Mini-Quilt Project 2012 in Review

Happy New Year

Happy 2013!

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the mini-quilt project of 2012 - making one mini-quilt per week using no new materials. It felt good to give myself a goal and see it through, and I had a wonderful time coming up with new ideas and seeing them come to fruition week to week. At times it was a challenge, but except for a couple of weeks during the big Waldo Canyon Fire, I managed to make my deadline.

My purpose was to get a chance to try out quilting techniques I’d never tried before, to see if I enjoyed doing them enough to later try them in a larger bed-sized quilt. In addition, I wanted to practice techniques I had tried before in order to improve upon my skills as a quilter. Overall, I’d have to say the project was a success.

On the downside, I wasn’t able to devote too much time to other sewing and quilting projects through the year. Sometimes I deliberately chose to do mini-quilts I knew wouldn’t take a lot of time in order to have time to make a purse or go on vacation, etc. Also, as I was getting close to the deadline, I was forced to cut some corners or not take  the care I normally would. Sometimes I made mistakes that I chose not to correct. But I learned from those mistakes too. 

Acknowledgements:

I’d like to acknowledge my friends, family, co-workers, and the CC Quilters group for all their encouragement and praise through the year. Many were a great source of inspiration for several of the designs.

What’s next?

Spring Has Sprung

I find that I like doing mini-quilts. I like the small projects that I can easily quilt on my machine. I will definitely do more in the future, although not one a week. I have ideas for wall-hangings and functional pieces still and I’ll post my progress on these too.  It’ll be nice to work on projects using what I learned in 2012.

Someone from my quilting group (I’m sorry I don’t remember who) suggested that I write a book about the project. I think I will pursue this idea.

Analysis:

Here are some interesting things (to me, anyway) that I learned from this project.

I utilized the LABELS feature of the blog to provide keywords. At the bottom of the page, a word cloud appears showing the frequency of those keyword. The bigger the word, the more times I used the technique. Interestingly, the top tier included “appliqué”, “free-motion quilting”, and “machine stitches”. I like appliqué OK, but admittedly I used it sometimes in place of piecing to save time.  I much prefer piecing. 

As for free-motion quilting, I’m glad I got a chance to practice this technique. I hadn’t been comfortable with free-motion before the project, but I am now. Of course, quilting small projects on a small machine is a lot easier than quilting big projects on a small machine. I may have to look into getting my larger quilts quilted professionally. (Or else buy a large machine, which isn’t doable right now.) 

doodling with Thread

The third label, Machine Stitches, doesn’t surprise me. I like using as many of the specialty stitches as I can. They’re there, so why not take advantage of them. I think using machine stitches definitely adds to the character of the quilts.

The second tier of labels included “3-D” and “paper-piecing”. I tried out many of what I’m calling 3-D techniques: origami, trapunto, tucks, cathedral window and added objects like ribbon, buttons, and zippers. And although I enjoyed doing them, I don’t think these are representative of my style of quilting. 

Paper-piecing, on the other hand, is very representative of my style. I like everything about it, and I knew this before ever starting on the mini-quilt project. I enjoy creating the design, making lines that will work for paper-piecing. It’s a very methodical, almost mathematical, design technique and that’s what appeals to me. Often creating the design takes a great deal of time, but seeing it all come together in fabric is so rewarding for me. “Spring Has Sprung”, “Purple Pinwheels”, “Milky Way”, “Star of Bethlehem” and “Poinsettia” all incorporated paper-piecing, among others.

My Style:

I’m not sure I learned a great deal about my own personal style of quilting during the mini-quilt project. Rather, the project affirmed what I thought before: 

• I prefer piecing to appliqué.  There’s something about sewing two pieces of fabric together that makes me very happy. 
• And I really enjoy paper-piecing for its precision in creating unique designs. 
• I also like using machine stitches, particularly as thread painting to further enhance designs. In many ways, I prefer machine stitching to free-motion quilting, but I concede that there are times free-motion is desirable. 
• I don’t have a dark side. My quilts are happy, or at least pleasant to look at (I hope). During the fire, I thought about doing a mini-quilt about it, but never could come up with a design to represent it. Likewise, I thought about a commemorative quilt for 9/11 but never found the inspiration.
• I do have a whimsical side. “Fish in the Attic”, “Snowmen Tucked In” and the golden fries as backing for “Golden Mean” speak to that.

Fish in the Attic

Favorites:

Stained Glass Iris

People have asked me which mini-quilt is my favorite. And although I have many that I really like, I’d have to say that “Stained Glass Iris” is my favorite. I marvel at how much it does look like a stained glass creation. I love the purple iris made from batiks, and the satin stitching for the lead lines, and the sky fabric which looks like glass. And the oval shape completes the picture.

Autumn Kaleidoscope

But I do have others which are at the top of my list of favorites: “Doodling with Thread”, “Butterflies in the Garden”, “Spring Has Sprung”, “Purple Pinwheels”, “Autumn Kaleidoscope”, “Milky Way”, “Extreme Soduko”, and “Poinsettia” are ones that make me smile.

Non-favorites:

Overall I like nearly all of the mini-quilts. There are only a few that I don’t really care for. I’m glad I tried the techniques, but I am fairly certain I won’t be doing things like crazy quilting or ribbon weaving again. Although I was disappointed in the way the tiling “Bountiful Basket” came out, I think the technique is worth exploring further.

Surprises:

Extreme Sudoku

I mentioned that “Extreme Sudoku” is a favorite of mine, and it is. What surprised me was how much this one resonated with others. I received more compliments on this mini-quilt than any other. This simple design and the fact that it comes from an actual, workable puzzle really speaks to people. I was honored that a friend at work, Patti,  made a larger quilt based on this design. She brought it in to work for me (and others) to see before she gave it as a Christmas gift to a family member.

Purple Pinwheels

After the end of the year, I went through the list of mini-quilts and categorized them into one of three areas: 

1. Traditional quilt designs, or those designs based on        

traditional quilt patterns.

Purple Pinwheels is based on the traditional pinwheel design, but enhanced by tessellating the design with six spokes instead of four.

Milky Way

2. Thematic designs, or those meant to commemorate an event, person, or memory.

Milky Way was based on a bed-sized quilt I made for my niece, Wesley.

Butterflies in the Garden

3. Art Quilts, those with no particular theme or design, but are artsy in some way. 

Butterflies in the Garden was an appliqué creation using many different prints.

Of course, some of the mini-quilts spanned more than one category (some might even be considered in all three) but I was surprised by how balanced the numbers were.

Traditional - 14

Thematic - 19

Art Quilts - 19

I don’t have an explanation, I just thought it was interesting and surprising.    

And so ends the year of mini-quilts. If anyone is interested in pursuing such a project, I encourage it. Set your goal, write it down, and find some way to make yourself accountable. My way was to start this blog. Knowing that others were encouraging me and awaiting my next post kept me going.

Poinsettia

Thanks all!

Rebecca