ONE Pink Hummingbird Quilt

It's the beginning of the new year, AND it's the first Project Quilting challenge of the year! I've participated several times before, and this weeks' prompt inspired me to participate again. The prompt was "ONE." That's it. 

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If you're not familiar with Project Quilting, it's a bit like the TV show Project Runway. There's a simple prompt, then you have one week to make a quilt from start to finish. There's a total of six challenges at the beginning of each year. Here are some of the quilts I've made before: a checkerboard, baby quilt, weaving quilt, reflective quilt, footprint quilt, motivational quilt, Mahomes quilt, football quilt, and now this one!

I love using the challenges as a way to try something new. And mini quilts are great for that. If I don't like the technique or how it turns out, I'm not committed to a whole king-sized quilt of it. And I don't feel guilty throwing it away if it doesn't work.

For this one, I started with hot pink solid from Island Batik, some baby pink cotton yarn, and Aurifil 50wt thread in colors #2452 Dusty Rose and #2423 Baby Pink. So far, ONE color.

I chose a design that was drawn with a single line. (Remember the "ONE" theme?) The artwork is by Kate of Ukraine, and I purchased it HERE.

I started by using a lightpad and tracing the design onto the fabric with an air erasable pen.

Next, I made a quilt sandwich with the same hot pink fabric on the top and bottom, and a scrap of Warm & Natural batting. I quilted a pretty small meander all over the quilt - ignoring the design I had drawn on the fabric. It measured about 14" x 18", so it only took about 30 minutes.

After quilting the whole quilt, I switched to the lighter thread color and put the yarn through the hole of my free-motion foot.

Then I quilted along the drawn lines. Usually, when doing yarn couching, you would use a couching foot which has a smaller center hole. It keeps the yarn centered as you stitch. However, I don't have one. So I tried to keep the yarn centered as I sewed, and it still worked!

After finishing the whole design, I cut 2 1/4" strips from a light pink solid for the binding.

Last, I machine sewed the binding on (tutorial here) and added one of my satin quilt labels.

I have never attempted yarn couching before, but I'm so thrilled that it worked!!

The design I chose had several intricate points (like the hummingbird's beak) and tight turns (like the hummingbird's eye), and I really didn't know how the yarn would work around those challenges.

But it worked so much better than I thought it would!

I love the look of the yarn on top of the quilted base. 

You can see the light pink thread path on the back of the quilt too!

So, all from the prompt of "ONE," I made this quilt using ONE color, ONE piece of fabric for the quilt top, ONE length of yarn, ONE line for the design, and it's quilt finish number ONE for the year.

And I tried something I have never tried before! 

If you've never participated in Project Quilting, I challenge you to try it! There are still five more challenges yet this year! (The challenge dates are listed here.)

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