Friday, September 21, 2012

The Trick or Treat Quilt

I'm working on the fifth block of my A Bountiful Life quilt, which I will show you when it's completed. I'm hoping that this project will be finished in months--not years! The last large applique quilt I worked on was my version of the Blackbird Designs "Trick or Treat" quilt from their book When a Cold Wind Blows. It took me YEARS to finish it--I think because it was so repetitious doing 291 of the same block. I really had to force myself to finish them, and somehow, when I finally was finished, I ended up with 5 extra baskets. I'm not sure how that happened--I must have been delirious!!


I did get a lot of mileage from those little baskets though! If you took an applique class from me at Colorz for Quilts, you will recognize them. I used them to demo the freezer paper/starch method many, many times. 

I liked the way the little bird ended up in this block.

This is the only block that doesn't have the little reverse applique center--I didn't have the heart to cut into the bird!
I outlined and stippled around all the baskets--soooo many starts and stops!! I quilted a "shadow " basket in the "blank" blocks-I think you can see it in the sampler fabric block in this photo. 
This is my border. I got lazy and just wanted to be done with the quilt, so I skipped the  border applique. To make it easy to advance the quilt on my HQ16, I did bead boarding and scallops with feathers inside of them.
I was so happy to be finished with this quilt and have it hang in the Pinetree Patchworkers Quilt Show this June. It won a ribbon, which was a huge thrill!

I couldn't back up far enough to get the entire quilt in the photo. With the
wide border, it is a king size quilt.
Since I used softer colors than the original, and finished it completely in May, I named it May Baskets.
I did kind of miss working on these little blocks after dinner--it got to be an evening ritual.


9 comments:

  1. Karen - it looks wonderful!! Congratulations! I've just started this quilt, along with a friend, Siobhan, and we're loving it. I'm doing mine in all shades of red.

    The quilting you did on it is wonderful too and I'm glad to see the solid border - I've been going back and forth on that border - to make petals or not!

    And another congratulations on winning the Ribbon. Definitely deserved!

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  2. OHMYGOSH--what a masterpiece. I can see why you won a ribbon--it is beautiful. (AND, I'll bet you didn't fuse any of them to your ironing board cover
    ;--(((...like I did)I am pressing (ha ha) onward and have five finished--now why in the world did I think this would be a cute, SHORT project??? I may be a total "basket case" before it is done...Julierose

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  3. Lovely baskets, I like the softer colors that you used.

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  4. Oh Wow! Your quilt is BREATHTAKING!! I found your blog from another quilting blog (can't remember which one - sorry!) but I'm so happy that I did! You are so talented and I love your work!

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  5. Wow!! That ribbon was very well deserved! What a stunning quilt. Deb sent me the link to your blog and I keep coming back to look at it--wow. LOVE. I have about 55 baskets done and want to keep going but had to put it aside for a few days to make myself finish up another quilt WIP. I never thought I'd like applique but I actually enjoy it now. Thanks for talking about how it was machine quilted, too. It looks SOOOOO nice!

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  6. This is a beautiful quilt! I love the fabric selections so much better than all the cheddar in the original. I love cheddar, but your colors are amazing! What a joy to behold!

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  7. Stunning. The scale really makes it but so does the detail in the fabrics. Really appreciate you taking the time to point those birds out. Quite charming.

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  8. Per chance, I stumbled on your blog, in fact I had googled "Trick and Treat quilts", as I have one started years ago , and I have now decided to finish it ! I am not sure yet if I will do a simple border or the original one, but I must say your quilt is very lovely !
    Carolyn/France

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  9. Love how your quilt came out. I have had this quilt on my "bucket list" for a while and finally started it. I have 5 blocks made already, but am having a little trouble with the basket handles. Can I ask you which method you used to make them?

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