Mini Quilt Design Wall

Last month I attended a quilt retreat hosted by Cherished Pieces and had such a wonderful time sewing my little heart out. Of course I brought along many projects to work on, but what did I actually do?! 

I started a new project! *snort* Of course I did!

Here is my work surface after I just dove right into cutting and piecing little squares to make a double four patch quilt. 

In my own defence, Cynthia (of Cherished Pieces) gave all the retreaters a scrappy quilt book called Sew Charming (by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene) and a Fable charm pack (by Riley Blake). What's a quilter to do but start a new project immediately?!?!

Here is the little treasure on my design wall today.

I am very happy with the green diagonal chains made from 1"  squares (finishing .5" in the quilt). And I love the hidden animals in some of the neutral prints. I spy... some cats, a bird, a rabbit, and part of a squirrel and a swan. 

It's time for decisions to be made. How big will it become? The pattern in the book is 18.5" square but I still have lots of little blocks and I could make it a bigger mini.

Does it need borders? And if so, what colour? Borders will need to be pieced because I do not have yardage of this fabric line.

Oh and also, I notice one renegade mini four patch block that will need to be sorted out. There's always at least one in every quilt that needs extra attention!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday over at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Thanks for dropping by the weekly hand stitching party where we're all about needles, threads, fabric, inspiration and self care! There is no advertising here, no Black Friday sales, no machines to give us grief, and no stress whatsoever! It's just pure relaxation, taking deep breaths, and taking one slow stitch at a time. 

And because we are all about the S.L.O.W. part, it's not very often that we can announce a finish... but today I have a finish to share! This is my Bee Happy embroidery from the October online class with Julie of Clever Poppy.  First I did some hand quilting along the stems and around the jar to stabilize the 3 layers.

I hand quilted 1/4" away from the edge of the added border on both sides. Once I got to this stage I was really excited to finish this miniature quilt, and I was quilting it late at night.

Then I got a great (late night) idea to appliqué triangles on the inside of the border. This was challenging because the pieces were so small, and I'm not very experienced with appliqué. And when I woke up in the morning, I didn't like it!  

At all!

So I removed those triangles.

And in their place, I hand quilted a triangle. Thankfully I liked the way this looked much better. I didn't detract from the embroidery as much and it just felt lighter, but filled the empty spaces in the corners.

I'm so glad I had enough of this pretty paisley fabric for the border, backing and binding.
Time to get the label on, add the corner triangles (to put the dowel into for hanging) and attach the binding.

And ta da... here it is! I love it so much!

The name of this miniature quilt is "Bee Happy" and it does indeed make me happy to see it displayed on my wall!

Finished size: 6.75" x 7.5"

Linking up to November's Favorite Finish

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Scrappy Saturday Mini Quilt

The weather this week has been glorious and tempted me to be outside as much as possible. Quilting time has been greatly decreased, but soon the snow will fly and there will be lots (too much) indoor time.

I did finish Sewcialites block #2 called Tussy Mussy by in Susan Ache. I enjoyed using up some small pieces from the 2" scrap box to make this on point block. It doesn't have a "co-ordinated" look, but it makes me happy!

But what made me even happier was using up the tiny leftover baby HSTs I made while sewing this block. Whenever possible before cutting off block corners, I sew a second seam and cut between the stitching lines, which gives me bonus tiny blocks. In this case they were trimmed up to be 1.5" (1" finished).

These little pieces turned into a little coaster. To give a sense of the scale, this is the variegated green Aurifil thread I used for the quilting... almost as big as the coaster!

I enjoyed hand binding the mini quilt in the sunshine and took a ridiculous photo of the little quilted gem clipped to the tree in the front yard. The leaves are a beautiful golden colour and the sky was a pretty blue.

And one last shot of this new finish already doing it's job as a coaster! 

Finished size: 4.5" x 4.5"

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge and the Table Scraps Challenge

Make it Miniature!

As my blog readers know, I am an avid miniature quilt maker and teacher. I have written almost 60 blog posts about making miniatures. Most of these little treasures serve no practical purpose, although sometimes they are special gifts, or they become mug mats or placemats. But the most important purpose is that it makes me feel great happiness, which is a good enough reason to spend lots of time doing it!

I recently watched the series called "Best in Miniature" where artists created dream homes in miniature size. 

My favourite episode was week 7 when the artists made hand sewn miniature pillows. This series validated my love of all tiny things, and the importance of pursuing your artist dreams. This show is casting now for the second season if you know anyone who would be interested (apply online here).

