41. Piece a Basket Block

Earlier this week we finished up free motion quilting our last house block so I think it’s time to jump ahead to piecing our basket blocks!

I absolutely love this block and the combination of half square triangles and the cute curving handle of the basket. We’re getting our feet wet with a bit of applique with this block, and I’m excited to be able to teach you my favorite turned edge applique method.

Learn how to piece this block in this video:

Find the template for the basket handle as well as detailed cutting and piecing instructions in the Building Blocks Quilt Pattern.

This video ran a bit long, but there are a lot of steps to piecing this block. When turning the edges of your basket handles just remember that a wider amount of fabric is easier to turn. If you cut the fabric too close to the template it can feel really fiddly and once you add starch, the whole process can become a struggle.

One product I recently discovered is Floriani Stitch and Wash Fusible. This is a fusible stabilizer that is stable enough to turn against exactly as we learned in this technique, but it’s water soluble, so you can leave it in the handle and the stiffness will wash out after you wash your quilt.

I played with this a bit and really liked the ability to turn my edges, but not have to remove the template, which always seems to wreck havoc with the fiddly places, like deep points and corners.

It might also be a good idea to place a piece of tearaway stabilizer under your block as you zigzag stitch over the basket handle. The more I learn about machine embroidery, the more I realize how much stabilizer is needed for regular machine applique as well.

Speaking of machine applique, I’m headed to the machine to start working on the blocks for our NEXT quilt along! Here’s a little sneak peak to get you excited:

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day