Crayon Box Modern Mini Quilt

 
I'm really excited to be taking part in Jennifer's Modern Mini blog hop! So much inspiration to be found out there :-)

 

When I heard about it, my mind started ticking over and lots of ideas started to flow. I love making mini quilts, I particularly love them for trying out new techniques. Most of my mini quilts have been for this purpose, and because they are so small and manageable, this is really achievable! If you want to have a look at other mini quilts I've made, pop into my Finished Quilts page, where they have a little section all of their own down the bottom!

I'm (still) in love with fabric rainbows, and Kona coal so at the weekend when I was having a little bit of fun with my sewing machine, I decided to play around with an idea I've had for a little while. I didn't really have a plan for how I was going to make it - as with many of my mini quilts, it just evolved. This was a very straightforward make, and if you want to do something similar, I have outlined the basic steps below. It's primarily improv piecing, so you can structure it how you like!

First, I cut 2" strips of 8 colours of varying lengths. They ranged from 12" to 20". Then I cut the same of Kona Coal. I pieced each coloured strip to a strip of coal.

Next, I cut some wider strips of Coal - between 3-6" wide. First, I pieced the pink strip to a wide Coal strip and pressed my seam. Then I placed the red strip right sides together at a V-shaped angle across the wide coal strip. The top of the strip was at the outer edge of the wide Coal strip, and the bottom of the red strip met the bottom of the pink strip at an angle. I pieced together, using the edge of the red strip as my seam guide. I cut the excess fabric away from the seam and pressed. Next, I turned the excess fabric I had trimmed (which came away as a V shaped strip also) upside down so that I could place against the red to make the next V shaped gap. I continued this way across the colours, varying the angles, varying the length of the coloured strips, till I got to the end. I added some coal around the edges to square it up, then straight lined quilted in approx 1/4" lines radiating out from the corner in the Coal. I love how the quilting makes the coloured strips really pop out!

I bound in Coal as well to keep the focus on the colours. Once I stood back to take a picture, I realised what it reminded me of - a bundle of crayons! Perfect for hanging on my playroom wall :-)

It measures 23" square and I just love it! I hope you do too. Thanks so much to Jennifer for inviting me to take part in this blog hop - I can't wait to visit the rest of the participating blogs. Now, the big question is - should I enter this mini in the contest? Or should I try and work out another idea that is rattling around in my head? I suppose it all depends on how much time I get at it :-)

In case you missed the original post - pop over to Jennifer to find out the rest of the info and links for the blogs participating!


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