Make It Monday: Mini Quilt Swap

Good Evening Hon,

Technically, yes I know, Monday is gone.  But that is still the reason for this post, I made something and that's what I'm sharing.  Rather than coming up with a different name because it's a different day, I'll continue with what it should be, keep it simply, you know.  Life is already complicated enough, right?!

For our swap in my on-line quilting club (Crafty Gemini Quilting Club) we had to do mini quilts for the month of January.  The theme for the month was "challenge".  I decided I would challenge myself by using my swap partner's favorite colors only.  No matter what they were or how many there were.  Then I challenged myself to do a block I had never done, no traditional blocks.  And lastly, I challenge myself to do bit of free motion quilting (FMQ).

Although it's a design your own mini quilt, I got it from Sew Can She, it was a tutorial none the less.  Granted in the end you have the option of how to put the block together.  I decide to do 4 of these blocks and put them together to make a mini quilt.   Now, I meant to do each block differently (she covers that in the tutorial too).  However, I had Netflix playing in the "background" while trying to catch up on Hawaii 5-0 (the new one).  Wellllll, in my distraction, I simply made all the blocks the same and then sewed them all together.  Sigh,  well I was not going back at that point.  

It turned out great because I wanted my mini quilt to be somewhere around 18 inches.  I think it had to be between 15 - 20 inches.  Once they were incorrectly sewn together I thought of ripping it out and redoing.  But that was a task I was not prepared to take on so late in the game.  Because my son had a procedure to remove all 4 of his wisdom teeth and then I was down with migraines the following week, I was already late getting this project in the mail.  So I evened up my mini quilt, right at 18 inches, perfect.   To frame each original sqare I used part of  of a jelly roll.  I took some other strips from that roll and bound them together with my new binding gadget and made the binding for the quilt.  I wasn't sure how it was going to work because I ended up sewing 3 different strips together.  Although I tried to pick all the darker tones I was still worried about how it would look.  I machine stitched the binding this time and I hated it.  I am definitely a sew on with the machine and then bind the rest by hand type of girl.  But, it was done.  The next day I got that bad boy in the mail, priority 2-day, to my swap partner.

Notice my failure to mention the FMQ, that's because that is what is was! Urgh, it's too painful to talk about I hope she can still stand to look at it.  I used to be good enough at it to write my own name.  Back to the drawing board!  I hope she can find some use for it.  Here it is in all it's glory, lol:

The half-square triangles and bars can be placed in 
different ways around the main square.

This is the back of the mini quilt.

This is her mini quilt to me using my favorite colors, she also made me two headbands for fun! 

Mini quilt with the headbands.

Front 

Backing

There you have it loves.  

Have a great week and go check out that block.  I have a suspicion that everyone I know is going to be receiving a mini quilt.  

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Love and Shimmies,