TGIFF! - Min

Unquilted

What an interesting exercise this foray into Minimalism has been! I loved reading your comments and hearing your opinions about the quilting and what would make it minimal.

When it came to the quilting, it was interesting that matchstick was brought up many times -- approved of and disapproved of in almost equal measure. It raised the question for me of whether one has to use a minimalist process (e.g. only a few quilting lines) to achieve a minimalist look or whether a simple final look is okay even if the process is more elaborate (e.g. matchstick quilting)?

When I first envisioned this project, I had planned to do matchstick quilting, hoping the simple texture would cancel the elaborate quilting process.

I added a black line of quilting on either side of the black fabric and started with 1/2" vertical lines in white Aurifil #2021 to see if that was enough. I should have taken a picture of it at that stage, but it didn't feel completed so I filled it in with matchstick quilting.

This is Min (let's be minimalist with the name too, why don't we?):

I'm not sure if the matchstick quilting detracts from the minimalist look, but I love it. I find it warms it a bit and I just love the texture.

I used a non-mitred facing binding (tutorial available here) so the binding wasn't visible. Adds to the clean look, I think.

Finished Size: 21" by 39.5".

So is Min Minimalist? According to minimalist principles, it is pretty objective (doesn't really look like anything else I've made), it is simple, it focusses on line, it uses only two non-colours, and there's no obvious binding. That said, it uses traditional materials (cloth and thread) and the quilting gives it a lot of texture.

I'll let others be the judge, but I'm liking it. A lot more than I thought I would. Yay!

Even though it's Saturday here, TGIFF! is still on over with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation so I'm going to link up and head over to enjoy the other finishes.


Have a great weekend, everyone!