3 Ways to Customize Your Flower Basket Quilt-Along Kit

There’s a lot to love about our first-ever Quilt-Along with designer Kate Colleran, and one of our favorite elements is how easy it is to personalize the design. With four different ways to arrange the blocks, you can truly make the quilt your own.

Take a closer look at the original design, plus three variation options. Which is your favorite?

The Original

The original design starts with central basket blocks as a focal point. Alternating rounds of chain blocks and large half-square triangles build on the radiating style. Finally, eight more basket blocks sit near each corner, with more HSTs to establish the corner points and connect to the border.

The Half-Square Triangle Flip Variation

For this variation, Kate rotated the center basket blocks and some of the large half-square triangle blocks.

“You could rotate just the center basket blocks or just the half-square triangle blocks, but by rotating them both, it creates a unique look at the center of the quilt and a strong secondary design,” Kate says.

Swap Variation

This version, like the original, is very linear and graphic. You can see that Kate rotated some of the center basket blocks just like in the above, but because she swapped out the chain and half-square triangle blocks, there’s a strong frame around the center. You can also alternate some of the half-square triangles for a totally different look – have fun with it!

Kate provides a quilt layout for both of the variations above in the pattern included in your kit.

Twin & Wall Hanging Variation

But what if you want a different size quilt? No problem! You can also use the Flower Basket kit to make a twin-size quilt. And there’s enough leftover fabric for a coordinating wall hanging, so you don’t waste any fabric.

For the twin-size variation, Kate arranged eight rows of six blocks each for a total of 48 blocks. She kept the red floral half-square triangles in the corners and the center basket blocks with the blue triangles, saving the basket blocks for the wall hanging. Just like the queen-size quilt, you can rotate some of the squares to form a different design.

The wall hanging — or crib quilt — uses 16 blocks: eight basket blocks, four half-square triangle blocks and four chain blocks.

Since the twin and wall hanging are different dimension than the queen-size variations, you’ll need to cut your borders, backing and binding different. Keep this in mind before you cut!

Tell us: Which one is your favorite variation?