Just Can't Resist Baskets

After playing around with different settings for these baskets, I went back to my original plan.  I already had the brown fabric from a birthday shopping trip a couple years ago that I've been wanting to use forever.  It seems like a fabric that requires a more formal setting, but maybe that's just me?

Vertical basket project

The other setting that almost made me change everything I had planned out was the one below.  Hmmm... So very interesting.  Of course I love baskets in almost any color or setting so I can always see numerous possibilities.  I played with the different settings so much I actually gave myself a headache.  lol

Another setting to play with....

Then I went back to my Low Volume quilt because really, it was so close to a finish, how could I ignore it for much longer?  I'm really happy with the end result--how old fashioned it looks yet, not old fashioned all at the same time.  I know.  I'm confusing myself.

A completed quilt top (maybe!)

I am going to fold it up and put it away with my other completed quilt tops for now.  There is always the possibility that I will add another border onto it and play with it some more on another day, but for now I'm satisfied with what is done.  I really thought I'd at least add on enough hst's to edge the two sides that don't have them, but it didn't look right to me when I auditioned them.  So--enough is enough.  Moving on.

Low volume with just a little extra.

Playing with the basket settings made me want to rush upstairs and start working on other basket blocks, so of course I did.  No impulse control at all!  I had bought a third of a yard of some interesting fabric the other day when my mother dragged me into a quilt store against my will.  Funny how the colors are the exact colors I see when I look outside the window in my quilting room.

Getting derailed.....

So far it's looking quite different from my current ongoing projects, but it's definitely holding my interest.  I'm thinking this will end up as a medallion quilt.  Hope the baskets will succeed in holding the center down.*wink

Hmm...  Who can resist these baskets?

Something Different For Me

Um.... yeah.  I think maybe it's the smoke from all the wildfires.  Something is definitely out of whack if I voluntarily start cutting and sewing together 'complicated' blocks.  I'm a nervous wreck about this--1st, 2nd and third thoughts, you name it and still..... here's the first block just waiting on the background fabric.

Here's where I veer off in a new direction.

It's a large block.  Waaay bigger than I imagined, which means that now you know how much I read patterns before I got started.  My basket blocks are going to be 9" finished, so that gives you a pretty good frame of reference for the star.  I'm not planning on buying any fabric for this project (until maybe the border) and hopefully I'll find everything I need in my totes.  Please let me find what I need in my totes!

So you can see how big this star is....

The background will definitely need to be pieced because I buy mostly fat quarters.  (And the jury is still out if I will go ahead and sew the curved background pieces on or just applique this big monster to a pieced square.)  This is so not my normal comfort zone, but I'm extremely happy with what I'm doing anyway.  It feels really good to challenge the status quo once in awhile.  You didn't think I was going to sew all basket quilts for the rest of my life did you?*wink

The New Project is Starting Out so Very Well

I shouldn't even be in my quilt room I guess.  Somehow I upended an almost full glass of iced tea over my carefully cut-out squares being prepped for half square triangles.  A new project.  Full of hope and expectations etc. etc.

This is not starting the way I hoped it would

Well, this is what they look like after I went ahead and gave them ALL a tea bath, rinsed them and then laid them out flat to dry.  That was of course after my little temper fit which really didn't make me feel any better at all and just expended a lot of energy on hot day.

Still hand quilting along

So, back to the hand quilting for peace of mind.  Which would have worked beautifully if my husband hadn't been trying to load music onto his laptop for 17 hours and 38 minutes straight.  At one point I thought my brain matter was going to come glomming out of my skull or something because I realized we were listening to Kenny G?  Seriously?  I had to get up and check to see if we still had the old blue Ford 250 sitting in the driveway.*sigh  Some days, even quilting can't quite soothe the ragged edges....