The Quilt With Three Lives

This quilt is just barely finished and all ready it has had quite the journey and adventure.  I like to say it's all ready had two lives and is now embarking on its third and hopefully final life where it can be loved and cherished for many many years to come.   

Life 1:
This quilt started as a layer cake of fabric purchased by someone else probably with the intent to turn it into a cute quilt. And then a while later it was put up for sale on the Instagram Great Fabric Destash hashtag where I snatched it right up. 

Life 2:
When I got this layer cake of fabric in the mail, I had all the grandest of ideas of what to do with it.  It was so darling and cute and perfect for a little boy (of which I have many in my life).  And so I purchased a bundle of coordinating solids to go with the layer cake with the intent of making it right up into a quilt.  But as life does, somehow, this quilt slid down the priority list and for a while it looked like all hope was lost.  Finally, in January, I had an overwhelming compulsion to make big quilts (plural!) for myself and my husband and my kids.  I had all ready made a large quilt for my oldest son for Christmas so he was safe and I had quilts planned and in progress for myself and my husband.  So that just left my youngest son who is actually turning 2 this Friday! (oh alll the feels with this birthday....)  Started in January, I had all the grandest of plans to make my littlest his first big boy quilt. However, it wasn't until early Mary that I was actually close to finishing the quilt and making a coordinating throw pillow from the left overs. 

Alas - life still has a funny way of changing the grandest of plans.  In between January and now, my littlest developed a passion for all things boy - especially dinosaurs.  One day while picking up a few things in JoAnn's, little munchkin man convinced me to get the dinosaur fabric he just couldn't live without and turn it into a quilt for him - yes, his first big boy quilt is a JoAnn Fabrics Dinosaur Panel quilt which goes against every inch of the quilter/artist in me.  But, Oh, his joy and love for his dinosaur quilt makes it all ok. 

So, there I was with a nearly finished quilt and a matching pillow to boot, and no home for it!  Oddly enough as I was sewing on the binding I was talking with my husband about this dilemma of what to do with this quilt which now had no home.  We talked back and forth of what I could do with it, sell it, give it away, tuck it away in a box for future use....  And then, when I finished sewing in the last few stitches and pulled the finished quilt off of my sewing machine, my husband and I looked at each other and we knew exactly for whom this quilt was meant for all along - a dear friend from what feels like another lifetime who will always hold a special place in my heart.  The colors are exactly her and when we saw the finished quilt, the quilt seemed to say that it couldn't possibly go to anyone but her.  And for no other reason than to remind her that she's loved and hopefully it will bring her comfort in the chaos of having a second child.  Because we should do that every one in a while - we should remind those we care about that we do care about them even when we are miles apart. 

This quilt is being sent off this week to go live with my dear friend and her two sweet little children where hopefully it will have a full 3rd life - a life it was never originally intended for, but somehow perfectly fitting. 

Canyon Hexies Mini Quilt

Once upon a time, a girl sewed so many mini quilts that her bedroom walls started to turn into a padded room.  But her husband was a good sport.  And almost all of the mini quilts were made from stash.  And the girl found a sense of passion and excitement in making the mini quilts.  She was doing it for the process - the process of playing with colors and shapes and textures and old techniques and new techniques, and the process of tackling some comfortable designs and some challenging designs that had been on her wish list for oh so long. She loved making for the enjoyment of the process of making - it was creatively freeing and that freedom and joy filled her soul and made her artistic voice sing.  And so, this girl decided to make just one more mini quilt before the "To Do" list of projects became priority once again.

The girl had a stack of freshly basted English paper pieced hexagons (her go to hand project to keep fidgety fingers occupied during certain social settings), and so another modern hexie mini quilt project was born.  Her little boys called the shape either a fish or a dragon, but she didn't care.  It was fun to just play with the colors and shapes of the hexies and let them shine in their own way.  There didn't need to be any rhyme or reason - just the process.

And in the end, the finished mini quilt left her feeling all sorts of peace and calm coupled with inspiration and energy to continue to pursue making and creating and finding the things that make her soul sing. 

Seeing Double Sewing Machine Mini Quilts

 

 Remember yesterday when I posted about that cute little pineapples mini quilt I made for a quilt swap and how I kind of fell in love with it and don't want to give it away?

Yeah well, I decided to make a second mini quilt for the swap. And this time, I made sure to cut out a second one to keep for myself. ;)  I went with a sewing machine mini quilt based off of the "Sew On & Sew On" pattern by The Fat Quarter Shop for their Snapshots Quilt Along.  The pattern is a free PDF download which you can find here.

I picked up some fabric from the local quilt shop from Bonnie & Camille's line Vintage Picnic since my partner seems to be a fan of Bonnie & Camille's fabric.  It's not normally a fabric I would gravitate toward, but I really do love how these little sewing machines turned out. The fun and funky vibe that the green fabric gives the sewing machines is pretty cute and has a fun mix of feeling vintage and modern at the same time. 

Simple cross hatch quilting seemed just right for these mini quilts so as not to distract from the cuteness of the sewing machines. 

