March 23, 2020

I'm Quilting Today Mini Quilt and Tutorial

Welcome to my stop on the Making Us Laugh blog hop, hosted by Joan of MooseStashQuilting 😊 Joan first proposed this hop ages ago, but the timing couldn't possibly be better as I know we need all the laughs we can find these days.

I knew right away when I signed up that I wanted to make a sewing related mini quilt for this hop, so I headed to Pinterest to see what I could find for memes. There are so many! The more I looked, the more I realized that my mini was going to need to include words. I didn't want to piece letters, but I didn't want to applique them, either, or do reverse applique. I briefly considered doing something different altogether, but then I remembered the crayon quilts I've seen. I had never tried the technique before, but it certainly sounded simple enough.

I had my technique and a theme, but I still couldn't decide what the mini would say, until Laura posted a picture of a tshirt in her Sewing and Quilting Deals fb group (Are you a member? You should be! She shares lots of great deals in the group). The phrase on the shirt was exactly what I was looking for!
I'm quilting today mini quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
How often have I wished I could say that to get out of things! Meeting? I can't...I'm quilting today. Housecleaning? I can't...I'm quilting today. 😄 It's the perfect excuse for getting out of anything we don't want to do!

The crayon technique is super simple and would make a great project to do with kids. If you have kids, you probably have crayons and if you're a quilter you definitely have bits of fabric lying around that they could colour and turn into mini quilts. This would also work on any light coloured tshirts you have, too. Just don't go to the store and buy anything right now...these don't count as essential purchases. #flattenthecurve

I started by printing out my phrase. I've seen crayon quilts done with plenty of pictures, too, so this isn't only for words. If you are good at hand lettering, you could certainly do that instead, but my writing isn't much to look at, so the computer font is prettier. I chose a font called Harrington, which is the same one I use for the titles on my quilt patterns, and I think I set the size to be 100. It was most of a sheet of paper, anyway. Then I used my fancy-pants lightbox to transfer the outline to my Northcott solid white fabric. Yes, we still have a lot of snow.
crayon quilt tutorial | DevotedQuilter.com
I chose to trace my letters using a regular pencil because I wanted to have that dark outline around my letters. If you don't want to see the traced lines, you might want to use an erasable pen of some sort. Just be aware that you will also need to iron this, so that might be a factor in what you use.
crayon quilt tutorial | DevotedQuilter.com
Once the letters are traced, it's time to pick colours! I picked through our crayons, looking specifically for Crayola ones. I find when I'm colouring on paper other brands (especially cheap ones) can leave waxy globs on the paper and I really didn't want that on my quilt. One random brand crayon snuck in, though, so I guess I wasn't paying as close attention as I thought I was.
crayon quilt tutorial | DevotedQuilter.com
Then colour! No fancy skills needed here...just fill in the space. Because my crayons are mostly old and used, I sometimes needed to scribble on scrap paper to try to get a bit of a point on the crayon to make it easier to colour in my skinny spaces.
crayon quilt tutorial | DevotedQuilter.com
When it's all coloured, lay the fabric on top of a paper towel and put another paper towel on top, then iron with a hot iron and no steam. The heat will melt the wax and the paper towel will absorb it. Keep going until no wax is left on the fabric.
crayon quilt tutorial | DevotedQuilter.com
I found I couldn't really see the wax on the paper towel, except for the first press when a small amount of colour transferred to the paper towel, so I ran my fingers over the letters after I had pressed it a few times. When I couldn't see or feel any more wax, I pressed another time just to be certain I got it all and then figured it was good.
crayon quilt tutorial | DevotedQuilter.com
Since this is a mini, it was the perfect way to use up another bit of my abundant Warm and Natural batting scraps, plus another piece of Northcott white for the backing. And then it was time to quilt! Again, since this is a mini, and because I started the quilting the same day school was shut down indefinitely and I needed a bit of stress relief, I went all in with the tiny quilting. I started by outlining each letter and doing teeny-tiny stippling all around them in Aurifil 2024.
I'm quilting today mini quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
I purposely stippled an irregular shape around the words. I didn't want it to look rectangular, though I did try to keep it looking sort of even. After the stippling, I switched to mint green (Aurifil 2835) and made a round of tiny pebbles. After the green, I used blue (4140) and then purple (4225) to finish it off. I had thought I might do the first round of pebbles and then change to swirls or something different, but I really liked the look of just pebbles. Plus, it's a mini, so even with tiny pebbles it didn't take long. I love that it reminds me of cobblestones.
free motion quilting pebbles | DevotedQuilter.com
Did I mention the pebbles are tiny? Here's a picture with a bobbin for scale.
free motion quilting pebbles | DevotedQuilter.com
As always, I love the back.
I'm quilting today mini quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
 I love the pop of the letters, especially.
I'm quilting today mini quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
With the purple pebbles at the edge, I finished it off with a purple Island Batik fabric for the binding.
I'm quilting today mini quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
The quilt finished at 10 ¼ x 13 ½ and it makes me ridiculously happy every time I see it 😊

I've extended my Anniversary Sale for the Stay Home and Shop Hop, so you can still save 25% off all my printed or PDF patterns until April 2nd. The prices are already marked down, so no coupon code is needed.

