Oceans Blue

Title: Oceans Blue
Finished: 8/14/11
Techniques: Curved piecing, couching, ribbon, buttons, yarn, machine stitches, free motion stitches.
Size: 12 1/2" x 20"

I've started my spring cleaning process, and have come across other mini-quilts that I've done in the past. And since I haven't completed a mini-quilt in a while, I thought I would start to showcase some of my earlier works.

A few of you already know that my 2012 mini-quilt project was not my first attempt at creating a mini-quilt per week. Late in 2011, I had started such a project but before I could finish my 6th in the series, I became quite ill and had to abandon the project. I didn't have the Blog then either. This is #3 of that first series.

I started out by piecing curves, which came out quite well. Then for some reason I don't remember, I decided to cover up those seams with ribbon, yarn or stitches. Only a couple of the seams are truly visible.

The layers of the blue fabrics and the embellishments have significance too. The stars at the top to represent the sky, the flowered batik for things floating on the water, the free motion circles for bubbles, the eyelash yarn for plant life, the curves and ribbons for the ocean currents, and the buttons for stuff on the ocean floor.

Overall a peaceful, calming mini-quilt.

#52 Happy New Year

#52: Happy New Year
Finished: 12/30/12
Techniques: strip piecing, couching, appliqué, raw edge appliqué, ribbons, 3-D, free-motion quilting, satin stitching.
Size: 14 x 15 1/2"

Description: The last mini-quilt of the year! And since we're heading for 2013, I created a simple festive design to ring in the new year. This one was just for fun.

The party hat and party horn were strip pieced, cut out and appliquéd onto the background with a satin stitch. The numbers for 2013 were satin stitched on using tapered ends. The confetti was made by adhering fusible web to the fabrics, cutting them into random sizes shapes and ironing them onto the background. They added a nice touch. I then couched some silver bead strings around the party hat leaving a length fairly free for the chin strap part. More beads were couched on top of the hat and by the end of the party horn. For added whimsy, I curled some silver ribbon and attached pieces to the top of the hat and end of the party horn for a 3-D effect.

Quilting was done with a loopy free motion stitch meant to simulate the path of the confetti.

Here's wishing all my good friends and family a joyous new year!  Watch for my next post for a wrap up of this year's mini-quilt project and for what I plan to do next.

#44 Stained Glass Iris

#44: Stained Glass Iris
Finished: 11/4/12
Techniques: Stained Glass Effect, Satin Stitch, Machine Stitches, Appliqué, Bias Binding, Oval, Batiks
Size: 12" x 15"

A Stained Glass effect mini-quilt has been on my list of projects for a while now, so it was time to give it a try. Many years ago, I took a class and learned how to create stained glass designs. It was fun, but I don't think my sense of color or design was as developed as it is today. But I have seen quilts done in a stained glass style and thought they looked pretty good.

Batiks, hand-dyed, and mottled fabrics work very well, as they emulate the subtle differences and imperfections in stained glass. Originally, I was going to use bias binding tape to simulate the lead lines holding the pieces of "glass" together. I was going to make the bias tape myself, but found it too difficult to get the narrow size I needed for the mini-quilt. So I figured a good satin stitch would work just as well.

I created the design for this iris, chose the fabrics, starched them heavily, let them dry and ironed them flat. When they're starched like that, cutting with a rotary cutter is pretty easy. I could cut the pieces from my design without regard to seam allowances, since this was basically an appliqué process. I laid them onto the sky blue fabric and used a glue stick to keep them in place.

Before actually starting the satin stitching, I used my failed narrow bias binding to lay out where I wanted the lead lines. Thinking back to the stained glass class, I knew what curves and intersections would work with glass, so I tried several permutations until I found one that was pleasing to the eye (although I think I could have done better with a few more tries). I then marked the lines with a marker that disappears when ironed, and working with batting and a heavy stabilizer, proceeded with the satin stitching.

Quilting was simple. I used a straight stitch for the sky and some machine stitches for the grassy areas. But since I had already done the satin stitching, I had to "jump" over places in the sky part of the quilt. I have to remember that stopping and starting quilting stitches in the middle of a quilt doesn't work very well, unless you leave long enough tails to tie them off in the back. I also thought about adding stitches to the iris itself, but then thought it would detract from the stained glass effect. In hindsight, I don't think I should have used the machine stitches in the grassy area either; some straight stitching probably would have sufficed. Oh well.

I had also intended on making this a rectangular piece, just as all my other mini-quilts have been. But something about the stained glass design just cried out for an oval shape. But how could I make a perfect oval? I knew that eye-balling it wasn't going to work. So I used the poster function of Microsoft Publisher and inserted an oval shape with specified dimensions, printed it off and cut out the inside of the oval. I was left with a template to frame the mini-quilt, upon which I traced the cutting line. Then I cut the black fabric on the bias to make the binding. It wrapped around the piece very nicely.

I do like the way this one turned out.

#25 Vertical Aquarium

#25: Vertical Aquarium
Almost Finished: 6/24/12
Techniques: Raw-edge appliqué, Wobble stitch
Size: 14 1/2" x 28"

Description: I apologize for the lateness of this posting. I didn't quite get this mini-quilt done by last Sunday's deadline, but all that was left to do was to add the binding and sleeve. So the important part was done on time. This will be the first time during this project that I haven't made the deadline. I'm disappointed in that, but considering what's been going on, I'm not beating myself up about not finishing a mini-quilt.

It's been quite the week here in Colorado Springs. A major fire started last Saturday and erupted on Tuesday destroying over 300 homes, and evacuating 32,000+ people. Two people have lost their lives. My home was not in the danger zone, but my friend Mary Beth was evacuated from hers. She stayed with me until she was allowed to go back. I'm happy to report that there was no damage to her place. She and I both know at least one person whose home was destroyed and our hearts go out to her and her family, and to all those who have lost so much. This mini-quilt is dedicated to them.

