Friday 11 April 2014

Orange peels mini quilt

This mini quilt is quite a long term WIP.  I've instagrammed it quite a bit, but I don't think I've ever blogged about it before.  I had a print t-shirt from Karen Walker which I really loved, but which really never fitted me well, and I've been planning to use it in a quilt somehow for a while.  The need to make something for my blanket stitch appliqué class at Nancy's Embroidery gave me the perfect opportunity.

Blue orange rings 

This was quite a good way to use a cotton knit fabric in a quilt.  The fusible webbing stabilised the t-shirt fabric quite well, and the fact that it's not part of piecing meant that the stretch didn't really matter.  I don't know that I'd recommend using something highly stretchy for this technique, but this 100% cotton not very stretchy fabric was totally fine.

Overall, I'm happy with this mini, although it is really far from perfect.  When I made my AHM All Day Mini Quilt, I stitched the orange peels in a more traditional fashion, with the points in the centre and the corners.  If you press two diagonal lines across your fabric, you can line the petals up really neatly, so that when you stitch the different squares together, all the points meet nicely.  For this version, I stitched the petals in ring shapes, and I tried to get the positioning right by pressing my background squares into quarters.  However, things didn't line up as nicely and not all my points meet where they should - oops!  That's what happens when you experiment sometimes, and I'm happy to show my students what not to do!

Blue orange rings

I was thinking about quilting this to make the petals really pop out, but I ran out of time (and patience) in the end and simply quilted in the ditch.  I had some difficulty picking a binding for this mini, but in the end went for a white linen fabric with a subtle silver print which matched the white thread I used for the appliqué nicely.

Have you tried experimenting with your quilting lately?  How did it work out for you?

Quilt Stats
Finished Size: approx 16" by 16"
Fabric: Essex Linen in Natural, Karen Walker t-shirt
Binding: unknown white linen with silver print
Pieced and quilted by: me

Linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts and Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts.

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7 comments:

Figgy said...

That is so pretty!

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

I think it looks really effective; it's going to be a great class xxx

Lou said...

Love that it looks so cute! And your blanket stitch is so neat and even.

DeborahGun said...

Blue is my favourite so this is a winner for me!

jeifner said...

That blue print looks so good with the neautral. I think it's ok sometimes for people to see how things are hand crafted and may not be utterly perfect.

Nat at Made in Home said...

Great use of a an old tshirt!

Serena @ Sewgiving said...

I didn't realise you were using an old shirt to make this mini. What a lovely idea :)