Last night was Friday Night with Friends, a linky party hosted by Cheryll on Gone Stitching, I decided to start a new project which I’ve been mulling over in my mind for a few weeks now. I wanted to make a special box for our wedding album, as it’s been under our bed for nearly 8 years now!!

I found some red silk in my stash which was the perfect colour as it was almost identical to the waistcoats and bridesmaid dress. It’s quite a firmly woven silk too, so ok for box making. Having been inspired by crazy patchwork hearts on Mollie Mine, I put together two sets of fabrics to try, one in quilting cottons and one in silks, satins and lace left over from my wedding dress. I don’t find it easy to do random crazy quilting, so I carefully arranged them first and laid a paper heart template over the top to check the effect. When I was happy, I then stitched the fabrics together.

I was planning to hand embroider over the hearts, but I happened to find I had some gold machine embroidery thread and decided to have a play on a scrap of fabric. I liked the effect so I used various machine embroidery stitches along the seams. The bit I struggled with most was stitching the ribbon on neatly!!!

I wasn’t sure about how to stitch the heart onto the red silk, I’ve done very little applique. I considered bondaweb and then blanket stitch, but I wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t fray round the edges over time, especially the silk. I wasn’t convinced either of my ability to sew it on by needle-turning a narrow hem as I go! In the end I drew the heart shape with an air erasable felt tip, cut a 1cm seam, then turned it under whilst stitching round with a gold running stitch.

All I had to do then was decide which one would go on the top. Having conferred with my daughter, we decided the cotton would be better on the lid, with the more delicate lace one on the inside of the lid, so both get used!

I cut a generous piece of silk for the lid, pinned the heart in place and then slip stitched round. I have just started stitching some of the words from the wedding vows round the edge in gold thread. I’m pleased with the writing as I did it ‘free-hand’ mainly because I couldn’t think of anything fine enough to mark it with! I’m still wondering about putting the date on the opposite side of the heart, I’ll see once I’ve done the vows.

I started making the box this evening, I got two off-cuts of mdf board from my local picture framers, they only charged me £2, bargain! I borrowed a Stanley knife, but it took some cutting!! I then had to smooth the edges with a nail file as I couldn’t find any sandpaper…same thing really!! I’ve padded each piece with some cotton wadding left over from a quilt and so far I’ve covered the base with red silk, lacing across to keep it firm.

I’m sort of working it out as I go along, I’ve got a great book called ‘Embroidered boxes’ by Jane Lemon (published 1984…I’ve had it a while!!)  which is giving me general instructions, I just have to fine-tune them to my specific box…hopefully it will all come together nicely…