I really hope my partner likes it.
front
back
inspiration mosaic
I’ve never tried improv piecing and it was a tad scary being liberated from measuring and any sort of clear plan, but as soon as I sewed that first centre block, I was hooked.
From there it just sort of made itself. I didn’t have to unpick anything (another first!) and just trusted it would find its way …
When it came to the quilting I couldn’t rely on Mrs Singer being able to cope, and with Damiel having his tune up I decided to go with big stitch sashiko style quilting with embroidery thread.
There were other considerations too; I wanted the front to hold its own and didn’t feel that the wonky block would work so well with straight line quilting, which is why I turned to the trusty hexagon! I wanted the randomness of the stitching to not detract too much from the block piecing.
Then I had to think of how to do the label. Luckily one of the echino scraps and a Sharpie did the trick perfectly!
Towards the end of last year I played with some laser printing onto transfer paper (more of that another time) so, I just happened to have some little pingsandneedles waiting to be used!
I’ve never put a label on a quilt before - I know it’s something I should have done with my big quilts but they were for friends and family, so I didn’t think it was important. I know better now. It finishes it off well, don’t you think?
My last first (!) was that I made my own binding - I remember posting here that I could never see myself doing this - boy was I wrong! What an addictive thing this is going to be!
I made a very narrow binding - 1.5” - and used Kerry’s single binding tutorial over at verykerryberry- it’s fantastic! I had a little trouble with one of the corners, but I think that was much more to do with my not squaring off perfectly!
So there you have it - my first mini quilt - tick!
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What firsts have you got in mind for this year?
