Introducing...The Nameless Mini

Before I say anything else, let me first say that I hate naming quilts. I'm terrible at it and I don't enjoy it. I've been calling this one my Tula Spool mini quilt which simply describes what it is, and I figure, if I'm entering it in the Blogger's Quilt Festival (in the Mini Quilt category), it needs a proper name. But I'm drawing a total blank! So if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments.

Also, if this is your first visit to Modern Balabusta, welcome! Thanks for stopping by! My name is Lisa and I live in Toronto with my husband and two children. This here blog is where I share my crafty endeavours. I primarily quilt, though I'm dipping my toe in the garment sewing water and have been known to knit and crochet too. Check out balaWHAT? to learn about the blog's name and the Finished Quilts section to see more of my work.

I wanted to make something with the Tula Pink Acacia FQs the minute I bought them. I knew the raccoon print needed to be fussy cut, so I flipped through my huge stack of TP ten inch charms which I collected during several Flickr swaps. The timing of the Acacia purchase coincided with having fancied up my sewing space (new machine, new desk, new shelves, new design wall!), so a spool quilt seemed appropriate. I roughly followed the pattern in Liberty Love, except I made the spools 5 inch squares to accommodate the size of the items I wanted to fussy cut and didn't chose my own widths for my borders.

In addition to Tula Pink prints, I used Alison Glass's text print for the background and the binding is Robert Kaufman's Raspberry chambray (loooove chambray!).

This quilt provided me with a much needed opportunity to practise free motion quilting. I started by straight line quilting around all of the spools and borders. Then I mimicked the lines that thread makes the spools themselves, using thread colours that matched the fabrics as closely as possible. All threads are Mettler.

For the top and bottom of each spool, I did straight lines again, and finally, I pebble quilted the outer border.

I am so thrilled with this mini quilt! It came out exactly as I'd envisioned it and I love having found just the right print for each spool.

Quilt Stats
Size: 17.5 x 17.5 inches
Category: Mini Quilt
Date Completed: Today! October 30, 2013
Machine pieced and quilted by me on my Janome Horizon

If you are so inclined, you can vote for me here!
Past entries: Spring 2013 (baby quilt), Fall 2012 (mini quilt), Spring 2012