Kona Club Challenge - Quilted Fabric Basket by Tabatha @ Bending Pins

Tabatha  from Bending Pins took the Kona Club Challenge this month. Tabatha used the colors we sent out in September 2012 for Kona Club and made this fun and useful Quilted Fabric Basket. Make one of these to store all your sewing supplies and pretty up your home using this great tutorial! Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win the fat quarters used in this project! 

Quilted Fabric Basket

Tabatha & Cookie

I started sewing clothes as a teen, as many did in home ec class then attended Champlain College and the Ottawa School of Art in the fine arts of painting, printing and sculpting. My mother taught arts and crafts at our local summer camp, and taught me how to knit and crochet. My father is also very crafty, his main passion is wood working but has also dabbled in stained glass and leather work. I'm the only child of three who has inherited my parent's love of creating. Quilting is a relatively new passion which started a year and a half ago, following in the footsteps of my paternal grandmother, who was, in my opinion, a master quilter. I can only hope to live up to her talents one day.

Baskets can be used for a plethora of tasks, I like to use mine to transport items that need hand finishing from my sewing room in the basement, to the living room on the main floor, where I can hand sew while watching T.V. I also use my quilted baskets to hold magazines or even so that items in my car don't roll around or get lost. For this example, I used 5 log cabin blocks 10 & 1/2” x 10 & 1/2” and 5 improv blocks. You can use any 5 quilt blocks you like or simply cut 10 pieces of fabric, 5 pieces for the exterior and 5 pieces for the interior.

** PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE CUTTING FABRIC AND SEWING **

(Once you know how this goes together, you may wish to change your fabric and there are construction options.)

You will need:

Supplies: 

Exterior Fabric (or quilt blocks) Interior Fabric Quilt Batting (I used cotton) Quilting Ruler Rotary Cutter & Mat Sewing Machine & Thread Scissors

Fabric:

• 5 quilt blocks measuring 10 & 1/2” x 10 & 1/2” for the exterior.
  I made mine with Kona Cotton - Citrus, Mulberry, Kumquat, Turquoise and Eggshell
• (~ OR ~ 5 pieces of exterior fabric measuring 10 & 1/2” x 10 & 1/2”)
• 5 pieces of fabric 10 & 1/2” x 10 & 1/2” for the interior
• 10 pieces of cotton batting 10” x 10”
• 50” x 2 & 1/2” (non-biased) binding

Instructions:

1. Lay your 10 & 1/2” x 10 & 1/2” blocks out in a cross formation and, with right sides together using a 1/4” seam, sew each arm onto the center block.

Press seams open.

2. You can cut your batting in 2 ways:

a) Placed your sewn blocks onto the batting and traced around them. Then draw a second line 1/4” in from your original line and cut out the batting.
b) Cut out 5 separate pieces of batting 10” x 10” and pin or spray baste leaving 1/4” seam allowance on outer sides. You can cut muslin to complete the quilt sandwich, this will help your basket be a little more stiff and stand up.

3. Quilt your basket any way you like. Since I haven't free motion quilted in a long time I decided to have some fun and quilted a different pattern on each side. Sadly I'm quite rusty and need more practice!

4. Fold your piece in half right sides together, so that your middle square is folded on the diagonal and the attached squares match up and should look like this:

Sew a 1/4” seam on the outer edges only. 

 5. Open basket and fold in the opposite direction, sew the outer edges only.

Turn inside out and you have one basket complete! 

 6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 to make the interior of your basket. You may choose to quilt the interior of your basket as well but if you don't, make sure a bit of the batting is caught in the side seams so it doesn't slouch down inside when your basket is complete. Quilting the interior of your basket will make it a little more stiff.

7. Optional: to make your basket even more ridged, you may opt to cut 5 pieces of firm, thin stiff foam to insert between the outer shell and lining. 

8. With wrong sides together, slip your interior into your exterior basket. Baste together using a 1/8" seam.

9. Here's a quick and easy way of attaching your binding (bias or not) to your quilt: Press all your binding in half length ways. To join binding pieces on a bias, take one strip, open and match lower corner to meet opposite edge creating a triangle, press. Run a thin bead of Elmer's School Glue close to the folded edge.

Open a second piece of binding and lay on top of first piece overlapping sightly, press to set glue.
Center folds and edges should all match.

 Unfold and sew along crease.

 

***BEFORE TRIMMING*** this is a little hard to explain but I'll do my best. If you look at the photo above, you need to separate the fabric to the right of the needle after sewing. Glue will have seeped into the seam allowance so you need to release it from the fabric in order to press your seams open. The beauty of Elmer's School Glue is that it's non-toxic and completely washable/soluble with water!

Once you've sewn all your binding together, re-press in half to make flat (do not make a second fold). Starting 1/4" - 1/2" from the end of one side, align the raw edges of your basket with the raw edges of your binding & pin or glue if required. Sew binding on 3 sides of basket ending 1/4" - 1/2" from the beginning of the first side. Lay your basket flat on your ironing board with the binding face up, open and extend one side of your binding. Fold the binding end over onto itself leaving 5" between the end of your sewing and fold, press.

Match the crease you just created with the edge of your binding with the edge of the binding, run a thin bead of glue close to the folded edge.

Align binding so that it is flat and even with raw edge of basket. Overlap other end of binding so that it lays flat and raw edges are even with raw edges of basket. Press to set glue.

Open overlapped binding and press again. Ensure you have a good bond between the two bindings. It's awkward sewing so the glue really aids in keeping the pieces together without shifting. Unfold binding and sew on crease.

 Before trimming tails, ensure your binding is neither too long nor too short. Trim tails.

 

 Refold binding, press and complete sewing   

Press binding away from basket, fold over raw edge and attach to the other side so all raw edges are enclosed by binding. Secure binding using a zig-zag stitch, straight stitch or hand sewing.

And you're done! 

Giveaway!

You could win 4 fat quarters of the Kona Cotton Solids Tabatha used to make her Quilted Basket! 

Just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win.

Tabatha chose the colors we sent out in September 2012 to our Kona Club Members!

If you are no-reply blogger please leave your email id in the post.

We will leave the giveaway open till Tuesday June 18th, 2013.
Winner will be announced Wednesday, June 19th.
Good luck everybody and enjoy making your very own Quilted Basket!