Fall 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival: Worry Baskets

It's that time of year again! Time to join in on the fun over at Blogger's Quilt Festival and spend countless hours checking out all the lovely entries. I thought this brand new finish would be a good quilt to enter in the Applique Quilts as that part took the very longest for me.

Worry Baskets is done!

I started this quilt back in the fall of 2009 and spent the next three years sporadically stitching the baskets. I kept a handwork bag ready to go and found myself stitching at my kids games and practices, while waiting on my husband at hardware stores, while I had overnight guests and every other moment I wanted to keep my hands busy or my mind quiet.

Completely finished...

It is my very first Forever type project and I quickly realized that it also became my 'in between' busy work. Whenever I was waiting for another quilt to simmer or didn't want to do the next phase on some quilt or other, this was often my fall back. With 292 baskets in the quilt, it almost seemed inconceivable to actually ever finish up, but of course it did eventually happen. Amazing how that happens! There was almost no pressure involved in sitting down and stitching a meager  two or three baskets although I kept a counter on my blog during those months and ahem, years! of stitching the baskets. It really motivated me to keep on going just knowing that there was ongoing progress from month to month.

With so many different fabrics in it...

And yes, there was some despair involved in the making in spite of my best intentions. I learned that forever type projects really do take forever and sometimes you feel like a crazy, obsessed loon as you pull your ongoing project out in front of your friends and family yet again. And then again. And then Again. At times it seemed almost embarrassing to still be working on it, but along with that thought came a kind of steely defiance too. Will you think I'm strange when I say there is almost a palpable feeling of dedication stitched directly into the fiber of my quilt?

I also think it's extremely important to work on lots of other quilt projects during the making of this type of quilt. If we don't occasionally get to finish up a quilt {down to the binding}, then I we slowly lose our confidence that it can actually happen some sweet day. And then our minds can snap and ugly things will happen in the quilting room.*wink

And a few repeats...

I took a break from my Worry Baskets after putting the top together and then pulled it out this June to start the quilting. Hand quilting of course. What else would I be satisfied with after all that needleturn applique? I used a gold colored hand quilting thread that (hopefully) gives it a lovely textured look without overpowering any of the baskets. I stitched very simply with a cross hatch pattern in the plain fabric and nine patch blocks, plus echo stitching on the inside of  every appliqued basket. I also stitched just inside the seam on every other basket block to round things out and make sure there was plenty of stitches throughout.

It looks good draped and folded and even rolled up...

So here I am at a finish. Finally! Woohoo! It's done, it's done, it's DONE!  I don't think my family even has a clue how manically happy I am about this particular finish. It almost feels like I gave birth. lol  And it was so much fun to wash up and ogle the gorgeous crinklyness. I love it. Can I say that? Just L.O.V.E. it.

It makes me sort of melt inside that I made it. Me. I did that!

You'll notice there is absolutely nothing perfect about this quilt. I dare you to look. I struggled initially with the little squares on the inside of the baskets so if you look close, you'll definitely see some rounded ones.*smile  The binding walks right over the top of some of the black fleur d 'lis triangles.*shrug  Some baskets are not exactly centered in the block.*yawn  This is the quilt that I poured my worries into. That I dared myself to make something beautiful out of what was already in my stash and not buy new. That I conquered my fears about never making anything 'real' and significant. It owns me and I really, really love it. It's a good finish.