My apologies to Karen Comstock and those readers who wrote to let me know that I was missing something. This basket should be placed on a white or cream background (your choice) that is 8 1/2 inches raw, 8″ finished on point.

I didn’t give you specific fabric requirements for the blocks because we want to give you the chance to use your stash to make the blocks you want to use. I thought that a cohesive color scheme - brown baskets and white/cream backgrounds would tie the individual blocks together; that was what I gave to the designers to work with. All of the baskets will be finished to 8″ on point. I’ll work on the sashing and binding measurements and get those out to you soon - that’s hopefully the only significant yardage that’s required for the quilt.  If you don’t have something in your stash that you can use for your block - call a quilt friend (or two) and see if you can arrange a fabric exchange.

Please let me know if there is something else I’ve forgotten; apparently, I’m a bit rusty.   If you have any other questions, either leave a comment or email me at BOM@cottonspice.com. It’s good to be back!

Linda

It’s good to be back (live!) with a brand new quilt, and new designers! We’ve been hard at work, revamping our format and our concept, and we have something special for you. Bountiful is our newest Block of the month, and it’s a scrap basket quilt designed to let you take your fabrics out and play. We asked our designers to use a simple concept - 8 1/2″ on pointe baskets, cream or white background - that’s all the parameters we gave them.

Here’s the quilt design -

Our First block comes From Karen Comstock of www.quiltricks.com. She did a wonderful job of kicking off the quilt, and we’re happy to welcome her here to Cotton Spice as one of our designers. Here are the directions for the block she did.

This is an appliqued block.  Fusible web was used to affix the basket and flowers to the background prior to sewing them on with a blanket stitch.

Fabric Requirements:
 a.  9-inch square of beige or white background fabric
 b.  Scraps of various purples (flowers)
 c.  Scraps of green (leaves)
 d.  8-inch square of brown for basket
 e.  Gold and Green embroidery floss
 
1)  Reverse the design and trace each image onto the paper side of fusible web.  Fuse it to the wrong side of your fabric - that way your basket and flowers will face the correct way! 

2)  Cut out the basket, remove the paper and center it in the background square of fabric.  Using a blanket stitch (by hand or machine), sew down the edges and marked lines of the basket    

3)   Cut out each leaf and flower.  Remove the paper from all of them, arrange them in the basket  using the picture as a guide, and carefully press in place.  You may want to blanket stitch some of the underneath pieces before pressing the top pieces over them.  Blanket stitch around each leaf and flower.

4)  Take 3 strands of yellow/gold floss (DMC 742 was used in the sample) and make three french knots in the center of each flower.

5)  Take 2 strands of green floss (DMC 904 was used in the sample) and embroider the tendrils using a stem stitch.

6)  Press the completed block and trim to 8-1/2 inches square.