A Secret Mini Quilt

I have recently become addicted to Instagram.  Every morning over my coffee I scroll through all the lovely things people around the world are making.  Then when I get home from work in the evenings I scroll through again whilst making my tea. (I'm @nessahux on there if you wish to follow my pictures)

Recently lots of the quilty ladies that I follow had signed up to a hashtag group called the IGminiswap, and I felt that I would be missing out on the fun if I didn't sign up too.  I'd see lots of progress photos on these mini quilts they were making over the next few months and none of them would be for me.  SO I JOINED up!  

I had to fill in a wee form to say my fabric and colour preferences so that the organisers could send some hints to someone out there to make a mini quilt just for me.  Then later on I received the details of a lady that I would make a mini quilt for.

Here is what I have posted off to her this week:

My mini quilt!  It measures 20" and I love it.

The organisers say you don't have to include anything else, but after perusing the hashtag collection of photos it does seem as though you really should send some extras in the package, so I put in some Scottish sweet treats, a magazine, some soap, stationery, lip balm, fabric and a pen:

My Personal Conclusion

I enjoyed the thought process of inventing a small quilt with another person's colour and fabric preferences in mind.  The step by step challenge of what to do next was enjoyable to think about and I feel very satisfied with myself for creating this.

On Instagram, the members of the swap were encouraged to keep checking the photos that join the hashtag collection of photos and to comment on them.  That way, if anyone is unsure of how to best please a person with a fabric choice or design idea, they can post a picture of their two options and then hope that the person who it is secretly for will reply with a preference, along with other member's replies.  I have seen some really tricky decisions being helped by other members.  I did enjoy encouraging others in the hashtag pool of photos, and following lots of new creative ladies.

But... I won't enter anything like this again.  

The person I made this for was very silent on my mini quilt.  I had nearly one hundred people either click that they liked my quilt or that made a positive comment about it, which was so encouraging!  But the person who it is actually for never commented on my progress.  Therefore, throughout the making process I kept thinking she will be disappointed when she opens up the package and sees this one, as opposed to all the other lovely ones that she did comment on.  It made me sad to think that something that brought me a lot of joy is actually going to disappoint someone else.
Instagram can bring such happy surprises and encouragement, but whilst making this and not receiving the encouragement from the one person I was eager to please, it really detracted from the fun of making a gift.  Usually a gift is made in relative privacy, but the progress on this was done publicly and I came to rely on the external positivity instead of my usual internal positivity, and became disheartened when I didn't receive it from my intended recipient.
So from now on, my surprise gift making shall be done in private.  The need for external validation during the process stage is not for me.  But I am glad I tried it.  I did enjoy watching everyone's progress and commenting on lots of people's work, but I also became a bit needy and filled with self-doubt.

Selfie with my finished Mini Quilt!
I love it!

P.S. The person who this was for DID love it!!!!  She said she "gasped" when she opened it and really does like it a lot.  - all that dread and worry was wasted!!!

P.P.S. This is also a finish from no.3 on my 2014 Fourth Quarter list of projects to be completed for Katy's Finish-Along

The Process - details for my own records

Following are the progress photos for this Mini Quilt. 

I pieced a lone star pattern using five fabrics,
then used this fabulous dictionary print with gold
deers and lace doilies on it as the background.
My first attempt at Y seams too!

My first plan was to use this gorgeous bold fabric to create
a Swoon block, sort of like a flower.  So I started with
these corners to turn the shape into a square.

The beginnings of turning it into a Swoon block.
At this stage I had to abandon that idea, if I
continued with this plan it would end up being 30" square,
which is too big to be considered a mini quilt.

Out came the Unpicker and on went some new corners!

Now to come up with a new plan!  I made these little blocks
and decided on a diamond shaped theme.
I intended for this placement at first...

...but after swapping the position of the blue and grey squares and adding some rectangles of background fabric...

I am so pleased that I was able to keep all the large pieces
of this background fabric up the right way too!  It is such
beautiful fabric - Indelible by Katarina Roccella

I have drawn on top of this photo to show the quilting lines that I did on my machine.  All straight lines in diamond shapes.

I made little folded flag tabs to put around the edges, which I later found out are called prairie points.