Welcome to my Minis!
I am so excited to share these.
Yes, there are 2 (so far??) AND it's with 13 days to spare!!
Normally I'm a "wait until the last minute" but this month I got started a little early.
First up is the Diamond.
Pattern is the Round stone from Gemology by Andrea Tsang Jackson.
I've made a similar quilt before, for my aunt and uncle. Diamond is the traditional gift for 60th Wedding Anniversary.
This one is for Karen and Paul, my wonderful neighbors and friends. And psudo parents growing up. They moved into the neighborhood when I was 6, and their daughter became my best friend, and we just celebrated a big birthday together. Still friends. She was 4, and we did so much together, but Karen treated me like a member of the family. She inspired me to read more, brought me to get my first library card, inspired crafting, took me to the beach and pool with them, and taught me to bake. They were great friends with my parents, too, and really helped when I needed a little support with my mom's Alzheimer's journey. I've helped them when I could, now that my parents are gone. So, I wanted to do something to celebrate them, but technically it's a year late, they're married 61 years now.
I used Aurifil 50wt in white to piece it, and a variety of Island Batik basics, including Frosting (the flower print border because they have a wonderful garden). Gray, Dark Gray and White solids and another Neutral were used to help it look 3-D. The book has a number of shapes of stones, and a variety of colors, and lists certain shades for each gem. This one called for 5 shades. The foundation piecing patterns are also available to resize as you need. This one finished at about 18" square, perfect for a wall hanging. I added their name and date in the border with my Janome 550 Embroidery machine, and used Aurifil 40wt thread in a darker grey. Backing is White, with Gray binding, and I used the Double Hearts Border panto that came with my Handi-Quilter Amara and Pro-Stitcher, again with Aurifil 40-3 thread in white.
(I hid their last name)
This was the teaser I posted on Instagram and many were wondering what it would become.
A Diamond!! I think it came out so pretty, and I gave it to Karen tonight. She was so excited and said it was awesome. She does check out my projects each month, and I'm thrilled to give her something that I made. I hope they celebrate many more years together.
The second Mini finished this month celebrates one of my favorite things!
Ice Cream.
One of the guild members did a Zoom sew along using this pattern, called Dancing Ice Cream Cones.
We're doing a few Door Decor type projects this year, and this was her suggestion for summer. The cones are foundation paper pieced and then you can adapt the ice cream to suit your favorite, with applique. I searched Google for coloring book ice cream and saw the Custard style, and wanted to use it. One of my favorite treats is chocolate soft serve with chocolate sprinkles. I picked Vanilla for the alternates. Others who worked on their blocks used fun prints that show a variety of flavors, and scoop size and number. For the applique, I backed each Custard with fusible web, and marked the placement with a wash out blue marker. Then I used Aurifil 50wt in brown and white to satin stitch the edges and give a little detail to the layers of a soft serve. I may add some embroidery in multi-color thread to the white, to mimic sprinkles. This was backed with white, as I quilted both of these at the same time. I used cream Aurifil 40-3 on this, and a scrap of Hobb's 80-20 batting, and the panto is Candy, which also came with my Pro-stitcher. I was looking for an ice cream theme, but the ones on Pro-Stitcher were block style, with cones, sundaes and shakes, but they wouldn't join without adapting. It seemed like this was a good option without spending more to purchase a panto, since the project was a mini. This one finishes at 21.5" square. I used some of the gold Local Motion from my signature line for the border. The browns and tan background are all Basics from Island Batik. Of course, I used a Schmetz needle in both the Janome 550 and 9450, and the Oliso Pro iron did a great job of pressing everything.
I wanted to add a phrase to this, so embroidered (brown 40 wt Aurifil) Life is Sweet if you Eat Ice Cream Daily. It was a challenge to come up with something fun, but I liked this one.
The backing shows some of the candy, but there is something that looks like an ice cream pop.
If I have time, after working on a few customer projects, I may do 2 more minis. I have requests for a Christmas theme and a Autumn theme.
Please check out the other Island Batik Ambassadors who are sharing Marvelous Minis this month. I hope you're inspired by them.
AND Please stop by my Instagram post with the information about my Missouri Star template give away! As an Affiliate, I was offered these to share with someone who comments on my post and also follows Missouri Star.
Here's the link for my page, just check for this photo. Comments here will not count, you must comment on that photo to get a chance to win. Thanks! Oh, if you want to comment on my minis, that's welcome here, lol
2024 Island Batik Ambassadors
Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs
Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting
Megan Best ~ BestQuilter
Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts
Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts Studio
Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany
Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts
Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts
Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting
Kim Jamieson-Hirst ~ Chatterbox Quilts
Victoria Johnson ~ Forever Quilting for You
Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs
Connie Kresin Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River
Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood
Denise Looney ~ A Quiltery
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine
Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion
Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique
Lana Russel ~ Lana Quilts
Julia Schweri ~ Inflorescence Designs
Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
Carol Stanek ~ Stitch with Color
Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels
Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations
Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt
2 comments:
Yay, and with 13 days to spare 😉. I like the added embroidery embellishment.
Have you recovered from the shock of being early? As always you do beautiful work. Can't wait to see the others.
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