November Mini

 This little quilt has intrigued me ever since I first saw it on Pinterest.

Looking at it closely, I've come to strongly suspect it was a piece cut off a larger quilt or top, that someone cleverly framed in a complimentary fabric. (Note all the cut off triangles on the left and bottom edges, due to damage? or to the wonkyness of the mother piece itself?) But what makes this little quilt so interesting is the layout of the triangles. I wonder what the original quilt looked like. I also wonder if the "salvager" fussy cut the section for its design effect, or if it was just a scrap she found. However it came to be, its very intriguing, don't you think? I was smitten at first sight, and developed a deep fondness for the little guy, and for a long time I've wished I owned it. 

So I started thinking about reproducing it. I have fabric very similar to the border fabric, so that's a good start. I also have shirtings that are very similar to those in the quilt. I was halfway there, right? But when it came down to the other colors, it became more challenging. 

 

The only thing I could do was to try to approximate the look of the various fabrics the best I could. Some of them I got pretty close, others, well ... not so much. But I went ahead and forged forward, knowing that it would not be perfect. It was not too difficult to piece, and of course the wonkiness of the original worked in my favor. Ahem ...

After I got it all pieced together and trimmed (including several chopped off pieces for authenticity, ha ha) I brought out the border fabric and .... the one I had previously thought would be perfect didn’t work so well. The tone was wrong, or something. 

It looks better now that I look at it again, at least in the photo. I think I have a bit of a “vision problem” as another blogger put it, 

 

 

Anyway ... I ended up with a darker fabric which shows off the colors nicely, but takes it even further away from the look of the original. 

Hand quilted, simple diagonal lines

Still I'm happy with it, especially all washed up and crinkled. It could be the original quilt's smart cousin.

But you know what? I still covet that funny little quilt that inspired it!

Now go check out Wendy's blog and see the other minis for this month!

love, Sandy