My Quilty Musings: PQ 13.4 - Mining for Diamonds

This week's challenge presented so many possibilities, so many ideas!

A few year ago, I made a Lemoyne Star baby quilt out of part of a layer cake, and it really turned out nice. But the more I thought about it, I realized that I had completed that one as a Project Quilting Challenge! (PQ 11.6 - Vibrant and Vivacious). So I nixed that idea. I didn't want to do the same thing twice! And besides, I have a big quilt in progress on my design wall right now. All the blocks are in just the right places, and if I took them down to put up a different quilt, they'd get all mixed up, even if I labeled them. Ask me how I know....

I considered making a mug rug, like this one that I made from a Kimberbell embroidery file. But mug rugs seem kind of overdone, (especially by me ;->) and I was in the mood to do something different.

As I was mulling over ideas and digging through my stash, I came across a small piece of harlequin fabric that I had printed using a fabric sheet and my printer. As an aside, I don't know about you, but I am not very fond of the fabric sheets that are sold for use in a home printer. The ones that I have tried all seem to be very stiff.

At the time that I printed the harlequin fabric, I had been playing around with ideas for a guild challenge for a Mardi Gras themed wall hanging. I didn't have the time to go searching local quilt shops or order online and wait for delivery, so I bit the bullet and tried the printable fabric sheets. As it turned out, the fabric ultimately didn't make the cut (pun intended) for the wall hanging. I hate to waste things, so I put it in my 'someday I'll figure out what to do with it' drawer. It had been languishing in that drawer for several years. Since the harlequin pattern is made up of diamonds, I thought that this was the perfect time to use it.

Still going with the Mardi Gras theme (I mean, what else can you do with a fabric that is green, gold and purple diamonds?), I decided that a mini banner to string across the fireplace would be apropos. I cut out the letters spelling "Mardi Gras!" from the fabric sheet, then cut out green, gold and purple felt rectangles and sewed them on top of each other to make little panels. I thought that using pinking shears for the gold would add an interesting detail to the panels. Maybe it does, but cutting the soft, flexible felt with the pinking shears that I have was a pain in the tuchus. Next time, I will stabilize the felt before attempting it!

I used fusible applique and for the letters and carefully ironed each letter onto a set of rectangles. Note the word 'carefully'... on my first attempt, the iron was too hot and I almost fused the felt to the iron!

Then I strung the little panels together on a length of purple yarn and hung it over the fireplace.

To tell you the truth, I am not thrilled with the outcome. The diamonds in the harlequin fabric are a little too big and the letters lose definition from a distance. I may take a black marker and go over the edges of the letters to make them stand out better, but it is finished for now.