Putting Your Best Foot Forward

I've been noticing here and there that mini quilts are really a big thing in the quilting community. I don't have an Instagram, but apparently mini minis are all the rage right now! Even smaller than a mini, some of these are just a few inches square which is mind boggling. So when Kitty over at Night Quilter posted about a swap on Instagram, I ooohhhhed and aaahhhhed with the best of them, deciding that I would have to make at least one to grace my wall. Then the unthinkable happened.

Somebody was being a sleepy grouch during this photo session. Lol

I don't know why it is, but I get starstruck pretty easily in the blogosphere. There are people who have a ton of followers, who are extraordinarily talented, who are well known pattern designers, and some of them even work for/with companies and fabric producers. I know most quilters aren't famous by society's standards, but to me, these people are famous! The first time a blogger that I followed commented on my blog, I nearly jumped up and down on my couch and immediately told my best friend the good news! Lol.

I feel like I'm citing my sources for a research paper, except with a picture!

So when Kitty emailed me asking if I wanted to swap mini minis, I basically lost my mind with glee! I couldn't believe that somebody as awesome and talented as her wanted to take the time to swap with little ol' me! I tried to keep the gushing to a minimum as I accepted, though I'm not sure how successful I was. Lol. She told me some of her likes, but in the end, she gave me free reign because she wanted a 'piece of my style' on her wall. How. Awesome. Is. She?!

My little wee rainbow

If you follow Night Quilter, you know she is all about rainbow and color wheels. And she does some pretty paper piecing as well! So as I laid in bed that night, I started brainstorming. I wanted this to be a totally awesome piece of work that I would be proud to mail to her! And though I just started with EPP, I decided to design an EPP mini mini that I guess is original since I didn't use a pattern or inspiration picture? After having a vague idea of what I wanted, I sat in the floor with all my fabric and sorted through it until I found the colors I wanted. I took a note out of Jenn at A Quarter Inch From the Edge's book and laid them out in a literal color wheel in the floor to make sure things flowed well!

Easiest. Basting. EVER.

And after that, I drew out my design on graph paper, shooting for ~4 inches square as my final product, but I wasn't too hung up if it was bigger or smaller. I was so psyched by my progress that I made templates and basted everything Saturday night, staying up late. Sunday after church, I curled up in the floor again and started stitching everything together. It was so fun to see it come together so quickly, so I just kept chugging along and the next thing I knew, it was quilted and a binding was ready to be put on!

My ol' girl looks enormous next to this mini mini!

The binding was the worst part of this entire project, hands down. I wanted a skinny binding, so that may have been the problem. It was just so finicky and my corners weren't cooperating well. Overall, I think it's okay, but I'm not completely satisfied with it sadly.

It looks all lopsided in this pic, I swear it's not like that!

The title of this mini mini, Putting Your Best Foot Forward, was inspired by the backing fabric. These Cotton and Steel Viewfinders are pretty well known I feel like, but I hadn't actually sat down and read the titles of all the viewfinders. As I was going through my fabric looking for rainbow colors, I stopped to read them and it just seemed fitting. I was working so hard to put my best foot forward with this project! The quilting even emphasized it afterwards, such a happy coincidence! 

Guess who woke up and decided to be a model? ;)

I'm really liking this mini mini business! I'm definitely going to be making more of these in the future. I also think it's going to be a great way to try out new ideas or revisit old ones. So what about you? Are you going to jump onto the mini mini bandwagon? Or are these just too tiny for your tastes? Let me know! :)