Saturday, January 21, 2017

Project Quilting 2017 - Challenge 2

I almost decided to skip out on this week's challenge because of all the beautiful quilts I've seen on the facebook page!  I was really feeling like I'd never be able to come up with anything as lovely and creative as the quilts I've seen.  I decided that the point isn't coming up with a quilt that is "better" or more creative, it is taking the challenge and making it your own and interpreting the theme in your own way.

I decided it would be fun to come up with a mini quilt.  I googled North Carolina Lily, Lily Quilt, Mini Lily Quilt, etc. and didn't find anything inspiring.  So I opened up EQ7 and found a block called Lily Wreath that was perfect!
With all those pieces, I didn't want to shrink it too far down, so I decided that 8 inches would be small enough to make it challenging, yet still do-able.

I was able to print up rotary cutting instructions for most of the pieces, and also printed the templates so I could cut out the center pieces.

I started out by sewing all the diamonds into pairs and added the background pieces for the corners.
Then I made the center square and sewed the lily sections to the center.  The last step was adding the rectangles for the sides.  I ran into a bit of a problem there as they were a bit too small!  I recut them a bit bigger and it worked.  I'll have to try this block again someday and figure out what the problem was.  In the end, my block came out fine and after quilting made a darling mini quilt!
It measures 8 1/2 inches square, including binding.  For the quilting I did some petals in the lilies, curved echoing in the green and elongated triangles in the center.  For the background I did tiny swirls.  The fabrics are leftovers from my Island Batik collection.  I had some 10 inch squares that were perfect for this little project, I even used one for the back!

Those little diamonds are only 3/4 of an inch across!  Lots of little seams and y-corners in this quilt, but it was a fun challenge for me and will make a cute mini for my wall.

Lily Wreath was made by me in my sewing room in Coos Bay on a rainy Saturday.  A good way to spend my afternoon!

4 comments:

Trish Frankland said...

YES YES YES! It's about finding your own creative tide! I love this, and you're probably a little nuts for those tiny diamonds (but that's true of most of us!) Hooray for a great project!

Kathy E. said...

Pamela, your mini turned out great! The PQ challenge really is about interpretation and the challenge to come up with something different. Tiny pieces, y-seams and figuring out those blocks with pretty fabrics makes this a perfect project! You've got my vote!

teachpany said...

Great piece!

PersimonDreams said...

I'm so glad you realized the real point of the challenge! An inspiration for yourself - not to judge yourself by what others are doing! This is fantastic and the fact that is only 8.5-inches square is AMAZING!!!!