Mini Art Quilt for a Dear Adult Daughter for Her Birthday

A couple of weeks ago was my oldest daughter’s birthday. I decided at the very last minute to make her a mini art quilt using my favorite picture of her. She’s about twenty-two months. (I’m the bigger one on the right.) Of course, it took me over a week to make it. I have an excuse though. I am also trying to finish two other small art mini quilts for a very dear niece. I’ve been working on them for—what, almost a year?! That’s why she gets two of them!

Anyway, the size of this very small art quilt is 11inches x 13 inches.  I used three matching home dec fabrics, decorated with small green ribbon, along with very tiny silver glass rocaille seed beads attached to a light almost clear ribbon. I made roses out of the ribbon also. The picture was scanned, then printed on a transparency sheet using my color laser printer. Pretty.

Mini Art Quilt - Yoga Sticks Sun Salutations #1

I really like my yoga instructors at FreeSpirit Yoga, here in Long Beach, Ca. They are my friends now, because they are so wonderful!

I am in the process of sewing gifts for each of them to show my appreciation. So far, I’ve made this Mini Art Quilt - “Yoga Sticks” Sun Salutations for one of them, Jenni Brandon. As well as being a wonderful yoga instructor, she is also an award-winning composer, conductor! Please go visit her website .

Now, I am not an artist at all. No. No. No. No! I leave that up to my Childrens’ Book Illustrator Daughter, Christina Forshay, who certainly didn’t take after me in the art department. In fact, I can barely draw stick figures—really! But I used sun salutation stick figures to make this 11½”x 10” small art quilt for Jenni B. As usual, it took me far too long to make it. 

To determine what type of “Yoga Sticks” I wanted, I drew a few on the back of an envelope to see how they would turn out to see if I in fact, could draw stick figures.

Not bad, but if I wanted them to look more consistant, I had to use a Mac drawing program, Pixelmater to help draw my “Yoga Sticks.” Hey, for someone like me, who literally cannot draw, I need all the help I can get. Period.

I tried three different methods of using the drawings of my “Yoga Sticks” to see which one I wanted to go with, as far as designing the mini art quilt. I’ve used all three before.

One was to print a mirror image from my laser printer, then transfer the printed image onto fabric using a blender pen or Citra Solv. It works really well!

Second, was to print an image from my laser printer onto a transparency sheet, then place it on top of fabric.

Third—and this is the one I used, I printed the “Yoga Sticks” from my laser printer, then placed the printed sheet under white muslin and traced my “Yoga Sticks” onto it. I then sewed over the tracings a few times using the regular utility straight stitch set at 2.0. I didn’t do any free-motion, as I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sew staring lines. I did have a hard time sewing the traced oval/circle heads on my “Yoga Sticks,” so I filled in the heads and tried to make them better shaped using a Sakura Identi-Pen Dual-Point Marking Pen. It is permanent and works well on fabric. It didn’t bleed at all on my muslin.

After I sewed over the tracings and filled in the heads with the marker, I dyed the white muslin. It came out a greenish blue color.

I put the rest of the mini art quilt together with home dec cotton and cotton ticking with extra firm stabilizer sandwiched in between.

Items I used to decorate this mini art quilt were: a vintage earring piece, different size “pearls,” ribbon, buttons, and a couple of decorative stitches.

I really hope my friend Jenni B enjoys my “Yoga Sticks” mini art quilt. I enjoyed making it.

Pretty Cotton Fabric Pattern Used to Make Things

I just love this fabric pattern!  It’s a very soft cotton fabric. I’ve used it before to make yoga accessories, like a yoga mat and yoga pads. 

Oooh, pretty!

A very small water bottle carrier with insulated batting

Eyeglass holder with fleece lining, plus a travel tissue holder

Zippered bags in different sizes, ranging from the largest 11½” x 10¼” to the smallest is 4 ½” x 6 ½”

I make a lot of different zippered bags. I have them all over the house. And of course, give them away as gifts.

A few years ago, I needed something to take to the gym that wasn’t a purse, yet held my wallet, cell phone, and keys. I came up with a “hands-free neck purse.” They always come in handy when I have to hold my small grandchildrens’ hands without hanging on to a purse where the strap usually falls off my shoulders. I’ve since made several using a variety of different materials. For instance, this one is made with a store bought towel cut in half lengthwise. The  pockets are of course, using this wonderful cotton fabric pattern. Inside one pocket is a key fob.