Mini Wayward Transparency

I do believe this little mini quilt qualifies as a squirrel, if ever one did.  About a month ago, I seriously decided to drop everything and make this quilt...DrEAMi?  While standing in line for a steak hoagie (glamourous right?), I ran into a girl I graduated high school with.  She and her daughter had been to the quilt show and she was telling me that her daughter fell in love with the blue quilt I had entered.  They were walking around picking which quilts they were going to vote for in the people's choice category and her daughter stopped when she spied my version of Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl's Wayward Transparency Quilt and said that that was her quilt.  When she read the tag she realized it was my quilt.  I thanked her for sharing that story with me it truly made me smile.



I thought about it off and on all day.  I knew they had to be talking about the Transparency quilt, but I sent her a picture and asked it that was the quilt?  She replied back with a picture of her daughter and the quilt and indeed it was.  I knew in that moment I wanted to make one for her daughter to have of her very own.  After learning that her favorite colors are teal, turquoise and pink, I decided to scale the quilt down to 24" and get to work.

I played around with different fabrics, using both pink and teal in the layout, but deciding that to stay true to the pattern design, it would be best to use only one fabric color, teal, and incorporate the pink and turquoise in the quilting of the quilt.  I based the quilting off of my original quilting plan, but had to change a few things along the way due to change in scale.  Somethings just didn't translate as well.

I started off using Aurifil Monofilament thread (not pictured) in clear to stitch in the ditch of the two seams where the four blocks come together.  I used a double layer of warm and natural batting and felt I needed to stitch in the ditch to help anchor things and prevent puckering or shifting of the fabric.  

Next I chose to work with Aurifil 50wt threads; #5006 Light Turquoise for areas I really wanted to blend into the quilt, #2810 Turquoise for a bit of a pop in the darker teal fabrics, #2423 Baby Pink for a little bit of pop in the lighter fabrics and #1100 Red Plum to boldly stand up and say "look at me."

One of those "look at me" motifs is the curvy flower design in the center of the quilt.

I also used the threads to play around with what I like to call "ghosting."  Ghosting as defined by the dictionary is (n) "the appearance of a ghost or secondary image on a television or other display screen."  My display screen being the quilt.  My secondary image...the quilting.  The ghost is my thread?  

Think of it as creating specific design elements, where there wasn't anything before.  This quilt is probably one of the most haunted quilts I've ever quilted.

Just like in my original quilting design, I created an on point square in the background that mimics the shape of the center square.  I also created a boarder of diamonds in the medium teal fabrics that frame the center.

One of the fun modern elements in the piecing of this quilt is the triangles in the four corners.  In two of the opposite corners you have an arrow head shape that extends to the edge of the quilt.  The other two corners have smaller triangles that kind of float in the background.  I wanted the quilting to provide a subtle cohesiveness to the piece.  To achieve this, I created the same arrow head shape in all four corners using thread.  From a distance your eyes mainly see the piecing of the fabrics and the modern offset layout of this design.  However, when you approach the quilt, your eyes begin to focus on the subtle designs hiding in the quilting of the quilt giving it a completely different look.

The are so many different layouts and looks that can be achieved with this quilt just by turning the blocks a different direction.  I'm not sure that I'm done playing with this pattern.  But for now, it was fun to revisit the quilt in a slightly smaller size.

Mini Wayward is now on its way to its new owner.  I decided to mail it to her with a little note and hope that she will be happily surprised by her mini quilt.  Who knows, maybe one day she will deicide to join us in the happy land of quilting?  I hear she has a sewing machine.

If you'd like to make your own version of this quilt, make sure you visit Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl and check out the quilt along she hosted for her wonderful pattern.

On a completely random note, tucked here at the end.  I have a pretty beginner friendly quilt pattern that could stand a second set of eyes or a pattern tester.  If anyone would be interested, please email me (tishnwonderland(at)gmail(dot)com) or make sure you leave me your email in a comment below.