Making Material Magic

I met Carla Klop during an event at Patti's Quilting and Fabrics about a year ago. Carla lives in Vermont and has several business interests including her pattern company, Kits by Carla. I had already purchased a Magic 3D Block kit a few months before, and Carla was at the shop demonstrating the how-to.

The kit, which included instructions, strips of fabric, and 2" foam cubes, sat on my shelf of waiting-their-turn projects while all kinds of things were bustling through my sewing room. This past weekend the block project got its turn.

Start with some fabric and freezer paper, cut, folded, and fused.

Machine stitch the first part of the sewing or opt to hand stitch the pieces together (like I did!). Use TEENY TINY ITTY BITTY stitches so they will disappear.

See? No VSL (visible stitch line)

A couple of times in the process, you end up with a holy mess that you swear isn't going to come together to make anything remotely resembling a block. (This is nothing, it gets much messy-er!)

The instructions take you step by step, so persevere, and it's finally time to add the foam cubes to give the block its shape.

Somehow the foam blocks get to where they belong. More tiny stitches. . .

And voila. It's a three-dimensional block!

Wait a minute. Open, turn . . .

 . . . twist, turn, fold  . . .

. . . and it's a different block. Like magic!

It even had my husband mystified.

It has everything a quilter craves: color, the feel fabric and foamy fluffiness, fun to touch and manipulate. Addicting.

A few babies are joining the family later this spring, and I now have a sweet baby shower add-on gift. I might have to make another, or two!

For now, I'm leaving this one on my desk to satisfy that 3pm daily urge to have a fabric fix. Some people like caffeine, some chocolate, I'm all about the fabric.

Enjoy!
joan