My New English Paper Pieced Basket, Roof Optional

Here's my new thing! It's English Paper Pieced canopied basket...


....which can keep the dust off your giant, color-coordinated thread cone...

...or help you find your measuring tape...

Or stuff with faux flowers....

With you inside, it's a bulky bangle bracelet!

...which doubles as a wee, insecure handbag (needs a zippered lining)....

The shape is a modified truncated cuboctahedron. Here's what it would have looked like if it were a complete polyhedron (closed up, without the handle):

Can you see the family resemblance to this stuffed and complete truncated cuboctahedron pincushion?

I made the pincushion for my book, Stitch-a-hedron; English Paper Pieced Polyhederon Gifts and Accessories to Sew.  A complete truncated cuboctahedron contains 6 octagons, 12 squares, and 8 hexagons. On the pincushion, I made each shape in a different color.

For the covered basket, I used a different luscious metallic Klimt-themed quilters' cotton for each outside shape. Inside, I used dupioni silks. The outer shapes are basted around stiff fusible interfacing; for the lining, the fabric is basted around flexible medium-weight interfacing. Here's how the outside (left) and lining (right) looked like before insertion:

Here's the handle, with one end attached to the body of the basket. The final step - stitching the square at the top to the dark hexagonal piece on front - was tricky. 

I'm also thinking that without the handle, I could have put a drawstring bag inside the form (with no handle) to make an evening purse. It would look something like this.

 I'm on a roll with English Paper Pieced polyhedron accessories, mainly because I've been working on a difficult large quilt that required many complicated decisions - polyhedrons, by contrast, are rapid gratification. Last week I made a Valentine's hexagon-and-pentagon EPP dish, here. And another one is coming up soon! More info about my approach and my polyhedron book is here.