modern mini challenge!

 

It's no secret that I love minis ever since I attended the Sewing Summit. I was really excited when I saw Jennifer's Modern Mini Challenge!

 I had 3 minis in progress and knew I needed to finish one of them to enter. The prizes are pretty awesome!

I was out of town all weekend and neglected to bring some hand sewing (ie: binding) with me so I just finished sewing this binding down on the machine. It's a rushed job and I should probably go back and fix it. We'll see.

This mini was conceived before Christmas when I was making the large star quilt for a gift. I didn't know how I wanted to place my fabrics so I cut out a bunch of little 3.5" squares to play around with.

This was one of the layouts I came up with. And now it's breathes life as a cute little mini! Finished size: 12.5" x 12.5"

I love free motion quilting mini quilts. They move around so easily and it takes all of 5 minutes. I just did some loop-de-loops on this one.

Thanks Jennifer for a fun party/challenge. Can't wait to check out the other entries!

sew & tell v3.13 - giant vintage star

Welcome back everyone!  I hope everyone had a joyful, restful and happy holidays!


I wanted to share with you a quilt I made for my sister-in-law for Christmas.  I decided that I really wanted to sew something for her and asked my Tweeps (twitter friends) if anyone knew of a quick easy quilt I could put together in time for Christmas.  Jeni at In Color Order suggested her lovely Vintage Star Quilt Tutorial.  It was a match made in heaven for the fabrics I had in mind.

I had the 4 Amy Butler prints (Daisy Chain) for quite some time, but alone, they just weren't doing much for me.  Which may be why I had never used them!  When paired with some AB Lotus Full Moon Dots in Lime, and 3 Sandi Henderson prints (Henna Garden in Chocolate and Leaf and Garden Gate in Fuschia), I was in LOVE.  Seriously.

I was worried that the Kona snow I was using for the background would be too stark, but I actually really like it.

And I think the quilting on those sections really pop.  I love a nice wrinkled fresh from the dryer quilt!

The back is a Robert Kaufman Pimatex Basics.  I was able to pick it up at my local Hancock Fabrics.  Even though they had already closed, I was able to sweet talk my way in to make the quick transaction.

I machine quilted on the binding.  I had never tried this before, but I was kind of in crunch time mode.  Jeni also has an awesome tutorial for machine binding.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I wouldn't have finished the quilt in time otherwise!  I still enjoy hand stitching the binding, but in a time crunch, I'm totally not going to shy away from this.

This quilt was a first for me in another way.  Started and finished within 3 weeks.  It's a Christmas miracle!!  I'm pretty sure she liked it! Which always makes me happy!

Did you do any gift sewing? What have you got to share with us today?  Can't wait to see what you all have been up to!

Linky Rules.  Please follow along for a fun party!

1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

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5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!

Please put your (blog)name instead of your project name, it helps us get to know each other better!