So it started with the idea of stars while taking the Craftsy course "Designing Modern Quilts" with Weeks Ringle. One of the ideas was Beyond The Block, looking at a design concept as a whole. I came up with this idea really from playing with curves and gradient colours on Photoshop Elements while thinking of giant red stars but I had no idea how to make it.
So I decided to procrastinate as you do and go shopping. I bought a fat eight bundle of Kona solids in sunny colours and Kona Midnight from Fluffy Sheep Quilting and I just love these colours together. Totally gorgeous. One of Week's lessons was to make a mini-quilt and test the idea out so a fat eight was perfect.
Even in mini size I didn't know how to go about getting the exact curve of the large sun and I pondered this for a while. Eventually I figured out I needed a pattern so I printed my original design in black and white and enlarged it by just over 200%.
I was fairly sure I wanted inset circles but some of the circles would be small in mini so I decided to try inset and needle turn applique and test out which suited the design best. So I inset the large star and appliqued the smaller two.
I love the inset - it is so clean and crisp and perfect. And I found them easier than the needle turn applique which I definitely need to practice.
I had the idea of small stars in the background so I decided to hand tie my mini-quilt (never tied a quilt before-really great fun!). I put in the constellation the Plough in the blue pearl cotton and a few white stars surrounding but it was too much so I took a few out. All ready to be washed and take out my markings and hopefully get a nice finish.
When I eventually get around to making this in large size I think I'd hand embroider stars in the background fabric and do concentric rings in the stars. Still I'm very pleased with my first attempt at design and I learned a lot from making this mini. Espeially how important it is to match the binding to the star colours which was a little tricky but well worth it.
Linking up to Ellison Lane Quilt's
Modern Mini Challenge
I like your finished mini. I think it's really cool.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your mini...it is awesome'
ReplyDeleteSo fun! I love how it turned out! I'm amazed how close you got it to look to the original.
ReplyDeleteThanks! When I saw the Kona Sunrise bundle I had to order them. I'm amazed there are so many tiny colour variations available - they were just perfect for this project.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting to read about your design process, and what a neat result! I like the idea of embroidered stars on the full quilt.
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