A few mini art quilts to make

Welcome to my first post of 2019!

One Monthly Goal (OMG) for January

I'm not sure what happened at the last Out of the Box Fibre Artists Group meeting in November...I know I wasn't drunk because I was driving (lol)...but somehow I got over-excited and ambitious and put my name down for another two mini art quilts. That's above the other two that I signed up for in September - that makes four! They may be mini, but that doesn't mean that they're easy or quick to make.

So that's what I need to do by January 21st! They will be done (that's an affirmation that I will repeat many times between now and then... in between actually making them) 😊

Making Mini Art Quilts

The rules:

• They need to be 5" x 7", 6" x 6", 6" x 8" or 6" x 12".
• They must be seen overall as a specific colour (see colour swatches below).
• There must be fiber involved.
• They must be handed in January 21, 2019.

The rules are pretty open (except for size and colour) and frankly, that's not making things any easier!

Light yellow and bright green

Soft blue and bright red

Two of the canvases to cover!

I bought 2 canvases, before I signed up for 2 more, so I have one that's 5" x 7" and the other 6" x 6".

We don't have to use canvases but I've wanted to try attaching art quilts to canvases for a while. I'm hoping to try different techniques with them.






This is my first mini, in light yellow. Since I had just finished the Symphony in Stem Stitch, I still had embroidery and free motion quilting (FMQ) on my mind.

Light Yellow mini so far

I pieced a number of fabrics that seemed to match the embroidery floss and paint swatch. I also used the designated embroidery floss as well as colours that were close. I added the butterfly in some contrasting colours to add a focal point and some interest. I used the embroidery and FMQ to give it some mouvement.

The back of the yellow piece

Once the fabric seemed to be large enough and I had finished the embroidery, I cut a piece of batting and did some FMQ. It's at this point that I decided to have the fabric and FMQ extend over the sides. Since the background fabric wasn't quite large enough to cover the sides, I just added a few pieces. That's one of  the advantages of improv piecing. 😊

Ready to attach?

I haven't decided yet if I'll add some beading to this piece. I thought that I would start the next mini and see where that leads me.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with the next three minis, but I'm really hoping to let the fabric and colour inspire me. Wish me luck!

What I learned

• Using canvases is a great learning experience and will ensure that my mini art quilts are the correct size...and that's a very good thing. 😊
• Working with specific colours is NOT easy for me. I have a really hard time figuring out if the colours match the paint swatches. It does help that they gave us the matching DMC embroidery floss number. With the floss, I can place it over the fabric and see if it matches.
• It's going to be difficult ensuring that these pieces are not too boring, which is a definite possibility if I need the piece to read as a specific colour. Adding some contrast is necessary but how much can you play with the colours before it starts "not reading" as the colour?
• I'm hoping to expand my fabric and colour choice for each piece, to see how much I can push the "reading as a specific colour" rule. Hopefully it will get easier by the fourth one!
• The batting for this first piece was cut just a little larger than the front of the canvas (5" x 7"). It did shrink with the FMQ, and would have been fine being larger and hanging over the sides. I'll work on that on the next pieces.

Related links

• Out of the Box Fiber Artists group
• Symphony in Stem Stitch, November 18, 2018

Linking parties

I'll be linking this post to Elm Street Quilts' One Monthly Goal (OMG) link-up as well as other fun linking parties. Join the party and see what others are doing! Off the Wall Friday, TGIFF, Friday Foto Fun, Main Crush Monday, Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Moving it Forward, What I Made Monday, Slow Sunday Stitching, Free Motion Mavericks,