Quilt Class: Flower Basket pt.2

Flower Basket
Flower Basket

As mentioned in part 1, above is the current block in our Sampler Quilt Class. These directions are for machine sewing your Flower Basket and include a little applique’. The applique’ can be done by machine or hand.

Are you playing along? If you are just starting, below is the complete supply list. You won’t need everything for this step, but you will need to start with part 1 and that part requires more supplies.

Supply List

  • Flower Basket Directions & Templates
  • paper scissors (part 1)
  • mechanical pencil
  • thin Pigma pen (or similar) (part 1)
  • template plastic (part 1)
  • glue stick (part 1)
  • 2 (or more) foreground fabrics
  • 12.5″ x 12.5″ piece of background fabric, which you will cut in half
  • FQ of same background fabric
  • Rotary ruler, including a long one, such as Creative Grids 4.5″x 18.5″
  • Rotary cutter
  • Fabric scissors
  • thread
  • pins
  • Stiletto
  • Design wall or sandpaper board
  • sewing machine in good working order
  • Sharp or top stitch sewing machine needle

Optional

Important information:

  • Block is 12.5″ unfinished / 12″ finished
  • These directions use a quarter inch seam allowance. Check your seam allowance before you begin. If you don’t know how to do that, there are resources available, including one from Connecting Threads and Craftsy. Search the web for others if you don’t like these tutorials.
  • You will be directed to use the Triangle Technique. Make sure you have the chart as well as the instructions handy.
  • Respect the bias.

After working through part 1, you have already chosen your fabrics, made your templates and cut your pieces. You are ready to sew.

Sewing

Carefully stitch along the hypotenuse of the large background triangle, about 1/8″ from the edge, to stabilize it. This stitching will be covered up when you stitch the handle part of the block to the basket part of the block.

Triangle Technique

Use the Triangle Technique to make your half square triangles. Make sure you have the HST Size Chart available to confirm sizes. A brief overview is:

Draw an X from corner to corner diagonally on the wrong side of each of your 6.25″ x 6.25″ squares.

Place them right sides together and sew 1/4″ on each side of the diagonal lines.

Nota bene: Pin far away from any of the diagonal lines.

Now you have a piece with four seams forming an X.

Next cut the ‘Plus’ of your sewn piece. This means that you are cutting horizontally down the middle and vertically down the middle using the center of the X as a guide.

  • Line up your ruler with the edge of the fabric and the point in the middle where the two lines forming the X come together.
  • Cut vertically.

Do NOT move your fabric.

  • Reposition your ruler and then cut the piece horizontally.

After you cut the “PLUS” (the vertical and horizontal cuts), you will have four squares, each with a line drawn diagonally across the middle. Cut the squares in half diagonally. You can use the line as a guide. It is more important to line your ruler up corner to corner.

Triangle Technique HSTs
Triangle Technique HSTs

The result is 8-2.5″ half square triangles. The above are actually a thread or two larger than 2.5″, which leaves the perfect opportunity for trimming to make them an absolutely perfect 2.5″.

  • Trim your HSTs to an absolutely perfect 2.5″.

Now you have 8 beautiful HSTs. You will need to make one additional HST.

Of course, you can use whatever technique you like to make the half square triangles.

Layout and Assembly

Pieces cut and ready to sew
Pieces cut and ready to sew

Now that you have cut all of your pieces, lay them out on your sandpaper board, or put them up on your design surface. It is great to be able to see where all the pieces belong and adjust any pieces that need adjusting before you sew.

Sew Handle to Background

Template on Handle, ready to trace
Template on Handle, ready to trace
Traced & Adjusted
Traced & Adjusted

Because I decided to use the method described below, I made another handle template with NO seam allowance. I placed it on the handle I had cut from the striped fabric carefully so there was an even seam allowance on all sides. Then I traced around it with my thin black pen. I thought the template was a little wide at the end so I adjusted the line a bit to make the seam allowance larger.

Handle & Background Triangle Cut, Laid Out
Handle & Background Triangle Cut, Laid Out
Pieces Laid Out
Pieces Laid Out

My pieces look a little weird-not the right size, etc when I laid them out. Have no fear! They will improve.

Press seam allowance under
Press seam allowance under
Press with hot iron
Press with hot iron

I was using my stiletto to adjust the seam allowance, but it was impossible to hold the stiletto, the camera and the iron all at once. Press carefully, so as not to distort your pieces. This is where a mini iron comes in handy.

Watch out for corners
Watch out for corners

Pay attention to the corners. The layers of fabric will want to pooch in weird directions. Again, this is where a mini iron comes in handy. I used my regular iron and a stiletto.

Press seam allowance on handle under
Press seam allowance on handle under

Take your handle and press the the seam allowance under on both sides of the piece. Press so that the drawn line is on the inside of the handle and is covered by the piece once the handle is sewn.

Nota bene: the orange fabric is laying on my ironing board and was selected for good contrast so that the steps would show up well

Finger press patches in half
Finger press patches in half

Fold the handle in half with wrong sides together and finger press on the midpoint. Unfold.

Fold your large triangle in half with right sides together and finger press. Unfold and layout.

Nesting handle & background
Nesting handle & background

Nest the handle into the triangle with the right sides up using your finger pressed marks.

Line up the bottom edges of the handle with the hypotenuse of the background triangle. If the handle ends are a little over, it will be fine. You can trim them later.

Eyeball your piece to make sure everything looks good and even.

Pin the handle to the background down the center of the handle. Remove the pins as you sew. Try not to sew over them.

