I couldn’t bear to wait till the end of January for the official BM&I posting day….
There are so many lovely fabrics sitting in the Hatbox Quilt pile, and I couldn’t resist their siren call. So, without further ado, here are the next FOUR Hatbox blocks.
I’m now officially halfway through the blocks I need to make. The process of tracing, basting and appliquéing the boxes to their backgrounds is peaceful and meditative, and I’ll miss it when the quilt is done, but already there are other appliqué quilt ideas marinating in the dark recesses of my brain!
I’ve finally decided what colour to make the sashing between the blocks. It was never going to be white or cream, that decision was easy. And black and dark grey and navy were too harsh in contrast with the pastels and saturated colours. It needed to be a neutral that wasn’t neutral. And I’ve found just the thing. It’s a pale grey/lilac/dusty blue shot cotton which calls itself cornflower, but is a pale lavender to my eyes, a blue tone rather than pink. It will punctuate the space between the squares without being over assertive. It’s also a colour I love, so I will be very happy to live with it on this quilt. The binding is also picked out, a rich blueberry shot cotton which blends beautifully with the sashing fabric. And the backing? Who knows? But I’m feeling nudged towards rose pink…
Right, back to the sewing machine. It’s January, and Esther’s month for F²F², so I can’t show what I’m up to – it’s a secret!
talltalesfromchiconia 
Ooo, I really love the one bottom right, looks like a peach peony. I’m so impressed- I think I can see the curve of the box!
That’s a Japanese fabric I’ve had for 14 years. Perfect for this project! I’ve found if you don’t cut the piece with the main motif bang in the middle you can maintain the illusion of a curve much better 🙂
Elegant hat boxes! And I like your description of the sashing and binding colors.
I’ll try and remember to take a photo of the fabrics to show with the next BM&I post, so people get a better idea of what I mean.
that’s a lot of lovely hat boxes. Remind me what inspired this particular theme?
It’s a Kaffe Fassett design I fell in love with years ago when I bought the book it’s featured in. You can find the details here:
That top left fabric looks familiar. Did you change your mind about using the piece I sent you or am I mis-remembering?
The sashing and binding colours sound perfect.
Yup! The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to use it. Lots left for other projects, though 🙂
Each one is so pretty. I can’t choose a favourite. Enjoy.
I don’t have a favourite – yet! But I’m only halfway through, plenty of time for that.
Oh, they are so lovely!! The one up on the right has flowers I learned to sew in school. We have 24 Landscape in Sweden and some of them have their own embroidery (Very old). This flower is in the embroidery from Blekinge in the south of Sweden.
It’s a reproduction of a traditional fabric, so I think you may be right! I love the colours in it, and the formal design.
cornflower sounds like a lovely shade to bring all these bright hatboxes together
I thought so too, and because it’s quite muted, it doesn’t shout too loudly.
Beautiful 🙂
Thank you!
No wonder you’re getting ahead of yourself with the Bee project! Every last hatbox is gorgeous.
I have the next one cut out already… I suspect I’ll have the lot of them made by the end of February, a year since I started this project. Then it’ll be time to start quilting, and I’m still contemplating whether to machine or hand quilt, and how…
Beautiful squares and love the color pick for the joining color, I think it’s spot on.
I’ll show a photo of the fabrics for sashing and binding when I show the next hatbox(es) at the end of the month 🙂