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Wednesday, July 10, 2019

One Thing Leads to Another :: Skinny Minny

As with many of my projects creative license has a way of happening!  This doesn't just happen with my own designs.  When I use another makers pattern I like to put my personal twist or creative license in a design.  I give full credit to the designer, always love their original concept and especially enjoy that because of their creativity it inspires me to take it to another creative level.

Such is the case with Skinny Minny Geese.  The pattern is by Kelly of Jeli Quilts and available in her Payhip shop.  Who doesn't love flying geese, a rainbow and paper piecing?!  A couple of those might be an acquired taste to some, but for me it's the perfect storm!  


SKINNY MINNY WALL HANGING
16.5" x 16.5"
It all started with the need to paper piece.  Something.  I settled on Skinny Minny thinking it would be a fun, small, quick-ish project.  The 'quick' part was a total fantasy, as paper piecing isn't usually quick in any way shape or form.  



And it's less quick when you decided to use one of every color for the geese, and decide to make the background gradient grays!  Once that idea takes hold I'm hard pressed to stop it.  It just happens and I have to go with it.

At this point I could have stopped and called it done.  I could have...but I didn't! 



I added three (3) 1/2" borders while carefully matching the seams along the sides.  I liked it so much that it made me want to do more...one more round...of something...



With the tiny geese being so small I wanted to add a little more color in some way.  That became the point of no return and down the rabbit hole I went!  

More geese seemed like a great idea and with that I had to draft my own paper piece geese pattern.  It had to happen.  The idea was firmly planted, therefore it shall be!



The madness ended with another round of three (3) borders.  And with that, this part of my crazy train ride came to an end.

You know what that means don't you?  The dreaded quilting part rears it's ugly head!  Admittedly, I don't mind quilting small quilts like this.  It's a heck of a lot easier than big ones and it allows me to quilt like I know what I'm doing!

 

The center circle ended up not being perfect as you can clearly see.  I'm not terribly sad about that, as I am not a perfect quilter.  And I don't mind sharing, showing and pointing out imperfections.  There is no shame here!

  

My usual method of quilting is to take one section, or in this case one border at a time.  I've never been able to look at an entire quilt and come up with a good all over quilting design.  It just doesn't happen.  



I ended up with a combination of circles, echoed geese, grids and straight lines.  Somehow it worked and I'm pretty pleased with the results.  



Many times you can't see the quilting detail unless you turn it over and look at the back.  My one regret throughout this entire adventure was not using a solid gray on the back.  Then again I used a print and that means I have one less print in my stash!  



I feel like complete finishes have been few and far between lately.  Finishing this wall hanging has encouraged me to quilt up a couple projects that have lingered on my design wall for far too long.  And, I can't believe I'm saying this, I'm excited to be machine quilting again!  Coming from one who dreads that process...that is a monumental statement! 

LINKING:
PEACOCK PARTY   TGIFF 



26 comments:

  1. Simply wow! This is an incredible piece of modern art. x

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  2. Coming up with the idea to add more interest to your piece by adding the borders was perfect. I like your drafted geese in that border, it really adds a bunch of character.

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    1. I’m so glad I added the geese in the border too! It needed one more pop of color.

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  3. I love knowing your thought process on this stunning little quilt!

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    1. My brain works in mysterious ways sometimes! All in all…I’m pretty pleased with how it came together!

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  4. How absolutely perfect it is! Everything about it is stunning. Great job.

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  5. I love how you used the gradient grays to guide your quilting! My eye at first only saw how cool and logical the quilting was and it was only after really peering at it that I figured out how you used the grays. Very clever! :)

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  6. Who doesn't love flying geese, a rainbow and paper piecing??? I love a rainbow and that is about as far as I'll go today :-p But I love everything you do. Are you sure this was enough. I am sure you could keep on adding more and more :-) It is absolutely beautiful!!!

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    1. I know, not everyone is a paper piece enthusiast!! Maybe not today…but another day?! There are times when I think I’ve gone to far with a project by adding one too many elements. I just can’t help myself sometimes!

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  7. Wow...this is amazing. So creative to add all the extra borders.

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  8. Wow this is a gorgeous quilt! Just the paper piecing would have done me in, and all the things you added to it make it spectacular!

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    1. I had to see this through to the end…even though I didn’t know what the end was going to be!

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  9. Very creative, Jayne! I love how you expanded on the theme. I didn't notice anything about the circle. Great quilting!

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  10. Beautiful finish and a wonderful improvement to the original design!

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  11. That is amazing! The pope of color are really striking!

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  12. Everything about this mini is gorgeous! You can be so proud. I especially love the color of the extra geese. Enjoy! xo Melanie

    www.mellmeyer.de

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  13. Your decision to do a gradient in the background is kind of brilliant. I love a good gradient, but I always use it on the foreground pieces. You've got me thinking, Jayne!

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  14. Congratulations, Jayne. A beautiful small quilt with some lovely quilting. I think the smaller paper piecing projects are harder than larger ones. So I admire your stamina. As always, lovely, lovely, lovely. I love the way you matched the first round of borders.

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  15. There are so many things to love about this one, Jayne! The first thing I noticed was the variety of gray backgrounds - they are so striking with the pops of colorful geese. I love your quilting, too - those circles that surround the geese in the center and then the stitched geese that come out of the center. It looks like you had a lot of fun with this quilt!

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  16. Well! Wow, something so simple and SO STUNNING !

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  17. This finish is amazing Jayne. I live your little rainbow minis. Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

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  18. I always love seeing the projects you come up with Jayne and this is no exception. Those pops of color are just perfection against those grays. The quilting, IMHO, couldn't have been any better - you made the perfect choice for each section. Great job!!

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  19. This is gorgeous, Jayne! Awesome job on the geese and the quilting looks beautiful. Circles are a beast to quilt — if you think you’ll do more of them, you may want to invest in a set of 1/4” thick circle templates. They make it so much easier to quilt perfect circles, either on a longarm or a domestic machine fitted with a ruler foot. You just need to put grippy stuff on the back of the circle template so they don’t slide. But this piece looks beautiful exactly as it is.

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  20. I love all your shades of grey, so beautiful with rainbow geese! Your mini is a beauty!

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  21. Be still my beating heart! What a gorgeous piece! Thank you for walking us through your thought process. I had the urge to do some paper piecing last week, but the block I chose took super long to do, so after just 1/4 of it, I had to table it until I got some other projects finished. I haven’t had a finish in a long time.

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  22. this is a wowser. You have great patience Jayne to achieve this, way too complicated for me.

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