Polygons

Every few months, Curated Quilts issues a mini quilt challenge with a prompt and a set palettte of colors.  For the June deadline, the prompt was polygons which was defined as ''shapes without curves, and not square."

The definition of the challenge gave me the perfect inspiration for the name of my first mini - No Squares Here.  (The mini finishes at 14" x 14".)  The block was paper pieced and the quilting was done with straight lines at random angles.   I enjoy the tiny scraps of color added to the binding.

My second mini is called There's a Trapezoid There Somewhere and finished at 10" x 10".  I used the same block concept for this mini as the first except made the block larger and the quilt smaller!  The quilting is  parallel lines in a gold thread.

I find the mini quilt challenges from Curated Quilts to be fun.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

MQG Riley Blake challenge quilt

The MQG challenge for spring involved a fun set of fabrics from Riley Blake.

My goal for my mini was to try for an improv minimalist quilt, using just a little bit of each of the fabrics.   I like the little navy shapes on the white print and am in so in love with the 1/8'' stripe that I only wanted to use a little.  (Not sure what I'm saving it for but I love it!)  I used denim as the primary color.

For the quilting, I did a lot of improv big stitch quilting, basically just had fun adding texture!

The actual color of the denim is somewhere between these two photos!  The quilt is faced and I finished that up last week while we were at the beach

Have a wonderful day! Patty

the House

I had the pleasure of staying at the home of a friend of a friend while staying in Nashville for QuiltCon.  A bit of research tells me the house was built in 1925.  It was filled with character and really unique features.  Stairs creaked, doors didn't close properly - everything was as it should be for a home almost 100 years old!

As a thank you, I made a slightly wonky version of the house into a mini quilt, minus the large tree in the front yard.

I sketched out the house onto graph paper to get some of the large dimensions right and then I started piecing it together in fabric.  The idea was to bring an element of improv into the process.  Doors and windows are the right size proportions compared to the size of the house but things were not necessarily cut straight with the ruler.

I really love the result and hope the hostess will too, especially my attempt at capturing the charm and wonkiness of her house in fabric.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Family Friendly

Each quarter, Curated Quilts host a challenge for a mini quilt - a selection of those submitted make it into the magazine.   This quarter's challenge was "Well Said" - an opportunity to send a message with your quilt.

I love putting text on minis and have done it about a dozen times.  After thinking about this challenge for awhile, I decided to go with this family friendly version of swearing!   The inspiration comes from my weekly games of Pickleball with friends.  When someone misses a particularly easy shot, it becomes a challenge to keep our language clean and we have come up with a bunch of different words to use instead!

The actual term for using symbols like this is grawlix.  If you read through your Sunday comics, I imagine you'll see it more than once!

I'll be linking up here.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Curves

Every quarter, Curated Quilts issues a challenge for a mini quilt and provides a single word prompt and a color palette.

Some of the quilts that link-up are selected to be featured in the magazine.  The latest challenge arrived right in the middle of the holidays with a deadline of January 2.

This was my first attempt - an improv curve using bias tape applique.   As you can see, I never buried those threads or finished the edge.  (I did however nail the bias tape part!)

While I had enormous fun putting it together, I wasn't sure it was any good.  So I started over, made some quick cardboard templates and hand pieced my curvy river.

Turns out small scale curves are really hard - even hand piecing. This mini is 11'' x 11'' and as a result, the smallest error resulted in issues and very few of the seams lined up.  For the quilting pattern, I choose something with less threads to bury.  Pebbles on such a small scale were fun.

I started this December 31 and finished it January 1 so it was a quick finish.

My mini did not get selected but I love these challenges and I'll keep trying!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Minimal Minis

Curated Quilts has a call for content for their upcoming issue 3 - minimal mini quilts in a specific color palette.

I love making minis so decided to play with my version of orchid pink paired first with black and then with gray.


Bubblegum

For my first entry, I wanted to set the pink color so it would pop so I paired it with black.  The black fabric is quilted densely and I used pearl cotton to emphasize the pink areas with some hand quilting.  This quilt finishes at 10'' square.

