In the Interests of Research...

... I bought some "quilty boxes".
I have been thinking about producing these, for myself or for others, and the first thing seems to be to look at what is being offered - the amounts, quality, prices, presentation, all that.
First, I ordered one from the Peacock and Tortoise in Perth
This was offered as a "Christmas Treat" with an exhortation not to open it until Christmas. Which I ignored, of course


It arrived in a plastic outer mailing  wrapper, and  the card box was held closed with string and a sticky label. Sadly, the label had to be removed (I suppose I could have cut the string). The box is flat and quite thin

Inside -  a big piece of Christmassy fabric (the white one), a smaller piece of plain black, and a gold print piece.

Also some assorted haberdashery, rather glittery, bells, little wooden shapes, a sticker. One reel of glittery thread. Two patterns (single sheets) one for a cushion designed for the fabrics, one for a Japanese bag which I think is a Briscoe production.
This box had to be ordered on the phone, was around  £30, and appears to have been a one-off. I haven't been told about any more



The next one is from Modern Quilter's Box and is a bi-monthly pay-as-you-go. The first box was labelled "Let it Snow" and came in the usual outer wrapper

Inside - several fat quarters of nice fabrics, a mis-matched thread, Aurifil booklet, patterns, templates, various patterns nicely presented on shiny card, and a kit for a Christmas tree decoration, wood with thread and needle.



The box was nicely presented - on opening you get a list of the contents, and all the fabrics etc. wrapped in tissue. This was held down with a scruffy piece of tape, which was a bit sad.
I was particularly taken with the patterns and templates, which seemed well-written and interesting.



Part the Third. Now, if you forget to cancel your subscription, you get another of these after 2 months. The payment was notified after the "order" was taken, so I don't think this would be a good time to cancel. I'm not at all sorry, as box 3 was even nicer...



So, this time, even nicer presentation, with a big sticker on the tissue and a list of contents as before

More nice fabrics, 1/4s and 1/8s

A decal (not my idea of a useful thing, but nice enough)

Paper-piecing papers for the one of the patterns enclosed (in heavy brown paper, how practical and nice!)

And a couple of nice patterns.

I'm not sorry about the second one, but at £26.50, it's not a "bargain basement" item. I think for what you get it's pretty nice...

Siblings Quilt Top


It's important to Pay Things Forward - a generation of children divided in care, come together for camping holidays with Siblings Together. And, we make them quilts, because it's cold in a tent, because we care, because it's really important for all sorts of social and personal and community reasons.. So, these blocks designed by me, made by the Bee members, for January, put together by me, and photographed (in the rain) on Monday.  Now layered and ready to quilt, I think a black-and-white binding!

ETA Under the machine!


Almost a whole day of sewing...

made this quilt top (discarded by a student) live

and another almost sewn together for Siblings Together
Image tomorrow...

Sometimes you just can't...

...throw the little bits away




Offcuts from the corners of this...