Nov
11
Batik Tree — Collaged Mini-quilt
Filed Under Quilting, Remembering, Sewing
Here’s a little quilt that I don’t believe I’ve ever really explained. Oh sure, it showed up in my Celebrate Color intro post, but only in passing. It is also shown on my art page, but only with the tiniest blurb of detail. And so, in honor of amylouwho’s mini-quilt challenge, here is my collaged batik tree mini-quilt.
I made this little quilt way back in 2006. I only know that because I remember I was working on it when I went to Wichita to see a new doctor about my experience after a flu shot. I’m not really sure what inspired me to cut 2 inch squares out of a ga-gillion (yes that’s a number) different batik fabrics, and then arrange them to form a scene, but I remember sitting in front of the TV with a whole array of quilt squares in front of me while I prayed that the dog wouldn’t come up and step all over them.
I also don’t know why I decided to hand piece the whole thing, and with raw edges to boot. Each piece overlaps the adjacent pieces on two sides, so that every square has two raw edges. How edgy. <insert eye rolling and groans of agony here>
The blue border didn’t look quite right to me, and so I inserted (yet more raw edged) strips of black peeking out between the border and the main scene. It’s the only time I’ve ever done that. I wonder why, because I absolutely loved how it came out.
Not only was the whole thing hand-pieced, it was also hand-quilted. With less than a 1/4″ of space between stitches. Yeah. It took a while. But the result was completely worth it. I wish I had a better picture, but if you click on the one above, you can get a better (larger) view of the stitching. I was trying to capture the movement of the wind in the tree and grass, and the heat of the sun’s rays with my quilting.
So is it really a mini-quilt? I guess that would depend on your definition of “mini”. It’s smaller than all of the quilts I’ve made (barring the mug rugs) and is definitely too small to be any kind of covering, so I say it’s a mini. The whole quilt is only about 20″ x 25″. Alas, I can’t measure it as I gave it to my bestest friend for her 30th birthday.
What do you think? Does it fit the your definition of what a mini-quilt is?
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2 Responses to “Batik Tree — Collaged Mini-quilt”
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Hi! I love your mini quilt! It is a painting with fabrics! Those fabrics and colours are really beautiful and your design is lovely! Great work! x Teje
Gorgeous! And such a lot of work went into this one! Thanks for sharing the story. Your friend must have been thrilled to receive such a gift!