Charlotte’s Baskets…

Every since I wrote the blog post about have “have you ever made every quilt in a quilt book” regarding Bonnie Hunter’s String Fling book I’ve had the itch to actually really make EVERY quilt the book.  I’m not putting any time table on the endeavor but the more I thought about it, the more fun I thought it would be.  It might be a push and challenge for me to “make a quilt that wasn’t my favorite” or to try a new to me technique like applique or actually finish my Pineapple Crazy quilt.  The more and more I thought about it, the more and more I liked the idea.

At about the same time I was thinking about that, I was tidying up the sewing room.  I was putting away the bonus triangles that I made when I made with my Texas Tumbleweed quilt.   That’s when the idea hit me that I could use the batik bonus triangles left over from Texas Tumbleweeds as the basket triangles for Charlotte’s Baskets.  SCORE!!!

I’ll admit that one of the reasons I haven’t made this quilt yet is that is didn’t sing to me.  I love the design idea but the colors just weren’t quite me.  Doing it in batiks would liven it up…and it might prevent my batiks scraps from getting out of the control like my other scraps are!!  This was perfect.

I took the triangles downstairs along with the book and set them on my island.  If the childcare kids all napped at the same time one day, this would be the project I worked on…trimming those bonus triangles.  The next day it happened and the kiddos slept for 2 1/2 hours!!!  I was so excited.  I cleaned the kitchen AND got all of these cut out.  I started lamenting about what I would use for the baskets and nothing came to me.  That night I dug through my batiks.  I mostly have fat quarters and that’s not enough so the next night after childcare I ran to New Hampton and bought some of the same brown I used for backing the Texas Tumbleweeds quilt.

The next day at nap time the childcare kids all slept at the same time again.  This time I only got an hour’s worth of time but that was enough for me to start cutting the next pieces.

I was happily cutting along when WHAM!  Something didn’t seem right.  All of the previous directions were talking about 1 1/2″ unfinished.  Now from what I am understanding those 1 1/2″ unfinished triangles are hooking up to 2″ pieces.  Hmm…something is not right.

I looked a the final diagram of the block…6 1/2″ unfinished.  I was right.  Those triangles can’t be 1 1/2″ unfinished.  They have to be 2″ unfinished.

I looked….and then looked again….

Then I looked again….

Yep.  There is an typo.

Diagrams A and C should read 2″ unfinished.  AH!!!!!!!  I cut them out the wrong size.

I went and read the cutting instructions.  YES..I KNOW.  I should have been using the cutting instructions to cut out the quilt but instead I was looking at the “Directions at a Glance” and just cutting from there.  Here’s what they said….

AH>>>>
Why didn’t I use these directions in the first place?

Well now I have a pile of batik half square triangles that are all squared and ready to go but no project for them to go into.  UGH.

I went back to my basket of batik bonus triangles.  UGH.  They are mostly browns.  I wanted reds, purples and yellows.  I’ll likely pick through the basket one day at nap time this week and see if I can find some and will cut out a few more from my scrap savers system.

It’s a set back, but not the end of the world.  Those of you who have the book might want to make this note on page 18 of String Fling…..   At letters A and C the caption below should read “2” unfinished”.

I should have read the cutting instructions….I used the “Directions at a Glance” way too much.

I’m still excited though.  This project is going to be so fun!!