I really like this quilt.

Ladder

With my second entry, my theme is simple.  Simple shape, just a touch of color and quilting to echo the angle of the pink fabric pieces.  This quilt finishes at 10.5"" square.

What a fun challenge this was!

In addition to Curated Quilts , I'll be linking up my minis with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

These are finish #1 and #2 for 2018.  Happy New Year!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Experimenting with Circles

I have a quilt design in my head which involves circles.

Lots of them, overlapping all over the quilt in many colors.  But before I tackled the project, I decide to make a smaller version to test out both my hand drawn templates as well as my true interest in creating a quilt with circles.

This mini finishes at 12'' square and used up scraps I had leftover from other projects.  The larger circles are pieced and the smaller ones are raw edge applique.

The last curved piecing project I did ended up with much bulk in the intersections so I redrew the template to reduce this bulk.  This new template solved that problem but didn't actually give me the look I wanted.  So back to the drawing board I go.

But I still have this wonderful mini with fabrics I really enjoy.

While I was enjoying all the wonderful quilts on display at QuiltCon, I saw many hanging without a binding - something I had not seen before.  My Experimental Circles mini was a perfect one to try the technique out on since a binding would end up chopping off parts of the circle.  This way, the circle just flows off the edge.

I found this post and this one to be helpful in learning how to face a quilt.  I fudged my way through the corners and found this video afterwards on handling the corners afterwards which would have been quite useful.

Now I need to attach a hanging sleeve so I can put it on the wall.

I'll be linking up my mini with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

A Podcast

Wow.

Many of you - if not all of you - know Leah Day from her wonderful free motion quilting tutorials. I first starting following Leah back in 2009 when she first started blogging.  At that time, she shared a video of a new fmq design ever single day for a year.  (All her designs are available in a book.)

Recently Leah started a podcast called 'Hello My Quilting Friends".  You can find it on iTunes or on her blog, The Free Motion Quilting Project.

Leah invited me to join her podcast to talk about the One Monthly Goal event.  I so very much appreciated the opportunity to spread the word about the event and encourage more quilters to participate in the months to come.

Talking with Leah was a blast.  She always brings so much enthusiasm to her quilting videos and now to her new podcast.  The experience of recording the podcast will surely be a highlight for 2017.  I really appreciated the opportunity to talk about One Monthly Goal, Bag It and the just announced improv QAL called play.

That said, I needed to draw on my word of the year - brave - to actually listen to myself. Those words are mine but whose voice was that anyway?  (Maybe I sounded younger than my age?  I can hope!)

You can find this podcast episode on Leah's blog, Free Motion Quilt Project.  Make sure you check out her Free Motion Block Party QAL

(This Brave mini quilt is my 3rd finish of 2017.  It is 7 x 6''.  You can read more about why I choose the word Brave on my Reflections post.)


Have a wonderful day! Patty

Orphan stitching project = first 2017 finish!

I find hand stitching or knitting to be a great way to relax at the end of a day.  (In fact, one of my goals for 2017 (see goal post) was to always have a project needle ready.)

Often my embroidery projects become UFOs - all stitched up but nowhere to go.

This pear is something I made at least 6 months ago.  It sat lonely and unfinished at the bottom of my block basket until I decided to turn it into a mini quilt.  The pattern is a stitch sampler and very fun to stitch up.

Straight line matchstick quilting, a scrap of batik for backing and binding was all it took to dress this up and turn it into my first finish for 2017!  It is roughly 7'' square.

I wrapped it up and gifted it an aunt.  I hope she likes it.

I like the way this looks as it sits in front of the window on a gray day.  The background fabric is a light cream but looks darker in this picture.

The pear stitching pattern was sourced from Kathy Schmitz's site quite some time ago.  I don't have the direct link to the pattern anymore but there are plenty of other wonderful things on her site.

                                    (One Monthly Goal January Linkup can be found here.)

Have a wonderful day! Patty