Quilted Memory Fabric Bucket

When I saw Christina Cameli's tutorial for a little quilted fabric bucket I had to drop everything and make one.  (I made myself finish binding a queen size, yes queen, charity quilt first.)

And why memory bucket, you ask?  You see, immediately I knew what fabrics I would use for this cute fabric bucket.

Three years ago, about this very same time, I was finishing up the Michael Miller Spring Cotton Couture Fabric Challenge.  I remember quilting a test sample, which I still had, of the various cotton couture fabrics to audition the color of Aurifil thread I would use.

I wrote the Aurifil thread number along the selvage so I could remember the thread color.  And the funny thing is, the free motion design I used was Christina's Leafy Lines.

I must have borrowed two colors from a friend because I don't remember finishing the spools.  I placed the Clover clip beside the other two colors I auditioned.

My quilted sample was smaller than the Christina's measurements, but I wanted to give it a try anyway.  I trimmed it down to  7 1/2" x 13 1/2" I decided to use left over bias binding for the cuff.

I sewed the seam with a 1/4" seam allowance and then trimmed it down a bit so I could cover the raw edge with some bias I had just used in making the current Michael Miller Our Yard Challenge.

It would have been awkward sewing the bias with by machine at that angle, so I just hand stitched it down in no time.  Christina's tutorial uses a lining but I decided to skip that part let the machine quilting show a much as possible.  That's the reason I covered up the raw edge.

 The bias strip ends were sewn together and repressed which was 7 1/2" x 13 1/2".

I sewed the cuff to the to top edge and finished the edge with the serger.  To box the corners, I measured  width of the bucket which was 6 1/2" and divided the number by 4 and that's the size (1 5/8") I used for the square.  I had to redraw because I forgot to allow for the seam allowance along the bottom.

If you look closely, I didn't sew all the way across the bottom since that would be cut away.

I cut out for the boxing.

I stitched and overlocked across the boxing.  Now all that's left it to turn right side out and turn down the cuff.

This is what the bottom looks like after turning right side out.

And from the side.

And a close up of the rim.

My memory bucket is perfect for storing thread.  Without the lining you can see the raw edges of the seam in bottom but if quickly fill it up, the seams will not be seen much at all.

So I made the quilted bucket entirely from scraps.  And here's the reason I have fond memories of that fabric.  The quilt I made for the Michael Miller fabric challenge was After Dinner Mints and it placed 2nd at QuiltCon in 2015 at Austin, TX.  It was my first QuiltCon to attend and I was thrilled.

I'll have to write about the making of After Dinner Mints one day.  I will tell you this...in addition to the fat eighths provided by Michael Miller, I used a couple of charm packs and a jelly roll which were all prewashed using my my salad spinner method explained here.

Linking my little quilted memory fabric bucket to Main Crush Monday with Beth at Cooking up Quilts, Finish it Up Friday with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, Show Off Saturday with Caroline at Sew Can She and Sandra's next Dreami (drop everything and make it) link up at MMM! Quilts.  I am also linking to Bag It with Patty at Elm Street Quilts and Tips and Tutorials Tuesday #26 with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl.