"My Sewing Space" Mini QT 3D Quilt Creation

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway - Week 2 here.

I have been excited to tell you about the little quilt I made  for the Mini QT swap. The theme was 3D, and there are several 3D elements to this little quilt.

It started with an idea, born of a stamp set I saw at a couple of stamping adventures I did the first part of February. 

Then there was a sketch.  My (lack of) drawing ability is legend, so don't laugh.  I drew and erased and drew and erased until I nearly wore a hole in the paper.  

Then, I was surfing Flickr, and I found this photo and I knew I had my inspiration.

My partner said she liked pink, so I found a pink fat quarter with just a subtle print for the "wallpaper" and embroidered the dress form onto it.  The "feet" of  the dress form are beaded for a 3D effect, and the form itself is embroidered in perle cotton, which gave it a raised feel.

The dress form itself looked pretty stark until I added some trims.  The girl at the cutting counter thought I was crazy when I only bought 1/8 yard of each LOL.

Then there was the sewing machine, which was a piece of Moda's Half Moon swirl that I embroidered gold swirls on with perle cotton.  Of course, the machine is based on my mom's old Singer 99K sewing machine that I learned to sew on.  I still have the machine, and what a workhorse it is.  I swear this machine will sew concrete, if you ask it to.  And with the original attachment, it still makes the best buttonholes you'll ever see.  I added an embossed button where the "S" is on my singer.

The thread spool is from a piece of fabric I  found which was all spools of thread.  I fussy cut the spool, stuffed and quilted it, and then embroidered it with perle cotton, and ran the perle cotton through the machine as though it was threaded.

You've already seen the two little mini quilts, one from Dena Designs Kumari Gardens, left over from the butterfly place mats, and the Bliss by Bonnie and Camille, left over from the SUTK swap (more scrapbusting!!)

I wanted to give the impression of a wall hanging, so I bought some alphabet beads and stitched on "I {heart} to quilt".  I wasn't perfectly happy with the colors, but it was all that was in the package.

And the vase of flowers - yes, the vase is 1/4 inch ribbon folded strategically.

And the teacup, which incidentally is a scrap from Abby's Easter Dress last year.  Doesn't it LOOK like a China cup? (Say "yay" for Scrapbusting!)

And the clock. There is a French knot on the dial and the pulls are beads.  The clock is a scrap from the Hideaway Potholders from PP6.

I think my favorite element of this quilt was the sewing table.  The table fabric was a piece I found that looked like wood grain to me.  The spools were done in the same way as the one for the sewing machine above.  The scissors (they just HAD to be pink!) gave me fits.  I think this is the 3rd or 4th try.  The "bolt" is a French knot.

The tape measure was some cool fabric I found at my LQS, and I just filled in with buttons, to give the idea that perhaps they had spilled (or the seamstress is just sloppy?)

I think my favorite element of the whole quilt is the tomato pin cushion.  I apologize for the shadows behind the pins, but that was one of the 3D elements, of course.

I wanted to show you the back of the quilt.  PINK, of course.

And the label.

My partner makes dolls and lives in England, so I wanted there to be a Raggedy Anne doll on the quilt.  I made several attempts at Raggedy dolls, and I just couldn't make them small enough to actually fit on the quilt without taking it over.  My co-worker, who is British, told me they don't have Raggedy Anne in England, so I sent her along as well.  In typical Raggedy Anne tradition, she has bloomers, a pinafore, and a heart embroidered on her chest.

Finally, I just had to send along one of my hexie needlebooks, in pink, to match the quilt's wallpaper.

I had a blast making this little 3D mini quilt (the whole thing measures 12 x 12 - the size of a sheet of scrapbook paper).  It was fun to come up with new little details that would go with the 3D theme and enhance the finished quilt.

The frustrating thing was that you knew who your partner was, so you had to be careful what you shared and when.  I've been dying to share my little creation, but she didn't receive it until last Friday.  I hope she likes it.  You can see her Flickr photo here.