Two Fruit Baskets

You know when you finish a quilt (or two, in this case) and you look back and wonder, "why did I do that?"  I am kind of doing that right now.  I am wondering why I made two of these instead of one large one.  I suppose there are a few reasons, but I can't change it now.



































It doesn't change how I feel about them. I am happy with how they turned out.  These were quilts I was collecting fabrics for during a stretch of several years.  I was motivated to start working through some of my projects when I was pregnant with #2. Unfortunately, my machine had different plans and continued to give me trouble.  Consequently, quilts that I started in 2011 are only now getting finished. My little girl really loves the colors, though. :)

I wanted to try baskets and came up with this pattern based on the many basket patterns out there. I wanted to maximize the amount of fruit/veggies that was showing in each block. When trying to decide what color to get the blocks on, my Mom pulled out this black and I just loved how it made the colors POP!

For the border, I used scraps to make the squares and used the last of the basket weave fabric to frame and bind it.  When it came to the quilting, once again I was practicing my template work, and I feel like I'm getting better and better. My machine, however, did not like working on the black fabric, so I ended up having to ditch the BSR and use the foot.  Made it a little more challenging, but of course by the time I was finished I had it figured out.  Good practice!

For the second one, I needed to change the border because I had different leftovers to work with.  So, I used strips instead of squares and I set it in black instead of the basket weave. I used the same template, but it was set on the block in a different position, and I simply did straight stitch instead of meander on the borders.

For the back of the second one, I had to piece together some of the leftover fabrics to get it to be big enough, and I actually really like how it turned out. Sometimes it feels like you have a whole other quilt when you have some fun with the back.

Maybe I should do what I had originally thought and try selling one on Etsy? We'll see.  For now, I am just going to enjoy the colors and think about the next project.

I am linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts. Here's hoping you have a nice weekend!