A Quilter's Tale . . .

Once upon a time, there was a quilter who wanted to make a basket quilt. This quilter loved so many basket quilt patterns that she just couldn't pick one, but every year, at the top of her Quilt To Do list was "1. Basket Quilt".

Finally, in the summer of 2010, after seeing this basket quilt, made by Sherri, at A Quilting Life, the quilter thought she had found her basket pattern,

Laundry Baskets from Fresh Vintage 14 by Fig Tree.

The quilter ordered some Fig Tree fabric and started making baskets.

but this quilter has a problem with "leaving well enough alone", and the next think you knew, these laundry baskets had setting triangles,

and looked more like ice cream sundaes.

If that wasn't enough of a change, the quilter then decided to add

sashing and cornerstones to the setting triangles on the basket blocks. Now most quilters would have been happy to slap a few borders around those adorable baskets and call it done, most quilters, but not this quilter.

Instead of going with a few rows of border fabric she dreamed of something better, and saw this quilt,

American Pie by Carrie Nelson for Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. She saw that quilt and thought it would make a wonderful border...

Happy with her choice the quilter set out making lattice blocks.

As one month turned into two, the quilter did not worry about the time and effort this basket quilt was taking, she just dreamed of how it would look when it was done.....

and if the quilt would have looked like this, the quilter would have had a wonderful summer and this story would be over, unfortunately for the quilter, her wonderful basket quilt didn't look like this,

it looked like this! It had a 2 1/4 inch gap between the baskets and the lattice!! Oh no, what's a quilter to do. Well after blogging about it, and trying every possible combination that was suggested, the quilter decided to cut her losses, and quit!! A summer's work down the drain, no basket quilt, no finished project for her lifetime quilt list.

Every now and then the quilter would lament on her blog of her disappointment of not finishing the lovely basket quilt. And fellow quilters would try to cheer her up, leave words of encouragement, and keep offering suggestions.

And then, after whining about this unfinished project in her Year in Review post, the quilter decided to just slap some borders around the baskets and make another quilt out of the lattice blocks. That wouldn't be so bad, to start making one quilt and end up with two quilts!

Then a friend sent a new suggestion, which led to a different idea, which led to this.

Finally, can you believe it, A la Mode is done! Don't you just love a story with a happy ending!

This is Lifetime Quilt # 65, it finished at 109" x 109", and has approximately 2,397 pieces.

I could not be happier with that inner border, I don't even think it's noticeable, your eyes just pass right over it on the way to the lattice border. And as good as this quilt looks in this picture, it looks even better in person.

Thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement and suggestions, you just wouldn't let me give up on myself or this quilt!

Over the last 24 hours, the power's gone on and off at least a dozen times, my driveway is covered with a 1/2 inch of ice and 6 inches of snow, but when I look at this quilt I can't help but think,

"it's a beautiful day"!!