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.

#26 Ribbon Weaving

#26: Ribbon Weaving
Almost finished: 7/1/12
Techniques: Weaving
Size: 16 x 15"

Description: OK, this is another late posting, and another quilt that wasn't quite done on time. But the only thing left was the binding and sleeve, so I don't feel too bad.

I've wanted to try a weaving technique, but didn't know how to best go about that with fabric. Should I use raw edged fabric, or make tubes of fabric so there would be no raw edges? But then I looked at my collection of ribbons that I've had forever, and decided to try it with those. I have a collection of ribbons in many widths - some are very wide as you can see. Some are satin ribbons, some are antique ribbons that my grandmother gave me, some are grosgrain ribbons, acetate, etc. I chose colors that I thought worked together and then just wove them in and out to create the design. Quilting was minimal by using a fancy machine stitch on a couple of the wider ribbons.

I worried that the ribbons wouldn't hold up to the stitching, fearing that they would snag or pucker, but that was not the case; the ribbons did very well when I used a ball point needle. I will say that the slipperiness of the ribbons was difficult to work with and the rows and columns are not even as a result, especially with the narrower ribbons. I would have to figure out a way to better anchor ribbons if I do another project like this one. Originally I was going to trying a different quilting method, possibly free motion or quilting some design, but when I was how slippery the ribbons were, I knew that wouldn't work.

Binding was done with ribbon too, but I didn't get a picture of that. I'll remedy that soon, as I get back on track.

On another note... this is #26 for the year! I'm half way through my year of mini-quilts! Where does the time go? I originally had thought I would run out of ideas for mini-quilts, and sometimes I did run low on inspiration, but always managed to rally! I still have a lot of fun doing this, so stay tuned!

#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.