Three Little Pineapples In A Row

Ha, so I know I swore of Instragram swaps last year after a few lousy experiences....But...But, I decided it was time to give swaps another chance especially when I saw that Kelly Bowser was hosting a small mini quilt swap with a limited number of participants and pretty clear directions, I thought, ehhh why not give the whole mini quilt swap thing another try. 

 

Feeling on a roll from making several mini quilts for myself, I decided to jump right in and go ahead an make the mini quilt for the partner I was assigned even though the shipping deadline isn't until the end of the month. (yes, I sometimes like to fall in the ranks of the overachievers).  One idea I pulled from my partners Instragram page was to make a pineapple mini quilt.  Not a traditional quilt block that is called a pineapple block, but instead a little block that is in the shape of an actual pineapple.  Pulling from a few examples of such quilts I found on Pinterest, I sketched up the design I wanted, shrunk it to the size I wanted, pulled some fabric from stash and started to sew it right up. 

So many itty bitty 1.5 inch square (and half square triangles!) cut out for this little quilt!  I decided to make two yellow pineapples and a pink pineapple - somehow it seemed more like my partners taste to add in the pink pineapple, and I quite like the affect of adding in the pink.

I was quite fascinated by the shrinking factor that is apparent when working with such small pieces while I was making this mini quilt.  Its not always noticeable how much things can shrink due to seam allowances and such when working with larger pieces of fabric, but as you can see in the above photo, the sewn together pineapple on the left is quite a bit smaller than the two on the right. 

Want to know sometime quite amusing?  I Love love love pineapple! Fresh pineapple, canned pineapple, pineapple in pistachio pudding, pineapple up side down cake - well you get the idea.  However, in recent years, I've discovered that I've developed an allergy to pineapple.  It's nothing too serious - just a scratchy mouth and slightly swollen throat, but still quite sad.  Making these pineapples made me desperately crave some fresh pineapple!  Alas, it was not to be. 

I love how the simple cross-hatch quilting on these pineapples makes them really pop and almost give the pineapple bodies a realistic texture to them which didn't help the craving factor at all!  This little quilt ended up being a mini quilt that I don't think I would have made from my own inspiration.  However, having now made it, I really love it and don't want to send it away!  I had to come up with a way to possibly keep this mini and still give my partner a beautiful mini quilt that she would really love. ;)