Guilt

I proudly announced that my Calendar Baskets quilt was finished by the end of January, but the guilt has crept up on me. I certainly put nine of the baskets into the quilt, but I still have three left! They haven't actually been causing me sleepless nights, but I felt bad about just adding them to my orphan pile while at the same time, declaring them as a finish. Here they are, staring reproachfully at me. Three blocks - not a very helpful number to use up. Then I finally tracked down my 12 Days of Christmas blocks which have been languishing in a bag for years. They too don't make a coherent group. Then I had an idea. What about combining the two groups?

Here is a possible arrangement for the two sets to make a new quilt!

They will play together quite nicely I think. OK. You've noticed that I've conveniently left out the partridge in the pear tree. Well, don't think I'm fudging again - I have firm plans for him which will allow him to star in his own Christmas wall hanging. Hooray! UFOs into quilts!

A middle

I was shocked (but not surprised!) at the number of UFOs which were in my cupboard, and am determined to keep up with the challenge to finish one a month. So once I'd got the fabric for the Calendar Baskets, it was all systems go!
This isn't going to be an earth-shattering quilt, but I'm pleased with the way it's going so far. I'm going to put a mid-green narrow border on it, then a wider light green. Despite a good rummage in my green fabric box, there's no light green of quite the right shade. That means I'll have to make another trip to the quilt shop. What a shame!

A start

I have decided how to use my basket blocks in an arrangement which won't have me falling asleep with boredom while I sew! Some while ago I bought a book which had some great ideas for using spacers with blocks to help them 'knit up big'. I thought it might be useful for Linus quilts, and put it on my shelf.

It's called 'Circle of Nine' by Janet Houts and Jean Ann Wright. They give instructions for 24 quilts, which all have the same idea, of nine feature blocks arranged in a circle and the spaces filled in by rectangles of fabric, flying geese, four-patches or whatever compliments the blocks. This seemed to me to be ideal for my purpose. The only snag was that I have twelve blocks, not nine, but I decided to use three either on the back or for another purpose, so that problem was easily solved!

I think the baskets are busy enough not to warrant fancy spacers, so I chose this arrangement, with rectangles of fabric between the blocks.

And here is the fabric I have bought today. It's busy enough to hold its own with the baskets, but not in a position to overwhelm them. Now to the cutting!