It had been a long time since I’d done a swap, but there were two swaps in recent years among the members of my local group, and I couldn’t resist either one. The first, signature blocks, was done in October, 2010, and I really liked the idea of having signature blocks from these ladies who’ve been my friends for so long, so I participated even before I had any idea of what I’d do with the finished blocks. The second one, in July of 2011, was for exchanging half-square triangles, and that gave me the idea of combining these with the signature blocks to make baskets! Yay! I decided to set the baskets together in strips and on point, leaving room for some of the feathers I like so much. This photo of the quilt is really bad, but I needed to keep it a bit blurry to disguise names and maintain privacy. However, you can see how the baskets are set into the quilt.
As you can see, I machine quilted feathered swags into the plain strips between baskets, as well as into the borders. The baskets are outlined, and the setting triangles have concentric V’s quilted into them. The quilt measures approximately 70″ x 87″, and I finished it in April, 2012.