Baskets!!

What?!  No stars?! 

This is another UFO that I have wanted to complete for a long, long time.  I made the top back in '94 and hung it on my kitchen wall.  Tuesday I took it down from the wall (believe it or not, I'd stapled it) and found a wonderful backing fabric in my stash.  Since it's only 46-1/2 x 60-1/2, I was able to pin it up on the table in my sewing room (not a perfect situation, but it worked).  Honestly, it was a bit gunky after twenty-five years on the kitchen wall, so first thing after sewing the last binding stitch, it went in the laundry and today it is hanging on the line outside drying in a nice late fall breeze; and it's CLEAN! 

I've been keeping the quilting simple on these pieces this year and this one is probably simpler than most of them.  The scrappiness of this quilt top is difficult to fully comprehend, as all the muslin seems to be the same color in this photo.  However, in person you can see all the different colors of muslin and it's a little distracting but that's the point of scrappy quilts, right?  A quilt is almost always more interesting to me when there is some little thing that pops out -- usually it's a bit of yellow (and this one has that, too).

Anyway, it's not stars!  There was a time back in the 90's when I was fascinated with basket patterns.  A lot of them are in samplers, but there are probably a half dozen or more full-size basket quilts resting in the quilt closet. 

I don't know if this will be the last finish of 2019; probably not.  I have four more unfinished tops hanging on walls including a 40" x 40" log cabin I made on January 17, 1994 -- the day of the big Northridge, California earthquake.  Lord knows why I was home that day instead of at work, but I remember watching the news reports on TV while sewing the blocks together.  It's one of the few quilts I have dated. 

So, stay tuned!  There might be one or two more finishes before the 31st!  xoxo