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...