Sew Many Colors

Aurifil thread is celebrating it's 10th year in the US! As part of the celebration, Sheri of Whole Circle Studio created a paper-pieced pattern of Aurifil thread spools. Then Aurifil and Robert Kaufman partnered to host a quilt challenge. And you know I can't resist a challenge!

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If you're new here, hello! I'm Laura! I design quilt patterns, and I'm a self-proclaimed deal hunter! Be sure to join the popular Quilting & Sewing Deals Facebook group where I post sales, deals, and coupon codes from all around the web!

The challenge was to create a mini quilt using the Sew Many Colors quilt pattern. (More details and a link to the pattern here.) Each quilt had to use Kona fabrics by Robert Kaufman and Aurifil thread. The deadline to enter is today (March 31st) - nothing like last minute!

I do 99% of my piecing and quilting with white thread, so white was the only logical color for my Aurifil spools!

After completing the quilt top, I decided to be a *little* adventurous with the quilting. Since the Aurifil spools were arranged in a circle, I wanted to try quilting a circular mandala design.

I used two layers of cotton batting. When doing dense quilting, this helps the quilting to stand out and create texture.

I began by centering and tracing a few round objects with a white pencil onto the quilt top. Then I used my walking foot on my Juki TL-2010Q to quilt over the lines. I filled in the circles with different designs that I free motioned.

I couldn't get the colors in the photos to match the actual colors in the quilt. The indoor photos show the Celestial blue a little closer to the true color than the outside photos.

If you look close, there are definite imperfections. I like to think those just prove it is homemade!

I especially like the way the quilt looks from the back!

I added the binding before quilting the final design in each corner so that I could make sure it didn't get cut off when squaring the quilt. When I did add the design, some of the stitching went onto the binding on the back.

The finished quilt is 16" square. I used Kona White (1387), Tangerine (1370), and Celestial (233). The back is Ice Frappe (1173). All the piecing and quilting was done with Aurifil Natural White (2021).

This is my 11th quilt this year, and my 90th quilt of all time!

Overall, I'm very satisfied with how the quilting turned out! It's so fun to think back to how much of a hot mess my quilting used to be! And if I've come this far, I can't wait to see what even more practice will do!

Be sure to hop over to view the other minis entered in the challenge and vote see who won! (Hint: ME!!)

(Updated 4/21) My mini quilt won the challenge! The best part of the prize is that my mini quilt will hang in the Aurifil thread booth at Spring Quilt Market! I will also receive a Robert Kaufman Kona charm pack of all 303 colors, batting from The Warm Company, two digital patterns from Whole Circle Studio, and a large Aurifil thread box!

Once I knew my quilt was headed to Market, it needed a label and a hanging sleeve. I've never put a hanging sleeve on a quilt before! After a little research, I prepared the sleeve and pinned it in place for the hand sewing. Then I let it sit there and I stewed about the hand sewing part.

In the meantime, I printed a label and used Heat-N-Bond to iron it onto the back. While ironing the label, I thought to myself, "Aren't you clever? Ironing on what others have to hand sew." Then I had an Aha! moment! Why not use Heat-N-Bond to attach the hanging sleeve too?!? I cut a piece to cover the back of the sleeve and ironed it in place. It worked fantastic! The bond is strong and firmly attached to the back! I'm not sure this would work well for a large and much heavier quilt, but for this mini - it's perfect! And I dodged the hand sewing!

I can't wait to see my mini hanging at Quilt Market!!


Linking up with the Aurifil challenge post, Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday at Celtic Thistle Stitches, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Let's Bee Social at SewFreshQuilts, Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts, and Show Off Saturday at Sew Can She.

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