A Finished Mini

So the other day I got the urge to start a new project.  Does this ever happen to you? he he he.

The original idea was to make a cushion, this time for a grown up.  I had been wasting time, spending time, researching on Pinterest and saw the cushion that gave me the original idea. 

As is often the case with me, I do not remember what I looked at, so I can't give proper credit.  Hopefully, my rendition is a bit different from the original inspiration.  If I copied someone's design, I am sorry and please let me know!

         EDITED TO ADD: I found it!  This is the link to the lovely quilt that inspired mine.  In my mind, the backgrounds were beige and taupe and I was making mine different by using gray... at least the circles colour scheme is different. 

This was an experimentation.  I tried a few new-to me techniques, starting with piecing quarter circles (I started with free-hand wonky ones, maybe I will try regular circles next time).  That went well.

I was both delighted and disappointed with the quilting.  My pieced quarter circles looked quite good before I quilted them, but then I decided to quilt concentric circles, wrongly thinking that it would enhance the circle shape.  To my dismay, it did just the opposite.  The circular quilting seems to emphasize what is NOT circular about the center part.  Lesson learned.

I was very happy with the rays (taken right out of Angela Walters' book).  I used three different colours of a shimmery viscose thread I had bought ages ago because they were pretty: aqua for the middle, a variegated pink for most of the rays with a small section in yellow just because.

I ended up not making a cushion but a simple mini that can be either a mini wall hanging, or can be laid on a table or other flat surface.  For the backing, I used decoration fabric (leftover from a duvet cover I made 15 years ago!) because I wanted stability.  It does not make for a pretty back, and it only occurred to me afterwards that I could have probably used the heavy decoration fabric PLUS some pretty cotton to finish it off.  Darn!  I made four corner pockets so that the quilt can be hung any direction.

Another thing that is new to me is that I machine stitched the binding.  Yup!  I am the first one surprised because hand stitching a binding is one of my favourite part of quilting.  The decision was solely due to the weight of the backing fabric.  Great to give stability for a wall hanging, but so hard on the fingers when trying to hand stitch.  I loosely followed Rita's tutorial.  It was also my first time attaching the binding at a straight angle and changing colours where the blocks meet.

This little piece is going to an unsuspecting recipient, someone who is very dear to me.  She is not a quilter, so I have no idea whether she will like this piece.  Give something you made to a crafty friend, you know they will appreciate it.  To someone who is not, well, you take your chances.  I am actually quite nervous about it.  When I showed the piece to my husband, he said something along the lines of "that's nice but what is it, and what is it for?"

 

I'm pretty sure people who consider themselves artists start with an idea of something they want to convey, and go from there.  In my case, well, it started with a picture "I like this" and then as I was working, I started to attach all sorts of meanings to what I was making.  After mulling over a couple themes that this could represent: 4 Seasons, Core/Centre, Sun, I decided that my piece represents the fact that the sun does not always look the same depending on your point of view.  I am probably getting this artist thing backwards.  Oh well.  I really had fun doing this and I hope the mystery recipient appreciates the thought.