Silver Lining - A Mini Quilt

About 4 weeks ago I was soooo excited about the Modern Mini Challenge at Ellison Lane Quilts, I was inspired by the daily blogs I was reading and I had roughly two tonnes of sketches of all these amazing mini quilts I could make... and then I forgot all about it, until saturday morning. When decided to forget about the scenic art quilts I had sketched (as I didnt have the scraps I needed) and I had instead narrowed it down to 2 blocks that I have been itching to try but when I was glancing through the link up I saw that both my blocks had already been done - and one had been done more than once. Not wanting to copy any one else's efforts I hatched a new plan to create a mug rug with a technique I haven't had the courage to try it; reverse applique.

My finished mug rug is 7" x 15" so I am not sure if it qualifies as a mug rug anymore, my smaller version did not have enough detail and although the technique of reverse quilting was ok, even I could not tell what the picture was supposed to be! Hopefully this one is a little more clear :)

I found a cute silhouette shape of a couple under an umbrella and go to work and at 9.30 tonight it is finally quilted, bound and photographed and soon to be entered into the competition! Woohoo!

Stupidly I have left it too late to get a daylight shot, but luckily the colours aren't far off.

For the quilting, I had hoped to use a raindrop pattern, but I chickened out as I haven't had time to practice with my free motion quilting needle at all and settled on a dense 1/4" straight line quilting for the ground, leaving the rest mostly unquilted which hopefully gives it a billowing cloudy feeling. The quilting is quite clear on the back, I had toyed with using blue to make sure it was visible but I am glad I didn't as the white is clear enough for my liking.

And as a bonus, it is the first itemI have made entirely of scraps, yey for finally having enough of a stash that I can do something with it... even if I can't do a street scene of my little town- yet! Maybe check back in a year or two to see if I manage that one :)

I know it is not a patch on a lot of the minis in the pool, some of which are amazing, but I am pleased to say that I decided early on that I wanted to be a part of the mini fun and for once I made sure I finished in time, now as for the swoon-a-long (I'm blaming my lack of stash and slow fabric ordering for loosing momentum on that one but at least I am fully equipped when I do have the time.)

Now back to the many pieces of curio quilting.

J x

EDIT: link 198, that's a lucky number, right?!