Secret of Kells Moon Mini Quilt

Earlier this year the Blue Moon Quilters (a small group of friends that can occasionally get together) decided to do another mini quilt swap.  The theme this year was to make a moon mini quilt (last year we swapped ombre mini quilts and collaborated to make Four Greater Than One, a QuiltCon Charity Quilt). My random draw partner to make for this year is Sara from Blue Quail Studio, and I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to draw on art inspiration from the movie The Secret of Kells, a movie she had recommended my husband and I watch when we put out a request for movie suggestions earlier this year. I was really eager to get to work on the mini quilt and I finally found a pocket of time to create it earlier in September.

Secret of Kells Moon Mini

I used double batting to create a trapunto “moon” in the center of the quilt, which I quilted to represent the special magnifying lens, the Eye, from the Secret of Kells movie. The Eye is applied using the Crafted Applique method, and the fabric for the Eye and binding are from a fat quarter Michelle of From Bolt to Beauty gifted me earlier this year. I did not know what orientation the mini quilt was going to finish (horizontally or vertically), and after the quilting, I decided to round two corners of the mini quilt to make it hang like a banner or shield.

Secret of Kells Moon Mini

I quilted the Eye using 28wt Aurifil 2600 (Dove). The 9 rings around the outside of the Eye were outlined using 12wt Aurifil 2692 (Black) and the spirals around the outside of the rings were free motion quilted using the same 12wt 2692 (note that I used 50wt 2692 in my bobbin). For the detailed quilting inside the rings I free motion quilted using 50wt 2692.

I found some screen captures of scenes from the Secret of Kells online to help make sure that I quilted the moon to match the detail of the Eye and find other quilting inspiration to match the feel of the movie. The 9 rings round the Eye were quilted with the motifs in the arches in the image above.

Secret of Kells Moon Mini: Quilting Detail

I really love the texture that the quilting gives this mini quilt. My only slight regret was not quilting with thread that had a bit more contrast to the background or perhaps selecting a different background fabric so that the quilting is shown off more easily.

Secret of Kells Moon Mini

At the right angle of light, the quilt has a lot of detail to reveal, though, much like the way the Eye is used to magnify and see more detail in the movie. The mini quilt finished at 17-inches wide by 21-inches tall, and I had to message Sara to measure it for me as I completely forgot about it until after I shipped it to her (oops!).

Moon Minis

The recipient of my mini quilt, Sara, moved to Michigan recently, so unfortunately she wasn’t able to make our swap meeting, but here are the other 3 quilts!  I was gifted the one in the middle, made by Renee from Quilts of a Feather. The one on the right was made by Afton from Quilting Mod for Renee (using silk fabric!).