Creating

This is my latest creation, so far. It is made from an assortment of yellow, orange and red cotton prints and Kona Charcoal.



I started by making some pointy points. I had been making paper pieced points, and was not done with them yet. I am in the the Fab Little Quilt Swap and I am hopeful that my secret partner will like this.



I made the pointy points into a circle. I used the paper pieced template for this circle of points from a pattern called Bubble Gum Burst by Barbara Barber from a book I have called The Expert's Guide to Foundation Piecing.



Then my friend Linda from Linda Rotz Miller Quilts and Quilt Tops mentioned that she wondered what would go in the centre of such pointy points. Well, that got me thinking that I should put something pretty interesting in the centre.

My secret partner likes tiny patchwork and you will recall my Modern Christmas Tree Ornaments - tiny patchwork is my friend. So I cut up 49 one inch squares, each one from a different fabric.



I sewed them together, they finish at 1/2" so this little piece is about 3.5"square. Then I cut them in a circle.

Oh, in the interests of being real, I have to mention that the first time I cut the circle too small. Yup, I hauled out all 49 fabrics again (only a few came from my scrap box), cut another set of 1" squares and did it again.

I had thought I would just inset that circle with my sewing machine, no problem. Ha, that was not to be - I was brought back to the real world pretty quickly on that.

So this is my very first ever hand appliqued piece. I used the tiniest stitches I could manage.



Although it fit nicely, it puffed up like a fried egg. Or worse, a flower. I was going for edgy, artsy, modern and cool. Not cute.



See, fried egg. Not edgy, artsy or modern. Not cool.



But remember, it was paper pieced. I had left the paper in place so that all those bias seams would not stretch while I sewed in the middle. When you take the paper off, there is just the tiniest bit of ease as the seams relax.



The pointy points have 40 seams. Just enough ease to flatten it out, with just the steam from my iron (I am not a starcher, I don't even have any).



So here it is again, so far. It will be set into a square of the same Kona Charcoal and then I will quilt it, likely in grey like my Shattered quilt. I expect this mini quilt to finish somewhere near to a 15" square. I am having so much fun, inspiration has struck again.

I will update you soon.

PS. I am linking this to Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story, where you will find many other lovely projects too.

Best,

Leanne