When I started out quilting a few years ago or so my mum, although fully supporting my new hobby and indeed a very experienced dressmaker and talented sewist herself, made it clear that she herself wasn’t that fond of quilts and that I shouldn’t go to the effort of making one for her. Personally I think this sort of clear upfront statement would solve a lot of family angst!! By contrast my dear late mother-in-law, was always saying, when asked her opinion, she didn’t mind and you were left never really sure what she wanted!  So I was a bit surprised when mum asked for a mini quilt mat to put on her side table in the lounge. I was free to choose the design and the only stipulation was the colours should blend with their white/grey/muted green decor.

With the time I have more limited at the moment for quilting, a mini quilt was perfect, something to get my teeth into but it wasn’t going to be too pressurising. And of course colours aside I could choose what I wanted to do and the top of the side table was a very convenient 12.5” square.

Mum had admired a paper pieced star designed by Esther  I’d done way back and I settled on that but I then remembered it would need to lie flat and with all those seams coming into the centre it is hard to avoid a bit of a lump. A lump that may just tip over a cup of tea. So with that in mind I chose a design from Quilter’s Cache where the centre point had minimal  seams.

Next to fabric choice. I settled on a variety of toning fabrics to suit their decor  and then copied someone’s idea to photocopy the sections with the fabric swatches glued on to ensure the fabrics  were correctly positioned

I used headliner as wadding as it gives the quilt more substance and makes it less floppy. Floppy is good for quilts but less good when you really want a sturdy fabric mat.

As you can see it’s now in pride of place and being put to good use.

As an aside another birthday request was a second quilt for my 21 year old. This will take much longer to pull together as there are a number of Siblings Together quilts much higher up the queue, but I thought I would  present him with a selection of fabrics for him to pick the ones he liked the most. A family friend who dropped round with a card and present, looking at the modest stack of fabrics, marvelled at ‘how much fabric I’d got.’  I had to smile, little does she know…..