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Sunday, January 7, 2018

A Mini Made in Heaven

Screech!!  Not so fast!  Wouldn't it be wonderful if all our quilts were perfect when finished, or right from the start we were madly in love with them?  If our ideas could magically work the first time every time or translate from what we see in our head to fabric with ease?

Then again, if it was that easy, we wouldn't push our limits?  Or try new things?  Or be in love with quilting.  Something too easy would be boring!
12 1/2" x 11 1/2"
When I started this mini, I was in deep with playing with curves.  My 'Tendrils' Minimal Mini put me in an experimenting mode and I was in full swing.  By the end of piecing this...I was not in love.  I didn't much like it and I didn't really want to finish it...at all!

At this point I should have taken my own advice.  Advice I have dished out on many occasions, but seemed to have forgotten with this one.  Keep going!  Finish your project because you never know how it will turn out.  And it's only fabric!  This is especially true for me and improv.  



I'm not sure what motivated me to pick this particular color palette, other than I was experimenting.  By the time I had most of it together I could feel a Mid Century Modern color vibe brewing.


I shared my progress on Instagram and to my surprise I received positive feedback.  The most important advice was to step back, create distance and come back to it the next day.  Which I did.  And lo and behold, I didn't hate it as much as I did the day before!



I had a new vision of it and for it, which made me want to jump in and finish it.  I strategically added what I call my 'Faux Trapunto' to some of the 'flames'.  There reason I call it faux, is because I glue extra batting where I want it to go instead of sewing around the area and cutting away the excess.  

In order to get the shape and have it positioned where I wanted it, I used a glue stick to adhere the batting to the area after I cut the shape out.  If that makes sense.  It works for me regardless if it's a best practice or the right way.



By the time I quilted around the trapunto shapes and could see the texture I was looking for, I started falling in love.  Slowly it came to life with the quilting and texture. 

 

I quilted the heck out of it!  I didn't add the faux treatment to all the flames, just random ones.  

And I figured it was a good quilt to use a faced or knife edge binding to finish it off.  This is only the second time I've done this binding and wonder why I don't do it more often!  The tutorial is available here: @ Bloomin' Workshop Blog  

There are so many times when I am not feeling a project.  Maybe it's the colors, the fabric or the design.  I want to give up and move on, but I don't (usually).  Do you have those moments?  What do you do when faced with that situation? 



To start the New Year out on a happy note, I ended up sending this as a Secret Surprise gift to the person who encouraged me not to give up on it!  I hope she likes it!

On an entirely different subject.  If you are a no-reply blogger and send and email to me or anyone, we cannot reply to you.  I have tried to send templates of 'Star Thistle' to a no-reply blogger, it took me several times before I realized it.  If you are reading this...please get in touch with me from a different email address!  I want to send you the templates!


LINKING:
TGIFF

25 comments:

  1. Oh the texture on this is incredible! Didn't you have a magazine that published your faux trapunto method? I missed out on getting that and I've been wanting to try it. Please remind me where that can be found!

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    1. I was amazed at the texture as I was quilting. I’m pretty happy that kept going and finished this one! Yes, I did a project for Love Patchwork & Quilting last year. I don’t know where you can find the issue, maybe from them. Here’s a good place to start: http://www.lovepatchworkandquilting.com/

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  2. I am glad you stuck with it. It is gorgeous! All that yummy texture.

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  3. It's amazing! Great colours and wonderful texture. It's always difficult to listen to our own advice. So glad you continued on so we could see this wonderful piece.

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  4. I really like the texture and design of this mini, I am glad you stuck with it and finished it.

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  5. I think it is pretty darn awesome and so glad you finished and shared it with us. There is a lucky person out there that now owns one of your fun pieces of art. You said you added more batting for the faux look-just one more layer? And what kind of batting?

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    1. I hope the new owner loves it as much as I came to love it! I added three layers of Warm & Natural for the cut outs and then of course the quilt sandwich layer as well!

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  6. What a beauty! It has such great movement and texture. Yes, I've had projects that I didn't love at first, but kept at it mostly since I had so much time invested already. I don't always end up loving it, but it does give me satisfaction to finish. Yours is perfect!

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  7. How awesome that you took a short break, a deep breath, and kept going. I also love that you sent it as a surprise to the person cheering you on. Great way to start the year!

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  8. I love this piece. the Quilting is awesome.

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  9. I, too, love this piece, like all your other commenters, Jayne! I think the quilting and extra batting must have given it a lot of personality! I am still a newbie with curved pieces and have so many questions about how you made this! Did you cut out the brightly colored pieces first and then match your background to their shape? Could you come to my house and teach a class?! Lol! It's beautiful!

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    1. When I started curve piecing I had no idea what I was doing, and frankly sometimes I still don’t! I work it out as I go, experiment and try not to give up! I have a tutorial for basic curves on my blog that might help and give you a starting point. http://twiggyandopal.blogspot.com/2015/04/curves-tutorial.html
      I cut the shapes and the background at the same time by overlapping the shape fabric over the background and then rotary cutting. My advice is start with gentle curves. From there you can get curvier, thinner lines, smaller pieces and more!

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  10. Ditto here ... I love this piece and the quilting is perfect!! One of my goals this year to make a "modern" quilt or mini. I love what you do ...

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  11. Another lovely finish that I know will be loved by its new recipient. The colors are not ones I am drawn to but the piece really looks well put together. I think working out of your color sense helps you to raise your comfort level. Nice job! Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

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  12. It is awesome! I love that puffy look trapunto creates.

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  13. You were surprised to receive positive feedback??? OMG, you have a huge fan following. And for obvious reasons. I love this Curry & Spice Mini. Too hot to handle - not for wimps :-p

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  14. Hi Jayne,
    Several of your points resonated with me today! If quilting was easy, everyone would do it - yes indeed, although I think lots of people do it certainly not everyone. That goes with everything, don't you think? Easy playing an instrument, everyone would, etc. We all have different talents and even visions! Your closeup photo really brought home the whole project for me - tipped the scale toward loving this!! And I do, although not so much the colors . . . but then I do love the colors too. HAHA - I know, who cares. I do sometimes find that I'm not feeling a project . . . and I try to keep going on it. I have one now awaiting quilting - but I will finish it up. How fabulous that you sent this off to someone - they will LOVE it! And inspire them as well - to finish up the project because you just never know. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  15. The colors and the form are just amazing. Great idea with the faux trapunto, I just may give that a try one of these days. Amazing Mini

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  16. Lovely!! And hurray for finishing! So many of my "hmmm" projects end up languishing for years. :D

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  17. The interesting thing to me about this mini is it looks totally different when you hang it in a different direction . Not only the obvious thing of fabric going a different direction , but the light falls differently on it too

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  18. The texture is amazing! I love that you can hang it either direction and it looks like it was meant to hang that way. Love! Thanks for sharing on MCM.

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  19. This looks really cool! And I love the way you've styled the photos. Very nice!

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  20. Oh! Lady, I like your glue-trapunto approach! Thanks for sharing that. I'll be trying it out in the future.

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  21. Oh just look at that texture! And I love the colours, though I can understand why you were hesitant at first, but put all together with that amazing trapunto, great idea by the way, it all looks fantastic, well done for carrying on!
    Happy New Year ;)

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  22. I'm glad you didn't give up on it. It turned out really cool. I think only doing some of the flames was the right decision!

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