Thursday, September 12, 2019

Baskets and Quilts

I really love baskets and basket quilts. My recent flea market find was this old basket -


Here's a recent eBay find. Love those scallops.


What is it about these basket quilts? Long ago, there were so many uses for baskets and they were a huge part of nineteenth-century life. It's no wonder they found their way into quilts made at the time. There were market baskets, gathering baskets, berry baskets, flower baskets and sewing baskets.  

"In the 1800s, women's scrap baskets often contained leftovers from dressmaking, as well as pieces of fabric collected from friends and relatives and fragments of dresses worn by loved ones."  
                                                                                                                        - A Prairie Journey    

Do you have a scrap basket? 







A basket for my hexagons

We should all have a couple of basket quilts in our collection, don't you think? That's the beauty of  small quilts -  you can make a variety of quilt patterns without expending the time making a large quilt.

Here are some basket quilts I've made over the years:



Civil War baskets from my book Remembering Adelia.



Prairie Baskets is from my second book Prairie Children and Their Quilts.


My Cherry Baskets quilt is available as a pattern on my website

The one below is a vintage doll quilt. How quirky are those baskets??


There's a pattern for the 4" basket block below in Files in the Facebook group or the Small Quilt Talk group. Go to the sidebar on my blog to find the links to the groups.





The tiny blue and red baskets quilt was a special gift from my friend Marian. 





13 comments:

Quilting Babcia said...

I love baskets and basket quilts! Your two recent finds are fabulous. There are several baskets in my quilting room holding all sorts of scrappy odds and ends. Your little prairie basket quilt is very similar to one I made last year in my Pieced from Lois's Scraps series.

Lady Locust said...

Thinking about it, I have lots of baskets, but not one basket quilt. I think I need to remedy that! :-)

Wilma Kuin said...

I love baskets and basket quilts!

sue bennett said...

Love basket quilts. You can’t have to many. Your baskets are fun also. I have many baskets of scraps..

---"Love" said...

What a pretty group of baskets and basket quilts! For some reason, I don't have many baskets. You have reminded me that probably 15 years ago at least, I began a basket quilt --- large blocks! Why do I always think I have to make large quilts?!! Maybe I'd get it finish someday if they were small blocks. ---"Love"

Cynthia@wabi-sabi-quilts said...

Love baskets, basket quilts, and this post! Scraps.... beautiful little quilts. So much to see. Thank you!

Iherba said...

Maravillosos los mini quilts y las cestas antiguas. Un saludo

Janet Taber said...

Basket quilts are my fav, too! My most favorite is a red and white one my mother-in-law splurged on and bought me one year for ... no reason at all! She was like that! Last year, I put together a basket-themed mystery quilt for my quilt group and had so much fun finding all the different basket quilt blocks. Stamp Basket has long been a special one. I hope to start on your 4-inch basket very soon!

loraine everard said...

I have various baskets round the house, but none with fabric in. That may be about to change!! Enjoyed your post, and all the lovely pictures, and your last post was very inspiring! Writing my list now!! xx

Candace said...

You and I have many of the same tastes and interests, I just don't have your talent and expertise. I carry a basket all the time these days. My husband is on a walker and oxygen, so I carry my stuff and his, and the little basket is easier to get into than my purse. It is much like the picture below "Do you have a scrap basket?, but it has handles.

Stephanie Davison said...

I have never actually made any basket quilts, though I have a stash of basket blocks from my grandmother that I am waiting to put together. It kind of makes me nervous to work with them, but just letting them sit in a bin doesn't seem right, either.

But baskets? Oh, yeah, I have them. Not all old or wooden, but my husband and daughter don't understand the need for all my baskets. Then again, they don't need to, do they? lol

BezigeBijMirjam said...

Lovely to see all those different baskets.🤗

Litamora's Quilt & Design said...

I've enjoyed reading your blog posts this morning, and I found lots of inspiration! I haven't used my reproduction fabrics for a while, and found back to these ones again when I joined you fb group and also joined a sewing group at my local quilt shop where I can meet other ladies dedicated to this kind of fabrics. Thanks again for the inspiration :-)