I swapped mini quilts with my partner Linda yesterday, so I can finally post what I made for this year’s MQG mini quilt swap!
Linda said she liked improv designs, solids, a cool color palette and geometric prints. She also said that anything inspired by art would be great, and mentioned that she has recently been loving the work of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint. She also specifically said she was tired of rainbow color schemes. (So something like what I made for Elizabeth last year was definitely out — ha!) I loved that she provided so much direction, as it really helped me hone in on what I wanted to make for her.
Hilma af Klint was new to me, but her work is amazing! I was particularly drawn to several different works that played with circles (you can see several here), so I chose to use that as inspiration for this mini. This design isn’t taken directly from af Klint’s work, but was definitely inspired by it.
This design is pieced, and honestly I doubt I would have had the courage to take it on if I hadn’t just finished my Indigo Radial tester, which let me brush up on my curved piecing skills. I had never sewed inset circles before, but this video was helpful to show me the technique and get me going. I drew my layout in Adobe Illustrator, created templates for each of my pieces, and got to work.
The templates were a bit complicated to work with, since the circles were nested within each other and I had to keep track of which cuts needed to be 1/2″ bigger than finished and which needed to be 1/2″ smaller. I had actually started this quilt with a darker shade of yellow, but made a cutting mistake that resulted in a too-small circle. So I replaced it with a lighter yellow that I think actually worked better in the end. If I had labeled my templates better, I think I would have avoided this error — so a good mental note for the future!
I used A LOT of pins each time to make sure the circles stayed aligned as closely as possible. I usually hate pinning and often skip it, but for curves I really do think it’s necessary.
(On a related note, I also recently learned about the 6 minute circle technique, which I would like to try. It involves freezer paper templates, and I would need to put several pieces of freezer paper together to make a piece big enough for the larger circles on this mini. I used regular paper cutting templates for this project instead, but I still had to tape those together. I assume you can just tape freezer paper sheets together too? Will have to try it soon…)
Since the front was all solids, I threw in a geometric print on the back! Talk about a contrast…but I think it worked!
The stats:
- Quilt measures ~17.5″ square.
- Fabrics are Moda Bella solids in Etchings Stone, Night Sky, Baby Yellow, Charcoal, and Violet.
- Backing is a Tula Pink print — Blue Raspberry from her Slow and Steady collection.
- Machine quilted with a walking foot using Aurifil 50 wt (#2600 Dove).
- Binding is Moda Bella solid in Charcoal.
Jan Altomare says
Wow that turned out beautiful. I can’t imagine doing those circles and getting them so perfect.
Sarah says
It was a tricky but fun challenge!
Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl says
Having a partner who gives good likes and dislikes is so very helpful! I really like this and am looking forward to clicking through to learn more about the inspiration artist, too.
Sarah says
Yes, af Klint’s work is really cool and inspiring! I had several quilt ideas after seeing just a fraction of her body of work.
Jennifer Marie O'Meara says
Very nice!
Red Pepper Quilts has a sewing curves without pins tutorial. I tried it and was utterly unsuccessful. I have only made one quilt with curves, and I had to pin the heck out of it to get it to line up. Full circles look pretty intimidating.
Sarah says
I made one quilt early on with drunkards path blocks and don’t have much memory of it, so I guess it went ok?? I don’t think I pinned much either!
I think you can do some curves without pins easier than others. Improv curves, for example, would be fine without pinning. Drunkards path I think can work too if you’ve had practice. Not sure these inset circles would go very well without pins though!