Cherry Baskets Finished!

Cherry Baskets

in cheery cherry fabrics!

It's a finish!

64 x 86

The actual name of the 15 inch quilt block is Cherry Basket and I started making the blocks back in June 2022. 

In December 2022 I finished the top. 

Last month I started hand quilting it with red perle cotton #8. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to quilt inside the basket handles. I ended up using a stencil of a simple flower and used my chalk pounce pad to mark the stitching lines. I haven't brushed off all of the chalk yet so you can still see some of the white stitching lines. 

The backing was pieced with a couple of different fabrics with cherries. 

And sew on..

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Dec. 13 - More garden seeds arrived.  I start almost everything in my gardens from seed. My seed orders for 2025 are now complete and I'm ready for sowing. Next month I will start some "winter sowing" of seeds that need some cold stratification. I have several different gardens - veggie, cottage, herb, cutting, native wildflower and fragrant garden/sitting area. In 2025 I will be adding a new perky goth/moon garden with black and white flowers as well as a few pops of pink flowers -- a memorial for my deceased perky goth granddaughter Kayla. And just a few weeks ago I sowed a lot of the the front yard with native wildflowers. 

The latest batch of seeds came from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds and they sent along four free packets of seeds - Landis Winter Lettuce, Apricotta Cosmos, Cardinal Basil and Green Zebra Tomato. 

Dec. 14 - Grandkids! My grandson Jacob and granddaughter Isabelle called to say thank you for the Christmas gifts they received in the mail. They live at a distance and stay pretty busy so I don't hear from them very often. We had a nice long chat. Jacob is a sophomore in high school and in an accelerated degree program so when he graduates he will receive a high school diploma and associate's degree if he keeps up the good work. He also said he is in a Key Club which is a community service group sponsored by Kiwanis. He loves doing community service and is only required to do 50 hours of community service per year; however, he told me he has logged over 200 hours.  Isabelle turned 20 years old on Halloween, is working hard and just bought a truck so she  and her partner may be coming to visit me (an hour + drive) when they have some time off together and the weather is nicer. 

 

Cherry Baskets and Bramble Blooms

Cherry Basket

That's the actual name of the quilt block and I made my blocks all in cheery cherry fabrics. 

I've been big stitch hand quilting the blocks with red perle 8. 

I've also finished the wild rose and leaf needle turn applique on the second corner of my Bramble Blooms II quilt. I was going to see how I liked just doing the applique in opposing corners before I went on to do all four corners. I've decided I need to put the wild roses in all four corners. And before all is said and done I will probably add a few appliqued butterflies. 

The previous blog post about the first corner. 

Bramble  Blooms is an improv-do-your-own-thing Quilt Along hosted by Audrey at Quilty Folk.  This is my second quilt that will be a series of 3 quilts. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Nov. 30 - Pink sky at sunrise. Golden glow at sunset. 

 

What's In The Hoop?

What's (finally) in the hoop?

Cherry Baskets

I'm big stitch hand quilting with red perle cotton. 

I need to decide on a motif to quilt in that half circle area  inside the basket handle. I'll decide after all the rest of the quilting is finished and just think about it until then. I need to dig out my quilting stencils and see if there's anything in those I can use. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Nov 21 - Received another seed order. A lot of the seeds are for my new goth/moonlight garden but with a few veggies thrown in. And I received a free packet of mixed lettuces. 

Nov. 22 - Received a surprise box of scraps from Jeanie B! Oh, joy! They are sorted and quilts designated!

Nov. 23 - Received a box of scraps and other goodies from Donna! Wooohoo! Again they are all sorted and quilts designated!

Nov. 24 - Recovering from shingles and feeling a lot better! My eye was swollen shut, I had a horrible headache, and swollen lymph nodes as well as buring pain and rash on half my face from ear on up over scalp. I never take naps but was so tired I would wake up for an hour and mosey around and then go take another nap. Today my eye is open, headache is gone and lymph nodes are not as swollen; however, I am pretty crusty looking now from my ear through scalp. This too shall pass but right now I'm not really a sight to behold! 

