Maple Leaf Mini Quilt
Recently, on the Fat Quarter Shop Livestream, Kimberly showed a free pattern available on their site. The Maple Leaf Mini Quilt uses the Orange You Glad Fat Quarter Bundle Curated by Fat Quarter Shop Featuring Fig Tree Quilts. It has four oranges from All Hallows Eve and one green from Christmas Figs II. I received the bundle in June 2020 Sew Sampler Box, and while the pattern that came with the box was cute, it wasn't something I was interested in, so I added the fabric to my stash.
When Kimberly showed the mini quilt, I knew that I had to dig the fabric out of my stash! The pattern includes directions for a pieced backing, so all I needed was background fabric, and I pulled out random solid white to use with it. I'm not sure which color number it is, but it's probably a Moda Bella Solid. I trimmed what I needed from a larger piece and starched my fat quarters and the background. The weather was beautiful the day that I did it, so they dried outside in no time. Later that evening, I cut all of the pieces I needed. I didn't trim the backing squares precisely as written at this point because I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my label yet, and I wanted to make sure I had extra if needed. I labeled all of the pieces with my Alphabities.
I chain pieced where I could on the pattern, and it went together quite smoothly. Most of the projects I've been working on lately have directed to press seams open, so it was a little strange pressing to one side, but it was nice to be able to nest the seams. For the backing, I printed a label and pieced some fabric leftovers on either side. And, check this out! I unintentionally matched my seams! I couldn't have done this well if I tried!
I wasn't sure how I wanted to quilt this, and I'll admit that I started, ripped, and pulled out more than once. I decided to go with a larger meander. I tried stitching in the ditch, but that didn't turn out the way I wanted to. Since I'm still not super at free motion quilting but knew I could meander, I gave it a try, and I was quite pleased with the results. Machine binding would've been faster, but I went for hand binding, and it went pretty quick.
I appreciate that Fat Quarter Shop offers free patterns and that I was able to us stash that I already had for a new decoration for my house. Now, I have a cute Fall table topper to go with my cute fall cross stitch. :)
Details
Fabric: Orange You Glad Fat Quarter Bundle
Thread: Aurafil 50wt, 2000
Batting: 100% Polyester
Pattern: Maple Leaf Mini Quilt from Fat Quarter Shop
Total Hours: 7 hours, 4 minutes
