cf Mini QAL: Conclusion. (+ giveaway)
We’ve made it! It’s been a full (and fun) 8 weeks of mini quilt making. How do you feel now that we’re to the end?
As for me, I’m pretty stoked about making quilts, and I hope that’s the case for you too. Like I said in the beginning, making minis is always a great way to explore ideas and churn up some creativity. I hope the challenges each week helped you feel more confident and encouraged to try something new and/or see things in a slightly new way.
The challenge this week proved that point to be true for me. I went Wild with my mix of prints, colors and types of fabrics, and in the end I was having a hard time making myself stop.
It all started with a charm pack that I liked.
To which I added other things that I liked.
And then I got to sewing.
This first batch of Babson blocks is wild both in terms of color and print, and I just loved it. It made me excited to keep going.
Something I love about these blocks is how I was able to incorporate fabrics that I’ve accumulated both recently and not super recently in my travels. Do you get a sense of satisfaction when you’re finally able to work in something you’ve been holding on to? I definitely do.
I especially love the edge of grey that resulted in some of the last blocks I sewed (below, right), and I’d love to explore this idea more.
My favorite thing about a project is when it encourages you to keep going. This one does that for me, and so I’m really tempted to keep making blocks and sew up something larger–maybe a throw.
Doing a little bit of math, there are 224 blocks in the throw size of my Babson pattern. I have 56 this week, plus the 25 from last week that I think would be fun to add to this group. This leaves 143 to go, which breaks down to about 12/week for 12 weeks.
I don’t know if I’ll totally hold myself to this number, but it is helpful to calculate how it could shake out. I’m never good about finishing things if I don’t give myself a deadline.
Fabrics from this week’s wild fest included London Calling 8, Nani Iro, Arroyo by Erin Dollar, Woodland Clearing by Liesl Gibson, UPPERCASE by Janine Vangool, Suzuko Koseki, as well as Friedlander, Friedlander Lawn, Architextures, Gleaned and Polk from me.
Thanks for following along! As promised last week, I’d like to do a celebratory giveaway this week. Up for grabs is a charm pack of Polk, plus a stack of more 5″ squares of fabrics that were used in the original Babson and a pair of my favorite Kai snips. And if you don’t already have a copy of the Babson pattern, I’ll throw that in too!
To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me something about your cf Mini QAL experience. I’ll randomly select a winner Tuesday September 18 at 11am EDT.
Carolyn, I had such a rewarding experience in this sal! Your weekly prompts helped me look at your patterns and my fabric stash in different ways. I finished four completely different mini-tops, and I look forward to quilting them. I really appreciate the way your patterns can be mixed and matched to create new shapes and designs. Thanks for leading us through these exercises – and for the inspiration!
It has been such a great mini sewalong. So inspirational seeing how you think about putting blocks and colours together!! Would love to do more!
Hi Carolyn, this was my first mini QAL-so much fun! I’m still sewing and having fun.
Where do I even begin? I loved absolutely everything about this mini QAL. It was just the right amount each week to flex those creative muscles, while allowing me to learn to foundation paper piece well. It gave a sense of completion each round without the stress of not doing enough. I realized that I would always be subconsciously thinking of fabric pairings that would work each week while going about my day.
Thank you, Carolyn, for a well conceived and fun challenge for this QAL!
I hate to admit this but I haven’t started yet. I have been finishing charity quilts. 22 quilted and 10 more bindings to go. Then I can get back to my other things. Hope the power doesn’t go out.
Hi Carolyn, My favorite part has been playing with color as well as making mini quilts. Since I like to hand quilt and my hands prefer to stay busy, this is the perfect QAL. I even shared my first three minis with my guild last Monday night. (I also shared Barbara O’Grady’s, too, since we’re in the same guild!) I’m just about ready to create #7 — letting the ‘friends’ become accustomed to each other; and I’m contemplating whether to go wild or mild. This has been a fun experience — if you ever do another one, count me in!
Carolyn, I had a strong start and then other things intervened. I really appreciated the exercises of trying to work with a single color or two colors. Quite honestly the last exercise seems like a lot of fun too. Making a small piece is also a good idea, with less fabric commitment and more benefit in terms of understanding the color design issues. Thank you so much for some great paper piecing patterns. And I also am starting to watch your Creative Bug videos.
I love the pop of NEON! And the contrast of the orange/rust and grays. I wouldn’t have thought of those colors together but it’s fun!
It started out mild, but ended up wild. Hope to get back to my home & quilt studio in New Bern, NC sometime soon😥
Hi! I didn’t get to try everything but i found it gave me the ability to put things together that I wouldn’t have tried before! “Just start sewing??” New concept!! Also it made me realize that I had already done some of the challenges like my Eads blocks that have both accents and fussy cutting;) My plan it to take a few mini quilts together including wainwright and lusk and make a display for my mid-century modern living room. Thanks for the inspiration Carolyn! 😁
Many, many thanks for hosting the mini QAL! I’m not exaggerating when i say it’s been 20 years since I’ve felt this inspired and challenged. It has brought me back to my design school days 🙂
I thought I’d list just a few things (eight!) that I’ve experienced over the last two months:
—> 1. looked forward to my weekly “homework”
—> 2. used patterns I’ve been dying to try forever, but haven’t
—> 3. cut into my most precious fabrics without fear
—> 4. found opportunities for use of my hoarded CF scraps
—> 5. felt encourage to tackle different approaches than my norm
—> 6. been blown away by fellow QALers talent
—> 7. found the freedom to just “go for it”
—> 8. finished projects!
You’re a rockstar, Carolyn
Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Hi Carolyn, I only sewed up two minis as my life is quite busy at the moment. And I’m not sure if these paper pieced minis are my favorites as there’s as much cutting and ironing as actual sewing… But I love your challenges and I’m sure I will come back to them for future projects. Such a great resource for learning about colors and composition… Thank you for all the inspiration!
Thanks for the mini QAL! It was so much fun to see everyone’s interpretation of each challenge. I am a very motivated person and an overachiever. I usually feel like if I “sign-up” to do something I have to do ALL of it. During this QAL there were weeks that I couldn’t participate or a challenge did spark my creativity and I learned to be OK with that. The initial one color challenge was my favorite and I will be working with one color more in the future.
I have been following the QAL and vicariously living through the sewing! the past few months have not yielded a lot of time to sew, and I am okay with that. I have really enjoyed reading about your process and have lots of little tid-bits of wisdom for when life slows down enough to sit and stitch again. Thank you so much!