Nov. 25 - Seed Saver's Exchange! They are located in Iowa where I live. I received today their 25th Anniversary 2025 Seed Catalog.  I've been ordering from them for years starting in the old days when nothing was ordered on the internet. I used to be a member long ago and was able to get seeds cheaper than non members and seed varieties not available to non members in exchange for membership fee and some of my saved seeds sent to seed bank. 

NOTE! 

This is a Google blog. I noticed a few weeks ago that Google was making some revisions to the way comments on blogs work. I used to get notice of your comment and it would come to my email along with your email address if you had it marked public on your google profile. Then I could reply via email. Now I get notification via email; however, I don't get your email addy anymore. If you have replied in the past I have now put you in my contacts so I can still reply via email. If you are an anonymous commenter then I will start replying to you on the blog.   I think Google wants all comments and replies to stay on their servers. (What happens on Google stays on Google?)

I have a Google Pixel 8 phone. At around the same time as this comment thing was happening my phone told me I needed to change to a new messaging ap. 

I am not a Facebook member; however, I used to be able to go visit most public Facebook pages. I had a winter sowing one I liked to visit from time to time.  Well, about the same time those Google things were happening public Facebook pages stopped being available to me the non-member. 

So, I think these are all moves toward Artificial Intelligence. Big Tech (Brother) is watching me! Or trying to watch me!  Not sure I like that. 

 

It's A Top! Cherry Baskets

Cherry Baskets

It's a top!

64 x 86

This is a traditional block called Cherry Basket.  I made 15 inch blocks and used the instructions from my Ladies' Art Company Block Tool.  I used cherry themed fabrics for the basket and rick rack for the handles. I used a variety of different reds and dark pinks for the backgrounds because I didn't have enough of any one red/pink solid. 

For side setting triangles I made several 22.5 inch blocks out of 2.5 inch cherry fabrics and red solids and cut them on the diagonals. 

I think this is the third quilt I've made with cherry themed fabrics. Now I think the rest of the fabric left will go toward a pieced back and after that the cherries will join the other fruity fabrics in the stash. 

And sew on...

 

A Few More Big Baskets of Cherries

Cherry Baskets 7-12

Goal is 18 baskets to be set on point

Baskets finish at 15 inches.

Only 6 more to go! 

Then I have to figure out what to use for side setting triangles. 

The last several days we have had a heat wave and rain. I've just been sitting in front of the fan, sewing, and listening to the weeds grow in the garden.   This morning the humidity and temps are a lot lower and so I think I'll be able to once again get outside and do something about those weeds and maybe harvest some crops if the critters (groundhog, racoons, deer, rabbits, squirrels, moles, voles, and gophers) have left me anything. Oh happy day!

And sew on...

 

More Cherry Baskets

15 inch finished Cherry Baskets 3-6

Goal is 18 baskets

And sew on...

 

Cherry Baskets

Cherry Basket

15 inch block

Do you remember back in May when I set a goal to work on four different basket UFOs? 

The end of the month came and I blogged "And since I only moved forward 3 of the 4 basket UFOs I don't get my planned reward - start another basket quilt I have had my eye on. "

Well, the basket block I had my eye on is called Cherry Basket and I wanted to make it with what else but cheery cherry fabrics. 

Then this month I received a box of scraps from a friend and what happened to be in there? A couple of small pieces of cherry fabrics -- just enough for basket blocks I had my eye on. So I thought that was a sign that my Cherry Baskets were meant to be.  But there was still that little problem with appliqued basket handles made of bias strips. I'm not good at making little pieces of bias (or big pieces for that matter). Then I remembered I had a lot of rick rack I picked up at thrift stores or bought on sale over the years. So, the baskets will have rick rack handles. I sewed the rick rack down by hand with herringbone stitch. 

I'm hoping I have enough of those two different red solids for backgrounds for 18 baskets I will set on point. If not I'll figure something out. No sense worrying about it now. 

I decided on the large 15 inch block so that the cherries in the fabrics did not get cut too small and could still be recognized as cherries. 

The block instructions came from Ladies' Art Company Block Tool. 

And sew it goes...