With 16 minutes left to share, I thought I'd throwback to my first finish of 2018, which was included in issue three of Curated Quilts. This 13.5" x 13.5" mini quilt also falls into my goal of working with solids in 2018. And I love the effect of the matchstick quilting on it, despite all these threads I had to bury.
You can see more details on my process in this post. Linking up to Blogger's Quilt Festival.
The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, including batting from Hobbs.
In March I tried a technique that was new to me. I actually tried a few new (or newish) techniques and tools. I used an Accuquilt Go! for the first time. I did fusible appliqué (which I had tried, but not many times). I used a "grab bag" system for pairing fabrics. And my overall composition was a color wash. The variety of values in the Island Batik Mountain's Majesty Stack of 10" squares was perfect for this look. I shared my finished quilt top and a bit about my inspiration and process. In May I finished the quilt, and dropped it off to the San Mateo County Fair where it hung for the June fair with nearly 400 other beautiful quilts. I shared a peek of my finish in my Quilts in the San Mateo County Fair post where I also shared my kids' quilts and my judges' evaluation forms.
So, back to my quilt. Since my 1" squares were fused in place, I wanted my quilting to hold them down. (For those of you more experienced appliqué quilters, is there a fusible that will withstand washing without being stitched down?) I opted for a diagonal path to my free motion quilting. Starting at the corner I curved in to the center of the block, stitched around the perimeter of the circle, and curved down to the right to the corner of the block. I like the overall look and it achieved my goal of holding those little circles in place.
The quilt was finished with a faced binding. I really like the look of the facing on the finished quilt so the binding doesn't compete with the design of the quilt. I recently used faced binding on on i Mini and my Modern Batik Scrappy Squares.
I've linked up to 2018 Q2 Finish Along linkup. See my whole Q2 list.
The issue 5 call for entries to the Mini Quilt Gallery of Curated Quilts closes today and I've finished my (well, our) submission just in time.
I'll start with that "our" part. This color palette is not my typical palette. I purchased the Kona solids Shadow, Yarrow, Metal, Sunny, Moss, and Windsor just to participate in the challenge and they sat there, waiting for inspiration to strike. I had an idea, but unfortunately I'd seen that another maker made a nearly identical piece. On June 10th my son walked into my sewing room and I said, "I need a brilliant idea. I need a brilliant quilting idea." He responded, "arrange them lightest to darkest for me," and got to work.
His initial idea was to color block with six large rectangles. Then I filled him in on the theme of Connections/Improv. We discussed what improv meant and settled a plan. I would cut the fabric into quadrilaterals with scissors and he would arrange them on the design wall. I cut a few of each color, and as he filled the space he instructed me to cut particular colors to fill in the gaps he had.
I did all the piecing. I enjoyed the puzzle of putting together his design. It includes straight seams, smooth curves, and a set-in seam. We had to add a couple pieces in the top right to keep the project large enough for the challenge.
Then I went back to G to discuss quilting. I knew I wanted pretty dense quilting (but not matchstick) and I had four matching 50 wt Aurifil colors to use: Yellow #2135, Dove #2600, Medium Grey #1158, and Medium Delft Blue #2783. If I'd had all six colors I would have been inclined to quilt tone on tone in each section. I'm so glad I didn't. I asked G what area of the quilt he liked the most and wanted to emphasize. He liked the lower left, so I made that the focal point of my quilting. My quilting was done by walking foot and random color changes. I really like the effect.
I love that this challenge allowed me to connect with my son. It was the perfect size project for us to work on together. It finished at 10" x 10", with a faced binding. Thanks for the inspiration, Curated Quilts! Congratulations to all the other makers who have submitted their mini quilts. 121 so far!
You may have seen my i Mini that I created for the Minimalism challenge in issue 3 of CQ. (Fun fact, it's currently hanging in the San Mateo County Fair.)
G has made 5 of his own quilts. Check them out:
I've linked up to Needle and Thread Thursday and TGIFF.