Hot Air Balloon Mini Quilt
Shortly after we returned home, I found this sweet hot air balloon fabric at Bolt.
These little hot air balloons were just begging to be made into something for Lauren. The balloons were small enough to fit inside one-inch hexies, so I decided to do a mini landscape of hot air balloons taking off over the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque at sunrise.
This was the first time I glue basted my hexies. What a revelation! I don't think I will ever thread baste again. Glue basting was straight-up zippy in comparison. I've always considered English paper piecing to be adorable but awfully time consuming. It's still time consuming, but much more doable with glue basting. I used an Elmer's washable school glue stick. The only trick I learned was that it worked much better if I started with a hexie-shaped piece of fabric with a 3/8-inch seam allowance rather than starting with a square piece of fabric. With the fabric squares, there was an excess of fabric that got in the way of my gluing efforts.
I took this picture right after I popped all of the hexie papers out. I love the stained glass look of a quilt top with sunlight filtering through the window.
I finished it up with some simple quilting lines spreading out from the rising sun, and bound it in tiny shimmery hearts.
I saw Lauren the week before Valentine's Day and gave her the mini. Speaking of Valentine's Day, check out the card she sent me. She is the best card giver ever. And the best sister ever.
