A vessel is a wonderful thing. A special place to hold your treasures or everyday things. I chose this next project from a book called “Pretty Little Patchwork”. It is a compilation of several projects by various contributors. These special little boxes are an excellent way to use bits and pieces from your stash and could easily be modified to a number of sizes.

Start by cutting out 2″ squares from several different fabrics. Then sew them together in pairs and then rectangles (3 sets of squares) or squares (2 sets of squares). I’m sure I could have sped up the process by making strips and then cutting them up but I think by sewing each pair together I was able to get much more variety.

Next I paired up the sets of squares into visually pleasing groups, then sewed them together.

The pattern did not call for any interfacing but I decided to add some to make the boxes slightly more sturdy. I cut the interfacing to fit inside the seams of the lining. Next the box and the lining are sewn together separately. Then the patchwork box is set inside the lining to be sewn together along the top edge. There is a small hole left on one side seam of the lining in order to turn the box right side out. After sewing the box to the lining and turning the box right side out, hand-sew the hole in the lining closed with an invisible seam.

The finishing touch is a hand-sewn blanket stitch all the way around the top.

I have made two tall boxes and one short box, each with a different coloured embroidery thread for the blanket stitching. I have enough patchwork squares left to make two more boxes, one in each size.

But I think it’s time to move on to another project and come back to those boxes another day.