Loosely Connected

You know that feeling after you finish a big quilt, the kind that takes hours and hours of piecing? The one that you fuss over deciding how to quilt and then causes that ache in your shoulders as you accomplish it.... and then a few nights sitting in front of the t.v. stitching the binding? So this quilt ain't that, but amazingly, the feeling isn't all that different.



So why IS there a very similar sense of accomplishment and relief at a quilt that measures just 11" x 11" square and was sewn up in a week's time? It's a mystery for sure, definitely without the shoulder ache, but nonetheless true this time for this quilt.

This mini was created for Curated Quilts' Improv Mini-Quilt Challenge, where the theme was "Connections" and called for the use of any or all of the following: cream, yellow, mustard yellow, navy, moss green, grey. I chose to include them all.



It was totally one of those where I didn't know where I was going at the outset, but just started cutting and sewing. In fact, I had no clear view where it was headed until I was well into the process, and even then I wasn't sure of its success.



But a little time and rearranging was all it took, and once I committed to it, I was excited to jump in on the quilting, and it didn't disappoint. I knew right off I wanted to accent those triangles, and I did so somewhat organically (my favorite!) in Aurifil 50wt #2140 (Mustard). It was a little more trepidatious as I started in quilting the gray with #2784 (Dark Navy). But the farther I went, the more I loved the movement it added.

When it came to finishing it off, I chose micro-binding cut at 1 3/4", with just a tiny accent of matched binding.

So seriously, this is my favorite kind of creating. I love the big quilt-on-every-bed thing, I really do. But the impulsiveness of this kind of small project just really gets my creative juices flowing. There's an eagerness that other projects don't necessarily provide. It's hard to explain, but it's palpable.

So there you go. I'm calling it "Loosely Connected" because of the slim bonds of navy holding the piece together. What I didn't really intend to be the main focus became just that. 

Linking up with Curated Quilts Improv Mini Quilt Challenge.