Sweet William: My New Project

I own several historical quilt books and have always admired this basket quilt from the 1800's.
In 2014, I was browsing the internet and came across Ingrid's Supergoof Quilts blog HERE . She was making some of these blocks. 

Oh my, I was completely smitten and I loved the yellow she was using for the alternate block. Then I found out that Ingrid was working from a pattern called Sweet William by Susan Smith. 

At that time, I was still working at the quilt shop when this Riley Black yellow check came in. I bought a ton of it along with some quilter's linen by Kaufman that I thought would make a nice background for the baskets. 

Like I said, that all happened six years ago. Late last year, I decided it was about time to get started on Sweet William. I found those fabrics I had purchased right away but after searching my sewing room high and low I just could not find the pattern. I started to wonder if I had actually purchased one!

Thankfully, my dear friend Karen (logcabinquilter) rescued me by kindly sending me her pattern and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for that!

If you have ever used a Susan Smith pattern, you know they are not for the beginner. Instructions are minimal. This is the pattern for the basket which (per the pattern) is hand pieced using templates you draw up yourself from this diagram.
Not happening here--lol!

I did some figuring and worked out the measurements to rotary cut and machine piece the baskets to speed things up--I was so excited to start the applique!  

It ended up being very easy once I figured out that adding a flippy corner to the large half square triangle would make the basket bottom. 

My first basket filled! The pattern says to make the block and then do the applique. I was very worried about raveling and shrinking, so did this test block. It all worked out fine, so I'm going ahead with piecing before applique. 

I re-figured my calculations so I could make 2 blocks at a time--that way I do not end up with extra triangles. 

Here's where I am so far.
There will be 36 basket blocks in the quilt. They are all cut out and half of them have been sewn--and half of those have been filled--so fun! 

 I haven't deviated from the Susan Smith applique patterns--yet. If you take a close look at the original quilt from the 1800's, some baskets have pine trees, a rooster, deer and even giraffes! Thankfully Susan didn't include those blocks in her pattern--lol! 

So far, my favorite is the strawberry block but there's a cute tiny bird coming up soon!