You may remember the mini I sent away in December for the IG Mini Swap. At the beginning of this month my IG Mini Swap quilt arrived from Lisa in Pennsylvania. It is lovely! Lots of great blues and purples in this wonky log cabin quilt. And look at that cute sea star fabric in the middle!
My 2 1/2-year-old was instantly attracted to everything in my package, asking me repeatedly to open the chocolate because "she likes chocolate and wants to eat chocolate." (Yeah, I'll be eating that when she's not around.) She's also pretty insistent that the zipper pouch is for her. She enjoyed putting all the goodies into and out of the pouch repeatedly.
Thank you so much, Lisa! What a delightful package of goodies. I'm putting my first Instagram swap in the win column!
This week I completed and sent my mini quilt for my 2nd Instagram swap. I was assigned Megan in the Disney Mini Swap 2015 and she had great info to go on in her questionnaire. I've enjoyed stalking her on IG and it was fun when she started following me. I couldn't post any real clear pictures of what I had planned for the mini since I thought it would give it away. I'm excited to be able to share it now. Since her Disney likes were diverse I had quite a few good options. I was drawn to the mention that she and her husband got engaged on Pirates of the Caribbean. I'd really love to hear the details on that story, and I thought a quilt about Pirates would be fun. I put the idea in my top 3 and started looking for visual inspiration. I was looking at the minimalist Disney posters and I ran across this one.
from http://thedisneyblog.com
I decided this was it! But like me, Megan doesn't like muddy colors and I didn't want to do a quilt that was 99% brown. So, I decided to work in a palette of "bright and happy fabrics" with polka dots, and using blues and/or greens (her favorite colors). I kept bouncing my ideas off my sister and a friend to make sure that I wasn't too crazy. The group of us decided it was just crazy enough and I plugged along, hoping Megan would love it. I altered the keyring to have a heart as a symbol of their engagement. I really had a great time making this quilt. Thanks for all the inspiration, Megan!
It is, indeed, minimalist in nature. The background is pieced strips and there are two pieces appliqued on top. I used raw edge applique since it's a mini/wall hanging. It was awesome how fast that process is compared to turned edge applique. I quilted in the ditch on the background (using free motion quilting) and around the edges of the appliqued pieces. The quilt measures about 13" by 18".
I made a quick trip to the copy shop to enlarge my dog pattern to legal sized.I altered the key ring to make it heart shaped after it was enlarged.The finished mini: 13" x 18"
At this point I'm still working the pedal for him (very slowly) while he guides the fabric. (Yay for the 1/4" foot!) He's learned all about the parts of the machine (presser foot, feed dogs, etc.) and the basics for how to sew (putting up/down the pressure foot, changing the foot on the machine, how to put the bobbin in). He's especially focused on using a light touch to hold onto the fabric while he guides it. Now he says, "check how easy it is to pick up my hand, mom." And when he gets too firm of a grip then I shake his hand and remind him to have spaghetti fingers. ;-) He's become a chain piecing machine and likes the "mountains of fabric" it makes behind the machine.
We're working toward piecing each row. So far he's pieced the 3rd to 4th and 5th to 6th piece in each row. To stay organized, as he's pieced each batch he's laid them out on the floor to compare to his planned pattern. He likes all the tools, so he's been excited to use the wonder clips and pinmoors to keep his fabric organized and labeled.
keeping organizedC2 and C3 for column 2 and column 3
This week I hope we get to finish piecing the rows together and I can teach him to press the seams. I'll show you my progress on the other one-block quilt from my part 1 post next week.
