Marvellous Minis with Island Batik

Happy New Year of the Pig 2019

February is Mini Quilt Month in the Island Batik Ambassador calendar: “Create a mini quilt 24″ x 24″ or smaller, any technique” is the challenge we’ve been given. Minis are a great way to try a new technique, or explore resource/time intensive projects on a doable scale. Or to commemorate an occasion or holiday. Like the Lunar New Year. For my first 2019 Ambassador challenge I decided to make something to mark Chinese New Year. Happy New Year of the Pig!

2019 Lunar New Year was on the 5th of February this year. Traditionally, celebrations extend until February 15th, giving me the perfect window of opportunity to make and display a fun mini quilt representation of a Pig at Spring Festival in my sewing room. Isn’t this little piggy fun? I hope he brings me good luck all year!

Year of the Pig is going up in my sewing room to replace my Year of the Dog quilt from last year. I made Year of the Dog as a mini quilt challenge for Island Batik in February last year. In a lot of ways, it seems like a lifetime ago!

I deliberately carried over the major design elements in the dog quilt into my new pig quilt. Things such as the spring blossoms, the button embellishments, the hanging lantern and of course the style of the appliqué drawings. I am beginning to think that it would be fun to have a complete set of these 12 Chinese Zodiac animals all in the same style. I’d need more secondhand buttons though!

Year of the Pig: Fabric Details

My 2019 Pig mini quilt measures 22″ x 17″ – essentially the size of a fat quarter, which of course is not accidental. Fat quarters make excellent backgrounds for appliqué mini quilts. For this one I chose the Island Batik Teal Basics hand dye sent to me for use in my Island Batik Ambassador duties. I used half of the half yard sent to me.

I also chose to use Island Batik Foundations fabric scraps I had left over from my 2018 Ambassadorship to add the reds, pinks and gold colours associated with Chinese New Year. I used pieces of Cherry Bubbles (second from the left in the left photo) and Carnation Bubbles, Primrose Basics, Peach Basics and Mustard Basics (2nd to 5th top fabrics in photo on the right) to colour the appliqués. To bind the mini quilt, I used the Punch Basics (4th from the left, left photo).

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Year of the Pig: Other Details

The raw-edge appliqué was sewn free-motion with multiple rounds of Madeira rayon thread in matching colours. The background is quilted with a blue-green 50wt Gütermann cotton. Inside, the batting is a scrap of 100% cotton batting on a scrim. I also used Gütermann gold metallic thread and a size 20 industrial needle to add a little sparkle to the hanging lantern. In the bobbin I had Deco-Bob polyester thread. The buttons are from my stash, mostly inherited from hubby’s Gran many years ago. But there are also several buttons gleaned from my son’s old school shirt on there too.

I quilted free-motion wavy lines across the background of this quilt after marking them with chalk. I could have used a walking foot, except I didn’t want to sew over the pig. And turning lots of corners with a walking foot gets tedious really quickly. So it was easier to use free-motion stitching so I could go around the appliqués. I really like the effect of the simple lines over the mottled background.

And that’s it. Fast. Simple. Pretty. With my Brother ScanNCut to cut out the mustard coloured pieces and my Handi Quilter Sweet 16 to do the stitching, this went together pretty easily.

Goodbye 2018, thanks for an awesome ride! Welcome, 2019. I hope you are a great year!

In the mood to Mini Quilt?

There will be fifty mini quilt ideas presented by Island Batik Ambassadors throughout this month. Quite a number are on Ambassador blogs already …. I tell you there are some terribly keen and organised quilters in the mix. If you’d like further mini inspiration today here’s just a taste….. ric rac and hearts with Joan, New York Beauties with Karen, and mini stars with Gene.

But don’t stop there…. You can visit any or all of the Island Batik Ambassador blogs easily, anytime, by visiting my Ambassador page. Or keep an eye on my Pinterest account, as I pin a lot of Ambassador work there. My sidebar here on the blog shows you my latest pins, with the hope of catching your eye. The Chameleon loves sharing great quilty internet finds.

Disclosure: The Island Batik products used in this post were provided to me free of charge by Island Batik.

The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I am more reserved, so I will respond in gratitude by email instead. Now that it’s your turn…. Scroll right to the end, leave me a comment and tell me, what do you think? Thanks for connecting!

Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest, IG or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour & Inspiration Linky parties!