Sew Joy: georgia bonesteel

Welcome to my Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival being hosted by Amy.

My Birthday Baskets Quilt

This is the first quilt I have ever made for my house. I have been quilting for almost 14 years now. I finished it for my birthday THIS year!

It started over 2 years ago when I started making these basket blocks for a quilt for a new niece. But, I'm being honest here, I loved the blocks too much to give them away. Even to a nice home. I found the block on the infamous Quilter's Cache. {spend some time there - great blocks for quilt bees}

Then I needed to convince myself I could make a large quilt and finish it with my domestic machine. Georgia Bonesteel's excellent quilt-as-you-go method gave me confidence - and her book excellent instructions. {Click on the photo of her book to go to her website store where she has it on sale!}

I made my quilt in 3 panels. Here my cat, Mogli, is testing the width of a panel for me. This quilt was made for the wall though, so he doesn't get to snuggle with it normally.

I made this quilt to fit in our entry way. I used fabrics from my stash - some of them really old fabrics. I was inspired by antique quilts to come up with this setting arrangement - sashing with no borders.

I quilted each panel separately then sewed them together. You can sort of see here the zig zag effect I almost achieved!

I even tried really hard to match up the binding with the sashing strips as it went around the quilt.

For the backing I used the rest of the gold sashing fabric and this turquoise floral basket print.

This quilt doesn't look like most of the quilts I make.
But the tradition behind it is what started me in quilting.
I love getting to look at this quilt when I wake up in the morning!