This is a repost from November 2012. I have given this little fabric box to my favorite (only) granddaughter who is half-Spanish (ie, her dad is from Spain). The lace has meaning for her now!
I received a lovely bundle of fabrics to sew with in 2012 from
Blend Fabrics (a division of Anna Griffin fabrics). I have always admired her beautiful designs and it is a real pleasure to sew with fabrics that not only look good but feel good (they have a wonderful "hand", the industry word for how they feel in your hand).
Amanda Murphy is the fabric designer and I can see why they have such a broad appeal to young people (or those of us who wish we were still young)!
The first thing I did was stroke them. Put them in a little pile. Stroke them some more. Then I figured it was time to cut and sew! I wanted to make a fabric box to display the fabrics in and here is where I went with it.
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| 7" squares fused with Pelon heavy interfacing; Coats variegated thread |
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| Center square = box bottom. 4 blue squares, box sides. Quilt underneath for some eye candy. |
Sewed sides together using a wide satin stitch. It looked a little boring so I added some glorious lace I bought in Spain a few years ago. Awesome, huh?
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| 7" square sides and bottom. Perfect for storing a new Bella Collection. |
You can see a well illustrated tutorial at
Geta's Quilting Studio. She shows the steps for making gorgeous boxes with lovely, decorative flowers and buttons.
OK. What else did I sew? This is my
Honeycomb Table Runner (or can be 4 mats if used separately). This actually is a traditional Wagon Wheel block, but sewn very unorthodoxly.
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| A four block table runner using half and full hexagons |
This is one of my
patterns that I bring out from time to time. I have a custom half-hexagon template that goes with my
Braid Quilt pattern and I used it to cut out 3" half-hexagons. Sewed them into a circle.
Oops! There's a big hole in the center. Well, I covered it up with a faced hexagon. Huh?
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| Sew 6 half-hexagons into a circle; press seams open |
Added a full hexagon to the center and then I cut a hexagon shape for the back of the half-hex ring and sewed around all sides, adding a layer of batting. Left a small opening for turning, trimmed the seams and clipped the corners short to reduce bulk.
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| This is what it looks like turned and top stitched before joining to 3 more blocks |
I made one more runner with full hexagons and triangles. Not quilted yet, but isn't she lovely? I bring this along when I teach classes that use whole hexagons.
I squeezed the very life out of this awesome collection. I fussy cut the rest of those motifs you see in the center of the table topper. Here they are waiting for some more shapes. I'm using 2" hexagon papers and these are English Paper Pieced.
Yes, I seem to be stuck on this Pentagon Wreath assembly. But isn't it so fun? These are 11" squares, which will finish to 10-1/2". I had to do it this way because I was working with fat quarters!
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| Pentagon Wreath #1 |
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| Pentagon Wreath #2 |
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| Pentagon Wreath #3 |
Such sweet and elegant designs by Amanda Murphy. Hope I inspired you today. Go cut that favorite fabric you've been holding onto!
Such a pretty little box, and the lace is gorgeous. Just what I like for crazy quilting!
ReplyDeleteYes, I've had that lace for almost 15 years. About time I used it. My granddaughter loved the box, btw.
DeleteLove the colors in the table runner and mats. The box is lovely with the lace around.
ReplyDeleteYes, those colors are some of my favorites. Blues and yellows together are a winner in my book.
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