When Katarina Roccella put out the call for people to join her Blithe Blog Tour for her new Art Gallery Fabrics line called Blithe, I jumped at the chance. The fabric line is just gorgeous and a couple of the prints really spoke to me (yes, hehe, I do hear fabric speaking to me!!)
There are so many gorgeous prints in this line. Deer, owls, text, bows, flowers, mountains…..
I loved the two text prints – Philosohper’s Dreams and Philosopher’s Thoughts – nothing like a good text print!
but it was the Bows in Silence print that triggered the thoughts for my first mini.
To me the bows looked like butterflies flying through the Blithe forest so I thought I would make a wall hanging with pieced (and 3D!) butterflies and use some of the darker prints as the ‘trees’.
I made some of the butterflies have one wing coming out of the mini…. and a few others flying underneath!
And I couldn’t resist having one of the cute birds flying through the trees as well…. and a 3D stag peeking around a tree.
I made this as a mini to hang on the wall, but I can see a larger version of this being a great floor play quilt for a young child… lots of things to interact with!
I had a bit of fun with the quilting…. straight lines on the trees and wavy lines around the butterflies… just like Bows in Silence.
If anyone is interested I am happy to write up a tutorial for how to make the butterfly block as well as the 3D butterflies. Just comment here or on Instagram and if there is enough interest I will get to writing it up 🙂
The next inspiration came from the Evergreens Frozen and Dusk prints … I just loved those misty trees / mountains (and I used them as the backings for both of my minis here)
My second project is a mini / table topper and is a bit abstract.. but lots of fun to make!
Graduated dark to light background… to simulate dusk to dawn and then soaring mountains (or trees depending on what speaks to you) reaching for the sky and the light.
I needleturn appliqued the mountains on (using my hybrid method of fusible iron on and then needleturning) and then quilted all the angles… that was fun!
And with the last few scraps, I just had to make a zippy pouch.. it is the perfect size for my little travel iron!
I hope you have been enjoying the blog tour so far…. some fabulous inspiration in all of them!
Katarina has put up a list of everyone’s Instagram account names, so if you are on IG, head on over and check out the beauties each day. And I have added in the blog links as well.
- Erica Toole – January 18: @ skynme2
- Mariana Diaz – January 19: @ sewMariana
- Ashley Herrmann – January 20: @ petitestitchery Blog: Petite stitchery blog post: Ashley’s looks
- Isabelle Selak – January 21: @ southbaybella Blog:Quiltography app for quilt design
- Stacey Derksen – January 22: @ sweet_finnagin_boutique
- Eleri Kerian – January 23: @ sewandtellproject Blog:Blithe tote tutorial
- Hemamalini Elumalai – January 24: @ helumalai Blog:My little stars
- Paola Baker – January 25: @ loveoffabrics
- Sue Stone – January 26: @ needleinafabricstash Blog:West water tunic in linen print
- Cassie and Alexis – January 27: @ lilyshineforlittlelizardking and myysweetsunshine Blog: Blithe blog tour: clothes
- Carolina Moore – January 28: @ craftmoore
- Lesley Storts – January 29: @ lesleystorts
- Ali Brorsen – January 30: @ becauseofbrenna Blog: Blithe blog tour: clothes
- Kimberly Baird – January 31: @ monkeykimberly
- Rebecca Makas – February 1: @ restitcherator Blog: Blithe fabrics: quilt
- Natalie Santini – February 2: @ sewhungryhippie Blog: The yoga bag
- Anna Durocher – February 3: @ bizzy_bean_clothing Blog: Blithe blog tour: clothes
- Sharon Mcconnell – February 4: @ colorgirlquilts Blog: Dutch Windmill quilt
- Laura Scaramella – February 5: @ petitestitchery Blog: Blithe love: clothes
- Audrey – February 6: @ skirtfixation Blog: Canvas lonetree west and runway knit skirt
- Terra – February 7: @ mamasayssewblog
- Nichole Vogelsinger – February 8: @ wildboho
- Mara Capron – February 9: @ mara.creates
- Anne Boundy – February 10: @ anneboundy
- Heather Hatch – February 11: @ tanglewood_lane_dolls
- Michael Caputo – February 12: @ patchworkandpaper
- Julia Liebl-Fern – February 13: @ finefabric
- Nicole Young – February 14: @ lillyellasworld
- Karly Nelson – February 15: @ paisleyroots
- Ines Hilsberg – February 16: @ naehzimmerplaudereien
- Geraldine Wilkins – February 17: @ livingwaterquilter
- Deanne Chambers – February 18: @ annieanddotfabrics
- Mathew Boudreaux – February 19: @ misterdomestic
- Judith Posdziech – February 20: @ septembers_delight
- Elise Baek – February 21: @ eliseandemelie
- Marija Vujčić – February 22: @ mvquilts
- Elina Temmes – February 23: @ elinatemmes
- Maja Wlusek – February 24: @ betyipiernaty
- Jennifer DauFerermany – February 25: @ petitestitchery
- Jacky Ayres – February 26: @ jackyayresdesigns
- Yuliya Reshetnikova – February 27: @ yureshetnikova
- Christine Bacquer Joubert – February 28: @ lopolokko
- Katrin Umlauft – March 1: @ puppilalla
Great minis Anne, are you sure the needle turn applique “was fun” lol, or was that the quilting you were talking about 🙂 Love the 3D stag peeking out of the tree, that mini would make a great play mat.
Yes, well, the needle turn applique took a lot of time with my slow hand sewing, but I had started very early so could do just little bits at a time.