Quilting this is my antidote to the Dungeon of Cute. A couple of hours every day.

In spite of our president’s tariffs, I ordered new 2″ cotton webbing from China off of ETSY, and it arrived so I could fix my tote bag. If I purchased a certain amount of precuts at Quilt Market, I was given the bag free (free=haha). This happened back in Salt Lake City, and the handle began to shred almost immediately. The New York Times had a great article recently called “What to Do With All Those Tote Bags.” What to do, indeed.

Wanted to play along with this QAL…

…and even purchased the red, white and blue fabric (there’s more in the stash). Sigh. Just like I finished my Christmas quilt in June, I’ll probably get this done in November.

The other night at a restaurant, since my husband and I couldn’t hear each other in conversation, I downloaded the NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) app to figure out how loud the dining room was at California Pizza Kitchen. As a guideline, the average noise level in a home is around 40 decibels (dB) and noise becomes harmful at 85 dB. My husband and I pretty much gave up on conversation, ate our pizza in silence and went home.

I’ve been haunting Letterfolk lately.

Not quite, but I’m thinking about it.

Quilts

Basket Quilt • top finished

April 16, 2019April 17, 2019 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

Baskets of Food quilt top

Hanging from the thick strands of my wisteria vine, my baskets quilt found a home for a few minutes, while I took photos. Many of these blocks were made for me by my beemates in the Gridsters Bee, and while I was in recovery, I made some more. I finally got them all sewn up, after trying to figure out the arrangement, and got the borders on. I’ll send it off to Darby soon (I’m working on finishing another quilt top, and want to send her two), and then finish this up.

It seems like I’m in a Finishing Mode right now, and it feels good to get some of these quilts out of the cupboard and done.

Gluten-free cookie

This giant cookie is a first for me: first gluten-free recipe ever made, and first recipe that has tahini as an ingredient. Recipe from Joy the Baker. Review: I liked the tahini, but husband didn’t. Baked it in a 9-inch cake pan, it needed 10 more minutes baking than she said in her recipe, but 8 more minutes would have been better. I thought it was yummy.

March Temp Quilt_April1

The garden is slightly underwhelming right now, as we’ve been eating the winter vegetables of Rainbow Chard and lettuce, but the addition of March’s blocks to my Temperature Quilt livens things up! I decided to plant my tomato seed directly into the garden, and then put plastic cups over where I’d planted, so I could keep it moist. I’m happy to report that all four varieties have now sent up sprouts. The big-leafed plant in front is a zucchini, from the garden store.

March Temp Quilt_April2

From food baskets, to a giant cookie, to gardens, this post is now at an end. To bring it full circle, the genesis of the basket quilt was that I had been saving food fabrics for eons, and finally decided I wanted them to go into baskets. So I close this post with some food quotes:

Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner. ~Byron

“Here, dearest Eve,” he exclaims, “here is food.” “Well,” answered she, with the germ of a housewife stirring within her, “we have been so busy to-day that a picked-up dinner must serve.” ~ Hawthorne

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. Proverbs 15:17

Enough is as good as a feast. ~John Heywood

To veer off theme just a little, I enjoyed this article in the New York Times about the traditional quilting of Hawaii.

Happy quilting!