Basket block update

I think I'll name it Charlotte's Basket after a certain friend who
decided only to use fabric from her stash for a year.  These fabrics were
the only ones in my stash that went together... and a great chance
to try before you buy so to speak.

Found something that was started and didn't require too much brain effort to do a bit more.  So, does anybody remember the basket block?  Think back to having a day in the sleepout due to the house being de-flea-ed, and a blissful day spent with the cat, sewing and playing with little triangles?  Of course, once the day was over - it was all put tidily away in a plastic bag until I could work out what size my applique handle should be.  The instructions in the book were for a much smaller block so I couldn't just trace the pattern.  It has now been many moons since that day.  Thanks to hubby's idea, I copied around the lid of a Glad handy container which gave me a roundish square handle (or squarish round handle depending on your perspective).  Using the freezerpaper machine zigzag thing (which is really growing on me) I used my old machine, and finally found the lighter version of the invisible thread after much looking... damn my disorganised quilting space, and after setting my thread tension to 2 and a 1 whatever long by 1 whatever wide zigzag - my stitching finally disappears into the applique piece.  Woohoo!  So I now have one fully completed block, and have today finished piecing three more blocks, with just the applique bit left to do.  Should have these finished today?  Maybe.  Did I mention the intention to just do 4 blocks?  Is this cheating?  Problem is that it has hardly made a dent in my stash, so does that mean I should do more blocks to use up more fabric?

This is a picture of the quilt the block came from. Amazing the
difference different fabrics make to the overall look of things
isn't it?

On a different note - we had a very interesting vehicle parked at our place last night - which only caused one phone call wondering why it was there!  We were just baby sitting it as the Kaikohe Fire Brigade had their 75th anniversary and had a big do on Saturday.  My sisterinlaw/partner came up from Kamo with their fire-engine - as people do, and we had it at our place while they went wining and dining.  The kids loved it!

Also on a different subject - one of these eggs is not like the others... one egg so far has been ginormous, eye poppingly so!  Bet this caused a few squawks...

And last but not least, the beginnings of an idea for placemats to put into my "bucket" for fundraising for the kids school Baton's Up.  Haven't quite worked everything out yet - but "kai"...pukekos... placemats... we'll see what eventuates.