Happy Valentine’s Day and welcome to our Patches of Blue Quilt Along – Block 2!
I hope your Valentine’s Day arrived with baskets full of the most beautiful flowers,
and delicious kisses!
And speaking of baskets, our Quilt Along Block 2 is “Gift Basket” on page 106 of our Patches of Blue book.
Now you know the routine – lets start by picking your fabrics! You will need: 5 blue 10″ squares and 5 light 10″ squares. Remember the Rule of 5 when picking your fabrics.
Grab your Patches of Blue book, fabric, basic cutting supplies, and we will be ready to start! During the process I will introduce a few other tools you’ll need to make this a fun experience. In the book, we are cutting multiple baskets out of the same color, but in this case we want each basket to be a different color and 10″ squares are perfect for that.
NOTE: Our sampler quilt will have applique branches and a bird coming out of the baskets – this applique will be done in a later month of our quilt along. Please be patient, I will have something special for you at that time.
Trim your square to 9-1/4″.
Cut it into 2 half square triangles.
From one triangle cut a 3/4″ bias strip for basket handle.
Take the larger triangle, cut in half again to make a quarter square triangle for basket . Notice how I lined up my 45 degree ruler with the edge of my triangle to insure that I cut it exactly.
From small triangle cut a 3-3/8″ square for the basket base.
Don’t forget to reward yourself with some kisses and cut enough fabrics for five baskets.
Next, from each 10″ light square, cut a rectangle and square for basket background. Fabric cutting requirements are in the book. I decided to use different color for each block background.
Pair up your backgrounds with your basket pieces in preparation for assembly. For one basket you need; 1 rectangle light, 1 square light, 1 square dark, 1 quarter square triangle and 1 bias strip for a handle. Now you will need a 3/8″ (9mm) bias tape maker and and 5mm fusible bias tape, if you don’t have them, I have included a link for you.
Take a light and a dark square.
Place them right side together, draw a diagonal line with your pencil.
Sew on the line, press open, and trim.
Cut in half to create two half square triangles.
This is so much fun and so easy to make a basket this way!
Lay your pieces out to make sure that they are in the correct location.
Place right sides together. Notice the outside points are matching and the bottom points overlap. I pin it to keep everything together and now its time to stitch.
Next add the left side of the basket; place right sides together, match the outer points, and sew. Press and trim to complete. The size of the basket base should be 8-1/2″ x 4-1/2″.
Repeat above steps and in no time you will have all 5 basket bases done!
To make the handle I use a bias tape maker – just click here or on the photo for a wonderful video on our YouTube channel that will guide you through the process. Once the handle is in position you can hand or machine applique it to the background.
Sew the top and bottom basket pieces together to create a block.
Press and trim your basket to 8-1/2″ x 8-1/2″.
In no time, you will have a basket full of baskets for Valentines!
We are not done yet, just like last time, I need you to do just a tiny bit more work as we will need these little finishing pieces in our quilt. Last time we did four-patches, this time I would like you to make some 1-1/2″ half square triangle units. Use a variety of scraps.
You will need 5″ squares of light and blue fabrics along with one of my personal favorite notions; 1-1/2″ triangle paper (LBQ-0523-X).
Place fabric right sides together with the light fabric and triangle paper on top.
Pin the paper in place and stitch on the dotted line. Make sure your stitches are a little closer together (reduce your stitch size).
Cut on a straight lines and in a short time you will have perfect triangle units. Don’t forget to trim the bunny ears and peel the paper off the back. I would like you to keep making some of these every month. We will need 348 of them for the border when we assemble the quilt.
You might even want to make some extras to share with your quilting sweethearts.
In the spirit of Valentines Day, I wanted to share our “Patches of Blue” Quilt-Along Sampler with you in the official colors of today. It’s a sneak peek of our new fabric collection called “Sweetheart”! XOXO Edyta
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