My Small World - Part 1

If you're on Instagram you will probably notice a lot of people are making this beautiful quilt / wall hanging, designed by Jen Kingwell of Amitie Textiles in Melbourne, Australia.

As soon as I saw this picture I knew that I'd like to make this quilt, but I've had to wait months for the Spring Edition of QuiltMania to get to New Zealand.

A few weeks ago I met my friend Anne and our local quilt bookshop, Minerva, and we both purchased our copies of this magazine.

During the time that we had been waiting for the magazine to arrive, we'd already started to see lots of people making the quilt, and even some bog posts with helpful tips and suggestions.  Kerry, from Very Kerry Berry, is running a Quilt a long which is really helpful.  It's always nice to see close up photos of a quilt like this before you embark on it.

I've finished Part 1 now, but it wasn't easy or straight forward.  This isn't a quilt for beginners. There are quite a few places where it helps to have a bit of experience under your belt. A number of us have resorted to foundation paper piecing to keep the triangles in shape.  And as for those tiny pinwheels - they really are tiny. They involve four 1.5" half square triangles!

My Part 1

It's not just the quilting techniques that are challenging, it's also the fabric choices and placements. I made 4 different versions of one block before I had one that I was happy with.  My 3 spare blocks are on the left in the photo below.  They will be incorporated somewhere else in the quilt.  I've resolved not to make any more fabric choices in the evening when it's dark.  It's too hard to see the colours properly and I end up changing my mind in the morning.

The 3 blocks on the left have all been superseded by the green one.

When I finally finished Part 1 I went straight onto to starting Part 2. I haven't finished Part 2 yet, but I had some fabric ideas that I just needed to try out asap.  It looks a bit crazy this close up, but is better when you stand back further.  I decided to start using up a Joel Dewberry jelly roll that I bought last year. I'm also using charm squares where I can.

The start of Part 2 on the left hand side of the photo.

Everyone is commenting on what a mess they are getting into with this quilt. The idea is that you can just use scraps, but of course we all pull out lots of other options just to be sure. I've resorted to using these plastic plates and mini baskets to keep pieces together.

The magazine has both metric and imperial measurements so is a bit confusing.

I'm having lots of fun with this quilt, and it's nice to see everyone else's growing too. People are being very generous with their tips and tricks.