Mini's Own Quilt - Butterflies and Rainbows

 Back in the spring when I took the girls to Iowa, in the same store that I bought the cute farm animals, Mina also talked me into some beautiful rainbow butterflies.  I agreed to buy the fabric, if she would help make the quilt.  I thought it would be a good summer project.

I don't have any pictures, because I was helping, but Mini did the pedal work and I did the steering for piecing this quilt.
I also did the quilting.  Once it was basted, the quilting went very fast.

 Just one night of football and some rainbow thread.

 The back is a flannel from Joann that matched perfectly.  I pre-wash my flannels in high heat and dry them.  They shrink a lot! I quilted in big meander for a softer quilt.
It measures about 60" x 68"

 The quilt is Rory approved!

Four-In-Art: That's a Wrap

 It was an amazing run.  5 years of creating Mini Art Quilts.  Each quarter or so a different theme.  Elizabeth at Occasional Piece Quilt got us started those years ago.  I was just happy to play along.  We had some change overs of various members, but all have had fabulous contributions along the way.

This post is to recap those years and quilts.  I do not love them all. (what do I do with them!!??)  Some I had actually forgotten about until I was gathering pictures for this post.  

The first year: Nature: 2012-2013

Queen Anne's Lace

 Trees: If Napolean Was a Tree

Fire: Sun Fire

Owl

Year 2:Urban:  2013-2014 This year we did Five, to make our year match the calendar

Maps: In Your Neighborhood

Urban Structures: Wisconsin Gas Building

Urban Landmarks: Central Park

Contrasts

Urban Lights: Milwaukee Lights

Year 3: 2015 The Overall theme this year was Literature, and we all did our own things.  I ended up doing children's stories.

Red

Cinderella

Princess & The Pea

The Brave Little Tailor

Year 4: 2016 Color 
This year we decided that the quilts didn't have to be 12" x 12"

Microscopic

Music: Violin Study

Purple Passion

I've Got The Blues: Efficiency (The Fish in the Sea)

Year 5: 2017 Light

Shimmer

Light in the Darkness: Triquetra

Stained Glass "Shadows"

Illumination

It was really great to be a part of this group.

It is really great to be moving on to other things.

2018 is going to be a sabbatical year of sorts for me.  I've finished up pretty much all of my committee obligations for various activities.  I am only going to participate in one quilting thing next year. (Gridsters, yay!).  With the 5 kids being very involved in many activities and none old enough to drive yet, I am main taxi driver.  I also have things "around the house" I want to get done.  (I shampooed carpets last week.  That makes me happier than you will ever know)

And selfish sewing.  Things that I WANT to do, not the things I feel like I HAVE to do. 

Thanks for reading this blog of mine.  I'm hoping to be a little more regular with it.  I also really need to do some maintenance on it!

Leftover Lighthouses

If you remember a couple of weeks ago I shared a Lighthouse Wall hanging that I had made based on our Quilt Guild's logo.  I had some extra pieces from that experiment as I had tried to get the size of the lighthouse right, and then also the "negative" of the Lighthouse.  I turned them all into mini quilts.

The back of each one is the same.  I added the little hanging triangles on the back -  you insert a dowel across and then a loop to hang on a nail.

These will all be going for sale in our quilt show "boutique" this fall.