  • Using a lot of pins will help keep the handle in place as you sew
Sew carefully
Sew carefully

Sew slowly and carefully along the drawn line around the curve. I chose a matching thread, an applique’ foot and a topstitch/sharp needle.

You will either need to hand applique’ the other side down or using a machine stitch that suits you.

Sew both sides down with a straight stitch.

Optional: You can satin stitch (see the Machine Applique’ tutorial) or blanket stitch or use some other decorative stitch to machine sew the handle to the background triangle piece. If you use one of these stitches, you may need some tearaway stabilizer

Optional 2: you can hand applique’ the handle to the background triangle.

Handle sewn to background with straight seam
Handle sewn to background with straight seam

Once the handle is sewn you are ready to move to sew the woven part of the basket.

Basket Sewing Layout
Basket Sewing Layout

Sew Basket Together

The block can be broken down into two pieces: the top half with the handle and the bottom half with the basket.

The parts are labeled as follows:

  • HSTs: 1-9
  • Single triangles A-G
  • Square: 10
  • Background pieces: B1-B3

Get ready to Chunk it, Baby! This is where numbered pins would come in handy.

First 2 patches sewn!
First 2 patches sewn!

Sew A to HST/1. Press towards Triangle A.

Sew B to the A-HST/1 combo. Press.

Start sewing basket together
Start sewing basket together

The two colored HSTs are supposed to give the illusion of a woven basket.

Trim off dog ears
Trim off dog ears

Trim off dog ears from the A,B-HST/1 combo.

Sew Basket parts together
Sew Basket parts together

Sew HST/2 to HST/5. Press towards HST/5.

Using the diagram above to confirm placement, sew your A, B-HST/1 combo to your HST/2-HST/5 combo. Press towards the red.

Sew basket parts together
Sew basket parts together

Sew HST/8 to Square 10. Press towards the Square 10.

Sew HST/6 to HST/9. Press towards the red part of the HST.

Sew 2 sets of woven basket parts together
Sew 2 sets of woven basket parts together
Sew basket parts together
Sew basket parts together

Using the diagram above to confirm placement, sew your HST/6-HST/9 combo to your HST/8-Square/10 combo. Press towards the HST/6-HST/9 combo.

Sew Triangle to HSTs
Sew Triangle to HSTs

Using the diagram above to confirm placement, sew C to HST/3. Press towards the red.

Sew triangle D to C-HST/3 combo
Sew triangle D to C-HST/3 combo

Using the diagram above to confirm placement, sew D to your C-HST/3 combo. Press towards D.

Trim your dog ears
Trim your dog ears

Trim your dog ears.

Sew HST/4 to HST/7. Press towards HST/7, making sure your seams will nest with the seams you have already pressed.

Sew parts of the basket together
Sew parts of the basket together

Sew HST/4-HST/7 together and then sew the HST/4-HST/7 combo to E. Press towards E.

Four sections of the Basket
Four sections of the Basket

Using the diagram above for placement, sew your HST/4-HST/7-E combo to your C-D-HST/3 combo. Press.

Trim dog ears.

Sew 2 Sections together
Sew 2 Sections together

Sew your A,B-HST/1-HST/2 segment to the HST/6-HST/9 segment.

Trim Your Dog Ears
Trim Your Dog Ears

Trim your dog ears!

Sew last two segments
Sew last two segments

Sew the last two segments of the basket part together. You may have to re-press some seams.

I didn’t move the borders the whole time I worked on the quilt See how much the basket part shrank? That is seam allowances for you! The more seams the more the piece shrinks!

Trim the dog ears
Trim the dog ears

Trim the dog ears, if you haven’t already.

Sew 2 halves together
Sew 2 halves together

Now you have two halves of the basket. Sew the woven part to the handle part by placing the woven part on top of the handle part, lining them up and then sewing carefully. You can fold the two sections in half, bisecting the handle, to match them up if you think that you need to trim the handle portion later.

Ready to sew last borders
Ready to sew last borders

Now you are ready to sew on the borders.

Sew triangle to border
Sew triangle to border
Sew next triangle to border
Sew next triangle to border

Sew the B2-G background section by placing the red triangle (G) face down on top of background piece B2 and sew the short end of the background to the triangle, as shown in the picture.

Sew on background B2/Triangle-G
Sew on background B2/Triangle-G

Take the basket piece that you sewed together above and place the B2-G background section on top of the basket section. Line up the red triangle’s seam from the B2-G background section with the HST/8-Square 10 section. You want the seams to match, so pin. Press towards background piece B2.

Only one more border to go.

Take the basket piece that you sewed together above and place the B1-F background section on top of the basket section. Line up the red triangle’s seam from the B1-F background section with the HST/9-Square 10 section. You want the seams to match, so pin. Press towards background piece B1.

Sew on Final Triangle
Sew on Final Triangle

Now you are ready to sew the last piece.

Trim dog ears
Trim dog ears

First, trim the dog ears.

Basket almost complete
Basket almost complete

Your basket is almost complete.

Line up triangle with borders
Line up triangle with borders

Complete your basket half by sewing background piece B3 to the basket. You have already snipped off the corners using a Judy Martin Point Trimmer.  Just line up the triangle piece with the borders already sewn to the block. Press towards the background piece B3.

Your half is complete.

Take the top half of the basket, the piece with the handle, and carefully sew it to the basket half.

Completed Basket Block
Completed Basket Block

Your block is complete! Hooray.

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.