Sticky Sweet

The current Curated Quilts Mini Challenge was a tough one for me. When I heard the theme, "Plus," I was pleased and ready to dive right in. I pulled some solid fabrics from stash for the required palette - mint green, soft pink, peach, grey-blue, and aqua - and mulled over my options. Unfortunately, my vision for a design I loved never really materialized.

I made a fresh start with three different concepts, and none of them really spoke to me. Finally, I forged on with idea #3, realizing that I was working with a very limited supply of the grey-blue fabric, my favorite of the bunch. So it came to me to add the idea #2 blocks as sort of borders, and the idea #3 blocks were easily incorporated into a pieced back. So maybe this little quilt should be named "Conglomerate," eh?

I used Aurifil 50wt #2805 [Light Turquoise] to quilt an echoed curve, and if anything, that helped bring the other elements together. Though said elements weren't a natural fit, the idea of an obvious 'plus' or two along with a handful of less obvious, definitely improv, plusses suited me at least.



And for the binding? The very last inches of the grey-blue matched with the four pastels in their appropriate places made sense at least. The binding, cut at 1 1/2" wide, finished at a precise 1/4". And the mini itself, is 12 5/8"square of maker's perplexity, but sometimes that happens, so I can live with it.

25 mini quilts are selected for each issue's feature, and I don't have high hopes for being chosen. Maybe I'll try my hand another day, maybe this is it. Whatever will be, will be.