The mini-quilt was made from a batik scarf that I had bought at a garage sale and wasn't using. It was large enough to use as the background for the design as well as the backing material. The scarf was very thin and a little difficult to work with because it kept shifting. The quilting was done prior to the appliqué process using a wobble stitch - a very narrow zigzag stitch - and although the front came out OK, the backing did have some puckering in places.

Of course the design on the batik is flower-like, but it also reminded me of bubbles in a fish tank. My friends Sean and Karen have a vertical aquarium - taller than it is wide - and that's where I got the idea to create this vertically. As I've mentioned before, I have a lot of fish fabric. I applied Steam-a-Seam to the reverse side of several fish motifs and cut them out and appliquéd to the batik. The greenish blue sea weed pieces at the bottom were what's left after cutting out the fish. I simply trimmed them up and appliquéd them as well.

I hope to have my next posting soon, but will admit to being a little behind again this week. We'll see how it goes.

#23 Origami

#23: Origami
Finished: 6/10/12
Techniques: Folded fabric, machine stitches, pieced binding
Size: 13 x 14"

Description: I was inspired to create this mini-quilt by my friend Sarah Withee and her origami projects. I had seen folded fabric and origami quilting books before and so now was the time to try it. I used Fantastic Fabric Folding by Rebecca Wat for instructions, but I found it rather difficult to do the origami itself. It took time to figure out the instructions, reading it several times and trying to gain insight from the photographs. Once I did though, it went much easier and faster.

I used batiks and mottled fabrics that read as solids for the origami portions, as well as the pieced binding. I used various machine stitches to add a bit more color to the black background. A few buttons were added for flair.

Here are some close-ups of the individual origami features, except for the orange one. For some reason, neither my phone nor camera did well in capturing the orange. It was too bright or something. I tried different settings to no avail. Oh well.

#14 Nebula

#14: Nebula

Finished: 4/8/12

Techniques: Ricky Tims' Convergence-style, Free-motion quilting

Size: 18" x 21 1/2"

Description: Ricky Tims is a quilter who, I believe, still lives in Colorado. He's pretty well known for what he calls "convergence quilts" and I've always wanted to try one. Basically you take 1-4 pieces of fabric, sew them together, cut strips, interchange the strips, sew them back together, turn the piece 90 degrees and cut, interchange and sew together again. There are variations, but this is how I approached this piece.

nebula fabric

I had this piece of fabric which is wonderfully bright and colorful. I didn't have enough of it to do too much, but after reading Tims' book, it seemed to be perfect for this project. (See unaltered fabric at right.) Many of the projects in the book have a border that really sets off the convergence. Since I didn't have time to plan a border (I was on vacation and out of town for half the week), I decided to add a narrow black strip for interest. Quilting was done free-motion in a medium scale meandering which shows up somewhat in the picture above. The fabric and the convergence quilt itself reminds me of nebulae in outer space, hence the title.

I love this fabric and with I had much more of it.

#11 Butterflies in the Garden

#11: Butterflies in the Garden
Finished: 3/18/12
Techniques: Landscape quilt, raw-edge appliqué, ombre fabric, free-motion quilting, pieced binding.
Size: 15 3/4 x 19"

Description: I've always been fascinated by landscape quilts and thought I would try one as a mini-quilt.  I started with an ombre fabric which did very well for the background. The colors shifted from blue and white to green, yellow and orange. The blue and white did well for the sky and although most of the other colors were covered by the appliqué, some of them peek through as ground cover. I had one 3" wide strip of tomato fabric which I cut and used in the foreground, hoping to give a feeling of depth. The butterflies were cut from fabric and I included about a 1/16" of surrounding beige fabric. It works well because it helps each butterfly stand out but still appears to be a part of the butterfly itself.

I used invisible thread for the free-motion quilting and I'm particularly happy with the quilting in the sky, which is done in a loopy meandering style to represent the flight of the butterflies.

I also pieced the binding so it wouldn't detract from the landscape. At first I was going to use the sunflower fabric in the lower half, but the dark green separating the sunflowers proved much too dark. I found a batik with green, blue, red and purple colors that was much more subtle and seemed to do the trick because of the way it simulated flowers and grass. The backing was more of the sunflower fabric.

#2 Bargello Brights

Mini-Quilt #2: Bargello Brights
Finished: 1/15/12
Techniques: Bargello Pattern, Stitch in the Ditch
Size: 23.5" x 16"

Description: I'm glad I started this project early in the week. It was not difficult, but it was time consuming. The pieces I used were small - no larger than 1-1/2 x 2", so that probably accounts for it. I started with selecting 26 batiks or brightly colored fabrics - 24 for the top, 1 for the binding and 1 for the backing. I had these left over from a quilt I did for my niece with paper-pieced batik stars on a black background. I cut 1-1/2" strips of each top color, sewed them into a tube, cut them various widths, detached each column at the appropriate point, then sewed the rows together again.  Because of the different widths, a wave-like quality appears across the quilt. Before starting the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, the mini-quilt looked pretty square to me. I had read that, to avoid a lengthening in one direction, one should alternate directions when stitching in the ditch, so that's what I did. However, this seemed to make the rectangles more like rhomboids and it didn't come out very even. Blocking may help. Next time I try this, I think I will try stitching all in one direction to see if it makes a difference. But I do like the colors (I find I'm very partial to bright cheery colors) and I do like the overall effect. One trick was to start with a light-colored fabric and go successively darker over 4-5 fabrics, then start with a new light fabric.