Thanks for stopping by! Now, hop on over to the rest of today's bloggers to see what they've made to make us laugh.

Monday March 23
Devoted Quilter (that's me!)

22 comments:

  1. Wonderful quilt! I love this - the simplicity but the detail from the quilting. I'll try to remind you to link to my Tips/Tutuorials that runs to the end of the month.

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  2. What a fun mini quilt! The way you did the letters is very clever and was interesting to read about.

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  3. I adore this mini quilt, Leanne! Are you planning on hanging it to display proudly somewhere? The back of the quilt is gorgeous, too. A win all around and hooray for a bit of cheer in these strange days.

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  4. I'm smiling from ear to ear. This is just the sweetest little thing. I used colored pencils years ago, but I've not played with crayons yet. That is definitely going to have to change. Thanks for participating and making us all want to dig out our crayon box!

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  5. Hi Leanne! Oh, what a fabulous project. Those pebbles really enhance the words. It looks SO cool on the back - I love how the letters pop. I have never tried quilting pebbles, but I think you have inspired me to make my own mini quilt and give it a try. I have just been doing the crayon technique for an ongoing project but never thought of applying it to something like this. This is definitely smile worthy - I can't wait to make something to hang on the sewing room door. Or the front door as a welcome. I'm PINing this so I remember to give you credit when I share my own finish. Stay healthy and safe. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne

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  6. Love this! I need one of these great quilts to hang on my door! hahaha Your project certainly made me smile today. It's amazing how many interruptions I get while I am trying to quilt. Love the colors and font you chose, and the pebbles make the perfect frame. I can't believe how tiny they are! Thank you so much for the inspiration and smiles!

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  7. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this... so cool and what a great technique. I didn't know you could use crayons to create this effect. I am gonna have to go buy me a box of crayons and play. I loved how you quilted this also with the various colors of thread. So fun, So frivolous a great overall project. Thanks for sharing it today.

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  8. Love this! All those pebbles! What a fun, fun quilt!

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  9. Love this one. And as often we wish to say it this way, we now would like to do other things as well. But we're lucky to be isolated in our sewing rooms with our wonderful hobby.

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  10. This is just adorable, Leanne! It definitely brought a smile to my face! Thanks for brightening our quarantined world! But hey, we can quilt!!

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  11. Now that is down right clever....love it.

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  12. Love it and thanks for the tutorial on how to incorporate crayons.

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  13. This is so cute! I like how the crayons gave it a more subtle appearance - I'll keep this in mind for the future.

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  14. I think it's wonderful! Yes, I often want to say that myself. =) Your pebbling is fabulous.

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  15. Loved your quilt. I've done the 'colors' thing and found it so much fun. Your pebbles were the perfect way to do the quilting. What can I say about the saying...it's the best...I should use it more often, too. lol

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  16. I've never done crayons on fabric so thank you for the qwazy idea and the tutorial on how to. This piece is awesome. Your quilting is amazing.

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  17. What a cute design! I've done something similar with embroidery using Derwent Coloursoft pencils to color the design. It's a technique called "colour-que" done by Helen Stubbings of Hugsnkisses in Australia. I had to giggle at your high-tech tracing box. I used the same one for many years. And our irons are identical too! Now I will always think of you when I pick up my T-Fal. Your FMQ on this design is wonderful. I like all the cobblestones too, and can imagine you circling away at your machine. You did a great job, Leanne! Be well.

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  18. I love your mini! Thanks for walking us through the crayon method you used. You have inspired me to keep that in mind for the future.

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  19. This is such a fun mini quilt and I love how you used the crayons. Someday I'll have to try that! Your quilting looks amazing, too. Thank you so much for the smile today!

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  20. Love this quilt and thanks for the tutorial. I've never used crayolas before.

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  21. This is beautiful! I've seen crayons on quilts but never tried it--you make it look so easy! I may trace some coloring pages onto fabric and let my son (age 6) color them in; I think he'd enjoy that. Thanks for the step-by-step. Your sentiment and your quilting are fantastic! And I love your tracing board--I have one that's very similar :)

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