February 26, 2021

A Bouquet of Minis

Two weeks ago, on a Friday evening, our province was suddenly plunged back into lockdown because of a surge in Covid cases and the emergence of the UK variant in the province. All day Saturday I felt a general anxiety, which is very unusual for me, so I decided to spend the evening working on something small and bright, just for the fun of it. 

I drew up a simple flower in EQ8 then cut out 10 of them and fused them onto white backgrounds using Heat n Bond Lite. Since I was in comfort sewing mode, not quilt blogger mode, this is one of the few pictures I took of the process.
Flower mini quilts | DevotedQuilter.com
I had quickly come up with a list of 10 friends/family members I wanted to send the flowers to, so that helped with choosing colours. If I knew a person's favourite colour, that was what I chose for their flower. For the ones whose favourite colours I didn't know, I just picked fabrics that felt cheerful 😊 

Then, from Sunday to Tuesday I worked on turning the little flowers into mini mini quilts. I chose to back them with more white and cut scraps of batting to fit (yay for using more batting scraps!). To make the whole project faster, I opted not to bind the minis, instead using the turning method and stitching ⅛" from the edge to close the hole I used for turning.

I even remembered to add my labels before sewing them together! I'm also glad I thought to pin the labels out of the way before quilting the flowers so the label didn't get stitched into the quilting.
Flower mini quilts | DevotedQuilter.com
I outlined both layers of the flowers and the flower centers with free motion quilting. I chose to use just one colour of Aurifil 50 wt on each mini for the sake of simplicity and because I like seeing how the thread looks different on the different fabrics.

I'm so pleased with how they turned out!
Flower mini quilts | DevotedQuilter.com
Flower mini quilts | DevotedQuilter.com
Here they are laid out so you can see them all.
Flower mini quilts | DevotedQuilter.com
Of course, I love how the quilting looks from the back.
Flower mini quilts | DevotedQuilter.com
Here are the Aurifil colours I used: 1133 (orange), 4225 (purple), 2530 (pink), 2135 (yellow) and 5005 (teal).
Flower mini quilts | DevotedQuilter.com
A few of the flowers were dropped off by people's doors here in town and the rest have been put in the mail. It has taken me so long to get this post written that the mailed ones have started showing up at their destination already 😊
Flower mini quilts | DevotedQuilter.com
Making the flowers was the perfect fabric therapy, with the added bonus of surprising people with a little burst of colour. Plus, I enjoyed the process so much, these flowers will be my Quilt Block Mania block next week, sized up to make a 12" block 😊 Check back on Tuesday for the pattern!

14 comments:

  1. How big did these fun little minis finish? I'm so glad you took the time to take care of yourself; the stress of this past year really accumulates and spills over sometimes. I bet the flowers are bright happy surprises for all the recipients!

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  2. Hi Leanne, I love your mini's they turned out fabulous!!! Can you tell me where you got your labels. They look great on these mini's

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  3. You "grew" such pretty flowers. What a lovely surprise for the recipients.

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  4. That's an amazing amount of finished, cheerful minis! You did a terrific job of combining self care, creativity and sharing with others to help them through this new crisis. Thank you for showing us this.
    Connie

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  5. What a joyful task this was and I am sure the recipients were thrilled. Thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

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  6. What a cute and happy idea this is - and the blessings you are sharing!! I love it!!!

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  7. What a lovely way to handle emotional therapy. I agree that those bright colors must have been mood-cheering, and that you gave them away to cheer others just makes them all the better. Creating is a good therapeutic way to handle the stress the pandemic has delivered to all of us. Keep taking good care of yourself.

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  8. What a wonderful way to deal with your stress - and to help friends and family get through their "situations" (whatever they were) - hopefully with smiles on their faces!

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  9. These mini gems are so cute. I bet you made many people happy with these surprises. Hope you're feeling better. Cheers!!

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  10. What a fun surprise to get one of these in the mail today!! Thank you!!

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  11. So kind of you to bring cheer to others, and in the process, bring cheer and calm to yourself. These are wonderful Leanne.

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  12. What a joy to get one of these in my mail today. Thank you so much. It brightened my day and it makes me happy that it helped ease yours.

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  13. These are wonderful! What a lovely idea!

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