Another New Project!

Last weekend I stopped off at my brother's house and no, he didn't give me caramels but something even better! He filled this box with lemon cookies for me to take home.. This box is a very light wooden round box and I knew I just had to cover it with fabric and embroidery! This is just terrible.  I've started a new project when I have so many others to finish. But it's so irresistible I'm sure you won't blame me.

I'm following a little tutorial on curved piecing by Manya of Humming Needles. You can see her blog on my blog list on the right side of the page. She is really into ribbon embroidery and crazy quilting. Now, I'm not a big CQ fan, but when I saw her work, which is very pretty and not over the top with embellishments, I felt I couldn't resist trying it out. I especially like the curved pieces on a round project. So here is my paper pattern, drawn to fit the top of the box, and cut apart for the fabrics. There are two seam allowances as the first one, drawn on the inside of a circle template, just seemed too small, so I drew another on the outside of the template.

The colors are meant to be evocative of a landscape, with green at the bottom for grass and a blue sky. This is definitely a stash project. There's no way I'll buy something new when I have plenty of fabric from which to choose.

I've followed Manya's directions for piecing the curves, by basting along the seam line, then folding over and basting the fold before appliquéing to the base fabric. Here I'm on the third piece. I have no idea how to embellish it, but will figure something out in the coming week or two. Manya does mention that this seems to be laborious, but the curves do come out nicely. I once saw a presser foot that made sewing curved seams easy, and maybe some of you quilters out there are familiar with it. But for such a small project hand sewing the curved pieces isn't difficult at all. Remember, this is about the process, not just the finished piece.

I started this on Sunday evening, having not even stepped foot in the sewing room all weekend until now. I've been working, and at my day job. Sigh, sometimes you just have to. However, I couldn't resist coming in and starting this. I like it! But I hope I haven't caught the CQ bug, it certainly seems to be infectious.

Have a great week!