August Island Batik Ambassador challenge - Marvelous Minis!

 If you know me, you know that this challenge made me very happy!  I love mini quilts and am always excited for the opportunity to make one!  I went through the supplies I received from Island Batik in June and decided I wanted to use the precut strip package - Bee Kind.  Bee Kind was designed by Kathy Engle for Swan Sheridan of Swan Amity Studios and it's absolutely lovely!  These fabrics are currently shipping to quilt shops, and the precuts are available right now.

Aren't the colors bee-utiful?  I absolutely love these happy colors, and the cut prints!  The only downside to using them in a mini is that you really can't see the detail, but I have plenty of fabric left to make another project where they will shine more.  For this project I also used Hobb's Thermore Batting, Schmetz Needles and Aurifil thread.  Thanks to these companies for their partnership in the Island Batik Ambassador Program I had everything I needed to get started!

I dug through my stash of magazines and books featuring mini quilts and found one that I liked, it featured blue and yellow, so were perfect for using the coordinating fabric I received.  This quilt was made with 9 patch blocks and quarter square triangles, so I figured out what I needed to cut and got started!

See the cute bees, hummingbirds, and flowers?  Aren't they adorable?  These are a little tricky to categorize as light or dark, but since the quilt is scrappy, I did my best.

I made lots of tiny strip sets - so cute!

Chain stitching - doesn't take long because the pieces are so small!  A size 10 Schmetz Mircrotex Professional Chrome needle helps keep those seams accurate (this one is sewn with regular 1/4 inch seams, but with a mini you need to be extra sure you are staying accurate).

It's good to use a nice thin thread like 50 weight Aurifil as well!  I like to give them a nice press with a dry iron to keep them from getting warped, too.

These blocks are 1 1/2 inches finished!  So cute!  This is the blue I used for the quarter square triangle blocks.

The triangle units were easy to make, just had to be a little organized to get them all in the right color combinations!  I really like blue and yellow, so pretty!

A tiny yellow border, bigger white border, and finally a blue border completed my top, which finished at 14 1/2 inches square - a nice size for a mini quilt!

I layered up my quilt using Hobbs Thermore batting - it's a nice flat poly batting that is perfect for a quilt that you want to lay nice and flat.  I used light blue Aurifil 50 weight and the same size 10 Schmetz needle I used for the piecing to quilt this in a diagonal grid.  I like the fact that the quilting disappears in the center but adds a nice texture to the borders.

I brought this quilt with me on vacation, thinking I might find a good photo opp to show it off - what better place to display it than in front of the National Quilt Museum!  I was delighted to find a display of mini quilts in the museum, and even though my quilt can't compare to those masterpieces I am happy to at least show it off outside!

I'm getting lots of inspiration on this trip - but I miss my sewing machine!  Hope you are enjoying the quilts from the rest of the Ambassadors!  I'll be highlighting them over the Labor Day weekend, so keep your eye out for some great inspiration.  Thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting and Schmetz Needles for the products used in this project!