Tag Archives: mini quilt

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Hello. It's been a while. I'm happy to be back.

The Other Placemat. Here's a situation of how lacking a deadline really affects getting something done. My Zig Zag Placemat tutorial was published in mid-September. I only finished one of the two placemats in time for publication. The second placemat was pieced in time, but not yet quilted. I finally quilted and finished it at my guild's retreat at the beginning of November. I'm not 100% pleased with the quilting, but it's done. And the wonky part in the middle will be covered by the plate. ;-) Happy to check off another item from the lengthy WIP list and I know the recipients will not be as picky as me about a little wonky quilting.

 

I'm a member of the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association and this was the first time I took part in one of their retreats. They do two annual Marin Headlands retreats (where we were) as well as in-town retreats at a local hotel. I highly encourage you to participate in a quilting retreat if you haven't done so yet. I've been a member of this guild on and off since 2002 and over the years I've met a few people from the group at guild events, and more recently through blogs and IG. But this event really changed how connected I feel to the group. (And I got so much done!) The 3-day retreat was a nice long time to get to talk about quilty and other stuff with some lovely women. I look forward to my next retreat! And here are a couple of the pictures I took at the retreat. Such a lovely area!

Thank you for visiting!

I'm linking up to Adrienne's 2015 Q4 Finish Along post. See all my Q4 goals here.

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Leasa hosted the Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap on Instagram. The shipping window ended earlier this week and my partner Kathryn received her package yesterday.

Right around the time that our first check in photo was due, I was working on my first Swoon block. I sew a second line of stitching 1/2" from the first where triangles are going to be trimmed off so I'll automatically have HSTs that just need to be trimmed to size. (See an example in step 4 of my Watermelon Plate Tutorial.) I had stitched these HSTs (trimmed down to 2.5" unfinished) with my Swoon scraps and they were in some of my partner's favorite colors.

I decided if I made some progress on a couple more Swoon blocks I would have a nice variety of HSTs to use for a mini. And remnants from another projects was definitely in the spirit of sewing my stash. Each swoon block provided a variety of print A/print B HSTs, print A/background HSTs and print B/background HSTs, so using the pieces from three Swoon blocks gave me nine different varieties of HSTs, and my background fabric, as you can see, is scrappy low volume. I used four of each variety, giving me 36 blocks to play with. I considered creating a pattern with the HSTs, but opted to go with random. I threw all my HSTs into a bag and pulled them out one by one and lined them up. I made one switch to avoid a section there was a cluster of one fabric. So, it's 94% random. ;-)

I opted to quilt it with match stick quilting, using white Aurifil 50wt thread. This was the first time I didn't worry about my lines being perfectly spaced and perfectly parallel and I love the effect.

For the binding I used some of my favorite Alison Glass fabric which coordinated well with the colors in the quilt. I didn't have a navy blue thread, so I opted for turquoise (Aurifil #2810, 50wt). I love this effect, but it did make the imperfections stand out.  You'll see lots more photos of this binding when I get my binding tutorial up on the blog.

I used more of my HSTs to make QSTs as a feature on an openwide zipper pouch. I'd already cut the main fabric out before I realized that my extra was practically larger than my quilt. ;-)

 

Yesterday I also received this amazing swap package from Ginny! I love the big mini and the mug rug. Plus mini charms, chocolate and a fun wind-up toy. So excellent!

I'm linking up to TGIFF, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Link-A-Finish Friday, Finish It Up Friday and Adrienne's 2015 Q4 Finish Along post. See all my Q4 goals here.

Thanks for visiting!

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I love text fabrics, so I just couldn’t resist when the Text Me Mini Quilt Swap was announced on Instagram. There was a beautiful rainbow text fabric bundle available from Sew Me a Song around that time and I decided that I’d made a 100% text fabric rainbow Dresden mini for the swap. In fact, I made two so I could keep one for myself. (Mine isn’t quilted yet, so I'll show it to you later.)

I was one text fabric short of the 16 needed for the rainbow, so I posted on IG hoping to find someone in the US to swap a couple small pieces of fabric with. I didn’t find any local takers, but Mara offered to send me some fabric all the way from Greece! Quilters are the best!

I found a free tutorial online for making a Dresden block since I hadn’t made one before. For the center circle I used turned edge machine applique.

This rainbow text mini made it's way to Monica in Florida. I also made her a pin cushion to go along with the mini.

I received this beautiful swap package from Michelle (@lemonjelliestitches) in Australia. I just love the mini and that adorable black and white thread catcher is being put to good use. :-) She included a bunch of other goodies, including a couple patterns that she created. So generous!

 

I'm linked up to the Finish Along Q3 Finishes Party. See my whole Q3 goal list here.