Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler - Basket Block

I will apologize ahead of time today for a slightly more complicated block than usual.  I think it is worth it though, and variety is nice in sampler quilts.  I wanted to get it posted earlier in the month, but never quite got around to editing the directions.

I used four different pink fabrics for my block.  Mostly it was just to make the best use of the scraps I had available.  It would be very nice with two or three pinks as well.
Parts list:
1 - 3.5 inch square of light pink
1 - HST unit cut with the easy angle ruler from a 3.5 inch strip of light pink
2 - 2 x 3.5 inch rectangles of light pink (I forgot to put these in the photo above)
2 - 2 inch squares of light pink fabric.
2 - 2 x 3.5 inch rectangles of darker pink fabric
1 - 2 inch square of a different pink fabric
2 - HST units cut from 1.5 inch strips using the companion angle ruler.  (I have to be honest here and admit that I used the same 2 inch strips that I used for the rectangles along with the easy angle ruler.  It puts the bias along the hypotenuse, but I just pressed gingerly)
2 - 1.5 inch strips cut on the bias of a 3.5 inch strip

Here is how I got a bias strip.  It would have been easier to cut a single strip from a larger piece of fabric, but I had to use what I had.  I established a 45 degree angle with the easy angle ruler and then cut two 1.5 inch strips.  The bias part is important because this will be the handle of the basket and it needs to be curved.

Take two squares of the background pink fabric and use a pencil to mark a diagonal line.  Place them, right sides together onto the darker pink rectangles.  Notice that there is one uphill block and one downhill block. This is important for the symmetry of the block.  Use the sew and flip method to make your rectangle subunit with a light pink corner.

 Each of these dark units will get sewn to a light rectangle.  This is where sewed mine wrong and so don't have a picture of the square the right way.  Notice that the long dark side of the angled block is sewn to the light pink rectangle

Now take your contrasting pink square and partner it with the dark pink triangles.  The legs of each triangle are sewn to adjacent edges of the square so that the hypotenuses of each square form a new hypotenuse for the larger triangles.  Hopefully this new pieced unit will be the same size as the HST triangle that came from the 3.5 inch strip of light pink.

DARN.  This is where I realized that I sewed the rectangles together with the short dark side to the center instead of the other way around.  I don't have a picture of the block at this stage after I unsewed it all.  But honestly, the block would work this way too.

Now sew your two bias strips together to get one long strip.  In order to turn this into the handle, sew it with right sides together along the long side to get a long skinny tube.  Turn this right side out and press in a gently curved shape.  I had never made bias strips before, but it wasn't too bad really.  

To get the handle attached, I did a tiny bit of seam ripping where light and dark pink met along the angle.  I slipped the bias end into the open seam and then sewed it back together again.  The handle then gets hand stitched down.