Narrow Stem Applique – OccasionalPiece

(momentos left at the Wall–I am grateful to those who have fought in service of our country.)Happy Memorial Day, to those of you who are in the United States. We spent a year back in Washington, DC some time ago, where I toured every monument I could (going to the Vietnam Wall on Memorial Day and waving on the East Coast Rolling Thunder motorcycle riders on the bridge near the Lincoln Memorial; today I’ll be waving on the West Coast Rolling Thunder). I also joined a lovely little quilt guild, named the Mt. Vernon Chapter of Quilters Unlimited (which covered the entire state of Virginia), where I learned this technique.

I recently made a wonky basket quilt with some baby baskets (below). Here’s some basic guidelines for the baby baskets.

Follow the directions for the Wonky Baskets, cutting the base pieces smaller, as the finished size is shown above. So maybe cut the upper part in the 5″ by 3″ range, and the lower part the same (it will be bigger after you splice in the basket).

Follow the instructions for the bias strips for the bigger basket, but sew these narrower–about 3/8″ wide. I’m using leftover handles strips for the big baskets. The woman who taught me this. in our Mt. Vernon Guild, made very narrow stems for her flowers by using this method. So I call this the Narrow Stem Method.

Trim close to inner stitching.

Laying the basket below (to gauge for the width), pin on the handles with the raw edges facing towards the outside. Place the handle edges at least 1/2″ inside the basket to allow for turning.

Stitch on sewing line.

Now press the bias strip outward–letting the fabric fall back over the stitched line and the raw edges.

Stitch down both edges, then finish block as for the bigger wonky block. If you were doing a stem, you would hand-stitch down that outer edge invisibly.

Trim as shown in above photo–to 4 1/2″ by 5 1/2″. I combined two to fill out those rows without the wider basket blocks.

I had some leftover little baskets, so used them to make tiny Dumpling Bags, using a free pattern from Michelle Patterns.

One of my favorite memorial sites in Washington, D. C.

My mother remembers this day not just for the Veterans, thinking instead of its original purpose: that of taking a day to remember our own deceased relatives. She still calls it “Decoration Day.” My parents would go around to all the graves of their deceased ancestors and leave flowers.

I went up last year to see them on this weekend, but they’d already done most of the graves. I did get to go with them for a couple of my great-grands, my father anchoring the pot of mums with bamboo skewers so it wouldn’t tip over.