Civil War Quilt Block Thirteen—Little Blue Basket

And here's another block in five, not a happy number to divide an eight inch block by. It's called Little Blue Basket, and I have to say I've never been a fan of this sort of quilt block. A little too twee for me I guess, though maybe I just haven't seen it done in a way I really like.

Brackman uses this block to talk about the mess that was the border of Kansas and Missouri in the Civil War, where Confederate guerilla fighters hid in the area around the Little Blue River. Their sisters, mothers, and wives brought them food there, and enabled them to live that life by also doing their laundry and mending their clothes.

I added a handle to mine because it just didn't look right to me without one. I'm not sure about how it came out; while I really like that paisley print it's a bit distracting and overall I find it a bit hard to read. Also, it came out a little on the small side. So I may do it over, and if I do, I think I'll do it with the stripes on the diagonal so they look horizontal to the basket, like woven strips.