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Science Club – A Michael Miller Project

Kimberlee Tanner

Science Club – A Michael Miller Project

We are so excited to be Michael Miller Brand Ambassadors this year. What does that mean? It means that Michael Miller sends us fabric and we get to dream up anything we want to make with it! So far this year we’ve completed our Awestruck quilt and redid Crackle. We have lots more fun and inspiration coming all year long.

Living in a house of scientist wannabees, we were very excited when we opened up this package of Michael Miller Fabric. Stem Squad by Edward Miller is all things math, science, and FUN! My absolute favorite part is that it even comes with pink print for all your pink loving scientists. As the mother of a 4 year old lover of all things frilly girl who’s favorite thing is to do science experiments, this was super awesome. We didn’t get any in our box to play with, so head to Michael Miller’s website to check it out.

Often, we design a quilt pattern and then find the perfect fabric for it. This was not the case with these fabrics. We were immediately inspired by the prints. One look at the mad scientists and we knew what we wanted to do with our fabric.

We chose three easily recognizable scientific symbols and opted to applique them in solid white on top of our prints. This did two things, it made the applique stand out more and didn’t detract from the prints behind it. It keeps things bold, clean, and easy to see. Of course, we couldn’t use just one print in the background though as we never would have been able to narrow it down. Instead we used all of them and made simple 4 patch backgrounds to applique our symbols on top of. We used fusible web and raw edge applique, making it easy to keep nice clean lines on our small appliques. The fusible web will also give added durability to the appliques, which is nice when you know you will likely be washing it more often, for instance, when it’s a quilt for kids.

The first symbol we chose is our nod to Marie Curie and everything radioactive. (Now I have that song in my head as my 14 year old sings it constantly). The most fun science experiments are the ones that explode or spark or have the feeling of danger in some way, so we started by warning anyone that might come near. When playing with science, never forget your safety goggles.

Next, we went into the lab and filled our beaker with a mysterious scientific liquid, ready for mixing and analyzing. Whether you are looking for physical changes, mixing it with something else, or about to stick this beaker over your Bunsen burner, you are ready to go.

And last, we went microscopic. Our final design is an ode to the building blocks of everything. We went in tiny and blew up an atom. You really can’t do anything scientific without these guys, so we knew we had to include them in our collection. The pillows were then outlined with a border made of small scraps of all the prints. We love the extra pop of color and fun it brings to the designs.

For the quilting, I echoed the appliques and did some large pebbles in the background. I wanted texture, but nothing that would detract from the fabric, it’s definitely the star of this show. In the white borders I did a combination of piano keys in the first border and circle doodles in the outside border.

They finish at 18″ square and we finished ours off with a binding edge. If you aren’t sure how to do that, it’s just like binding a quilt! We layered the quilted top right side up on top of the backing with right side down (we put a zipper down the middle of our back, but you could do this with a button or envelope closure too). Then we sewed the binding to the front using a 1/4″ seam and wrapped it around to the back. You could then either hand sew it, or stitch in the ditch along the binding edge on the front of the pillow for an easy finish that looks hand sewn (from the front at least).

While we did a set of pillows for this initial project, we have plans to turn them into a quilt as well, so you’ll be able to make a matching set! When the kids started fighting over the pillows, we knew we needed to expand on this project. We don’t have a release date for the quilt pattern yet, but we will be sure to announce more info when we get closer!

I mean, come on, look at those mad scientists, aren’t they the best? We are pretty certain everyone needs them in their life.

Any questions don’t hesitate to reach out!

Happy Quilting!

Kimie and Missy


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