Schnitzel Star Mini Quilt (with free pattern!)

Hello friends and Happy April!

Because I seem to have taken a bit of a "break" from blogging,
I have ended up with quite a list of projects that haven't been properly posted and shared!
Of course just about everything I do is documented on Instagram,
but Instagram can't replace the ability to fully share a project's story on your blog.

I hope you'll join me as I spend some time
catching up on the past year of sewing and quilting.
Who doesn't love looking at more quilted pretties right?!





During January and December,
I participated in the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt swap through Instagram
and had such an absolute blast!

I was given a secret partner, a list of her likes, dislikes and inspiration,
and was sent on my merry way to create a mini quilt that she would hopefully love forever.
A huge task for sure, but it was so much fun!!

My partner wrote that she was quite inspired at the moment by
abstract, angular, very fractal looking quilts and designs.
She is also quite spiritual and I wanted to try and include a nod to that.
So I decided on a prism/fractal/however you would describe it paper pieced star!



Having never tried paper piecing before, I first turned to a great resource -
PMQG member and paper piecing superstar Cath of Wombat Quilts.
She has a whole list on her site of free paper pieced star block patterns,
as well as some great tips on learning how to paper piece.

I found this pattern for the Twinkle Star,
which looked exactly like the star I made when trying to sketch out an idea.
The fact that it looked like stained glass was such an added bonus!



For my mini quilt, I made one star using the paper pieced pattern,
and then set in on point.
Then I made another star with lighter teals for the center points,
and broke it up into quarters,
putting each quadrant in a different corner.

For the fabrics I used a scrappy combination of blues, teals, aqua and navy,
and some Tula Pink birds and bees as the center star.
This is the first quilt where I really feel like I nailed my "fabric style".
I love tone on tone geometric prints,
so that when I combine them in a scrappy way it becomes much more
about playing with their color than with their design.
The background is a scrappy mix of different toned greys.

I bound the quilt in the lightest aqua,
and LOVE that when you first look at the quilt,
the corners almost seem to disappear,
making the quilt look hexagonal instead of square!



I knew I wanted to emphasize the star with the quilting,
so I just did some simple straight line echo quilting.
I just adore how the back looks,
and think it would look so cool do do a whole cloth quilt with a great star pattern like that!



I included a little pincushion for an extra, using scraps from the quilt,
and a little lightning bolt design.
My partner's last name is Bolt, so they call their family Team Bolt!
How cute is that! I just had to make something with a bolt!

(the fact that I was listening to the Harry Potter books
the whole time I was working on this didn't help, haha!)



It all got wrapped up and sent on it's way,
and I just love thinking about the fact that a little something of mine is out in the world
hopefully making someone's home, day, and life a little bit brighter.

This is only the beginning of swapping mini quilts!
I am definitely hooked!