Patchwork Baskets

My daughter has an art class every week in a dangerous location: across the street from Joann's.  I don't love Joann's, but if I wander inside I somehow spend gobs of money without realizing it.  Last week I was browsing around the magazine section and saw the 16th issue of Love, Patchwork, and Quilting.

It had lots of pretty things inside, but I was drawn to these patchwork baskets. I needed these in my life.

I am not a particularly organized person (and that would be an understatement).  My house isn't a total disaster but piles of mail tend to overtake the counter every few days and if you open a cupboard in my sewing room you might be surprised how many things would fall out.

I started out with scraps from this quilt (which I just got back from the long armer and which is a sad story for another day) minus the reds and oranges plus a few other random scraps and added a linen.  The whole project was pretty quick and would be really fast if you used a solid piece of fabric instead of patchwork.

The smallest size is adorable and is perfect as a catchall for keys, wallet, change, etc.  The little squares are each 1.5" finished.

The middle size is great for setting next to my sewing machine to keep bobbins and seam rippers from rolling all over the place.

And the largest size is perfect for mail.  It holds a lot without holding so much that I will never find what I am looking for.  I have been using it for the past few days so you can tell it is already a little worn in :) 

If I made these again I think the only thing that I would change would be to quilt it a little bit.  

The pattern called for "lightweight fusible interfacing" and I used Pellon 808 because that was all I had.  It gives the baskets nice structure, but I think something like fusible fleece would also work well.