The April Aurifil Artisan prompt or challenge is to share about our favorite thread weight, and the Trussed mini quilt is a great example of my most used thread weight, 50wt, coupled with the fact that I love using other thread weights to accentuate details. When I last shared about the MDL Mini Quilt Challenge, I went through my process with improv piecing and was ready to begin quilting the mini quilt.
Machine Quilting
I started by using color matched 50wt thread to stitch in the ditch around all the pieced elements, which shows up best on the back of the piece. I also quilted in the cross bracing from the water tower at this stage. I used 1114 (Grass Green), 2024 (White), 2600 (Dove), 5004 (Grey Smoke) and 2692 (Black).
Preparing for Hand Quilting
Because this mini quilt needs to finish at exactly 15″ square, I started with an oversized piece. After the machine piecing, I taped off an area that was 15″ square to prepare for hand quilting more detail. I did not want to have to cut through any of the hand quilted areas, so I carefully considered where the boundaries of the 15″ square would fall and where I would hand quilt within the square.
Preparing for Hand Quilting
I wanted the hand quilting to give more definition and texture to the finished piece, so I found coordinated Aurifil thread in 28wt for the lighter three bands of color [2021 (Natural White), 2600 (Dove), and 2605 (Grey)] and 12wt in 2692 (Black).
Hand Quilting
I continued the theme of the quilted cross bracing by adding large cross-stitch like hand quilting or embroidery detail between the pieced trussed towers. This was work that was easy to pick up and make a little bit of progress on and set back down over the past month. I don’t know about you, but I needed to have a smaller project to pick up and feel like I was making good progress on without feeling overwhelmed, and finishing one section at a time was just the right amount of focus and attention for me.
Blocking
After I finished the quilting, I removed the tape boundary, soaked the quilt in the sink, and blocked it flat and square in a rare day of sunshine. As I am preparing this post, it is raining again and we have snow in the forecast for tomorrow night; spring comes late to my mountain pass town.
Trussed
After blocking, trimming the finish to 15″ square worked out beautifully. Ideally, I would have finished this mini with a facing, but the challenge requires a traditional binding and hanging triangles tucked into corners of the quilt backing (which I forgot and had to go back and insert, oops!). So I decided to tackle a super matched binding to continue the design around the edges of the small finish and make the piece feel larger than its small size. Overall, I’m pleased with my work, but the 3-dimensional nature of a binding and seam joins (which I did my best to minimize) makes the alignment of the tiny green strips not quite as perfect as I’d love to see.
Woodside Mill by Mark Mulfinger
As a reminder, the inspiration photo is above.
Trussed
Overall, I am really pleased with this mini quilt finish. What have you been working on?
Linking up with Sarah Goer Quilts Show Me Something Improv, Michelle (From Bolt to Beauty)’s Beauties Pageant 77, and Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs‘ Favorite Finish for April 2020.
I love those hand quilted x’s in the 28wt!! A fave of mine too 😉 Love how this little mini turned out, Yvonne!
Love the quilt! The attention to detail is unbelievable and the binding color matched binding is superb ! I know that a facing would have been more to your taste, but the binding is a great finish. Well done Yvonne!
What a great quilt! The hand quilting really supports the design. Great job!
Fun to see the finish of this little mini, Yvonne. I’ve not tried matching binding with part of a quilt body, but you did a great job. I need to try working with 28wt a bit more. I’m working on several projects, one of which is finally binding my oldest UFO; I think it’s old enough to qualify as vintage. Eek.
I was fond of your design when I first saw it, and now I love your finished piece so much. Your coordinated threads and those Xs(!!) just really speak to me. Not to mention your matched binding. Really really lovely execution of your challenge!
Love it!
Your handwork is the perfect finish for this mini. I love the 12 wt Aurifil for big stitch quilting, but will have to get some 28 wt now!
Well done. The hand quilting really adds something to this piece.
I love this. I really enjoy how you try new techniques in each piece that are so right for the overall design, like the large cross stitches.
I love this and the hand stitching is a nice addition and really enhances the structure in the most perfect of ways! The green is also just perfect. I think the binding works very well and looks just right from here, but I can see your desire to face it. Its funny how we “forget” those little pieces sometimes when we are working to finish.
Well gosh I did not even realize you’d carried the green into the binding until you said about the ‘imperfection’ and so I looked closer…um, it’s more than fine?!! I love the hand quilting you added and the overall piece. Period. Lovely to travel with you through the process. 🙂
I love this! I like the colours but also the inspiration and how you still have that slightly industrial feel in the final piece. Oh, and the hand stitching is a really nice addition.
Your mini quilt is very gorgeous. So many beautiful and inspiring details in it. And impressive binidng skills! Enjoy your finish 🙂 And I hope the spring comes to you soon too. Stay well xo Melanie
This is stunning Yvonne. The hand quilting and matched binding just take it to an entirely other level.
as someone who has never played about much with different thread weights, this was interesting. I like your interpretation of the photo too.
Nice job, the hand stitching really adds to the overall piece.
Amazing and I love those cross-stitched areas~
That picture was tough to work with, but you made something amazing!
Well, I just agree with everything everyone else said! Love your color choices and I think your quilting just made it perfect.