OMG February Goal: Swoon Mini

Down to the wire but it is done and dusted.  I adore it.  This was a squirrel that distracted a few of us this past month when a random comment of loving Camille Roskelley's Swoon quilts and having them on our bucket list led to a small quilt along amongst friends.

New binding technique!!!! Over the MOON with this.  It's "Susie's Magic Binding" and can be found here on the blog and here on YouTube. Thank you Tish!

This is under the Ott lite because the sun set several hours ago...

Knowing I would not get it bound before the sun went down, I had to throw it on the ground to try to get some rays on it to show off the quilting:

I quilted all four blocks the same:  dot to dot that pretty much looks like 1/4" echoes in the diamonds, more dot to dot in the pentagon shapes (some of my favourite designs, Angela Walters of course), and then a swoopy arc design of my own just from point to point that makes kind of a funky star.  I did a ring of beads/pearls behind each centre star.

When I decided to echo 1/4" from the outside of each swoon, I made the decision to ignore the sashing.  I could see two squares on point were formed on the sashing lines and a central cross shape was formed in the very centre of the quilt.  So I decided to put swirls there, and got Tish's yes vote.  It was when I was quilting the centre swirls that I could see half cross shapes at noon, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions if you will, so I did swirls there as well.

I didn't know what I was going to do with the squares on point until I was quilting the swirls in the half cross shapes and it hit me: dot to dot and a string of pearls down the centre to tie the white space behind the stars with the white space between blocks!  Love!  Another example of a quilt talking to me.

I loved how Tish did her mashing down of background on the side edges.  As they say, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" so I used her skinny cursive "L" mashing down between the swirl sections.

the back...outside

and under the Ott-Lite with binding done.

The backing was fabric I'd planned to use on the front in one Swoon block, but it was too large a scale

I was somewhat hampered in getting this done in a timely fashion by life in the form of a most lovely and memorable day and night spent with good friends from New York State.  We walked dogs for a little over 5 km (3 miles) had a delicious lunch at a new-to-us-but-we-will-definitely-return diner, Joseph's Diner in Nokomis, and then stock car races that night at DeSoto Raceway in Bradenton.  Yoga and more life stuff took up the majority of today, while last night I was hindered by Miss Bella of the Tournée du Chat Noir pose ON the top of my machine again...

Here are a few shots of the making of the Mini Swoon.

All the pieces cut and organized; this was the original stripe I'd thought to use for binding

I had a little bit of the binding fabric left from Tish's pillow, so I replaced the originally planned fabric that ended up as backing with it.  Very pleased with the result.

First block done--swoon!

Sewing these tiny pieces was a bit of a challenge.  The smallest ones were 1.5" squares; there are 65 pieces in each 8" finished block!

It didn't help when I got a bit cocky, not paying close attention, and started making HSTs with the 1.5" blocks instead of the 2" ones...Oh well, I now have an adorable 2" unfinished pinwheel that will perhaps become a pincushion!

to rip or not to rip...decided TO rip as the 1/16" off showed if you look closely at the line formed by the red and white contrasting fabrics

Another block done!

I will update this post tomorrow with an outside shot of the bound mini.
Update:

A little interference from the blinds and window panes, but I'll take it.

As I mentioned, I've quilted this month with a few friends, which was so much fun as we talked about where we were over the past four weeks, and cheered each other on.  Tish was a great motivator as she got hers done first.  Cindy was up against some insurmountable odds, but like the little train that could, she DID! Each one of our Swoon Minis is intricately quilted; no walking foot straight lines for us, no siree!  Make sure you check out their beauties too:  Tish's Swoon Mini and Cindy's Swoon Mini.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Swoon Mini #170 by Camille Roskelley
Size: 19.5" square
Fabric: Paradiso by Kate Spain scrap, Pillow and Maxfield for Michael Miller, Modern Background Essentials by Brigitte Heitland for Zen Chic for Moda, Modern Crush by Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit, and a tone on tone polka dot red I do not know the name of from my Parisville Weave quilt, and the corner stones or posts are scraps, an old fabric
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads: pieced with Essential thread from Connecting Threads (no affiliation but I love this thread!); quilted with Essential thread in white, Sulky rayon 40 wt in royal blue, and Sulky Cotton 30 wt in red.

Linking up with OMG at Red Letter Quilts with 3 hours left! And with Let's Bee Social (it's been a while) at Sew Fresh Quilts.