Easter Basket Quilt

At this time of year, children across the world are dreaming of baskets of yummy chocolate Easter Eggs. Being a big kid myself, I knew a quilt full of pretty Easter Baskets would make me happy - so I sewed one!


Tada! My Easter Basket quilt is finished just in time for Easter, and I love it! It's bright and colourful and perfect for decorating and snuggling under as we celebrate this season.

I've had to force myself to focus on this quilt over the last two weeks - is anyone else finding it difficult to concentrate on one thing for any length of time? My attention span is very limited at the moment, and it took me twice as long to quilt this baby than it normally would.  I pushed myself to finish it so we could enjoy it over Easter, and the bindings went down on Friday night! YAY!


In case you missed my first post regarding this quilt, I decided to sew 10" (finished) basket blocks and I included a 3" space, so I could add a different feature block to each basket. I had fun choosing the feature blocks and most of them are traditionally pieced with some foundation paper piecing designs as well.

There's everything from a simple nine patch, an autumn leave (we're in autumn now), a cross, a heart, a log cabin and a churn dash, and many more. They make each basket unique and they add some fun to the quilt.


I used my Bonnie and Camille fabrics for this quilt, choosing a scrappy mix of old and new lines - I seriously did not make a dent in my B&C fabric bins people, no more fabric for me for a while :)  You can't see it clearly in the photos, but the background fabric is white with white dots, and it's a super sweet fabric I picked up somewhere.

I went with an on-point layout, added sashing and cornerstones between the blocks, and then I added some simple scrappy borders. Here's how it looks in a rough diagram, if you're looking for some inspiration:


The sashings and cornerstones finish at 1" and the border blocks finish at 2" with a 4" white border added to float the layout. The scrappy border needs to be eased on because of the on-point setting and the odd size it finishes at - there wasn't too much difference which was good.

My quilt finished at around 75" square, so it's a generous size for snuggling under either on the couch or on the bed.


Little fun fact for you regarding the history of the Easter Basket and how it became part of our culture and celebrations.

Eostra was the goddess of spring and fertility and her symbol was the rabbit. It's believed she carried a basket of eggs as a sign of life and rebirth. Baskets of seedlings were brought to her temple and offered in exchange for a healthy crop or a good harvest. Over time this legend evolved to the Easter Bunny and baskets of chocolate eggs!

That's just one theory, the other is that after Lent food would be carried to church in baskets to share at the big feast. Each basket was blessed by the priest and it's been a tradition ever since. However it came about, the Easter Basket is a fun tradition for kids and big kids (like me) worldwide!


And this is where you'll find my Easter Basket quilt most days. It's become our new lounge room quilt and snuggling under it while reading or watching Netflix is good for the soul. If you're going to do lockdown it should be with a pretty quilt, right?

Since no one is visiting these days, there's no need to straighten up so fastidiously, so it lives on the couch inviting me to take some downtime and read - and I've been taking full advantage of it I assure you, so has the cat! ;)


Don't forget you can download the block information and read all about my planning for this quilt in my {WIP} Easter Baskets Quilt Blocks blog post. In this post you'll find the cutting requirements and diagram for a basic block, a colouring sheet and templates for a 3" FPP heart block pattern to get you started. I also included a few ideas for sourcing feature blocks to include in your quilt.

It was a fun quilt to work on, and it's going to be remembered as our lockdown quilt.  It's brightened our days and has us preparing for Easter as best we can - family lunch with Maddi and Michael via Skype or Zoom looks like our only option! :(

I hope my Easter Basket quilt inspires you to sew one of your own for next Easter or for Spring. It really is lovely and seeing it makes me smile - just the feel good therapy we need right now!


Happy quilting :)
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2 comments

  1. It is lovely and perfect for this time of year. So good to think about something nice again.

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    Replies
    1. It sure is Cathy! It's all been so overwhelming - maybe Easter can offer a little bit of fun and positivity to our lives :)

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