Bright as Yellow: A Mini Quilt

I cleaned up my sewing space recently and made the most amazing discovery. I found my living and dining rooms.

They’re lovely, lovely spaces, with deep brown furniture and warm yellow walls. The thing is, neither room looks as if it is home to a quilter. I needed to remedy that.

I decided the spot between the two front windows in my living room was a good place to start. A tall lamp lives in front of that wall space, preventing me from hanging a mirror or framed print there, but I thought a mini quilt would work well. Pulling inspiration from my new friend Caitlin’s work, I started making half-square triangles (you might think I’m partial to half-rectangle triangles, but I love making HSTs just the same).

I had been waiting for the perfect project for these low-volume charms.
I was pleased to put them to good use here.

Each one has a yellow half and a low-volume half. I bought the yellow fabrics for a project that I abandoned before I even got going with it (I was going to make this quilt in grays and yellows). The low-volume fabrics were from a charm swap that Chelsea (Patch the Giraffe) and I organized last year. In other words, this mini was made entirely from my stash. Whoopee!

I can spend months on intricate quilting projects, but my favorites tend to be
my more simple fabric endeavors, like these half-square triangles.

I wanted this mini to serve as a backdrop—wallpaper, even—that would anchor the space and the lamp without being a focal point in itself. I think it works.

Bright as Yellow in her official spot in my living room.

Very few projects of mine take this course. I don’t like creating for a specific room. Usually, the throw quilt or mini quilt comes first—and then I determine who will receive it or how I will use it. I think quilting is more fun that way. (One exception is the quilt I made for my mother-in-law, for which I trooped through quilt shops in Massachusetts and New Hampshire with one of her pillows in tow!)

I wish I could use a single-fold binding in all of my projects! I love how the gray
Zen Chic fabric frames this mini.

How about you? Do you do “commissions”—whether they’re real ones that the recipient has a lot of input into and compensates you for or one that you tailor to your own décor?

Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday, Let’s Bee Social, TGIFF, Finish It Up Friday ...