May Mini: It's Tomato Season!

 This month's mini quilt was inspired by two of Barb Vedder's (Fun with Barb) recent mini quilts:  Quarantini and Eggsotica.  Both feature the use of simple shapes as a fun way to play with design, color, and quilting technique.

After reading Barb's Eggsotica blog post, I got to musing about what simple shape would be meaningful to me in a similar mini quilt experiment.  Since tomato season was just getting started here in South Louisiana, tomatoes seemed like a fun idea for experimentation.

New Orleanians love their Creole Tomatoes.  Creole doesn't refer to a tomato breed, but instead is a reference to where the tomatoes are grown.  The rich, alluvial soil of the lower Mississippi delta produces richly flavored, juicy tomatoes.  

After playing with tomato shapes for awhile, I realized my tomatoes wanted to tell a story.  Specifically, a tomato sandwich story.  

I didn't learn to appreciate tomato sandwiches until I was a young adult.  A friend from Alabama introduced me to them one summer day, and I became an instant fan.  A traditional tomato sandwich is nothing but juicy, ripe tomato slices, soft white bread, mayonnaise, and a little salt and pepper seasoning.   Like everything, there are lots of variations, but that's the original recipe.

By now my mini quilt experiment had strayed a bit from the original simple shapes, but I was off and running.  Raw-edge appliqué was the best choice for all the shapes I wanted to use.  The appliqué edges were zig-zag stitched with invisible thread.  I even added a bit of machine embroidery to my mayonnaise jar, because a tomato sandwich really needs to "bring out the best"!  😃

I had wanted to experiment with Barb's matchstick-style quilting, but after trying it on some practice blocks, it just didn't do anything for the quilt.  I wound up doing outline quilting around the blocks and the appliqué shapes, using Aurifil 28wt thread.  The finished quilt measures 14 inches x 14 inches.

I had a perfect piece of backing fabric in the stash, an ode to tomatoes by Hoodie Crescent.

And a perfect location for a label!

Many thanks to Barb for the inspiration and to Wendy (The Constant Quilter) for encouraging monthly mini playtime!