tutorials | Barbara Frank Online

I needed a birthday gift for a friend and found a tutorial for fabric baskets. To make one basket, I used two of my favorite fabrics from my stash, and broke open a new package of Hobbs Thermore polyester batting. (I keep a LOT of batting on hand!)

This project was fun to make. It used 2 16″ squares of fabric and one 16″ square of batting, plus four buttons. I free-motion-quilted the joined squares and batting before turning them into a basket. Polyester batting makes for a lightweight basket. If you prefer something sturdier, to put heavy things in, you might want to use thicker batting. But the polyester batting worked fine for this project. (I put a couple of bars of gift-shop soap and a bottle of hand lotion nestled in tissue paper in it for my friend.)

This quilt might also be called the “Never Too Late” quilt, because I made the top about 13 or 14 years ago, when I was still homeschooling, then carried it from house to house during our various moves before finally machine-quilting it this past winter.

“Daisy Days” was one of many Thimbleberries fabric lines (which are no longer produced). I bought this as a kit after seeing it hanging on the wall in a wonderful quilt shop called “A Touch of Amish” in Barrington, IL, and I had to have it. Who knew it would take me so long to finish it? But given how busy I was when I was homeschooling my kids, I’m amazed I even got the top made when I did.

As for the machine quilting, I did it in alternating rows of daisies and leaves, which I learned how to do at Lori Kennedy’s fantastic blog.