Vertical Baskets in Spring 2015 Bloggers Quilt Festival

Time for spring Bloggers Quilt Festival again over at Amy's Creative Side! Love this mammoth online quilt show to pieces. So many wonderful quilts to look at and admire!

Vertical Baskets

I've been dragging my heels a bit about getting the binding finished up and then remembered the quilt show. Sadly, extra motivation is always a good thing when it comes to the binding around here.

Looking at some of the texture...

This was a quilt I made after buying a yard of the brown fabric for my birthday one year. I think it was 2012? {Oh yes, I can work on my quilts for a very long time.} Then I went back to the store later and saw it in the clearance bin. Oh no! Not this great fabric! So I bought up enough to use as vertical panels in a quilt that quickly materialized in my brain.

Hanging on the railing....

Not that I had all the pieces figured out until much, much later, but somehow it all came together anyway. All the rest of the fabrics were straight out of my stash {I tried to use a lot of reproduction fabrics} and the pattern and different basket handles were sort of made up as I went along. I ended up using a lot of different fat quarters to make up the setting triangles and I love how the value change creates movement in the quilt.

And another view...

It could've been a very dark, somber looking quilt because of the colors I used, but somehow there's just enough lighter colors to generate a bit of energy. The different colored diamonds in the center panels were created when I decided to try inserting two other fabrics behind the panel and attempted some reverse applique. So easy to do and I think it completely changed the look of the quilt for the better. Just a little spark of color can go a very long way.

A close up of the stitching

It's hard to get a good picture of this quilt, but I wanted to show you the texture of the quilt too. I ended up hand quilting this one a little more than I meant to, but I think the effect is well worth the effort!

Taking it out of the dryer this afternoon was a really big highlight of my week. Why do I ever procrastinate on the binding anyway? There's just something about a freshly washed, crinkly quilt that always makes me have a great big ol' smile! So that's it. You finally get to see the whole, entire quilt finished and ready to start snuggling with.*sigh This 81 1/2" x 86" quilt is entered into the large quilt category of the quilt show. My other quilt is entered into the hand quilted section.