The flying geese and scrappy borders were left-over piecing from the original quilt. I had intended to cut strips from the Chicopee fabrics for the FREUDE text, until I realized I had some batik strips already cut, left over from this project, that would work.
I added some miniature liberated stars; I was pleasantly surprised with how the variations in the fabrics make them sparkle. I used improv piecing to fill in the background with some scraps.
I quilted various patterns in each section of the quilt, with a couple of music notes thrown in. I also quilted some text in the borders above and below "FREUDE."
For the back, I used a couple of BasicGrey fabrics I had intended to use for border and binding on the original quilt, but didn't seem to suit it. The corner pockets are used for hanging with a wooden dowel.
As I was preparing to assemble the quilt sandwich, I pressed the seams open using steam, and unfortunately my iron leaked a bit around the batiks, causing some bleeding to occur. It was worst around the bottom edge of both "E"s. Needless to say, I was not happy, but after some research I soaked and washed the quilt in Synthrapol following Vicki Welsh's instructions here. Happily, I could find no trace of the bleeding afterwards. (There is some pale blue in the design of the background fabric; don't mistake that for bleeding.)
This mini has already gone off to its new home!
I'm linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.
