Banded Baskets – Because I Love Them
Love them or hate them, basket blocks seem to be almost as polarizing among quilters as Sun Bonnet Sue. Because I love them, this month we are making this scrappy 6-by-9 inch (finished size) Banded Basket block using light/low volume/neutral fabrics for backgrounds, quilter’s choice for the basket and a coordinating solid or tone-on-tone (TOT) for the band and handle. The base of the basket can be made from the basket OR coordinating fabric.
The block pattern directions are here:
The pattern contains a few options for making the block, including a foundation pattern for paper piecing, but, in all cases, the basket handle is appliquéd to the background. Check out this post on my blog for more info on how I like to make them:
Vines and Handles: A Closer Look at Bias Strip Appliqué
If you make multiple blocks, you may use the same background fabric for all your blocks and the same basket fabric for up to four blocks, enabling you to make them using the four-at-once, no-waste method for making them. If you are unfamiliar with the method, you can find more info on that technique here:
You can also use the coordinating fabric in multiple blocks as long as the combination of the basket + coordinate fabrics in each block is unique.
As usual, you may make up to a maximum of 9 blocks for chances in the drawing at the end of the month. As always, if you like, you can make more and donate them to the pot.
Tags
Add the tag Banded Basket to all your blog posts about this block. The category should be blocks when you are posting photos of your blocks to enter them in the drawing; use the category sent and received when you are posting about mailing or receiving blocks; and the category show and tell to share projects you make from this block (whether they are lotto blocks or blocks you make for yourself.
The Virtual Quilt
The blocks in this month’s virtual quilt were made by sneak peekers, Jo, Laurina, Peggy, and me.
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Hi
Do I now have to had my blocks in the draw.
You need to post your blocks in a post of their own to be entered into the drawing. If it’s left to me, there’s a pretty good chance that, at some point, I’ll be overwhelmed and make a mistake.
This block looks fun, and pretty fast! I have a comment that really relates to last month’s topic of “tools.” I just took an advanced quiltmaking class that involved some applique, which is foreign to me, and the teacher showed us some “bias bars.” They are metal strips , about 10 inches long, with widths that match the width of the completed bias tube you are making. I invested in a set, and they make the pressing process so much easier (much less risk of burned fingers, although the metal does get hot), that I found them to be a great investment at about $20 at my LQS (local quilt shop). I also hope to make a ministerial stole with a Celtic pattern for a friend who is finishing seminary, so I had a larger project in mind as well.
Those bias bars work really well for this month’s basket handle. (I used them to press mine.)
I used the bias bars for mine but they are made of a hard, heat proof plastic.
Looks like a nice block collection! Thanks, Sophie, for all your hard work.