My Third Sew Sampler Box

The June Sew Sampler Box from The Fat Quarter Shop came yesterday with lots of quilty goodness:

The folder that describes everything and the basket block recipe card that I put aside for my friend Dawna, the basket block queen;

A threaded needle holder, some very cute decorative ribbon that is ruled like a tape measure and a 4-1/2" Cute Cuts Trim-It ruler that you could use to trim the square in a square block to its finished size.

Here's a better pic of the ruler; it shows up better on the white paper than my (very worn and really should be replaced) green cutting mat. You can also see the cute sticker that was in the box.

And now on to the project, always my favorite part:

I wish the charm pack had been a full 42 squares because I really like the fabrics. There are 30 and they were used in the pattern pic so you can see them all there. The cutting directions call for each block to be cut from a charm square, but you can actually get 2 blocks from each charm for a total of 60. The resulting quilt would still be tiny, 28-1/2" by 32-1/2 set 7x8. There is a generous yard and a half of white with grey tiny plus sign print for background and a half yard of turquoise for binding.

The pattern calls for the square-in-a-square method to assemble the blocks and rows. I tend not to do that because of the waste and because that method breaks up the background print too much for my liking. I would construct the plus sign blocks, cut background squares the same size and assemble it in the same manner as an "on point" quilt.

Another way this could be played with is to only cut one block per charm, but cut the pieces bigger, to yield a 6" finished block rather than 3".

See? I've just opened the box and have already spent about 1/2 hour pondering the possibilities!

The only thing I am pretty sure I won't use is the threaded needle storage case. Maybe one of you who likes to carry sewing around would like to have it? Leave a comment below, share what kind of projects you like to do using a hand sewing needle, and I'll pick a winner mid-month! Perhaps one of you will inspire me to take up hand sewing, ya think?