Tag Archives: mini quilt

• 10 Comments

•

The first Project QUILTING challenge of season 14 is The First One.

I am a habitual overthinker. I have a list of things I'd like to work into my PQ challenges this season and none of them were the "perfect" fit for this challenge. So the options to meet The First One theme seemed infinite. I brainstormed some ideas and considerations with my daughter:

  • my first quilt
  • my first blog post
  • my first IG post
  • red, the first color in a rainbow
  • the letter A
  • the number 1
  • the first PQ challenge I participated in, PQ 8.1
  • fabrics from my first PQ project
  • the very first PQ challenge
  • my favorite fabric designer, Alison Glass
  • my first Alison Glass Sun Prints (as seen in this 2015 mini I made)
  • my favorite print from Alison Glass Sunprints 2015, Grove

Taking all these things into consideration, I chose the purple Grove Sun Print as the first fabric for this project... my Sun Prints are precious, rarely used fabrics in my stash. And this print was used in my first Project QUILTING project way back in 2017. I decided I would improv piece some simple 1s, using each of the Grove prints... which happens to be in 8 color ways, a nod to my participation in PQ since season 8. I looked back at what the very first Project QUILTING challenge was, way before I had heard of the challenges... rectangles! Ya know what really simple 1s look like? Rectangles!

I started by cutting my rectangular number ones from my scraps. The size of my fabric scraps dictated the size of my rectangles. From here, I oversized each section of my quilt when I pieced the background to surround each rectangle and trimmed down when I puzzled them together.

I paired my prints with Alison Glass Kaleidoscope solids. These are the colors I landed on: Blue Jay, Poppy, Carrot, Peacock, Cosmos, Dahlia, Grass, and Sunflower. Tip: Use a sharpie to label the color name on the selvage edge of your solids. I used "AG" here to indicate they are Alison Glass.

I made a little thumbnail sketch of free motion quilting motifs, choosing four angular and four curvy motifs.

I matched my thread colors to the solid fabrics. I used Aurifil 50wt for the quilting in Light Delft Blue (#2720), Red (#2250), Green (#2870), Yellow (#2135), Fuchsia (#4020), Magenta (#2535), Bright Orange (#1133) and Dark Turquoise (#4182). (Colors listed left to right, top to bottom in their placement in the finished quilt -- see photos below.)

I enjoy using a medley of free motion motifs on a project. My Sunset All About Angles quilt comes to mind as another one that features a wide variety of free motion motifs.

My binding is Alison Glass Kaleidoscope in Charcoal. I attached my bias binding with Aurifil 50wt in Black (#2692) using my machine binding technique.

My quilt is trimmed to 14" x 18.5", making it placemat sized. It is my first finish of the new year.

I love the different appearance of the quilting in overhead and side lighting. The shadowy side lighting really shows off the texture.

 

As a longtime participant of Project QUILTING, I'm excited to be a sponsor this year. Each week as a Weekly Sponsor I have contributed a PDF pattern to one winner. Week 3, I am the Ultimate Weekly Sponsor. The prize is a spot in one of my self-hosted open enrollment live virtual workshops. I'm also a Grand Prize Sponsor. Again, the prize is a spot in one of my self-hosted open enrollment live virtual workshops.

I'm linking up on Kim's blog for the Project QUILTING The First One challenge.

P.S. This blog post is my *first one* of the year. :-)

• 16 Comments

•

Thanks for joining me for TGIFF. I am happy to finally be sharing my MQG mini swap quilt that I made for Margaret.

I started with some improv piecing including some wonky flying geese, ending in a minimalist, geometric pieced quilt top. Then I went to town with free motion quilting. I really enjoy trying a variety of free motion motifs on small projects, where the commitment is much smaller that if I am working on a large quilt.

My process for free motion quilting this piece was very organic, choosing each motif as I went. I had no overall plan except that I wanted the quilting to be a feature. I started with one of my favorites, a jagged stipple. I used Aurifil 50wt Light Turquoise (#5006), Turquoise (#2810), and Dark Turquoise (#4182) to coordinate with my three fabrics.

This quilt finished at 16 1/2" x 16 1/2" and is machine bound.

What have you finished lately? I look forward to seeing what you link up below. Thanks for visiting.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

I linked up to Finished (or not) Friday.

• 8 Comments

•

About a year ago I participated in the I Spy book release blog hop by making these two quilt blocks from the book. Each is a paper pieced block in which I chose to use solid fabrics.

It is season 13 of Project QUILTING and as much as I love to participate, I really have been focusing on finishing works in progress. I'd convinced myself that instead of participating in this season's one week quilt challenges by conceiving, starting, and completing a quilt in a week (for each of the six challenges) I would choose a WIP from the pile to complete that would fulfill the challenge theme (for an unofficial finish for the challenge). When the All the Colors challenge was announced on January 2, I scanned the list of WIPs and sussed out what would work for "All the Colors." The description had indicated that the quilt needed to use "at least five colors" so I chose my burger block to finish for the week.

Well, then my FOMO took over and I decided to make a little ATC mini quilt as an official submission for PQ 13.1. And the burger and watermelon blocks remained on the table.

Fast forward to last week, our week off between PQ challenge weeks. I decided to go ahead with my plan to finish up these mini quilts. I'd always envisioned finishing them as round quilts like the food is on a plate. They'll be going to my niece and nephew who are still of the "play food" age.

I knew I needed a bias binding to bind my round quilts, but was unsure if I could pull it off with machine binding or if that would be a struggle. With Cassandra's encouragement, I went for it and the machine binding went very smoothly.

Each of my quilts finished at 8" in diameter. The burger is quilted in Aurifil 50wt Toast (#6010), Red (#2250), Yellow (#2135), Chocolate (#2360), Very Dark Grass Green (#2890), and White (#2024). And the watermelon is quilted in Aurifil 50wt Red (#2250), Green (#2870), Black (#2692), and White (#2024).

Thanks for visiting. If it's not on your radar, there's still time to make a quilt for this week's Project QUILTING challenge.