"The Yearning" - A Modern Mini Quilt

I just finished my Modern Mini Quilt for the #ModernMiniQuiltChallenge at 11:30pm last night, and got some photos of it this morning. WHEW! Talk about cutting things close since the deadline is today at 5pm Central Time!

The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show

My entry is called, "The Yearning"

It features an image of my son, surrounded by dark, modern fabrics with a pop of golden sunshine seeping through. The dark colors represent depression and sadness in missing my son throughout the stay at home orders of Covid19. As well as the loss of one of my beloved cats, Jasper, who passed away one week ago today, after being a part of my family for 14 years. The improv-piecing represents the chaos and upheaval in life these days. The zipper pull represents the unzipping of the dark and dreary, to let the sun finally shine in and bring forth happiness and contentment to my soul. So in short, The Yearning stands for my desire to have things go back to normal... to be released from the depression and anxiety... to once again be happy.

I mainly improv-pieced this mini quilt, which measures 12.5 inches wide x 13.5 inches high, using a mixture of scrap fabrics leftover from previous projects. Some of the fabrics used are from Northcott's Stonehenge collection. The sun and burst of golden pieces that are appliqued on top of my quilt, are fussy cut from two of my own personal surface designs on Spoonflower, called "Blazing Sun" and "Hypnotic Sunflowers, Large Scale". 

I machine quilted this, which is not my forte! I usually pay someone else to machine quilt my projects... so I am quite proud of myself for being able to pull this off!

Watching The Voice on Hulu while sewing.

Scrap-Happy Meets Wild & Crazy!

Earlier this year I decided I wanted to do something with all the scraps of leftover fabric I've got in my stash from previous sewing projects.  And right around the time this idea popped in my head, Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side was hosting an Improv with Amy sew-along/tutorial event on social media, so I decided to challenge myself and join in...  And here it is!

 This was the start of my #improvpieced quilt top, featuring many un-matching fabrics that kinda make it look like a Wild and Crazy quilt!  🤪 

Besides all the scrap fabric pieces I was using in this project, I also used a number of my own #spoonflowerfabric designs. For example, the purple petunia is one of my own personal fabric designs, along with a number of others. 😊

 Let the piecing begin...

 

 Below shows a closeup of a number of my Spoonflower designs

incorporated into the piecing along with the scraps.

 And the quilt top is completed...

 Just another closeup...

 Curved piecing below = great practice and I love how it turned out!

AND FINALLY...

My Improv with Amy quilt is completely finished!

I designed my quilt label using Bazaart and PicMonkey,

then ordered it through Spoonflower.

 

The best part about this quilt?

Well, that would have to be that Amy Ellis quilted it for me! 🥰.

I love her Broken Glass Quilt Design on this quilt...

it works perfectly with the busy fabrics!
 

While geocaching at an old cemetery after work,

I decided to take some of these photos.

I just love the history and reading the headstones,

especially when they’re from the Civil War era.

 

 

Canyon Twilight BOM

I'm one of those people who love to participate in Block of the Month and Mystery Quilt programs quite frequently.  But my biggest problem however, is that I tend to get involved in too many at a time, then fall behind in all of them, most of the time resulting in never get a single one completed.

However, the Canyon Twilight BOM, which was  previously offered online through Stitchin' Heaven, Texas' Premier Quilt Shop, is a paper-pieced quilt that I have a strong desire to see finished!  I have long-awaited the chance at making a paper-pieced quilt, but never had the confidence to try one until this year.

We are on our 3rd block/month (September) in the program at this time, so I'm not behind yet!  HAHA!

Here are my first two completed blocks so far...

 

                    Block 1                                                         Block 2                                    

Can't wait to start my third block!