January Starburst Mini Quilt

Not yet having a mini quilt to hang on my fridge for January - between my December mini and my February mini - I thought I should take a look at snowman quilts, figuring I could expand on the winter/snowman theme started by my January kitchen towels.

The search wasn't going particularly well - but on my way, I found unexpected inspiration when I ran across this incredible Giant Starburst Quilt from Canoe Ridge Creations (found thanks to Pinterest). I fell in love with the pops of saturated colors, as well as the overall design. Finding no snowmen quilts that spoke to me nearly as loudly, I pulled a few large scraps from my piles and got to work cutting squares.

I started with 32 squares at 2.5" (16 grey, and 4 of each color) - then later cut a larger square for the center-most piece. It came together quickly and with hardly any trouble.

I backed it with a scrap of dark purple that coordinated to the grey 'neutral' on the front and got to quilting. While the inspiration piece was quilted in all-over straight lines, I wanted to do something a little less overall. I began with just outlining the internal star shape, then built out from there until it felt like another stitch would be too much.

My mini quilt finished around: 11.5 x 11.5 - a good size for hanging.

The aqua/green with gold swirls fabric in particular looks great - the print works well in the various angles. The blue heart fabric is less than ideal in that respect, something that usually makes me a bit twitchy, but I'm trying to learn to overlook that - and this one is a good start. I wasn't certain the colors were going to work together -  I very nearly used a citron yellow/green instead of the aqua/green. I'm so glad I didn't. I've been drooling over it all day - and I'm looking forward to putting it up in place as soon as possible.