Wednesday 8 October 2014

Night Sky Mini Quilt

A few months ago, I signed up to participate in an Australian handmade birthday swap, where we make a small gift each month for the birthday girl. It is a wonderful idea - I can't think of a better birthday present than getting eleven packages of handmade goodness. Plus it is a lot of fun working on small projects, something I don't tend to do unless it is for a swap or a quick gift.

For our September birthday girl, I decided to make a mini quilt, using Jaybird Quilt's fabulous Night Sky pattern. These blocks come together really quickly, and it is such a cool block I will definitely be making a whole quilt of these on day. I used a couple of prints from Anna Maria Horner's Pretty Potent collection for the inner star, and some Cotton and Steel basics for the outer points. The background is a couple of white on white prints.


When it came to quilting this one, I actually had a few hiccups. My original quilting plan (and the one I started off trying) just didn't work. At. All. I very rarely rip out FMQ, but in this case it was obvious from fairly early on that it was going to look awful so I unpicked it and started over. I'd basically extended the edges of the star points out into the negative space - and it looked terrible. I'm much happier with the medallion-style quilting I went with - it suits this block so much better. 


 I did mark the main straight lines echoing the central hexagon shape, and marked the centre point of the second 'border'. That was my second hiccup - I'd been using my frixion marker to mark the lines and put it down to do something else. When I went back to finish the marking, I accidentally picked up a normal black pen and drew a line before I'd realised. After a minor tantrum, I decided to see if I could quilt over it to hide it (as it was only a very fine line) - and it worked pretty well. That's why there is a straight line through the pebbles at the top left of the top photo ;o). The centre feathery quilting was inspired by how Angela Walters quilted Julie's original Night Sky quilt, but then I just made it up as I went along.


I used two layers of cotton/wool batting for this one, which is why it's so puffy. The quilting is Aurifil 40wt in soft white, which melts into the background beautifully, and just leaves all the texture. I have to admit it was a little sad saying goodbye to this one, but I'm glad it's going to a good (handmade loving) home :o)

xx Jess





31 comments:

Hayley said...

Lovely!!! I had to laugh at your pen story. That is totally something I would do

Charlotte said...

I actually let out an audible gasp about the pen accident! You can't do this to me at this time in the morning!

Serena @ Sewgiving said...

I love the effect of the two layers of wadding ... it must have an amazing texture to it ... lucky birthday girl!

Michele said...

It looks great and I'm glad that you found away to deal with your little oops! I'm betting that now you are finding a way to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Anonymous said...

Can you talk about Frixion pens? Are they completely erasable? Thanks

Anonymous said...

Can you talk about how you use Frixion pens? Are they completely erasable?

Thanks

DeborahGun said...

what an amazing birthday present :-) It is stunning!

Leanne said...

This is beautiful!

Lynette said...

It's so nice!! :D I really love your quilting on it. Whatever the ripped-out "stuff" looked like, this is gorgeously successful.

Renee said...

What a lovely mini! The quilting really brings it together!

sherry said...

what a stunner of a quilt

Ella said...

Ack. The pen accident would have required a whole carton of ice cream and kleenex for me to work through. It's lovely!

Catherine said...

What an amazing mini, your quilting is gorgeous

Farm Quilter said...

LOVE the quilting on this!!! You were right to pick out the first quilting...this is over-the-top PERFECT! I would have had difficulty letting this one go too!!!

craftykat said...

I was so excited to receive this today Jess - it is so beautiful and the quilting is divine! Thank you so much! Xx Kathy

Beverly Holl said...

Wooowwww! Such an amazing quilting. Lovely!

KaHolly said...

Ab-so-lutely stunning!! I'd have thrown a tantrum if I'd had that pen misadventure!! What a lucky birthday girl. My birthday is......:)

Anonymous said...

Echo Charlotte's comment!!! The pen 'thing' is something I would probably do, also. Everything about that piece is so pretty and the "negative space" stitching is the perfect finishing for it!!! I can understand how hard it was to send it off!!!!!

moira said...

well done for not throwing all your dolls out the pram. You ended up with a beautiful quilt

Gunilla said...

Beautiful quilt and outstanding quilting!

Catherine said...

It is really beautiful - your quilting is amazing. As for your slip, I wouldn't have noticed, and it's a tiny thing that shows it was made by a real human being:-)

Katy Cameron said...

It's beautiful, I wanna be in your club!

dq said...

The machine quilting is wonderful!

Newbie Jen said...

This is gorgeous! I certainly would be excited to receive it for my birthday.

Anonymous said...

Great quilting. I didn't notice the line through the pebbles until you pointed it out. I love the colours of the star, too.

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