Friday, February 23, 2018

Choose Happy Mini Quilt


"Choose Happy" is the name of this mini quilt. I originally intended this as a "bullet journal" quilt. I journaled a lot as a young mother, and I inherited my mother many yearly journals (that I love reading!), so although journaling is the new, trendy thing to do, it is not new to me. This year I purchased a few notebooks and The Quilters Planner for 2018 and have begun documenting my days - the weather, gardening, baking, quilting, and everyday things too. I had intended to design a quilt that looks like a bullet journal, representing the page of a journal with lines and bullets, but after this main part was completed I struggled with a design to go around it, so it became a mini quilt that will hang in my sewing room to inspire me.



The three appliques represent my main "bullets" - Heart and Home (family and baking!), Garden, and Quilts. I had fun fussy-cutting these from Moda's selvedge fabric "Celebrating 40 Years".



The back is a Bird Dot, a grunge-ish fabric by Carrie Bloomston and one of my all-time favorite fabrics.



I had a charm pack of Garden Project and also ordered some yardage of it. I love the colors and farm-y vibe to it!



This piece was sewn and quilted on my new previously owned Janome Horizon Memory Craft 7700QCP. I found the machine on Facebook Marketplace. It was sold by a gal that worked in a quilt shop that sells Bernina, so she "upgraded" to a new Bernina and wanted her Janome to find a good home! I got it for a really great price, and it included all the attachments; plus a $600 table came with it! It is a definite step up from my Janome DC3050 purchased in 2010, but I will keep that one around to take to classes.



In addition to machine quilting part of the quilt, I actually got brave enough to try some free motion quilting on it. Although I still need a lot of FMQ practice, I was very impressed with how much easier it is on my new machine.

Here are the details:

Choose Happy Mini Quilt
Finished size: 28 inches x 28 inches

Fabrics
Grunge by Moda - Pool, Moutarde, and unknown red
Garden Project by Moda - charm pack and yardage
French Farmhouse by Andover - background
Celebrating 40 Years selvedge fabric by Moda
Binding - Hobby Lobby Nature Bounty in Terra

Backing
Windham's Bird Dot by Carrie Bloomston

Thread
Superior Threads #50 - Genoa Gray, Indian Paintbrush
Superior Threads Trilobal Polyester - Pacific Blue
Aurifil 80 wt - Pale Yellow

Quilting
Machine and free motion

12 comments:

  1. What an interesting many quilts! I applied your attempt to make a quilt based upon bullet journaling. Personally, I have tried to bullet journal, and it just doesn’t work for me. Like you, keeping a journal is nothing new to me, I have been doing it for decades. I’d like the idea of a bullet journal, but I tend to have my own style, and have to stick with what works for me. Essentially, my journal has two parts, pros, and another section that looks like

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    1. It doesn't work for me either Pattie - it looks like way too much work to me! I tried it for a total of 30 minutes - lol! I just went back to my "old school" style, and it suits me just fine.

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  2. OK. I hit publish before I intended to on my previous comment. The last part of my comment was supposed to say mind mapping. And honestly, I’m not sure what the first part of my comment said, because I was dictating, and didn’t bother to proofread before I hit publish, when I really wanted to hit keyboard. Oh well, what can I say? It’s Friday afternoon. At any rate, not only do I like your quilt, but I like the idea behind the quilt. We need to discuss bullet journaling at some point.

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    1. Lol! I very much relate to that. I cringe at some of the things I text before I read them.
      Thank you for the compliments on the quilt. :)

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  3. What a fun quilt. I've not seen that farm fabric before. It's really cute. Congratulations on your new to you machine.

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    1. Thank you so much for visiting and your kind comments BillieBee!

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  4. Enjoy your Janome - I have 2 of that model. One is my absolute delight and lives in my home studio, the other had been previously owned and is in the workshop where I teach. All my students absolutely love it. Have fun ...

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    1. Thanks for the affirmation that I did a good thing Adaliza! It has taken me awhile to learn the basics, and I have SO much to learn on it.

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  5. I love that you called this quilt "Choose Happy!" I think that is the perfect way to be in life. Your design and quilting are wonderful!

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  6. Love your little quilt Linda.... what a great idea to have it hanging in your sewing room for inspiration! Have fun with your new sewing machine.... it looks great! Christine xx

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    1. Ah Christine, thank you! Now I'm off to catch up on your blog. :)

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