#8 Doodling with Thread

#8: Doodling with Thread
Finished: 2/26/12
Techniques: Thread Painting
Size: 18 x 23"

Description: All the color you see here is embroidery thread on a solid black background. I have so many great stitches on my machine that it seems a shame not to use them, so I outlined a basic shape onto water-soluble stabilizer and filled in the spaces with a variety of stitches. Like doodling on paper except with a sewing machine. And, of course, lots of color! I mainly used stitches that were decried as "antique" or "antique embroidery" because they are ones that double up (or even triple or quadruple up) on the thread coverage and therefore show up better on the mini-quilt. I also used some cross-stitching designs and MAXI stitches along the way. Sometimes the stitches gave me trouble and didn't turn out the way I wanted. Or because I was using the stitching as 'quilting', the bulk of the batting got in the way sometimes. I usually tested the stitches on scraps before using them in the mini-quilt, but not always.

I'm particularly happy with the way the yellow circle came out. That was a slow process because I had to turn the quilt constantly. Not everything was perfect, but the overall effect is great.

It was a fun quilt to do, but I was surprised by the amount of time it took to finished. I didn't think just stitching would be so time-consuming, but some of those antique embroidery stitches take quite a long time to finish.

#7 Box of Chocolates

#7: Box of Chocolates
Finished: 2/14/12
Techniques: Echo Quilting, Piping
Size: 12 x 15"

Description: This valentine of pinks, reds, and chocolate browns consists almost entirely of fabrics that had hearts printed on them. I don't usually use hearts in my creations, but for Valentine's Day it seemed appropriate. Pink piping was added between sections because I felt it needed something extra. I used variegated thread for echo quilting the large heart in the lower right. Of course you may have realized by now that my favorite quilting method is "stitch in the ditch." I thought I'd try something different. I didn't particularly like the effect however. Maybe I should have used invisible thread, but I haven't liked working with that in the past either. I'll keep trying.

Anyway, this valentine goes out to Squeek, my cat of 18 years who I lost this week to cancer.  He was a great kitty, and I'll miss him.

#6 Extreme Sudoku

#6: Extreme Sudoku

Finished: 2/11/12

Techniques: Nine Patch, narrow sashing, stitch in the ditch

Size: 10 1/2" x 10 1/2"

Description: A very simple design. The fun was in the design process.  A Sudoku puzzle is nothing more than nine different nine-patch units put together. If you assign a different color to each number one through nine, you can put the squares together in the same way that a Sudoku puzzle is formed. So first, I had to solve a Sudoku puzzle. I chose an "Extreme Sudoku" puzzle in the Feb 2012 issue of Dell Logic Lover's Logic Problems. I like the extreme ones because not only does every row, column, and nine-box square contain the numbers one through nine, but each long diagonal does as well. The puzzle I worked from is shown here.

I thought about choosing prints to represent the different numbers, but I decided to go with a variety of mottled fabric. They read as solid colors, and I like the effect. I then had to assign colors to the numbers, but my choice wasn't random. I started with the center nine-patch, and made sure that my color choices there displayed the most amount of contrast between light and dark colors. Then, following the puzzle, I had my assignment of colors to numbers. Piecing the mini-quilt was pretty easy with chain stitching. Once the nine-patches were pieced, I placed narrow pieces of black mottled fabric as sashing between them to represent the thick lines in the puzzle.

Overall, I was pleased with the alignment of the squares. Many of the corners were perfectly aligned! But sadly not in every case. Ah well. Good enough. I look at this small quilt and think how spectacular it would look as a big bed-sized quilt. But with 1" finished squares, it would take a long time to finish one that size.

#5 Hatari!

backing

#5: Hatari!

Finished: 2/5/12
Techniques: Raw-edge appliqué
Size: 16 1/4" x 18"

Description: I had two inspirations for this mini-quilt. The title comes from an old John Wayne movie, entitled "Hatari!"from the Swahili word for "danger" or "peril". I recently re-watched this movie about a team of characters capturing wild animals in Africa for zoos around the world.  The other inspiration comes from a current exhibit of fabric collage art by Merry Havens at the Health Sciences Library in Aurora, CO, which I saw last week. Stunning collages! Check out DragonflyByLight.com.

I used the main animal print for the center and quilted around the individual blocks. Framed it in black, then added a collage of animal print strips to border the main print. The strips were too narrow to piece properly, so the raw-edge appliqué was the way to go. I found that starching the fabric and strips helped tremendously in putting the quilt together. After starching, the mini-quilt went together rather quickly, with simple straight stitching close to the edges.

The backing material is an animal track print that didn't quite go with the color scheme I wanted for the front. But it was perfect for the back.