Monday, June 30, 2008

June winners

The winners of our June Basket Blocks are:

Kelly (mingtoy52)

Sharon (lea2oh)

Annette (annettejeavons)

Congratulations, ladies!!

The Rest of the Basket Blocks

LIFE has been in the way . . . and I'm playing catch up . . .

Here are Laurie's (nlaurie) 8 baskets.



And six from Michelle (momof11)



THen she found some more black and white fabric and made two more.



And one basket from the self-proclaimed slacker, Sandy (centergranny).



Four from Ellen.



Rho (rhonda11) made eight blocks.



Karen (bittieshop) made a DOZEN blocks.



and Annette (annettejeavons) made these blocks.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Basket Blocks from Maz

Maz struggled and made a cocktail and struggled some more and made these beautiful 8 blocks.



Our new total so far this month is 94 blocks.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Let's Sew a Basket Block

After some forum discussion of hair pulling and suggestions of the need for cocktails, I thought I'd take a step back and approach making this month's block a little more slowly.

The concern seems to start here, with step one, where we sew the small triangle basket bases to the side rectangles.

Basket bases and side rectangles

The rectangles are 2 inches wide; the triangles are cut from 2-3/8 inch squares cut diagonally. Can that be right? How can they match? Yes. The quilt match that you need to remember is that while you add 1/2 inch to the finished size of a square or rectangle for seam allowances, you add 7/8 inch to a half-square triangle or 3/8 inch MORE.

So, you put these pieces together like this before you sew.

Aligning the pieces before stitching

As you are sewing along, you'll notice that your seam begins or ends at the point where the diagonal of the triangle crosses the end of the rectangle.

Where you'll end

(Sorry for the less than stellar focus on this one, but hopefully you can see what I mean here).

Press the seams toward the rectangles.

Trim the extending points off

The strips fit on each side of the large basket triangles.

Next attach to Basket large triangle

The pieces align, in a similar way, offset slightly, so that when you sew them, your 1/4 inch seams start and end at the intersections. It sounds a little tricky, but it's actually quite elegant.

Aligning with basket

Sew one side, press toward the large basket triangle, then repeat on the other side.

Same thing on the second side

Both sides attached

When both sides are attached, you should have a nice straight line across the bottom.

Attach the bottom triangle next

The bottom triangle will overhang slightly on each side, intersecting at the point where you sew the 1/4 inch seam. See? I'm telling you. It all fits. It's very elegant.

Center and sew

This next picture is a BAD example. You DON'T want this result. You SHOULD end up with 1/4 background extending PAST the basket base triangles--so the points won't be cut off when you sew the block into a quilt. I fixed the block afterward, but thought a bad example was worth sharing. Remember THIS is what YOU DON'T WANT.

A bad example

Unless you are choosing the hand embroidery option for the handle, you must add the handle to the background triangle before you add it to the bottom of the basket.

Please use the template provided in Janet's pattern--it will help make all of our basket blocks play nicely together in the winners' quilts. (If you are one of the winners, you'll really want this ;-) I used a ruler to help me make sure I was centering the template, then traced the circle onto my background fabric.

Lining up the basket handle template

Then I used a glue stick to stick my baby rickrack in place before stitching it down. I thought it was a lot easier than pinning.

Place and sew rickrack

Then, after it was sewn, I trimmed the excess rickrack even with the bottom edge of the triangle.

Trimmed and ready to attach to basket block

After the handle is attached, you can complete your block.

Finished Basket Block


Note, on my second block I made (with a blue basket with blue rickrack handle), I didn't have any matching thread handy, so I used mono-filament and a zig-zag stitch.

Sewing on the rick rack with zig zag stitch

Please, don't be afraid of this block. Cut your fabrics carefully and try a pair of blocks. They are so charming and you'll feel so accomplished when you've made your blocks.

Basket Blocks from Judee & Cindee

I've fallen (behind) and I'm trying to catch-up this afternoon. Here are eight blocks from Judee (3199).



And six from Cindee (zoopme).



And two more from me.

And Its Twin Finished Basket Block

Our new total so far this month is 86.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

More Lotto Quilts in Progress

Maybe Mercury in retrograde really is good for working on old projects. Look at these two finished tops from past lotto block winners, Desi and Little Deb.

I think the sashing and cornerstones Desi used for her I-spy snowball blocks are simply perfect.



Deb's addition of alternate blocks and a piano key border (with some skinny black borders to make it all pop) and a few more floral shoo fly blocks turned her lotto blocks into a top large enough for her queen size bed. Yay! She added the names and locations of the people who made the lotto blocks she won.

Colene's Basket Blocks

Colene made these two blocks. Everyone is coming up with such great fabrics. I loved these.

block lotto june 2008 stamp baskets

Welcome back to the block lotto, Colene.

Our new total so far this month is 70 basket blocks.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Amy's Basket Blocks

Where did Amy find LIME rickrack? Here are her two basket blocks.



Our new total for the month so far is 68.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Deb's Basket Blocks

Check out the basket blocks that Deb (littledeb) made.



I especially like the yellow fabric with the lady bugs. Our new total so far this month is 66.

Wilma's Basket Blocks

Here are 8 basket blocks from Wilma (WilmaNC1)



That makes 58 blocks so far in June.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Sylvia's Basket Blocks

Here are eight baskets from Sylvia (imjin53)



We now have 50 blocks so far for June.

Laura Has Been Busy

Laura (ljrandolph) recently posted photos of two tops completed from lotto blocks won in the past. I think Pat and her Lotto Block Challenge really got some of us going. Thank you, Pat.

Here are blocks made from Marcia's Hohn's block, That Thirtie's Thang (which we made in not-so-30's fabrics).



And last summer's Asian Attic Windows.



Brava, Laura.

Remember, you get bonus chances to use in the lotto whenever you want when you finish a top and three chances when you finish a quilt.

Debbie's Baskets

Debbie (dzrunner1) said she wasn't a big basket fan, but look at the cool basket blocks she made.

IMG_1163

Her eight baskets bring our total so far this month to 42.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Basket Blocks from Kate & Mary Jane

Here are Eight Blocks each from a couple sneek-peekers, Kate (katelnorth) on top and Mary Jane (mjontebeau), below. Thanks, ladies, for leading the way ;-)

Kate's Baskets

Mary Jane's Blocks

Sophie's Basket Blocks

I wanted to try a few different methods for the handles so you could see how they looked. I used different thread, different machine stitches, etc. I took individual photos so you could get a closer look.

Click for larger images; the descriptions on Flickr also include the thread and stitch used for each handle.

Stamp Basket block with bias applique handle Stamp Basket block with chain stitch embroidered handle
Stamp Basket block with bias applique handle Stamp Basket block with bias applique handle

Stamp Basket block with chain stitch embroidered handle Stamp Basket block with chain stitch embroidered handle
Stamp Basket block with bias applique handle Stamp Basket block with bias applique handle

Stamp Basket block with rickrack handle Stamp Basket block with rickrack handle
Stamp Basket block with rickrack handle Stamp Basket block with rickrack handle

(I also wanted to sweeten the pot a little this month, so I made some extras to get us off to a nice start).