Needlework… ME??

At the last few guild meetings, we were taught how to do some of the more popular hand work.  At one meeting we explored making hexies, and at the last meeting, we did some redwork.  Now, I am one of those sewists whose motto is “gimme my sewing machine over hand sewing ANY DAY”!!

I used to HATE even doing the hand sewing on the binding and label on my quilts….

But I have evolved to really LOVE doing that hand work!  And I unexpectedly enjoyed doing those hexies at that meeting and the redwork reminded me of all the crewel work I did as a child!

(image from Google)

As a teeneager in the groovey 70’s, I hand embroidered all over my hiphugger jeans!!

(image from Google)

So, I decided to ENABLE myself to do some more hand sewing by making a decorative box to store my threads and needles and projects to be kept beside my recliner in the family room.

Soooo, I had this awesome basket box that we got last Christmas filled with all kinds of gift foods.  It’s been sitting empty on a shelf in the library for months.

I pulled out a pile of “She Who Sews” scraps and played with a bunch of different ideas before finally choosing to make two of my all-time favorite quilt blocks to put on the box top!

I made two identical churn dash blocks then surrounded them with a pale green measuring tape fabric.

I fused 2 layers of fleece on the back side, then hot glued that on top of the box, gluing down the raw edges on the sides, which I covered with some fun jumbo rick rack.

If you used to make those fabric and lace covered photo albums back in the 80’s when that was all the rage, you use the same technique for this!

I measured the inside of the box and cut out cardboard pieces for the sides, bottom and the underside of the top.  Lay each piece of cardboard face down on the fabric and cut the fabric about 1.5” bigger on all sides.  Use hot glue to secure the fabric wrapped to the back side of the cardboard, then hot glue the covered cardboard into the box.

Taaaa daaaa!!  All done!  Now I keep it filled with hand sewing supplies right next to me, so that at night instead of surfing Pinterest, I can do something constructive!!  I don’t think I’ll ever hand quilt a quilt, but definitely some smaller embroidery projects or hexies!!

So, whatcha up to this week???