I finished her, and just in the nick of time to enter my latest lovely, Double Dipper into the 2015 Spring Blogger’s Quilt festival hosted by Amy over at Amy’s Creative Side.
Some of you have seen sneak peeks on Facebook and Instagram recently but now I can show her in all her glory! This mini quilt is 25″ x 22″ and the stars are paper pieced and measure up at 1″ big….errr should I say 1″ *small*. I used Illustrator to make the customized paper piece pattern, at that size the slightest mis-stitch makes a huge difference but the subtle variations in each star seems appropriate as no two stars are quite alike.
I had the dipper constellations in mind when I came up with the idea and can’t wait to make another at some point for other favorite constellations!
After making all 14 of the stars I added a border of the dark blue to each to make sure that as I improv pieced all of the stars and blue background together I wouldn’t have to fuss with a number of bias/biasey edges.
As soon as I laid out the stars in place I knew I wanted to use these radial line technique I had watched in the Creative Quilting with Your Walking Foot with Jacquie Gering class on Craftsy.
I used a dark blue Aurifil thread to let the thread fall into the background while adding this fun texture from the intersecting radial lines. The background reads a bit darker than the pictures indoors but with the soft cloudy light you can really see the quilting so much more beautifully.
I don’t know if you can tell but I am REALLY proud of this quilt!
I had planned on just using the background color for a thin binding but I ran out (whoops!) I knew there was a way to bind a quilt without the binding being visible on the front so after some Googling I used the tutorial on Facing a Quilt over at Sew Much Like Mom. I’d taken a class with Cristy at the Sewing Expo last month and was excited to try a new binding technique using the glue basting I’d learned in that class.
That faced binding is so sharp and such a perfect edge for the quilt, now the quilting extends all the way to the edge!
I’m entering this into the 2015 Blogger’s Quilt Festival in the Mini Small Quilt category, I’m a late entry and am so impressed with the other entries but I’m also excited I made my finish deadline I set 2 weeks ago to get this new favorite quilt done!
Quilt Info
Quilt Name: Double Dipper
Size: 52″ x 22ā³
Fabric: Kona white and midnight blue
Quilt Design: Terri Ann Swallow (me) original design
Pieced by: Terri Ann Swallow (me)
Quilting by: Terri Ann Swallow (me)
Finished: May 2015
What constellation do you think I should tackle next?
Linking up with:
Those stars…amazing! I can’t imagine piecing something so small! Its so gorgeous! Congrats on your finish. I need to check out that method of binding or no binding!
Thanks Jayne! Faced binding = game changer, definitely check it out.
Looks awesome! I love it. Those stars are so tiny!
This is fantastic! I love the quilting, and the way you finished it. Very cool idea
Such a beautiful quilt! I love your technique, the cutest mini stars I have seen so far. Love it!
Thanks Hema! I’m glad you like my mini stars, I was worried as I was making them that their little differences would bug me but it ended up being way more impressive of a finish than I expected.
This is stunning! I love it.
Looks great! Good luck!!! š
Wow, I love this mini! Gorgeous design and I love the quilting too. Thanks so much for linking up with TGIFF!
Wow. That is a great quilt. I love the quilting on it, too – it compliments the piecing. Perfect!
That’s what I was going for Sally š I toyed with a couple other quilting ideas but this was the first one I’d thought of while piecing and I kept coming back to it when sketching options so I knew I had to go with it.
I love the tiny stars, so cute!
This is really cool! i’ve wanted to make a constellation quilt for ages – I’d be up for a QAL if you wanted !!!! Would be very cool to have some Northern and Southern constellations on the go. Wouldn’t Orion look amazing in teeny tiny stars like these! Lots of quilting possibilities with that one!
Hmmmm Ruth, you might be onto something there! I hadn’t thought about doing a star quilt along but this could be just the right summer project! You’d think a girl who runs a website dedicated to quilt alongs would have thought of that idea š I’ll shoot you an email directly if I end up planning one out!
Love it!
The mini quilt turned out beautifully, Terri Ann! And congratulations for finishing the quilt in time to submit to the festival; I think it feels good to make goals. š Hmmm… I’m partial to Orion for another constellation idea.
This is beautiful! Also, I just found your blog but I would SO be in for a star-themed QAL like someone mentioned above. I’ve had constellation-based quilt designs bouncing around my head for a while but haven’t turned them into anything real. š
Beautiful! The teeny paper piecing is madness but worth it š The quilting works so well too!
Thanks for the kind words Lucy – the quilting is simple but effective, I’m trying to get in the habit of planning the quilting while designing and piecing my quilts so it comes together as a cohesive design and not two separate design elements; over time we’ll see how that continues.
Oh, I love this! I’m a sucker for stars and the Big Dipper is always the second constellation I spot in the sky. Orion’s belt jumps out at me first. Makes me think of summer nights at the lake, leaving the bonfire to lay on the dock and stare out at the sky. Those radial lines are great too. I’ve never been drawn to make a wall hanging but this looks fun. Such tiny little paper pieces too! Nice work.
Ya know, it’s funny; I never really “got” wall hangings till I made my first one. I think it had to do with having limited interesting space in my old apartment to hang them but also because to me they just aren’t as “practical” as a quilt. I think me definition of what is practical has since shifted. It’s more practical for the time I have available to quilt to make smaller items to refine skills to improve on bigger projects. This mini quilt really put a lot of those things to the test!
Part of this was inspired by memories laying on the dock in the summer looking at the stars myself – it’s so neat knowing other people have similar shared memories that this mini brings out. Ahh warm heart moments š
oh my gosh, that is amazing. Stunning work!!
Great looking quilt. I love that the stars are so small. Paper piecing is the only way to go there!
Oh my gosh, my heart actually stopped when I saw this! I am from AK originally and have been searching for Dipper ideas!!! This is amazing, are you going to make a pattern to sell???? Please!!!
Actually Katie making this into a pattern for a quilt along has been on my list of things to do. I hope to do that this winter!!
That is so cool! Can’t wait!!!