Live a Colorful Life Quilt Diary: 204. Basket Weaving

In 2020, on a beautiful day at the end of April, we ventured to my cousins' house, Terry and Cathy Oberg, for a photo shoot. We were still fairly new to life under lockdown due to the pandemic. Would it be safe to be around people, even though we were outside? Could we safely use the bathroom in their house before we made the trip home? So many unknowns. But by six weeks into the shutdown, we craved conversation beyond just the two of us.

The car is a beauty. Taking pictures at Smokin' Possum Farms, Terry and Cathy's house, was the perfect backdrop. And I'll warn you right now, this will be the most picture-heavy post of all the quilts and classic cars because I handed my phone over to Shannon, Terry and Cathy's daughter-in-law, a professional photographer. And believe me when I tell you that this is just a fraction of the photos that Shannon took. So many that her husband, Travis, decided to just take a rest on the other side of the car. Ha!

So here we go:

The quilt itself, Basket Weaving, was something I have dreamed about for years. A long time ago, I bought yards of a fabric that looked like a woven baskets. At the same time, I began collecting basket blocks, but rather than standard basket blocks, I tried to find unusual blocks. For a long time I couldn't decide what fabric to use for the flowers themselves. I finally settled on prints by Alison Glass as the blocks were so dissimilar so it was nice to have some fairly unifying prints for the flowers.

Pattern: Sunday Best, Quiltworks, 2017

Pattern: Summer Love, Bonnie Olaveson, 2018

Pattern: Flower Basket, Fussycutter Quilt Kits, 2014

Pattern: Cindy's Basket, designed specifically for this quilt by Kerry Gulder @kidgiddy, 2019

Pattern: Ombre' Flower Bouquet, Vanessa Christenson, 2019

Pattern: Piecemeal Quilts, Sandy Walton, 2009

Pattern: Hanging Baskets, Sandee Wachal, McCall's Quilting, 2005

Pattern: Sunday Best, Quiltworks, 2017

Pattern: VIVA! My Friends, Fusako Nakamura, QNM, 2003. I almost didn't make this one because of the hand appliqued handle, but I'm so glad I included it.

Pattern: Piecemeal Quilts, Sandy Walton, 2010

I paid no attention to the size of the blocks, but then realized several were quite small compared to the larger blocks. I didn't want them to get lost, so I chose to add some pieced segments.

Pattern: Prairie Star Basket, Judy Martin, 1998

Pattern: Pinwheel Basket (found on Instagram, designer unknown)

Pattern: Quilty Basket, Julie Sanders, Quiltmaker, 2015

Pattern: Cathedral Window, Barbara Campbell, QNM 2010

The quilting was a gorgeous design that has a custom feel to it, done by Darby of @quiltedsquid.

One afternoon,I took it to Tagua, a local fair trade shop that supports artisans in developing countries by selling their handmade crafts. They had a display of beautiful baskets.