#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.

#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.

#15 Spring Has Sprung

#15: Spring Has Sprung

Finished: 4/15/12

Techniques: Curved piecing, Couching, Thread Painting, Flying Geese, Bargello, Paper-piecing, Raw-edge applique.

Size: 15" x 17 1/2"

Description:

Last week, we had some great weather here in Colorado Springs. Unseasonably warm, so it brought on some spring fever. I decided to do a collage by pulling out all the green fabrics I could find. I also practiced many techniques. I did the flying geese in lime greens on a curve using the paper-piecing method. I did some bargello piecing and raw-edge appliqué of some green strips. I pieced some cactus fabric and golf fabric and then a mottled green on one side for some thread painting of flowers using green embroidery threads. I used various green buttons from my button jar for the centers of the flowers.

I like doing collages and will probably do others in different colors as time goes on.

On a different note... After doing last week's convergence quilt, I realized that my self-imposed restriction on the size of the mini-quilts is a little too restrictive. I originally wanted to limit the size so that the mini-quilts wouldn't take too long to complete, but some techniques really don't take that much time, and some quilts would show the techniques a little better if they're somewhat bigger. So, I'm going to take away the size restriction. 

#12 Aquarium

#12: Aquarium
Finished: 3/25/12
Techniques: Raw-edge appliqué, machine stitches.
Size: 23" x 18"

backing

Description: This is late in posting, but I did actually finish this mini-quilt last week. I used a variety of machine stitches to apply narrow strips of blues, purples, and blue-green strips from my stash to create the water. In retrospect, the variety of machine stitches detracts from the scene, and were I to do this again, I would stick with one simple stitch to attach them. I used green strips for the seaweed, and attached them using an open flower stitch. I also used the open flower stitch by itself where extra quilting was needed. The fish were starched and cut from fish fabric I once used as curtains in my bathroom, then stitched into place using invisible thread. I also used the fish fabric for the backing, shown at right.

I also added a couple of turtles from a batik, and if you'll notice some of the blue strips of water are batiks with dolphins on them. None of the strips were large enough to contain whole dolphins, so I used them as background.

I wasn't sure if the blues in the water would be too dark or distracting for the design, but the brightness of the fish seem to compensate and they stand out ok. The turtles are more subtle and I like that contrast.

#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.

#10 Wanting for Spring

#10: Wanting for Spring
Finished: 3/11/12
Techniques: Pieced background, Raw-edge appliqué, mitered borders, free-motion quilting
Size: 18 x 19 1/4"

Description: I am really ready for spring! If only the weather would cooperate. So I created a cheery little scene to help me through this last part of winter.  I pieced the background with various scraps of yellow. I didn't do any planning for this. I simply started pieced little pieces together and sewed those to bigger pieces, etc, until I had a large enough canvas to work with. Then I appliquéd flowers from a large print fabric on top and stitched them down.

Framing the scene is a wood-grain fabric left over from a bookshelf quilt I made years ago for some friends of mine. I mitered the corners - a new technique for me. In the past, I've always done squared off corners. It wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined and it came out very well, I think. The effect is a wooden picture frame, or perhaps a window frame.

The central scene was quilted on the diagonal, but the frame, or border was quilted with a free-motion technique following the wood-grain of the fabric. I don't particularly enjoy free-motion quilting, but maybe I just need more practice.

#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.