Shamrocks! Mini Quilt

This was a quickie project finished just in time for St. Patrick's Day:

On a spontaneous trip to The Cozy Quilt Shoppe in March, I picked up this Shamrocks monthly mini design by Patch Abilities. At first I was drawn to the cute little leprechaun hat hanger; after a few moments of hesitation I decided it would be a nice little project for an afternoon. (The finished piece measures 6" x 21".) Since I haven't had much time for sewing yet this year, I was looking anxiously for a quick 'fix'.

The fabrics are all from my stash, and I did need to get creative with fitting the small shamrocks to some of my larger scraps.  Even the binding was in the scrap pile -- originally I had cut it for a different project, but measured wrong so it was too narrow for it's intended purpose.  It was just the right size for this project.

The shamrocks are fused to the pieced background, then machine stitched around the raw edges with a blanket stitch through all the layers, quilting at the same time. I added a little more stitching in the ditch quilting around the border, too, before attaching the binding.

It turned out great and it was wonderful to finally be able to start *and* finish something new.