Yup, pretty cute all right, and I'm really glad I took the extra few minutes to cute out a second one to make along with the one for the swap.  However....I felt kind of bad for wanting to keep the pineapples mini quilt for myself, so since I got both mini quilts done way before the shipping deadline, I decided to post both mini quilts on Instagram and leave it up to my partner to decide which one she wants more to come live with her.  So far, she hasn't spoken up yet, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see if I'm lucky enough to keep the pineapples mini quilt or not.  Not that I need another mini quilt or anything....

Here is a group shot of the 10 mini quilts that I made within a 12 day period. Because I'm not crazy or anything. Yup, totally normal... ;)

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. ;)

Keep Calm & Sew On

Does this one count as a mini quilt?  I'm totally going to count it as a mini quilt even if it is more of a micro quilt than anything.  I needed a quick little finish and I had this scrap of fabric that was just begging for me to fussy cut the "Keep Calm & Sew On" quote and make something from it. 

So I did. And it was fun. And it only took about an hour from start to finish. Because it's really small - like 8.5 inches wide by 7 inches tall kind of small. But I love it. And it's a nice little mantra to be reminded of when the crazy of being a stay at home mom of two little boy (ages 2 and 4) seems somewhat overwhelming, and when life and circumstances and emotions and feelings become intense.  To be reminded to just stop, to breathe, to pray and leave everything in God's hands, and to just focus on making something beautiful. 

Keep Calm and Sew (or make or create) on my dear friends.

Rainbow Arrows Mini Quilt

For today's installment of "Maggie makes a million mini quilts and turns her bedroom into a padded room", I'm showing off the Rainbow Arrows Mini Quilt I made. 

I've always been fascinated by and in love with rainbowey quilts and I've even made a rainbowey mini quilt (which I gave away...) and some rainbowey quilt blocks for a charity project, and other than this mini quilt that I made, I don't have a rainbowey quilt that I've made just for myself, just for the love of rainbow ordered colors, and just because I wanted to.  A while ago, I came across these arrows on Pinterest, and I've been wanting to make similar arrows but with ranbowey tail feathers.  I used the tutorial that Carla of Grace and Favour posted as a starting point for how to construct the arrows. 

 And then I just sort of made up the rest. hehe  I intended to make only one arrow, but it was late at night and I wasn't paying attention when I sew together my second strip set for the opposite tail feather portion and yeah... lets just say, I ended up making a duplicate instead of a mirror strip set.  Thanks to the suggestion of a fellow quilter on Instagram, I decided to use it as an excuse to make 2 arrows instead of just the one. :)

Sometimes, it's nice when a mistake turns into a lovely design decision.  See - two arrows looks so much better than just one would have looked! 

 

 Everything about how this quilt was turning out had me all starry eyed and I knew that I had to take some time and do something a little extra special for the quilting.  Hence, I ended up combining straight line quilting and free motion quilting for this mini quilt.  I outline the arrow, added straight lines to the arrow head and the tail feathers and gave the background a tight stripple free motion quilting treatment.  When I was all done quilting this mini quilt, there was definitely a moment of pride an accomplishment because I usually don't push myself to get so creative and take chances with intricate quilting.  I'm really glad I did. 

 This rainbowey arrow mini quilt is totally my favorite quilt right now - I mean I love all my quilts, but something about this one is just a little extra special.  I think it'll be a favorite for quite some time to come too - I get all the good feels when I look at this one hanging on my bedroom wall. 

Contour Feather Mini Quilt

And I'm continuing with the parade of mini quilts.  I really did end up making quite a few mini quilts in about a two week window, so I've got a few more to post about. Today, I'm posting about this beautiful little feather mini quilt. 

I made this feather using the "Contour Feather" paper pieced pattern from Play Crafts.  You can find the free pattern here. While there are quite a few tiny pieces and even a "y" seam on this patter, it really was quite doable and I knocked out this feather mini quilt top in an afternoon. 

I've been quite fascinated by making a feather quilt for quite some time and I love the shape of this little feather.  I used a restrained color pallet of navy blue, teal blue, and golden yellow for the feather.  Thank goodness for an ever overflowing scrap bin from which I could pull all the colors I needed from.  I had just enough yarn dyed Essex Linen in Black left to use for the background.  The yarn dyed Essex Linen is seriously one of my favorite fabrics to use for a background fabric.  It has just the best subtle texture to it and I love that it isn't a truly solid color.  I think I need to order much more of this in my future!

For the quilting, I really wanted to just play with doing some free style straight lines in kind of a geometric framework.  I only marked on line across the face of the feather to get me started and then just sort of made it up as I went along.  Love love love how it turned out. :)

 I even went the extra bit and decided to hand bind this mini quilt.  Yes, it takes a bit longer (about an hour versus 5 minutes), but I'm trying to work on perfecting my hand binding skills and this was a good excuse to do just that. 

There is just so much that I really love about this mini quilt. I'm finding it really fun to just pour my favorites (color, fabrics, quilting textures, etc.) into a project and after seeing how well it has turned out, I think I'm going to try to continue to be more conscious to make projects that I truly love with materials that I truly love in a method that I truly love.  I think its a good way to continue to fuel my creative spark and passion. :)