Happy Fall Y'all!

This month's Aurifil Artisan challenge was to make a whole cloth mini quilt using a Painter's Palette solid fabric. The catch? I had to use whatever color was sent to me. And you know what color I got??

Brown.

Brown!

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To be fair, the color is really "mink." And it's actually a beautiful color that reminds me of bunny fur.

I did consider making a bunny quilt, and found lots of inspiration on Pinterest, but the longer the fabric waited for its turn in the spotlight, the more it wanted to be something else.

I knew I wanted to add color, so I picked out a palette of autumn inspired Aurifil threads, and a plan started to form.

Aurifil 50wt #2460 Dark Carmine Red
Aurifil 50wt #2255 Dark Red Orange
Aurifil 50wt #1154 Dusty Orange
Aurifil 50wt #2125 Wheat
Aurifil 50wt #2892 Pine

Using Canva, I created a text graphic that said, "Give thanks." I printed it so it would be 9" wide.

Then using my son's lightbox, I traced the words onto the fabric using an air erasable pen.

I pin basted two fat quarters (cut from one half yard) of the Painter's Palette Mink fabric and two layers of Hobbs Heirloom Premium Cotton batting. 

I chose Aurifil 12wt thread #2890 Dark Grass Green for the word "GIVE." I used Aurifil 50wt #2892 Pine in the bobbin. Then using my walking foot on my Juki, I stitched over the letters twice.

Next, I switched to the free motion foot and 40wt Aurifil #1103 Burgundy for the word "Thanks."

I outlined the letters first, then filled them in with tiny free motion stitches. I went over each section multiple times until the letters were filled in as much as I wanted.

Next was adding some leaves!

I printed several leaf outlines using Google images.

I traced each one with the air erasable pen (one at a time so the marker wouldn't disappear too quickly), then free motion quilted it using one of the original five Aurifil 50wt colors I chose before starting the quilt.

I filled in with partial leaves on the edges where needed.

Then I used my 12 1/2" square ruler to cut out the mini quilt.

It made trimming up the quilt really easy!

I carefully cut the excess fabric away, and had just enough unquilted fabric at the top and bottom to cut three 2 1/4" strips for binding! Of course I machine sewed it on (tutorial here).

Here's a peek from the back showing the binding.

I absolutely love how the quilt turned out!

Using two layers of batting really gives the quilt fantastic texture.

A close-up of the text reveals just how tiny the free motion quilting is!

Even though it's a whole cloth quilt, there is lots of subtle color in the leaves.

I love the back! It's an exact mirror image of the front!

I'm really pleased with how the quilt turned out! And to be honest, I really want to get another half yard of the Mink color to make a bunny quilt...

I'm also especially chuffed at having a fall quilt made before it's actually fall!

Thank you Aurifil and Paintbrush Studio Fabrics for a fun challenge this month!


The fabric and thread for this quilt were provided by Paintbrush Studio and Aurifil.

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