I will never use the true miniature scale of 1:12 that is used on the show. That means that a 12" block would become a 1" block which is too small for my enjoyment.

But I really enjoy making smaller projects, and this month I made a 4" berry with 49 pieces (pattern by Jackie MacDonald).

I love cutting the little pieces, and in this project the blocks are 1". 

Here are some tips for sewing miniature quilts:

1) Be precise in cutting and sewing. When you need a 1" square it must be exactly 1". When you sew the seam allowance is must be exactly 1/4".

2) Use a 50 weight thread for minimal bulk in the seams.

3) Keep your block layout right beside your sewing machine. This is my sewing station to the left of my machine. The layout is on the far left cutting mat and as rows are sewn, I pin them to the soft pressing mat right beside the machine.

4) Never use a steam iron, and only use an iron to press the finished block. Use a seam roller to flatten the seams as you go along. On a small block like this I press the seams in alternate directions for each row, and then press the row joining seams open.

5) Carefully check your seam allowance and fix every mistake as you go along. An incorrectly folded seam allowance is not a problem with regular blocks, but it makes a big difference with small blocks in terms of how flat the block will be. See how on the first seam the corner is folded back and the seam is pressed the wrong way?

6) Pin your rows to a soft pressing mat and double check your layout as you go along. I make at least one mistake in every block I sew. See how easily it happened?!? This is not a berry shape! It can easily be fixed at this point, but once rows are sewn together it's a little harder to fix.

7) Use lots of pins. This photo shows how I double pin a 1" square. It's amazing how much little pieces can shift between getting them accurately together between your fingers and how they end up under the needle. Don't let the feed dogs drag the pieces up to the needle (which causes shifting). Instead put the needle down at the beginning of the seam and then put the presser foot down.

8) Once the block is sewn, I use an iron to press the block carefully on a wool mat, and then move to a regular ironing board and use Best Press for a second pressing. Pressing is an up and down motion only - never drag the iron on the block/quilt, and never ever twist the iron on top of your precious block as it will distort the project.

9) Miniature quilts need minimal quilting. 

Instead of quilting this mini, I stitched some yellow french knots to hold the layers together which adds a texture element which looks a bit like the seeds on the outside of a strawberry. 

10) For mini quilts I use a single binding strip cut 1 3/8", machine stitched to the front and rolled over to the back, folded over and hand stitched. 

And drum roll please... here is the finished mini berry! So sweet!

Finished size: 4" x 4"

If you would like to make your own miniature berry, click here for the pattern in 2 sizes.

Hop over to Constant Quilter to see more mini quilts made in June.

May Mini Quilt

My May mini emerged from a bag of cut off corners which most people throw in the trash. Fabric trash is my treasure! 

For size comparison I took a photo of the bobbin with the block - the HST is 1" finished, and the sashing strips were cut 1" and finish at .5".

I decided to use an on point layout, which is a little tricky, so I keep the blocks right beside the sewing machine and return each sewn piece to the layout as I go. In theory this practice decreases piecing errors!

This is a photo of the entire quilt under the needle sewing the last seam. I just love this Featherweight sewing machine with her perfect stitch, pretty decals, and soft hum.

The machine quilting design is simple straight lines with the walking foot. I used 2 different  green threads and had a brilliant plan of how to alternate the colours to add another design element, and then I forgot the brilliant plan, got mixed up as I was quilting, and just finished the quilting in the dark green thread. LOL - typical me!

Here is "Daffodil Fields" with a finished size of  9.25" x 12".

This quilt uses up some  leftover eucalyptus batting and it quilted up beautifully with a little bit of loft. Some people have asked me it the batting has a smell, and there is no odour that I can detect. Perhaps there will be some odour when washing it, but I haven't done that yet.

Come check out the other May mini quilts at The Constant Quilter.

Love of Miniatures

One of my quilty passions is making miniature quilts. I have literally made hundreds of them and have learned something from making each one.

Two things have recently sparked my love of miniatures - a quilt auction and a TV show.

First the quilt auction on weekend where a miniature pinwheel quilt was donated by Henny Bremer. It is 11" square and is beyond adorable! There are 400 tiny pieces of fabric in this treasure. I missed hearing how much it was sold for, but I will find out and post it. 

We know what we love by how our attention is drawn, and I could not stop looking at this quilt! Do you know how hard it is to get the centre of that tiny pinwheel to meet? This quilt is mini perfection!

Secondly, I found a TV show called Best in Miniature and it has been captivating. I treat myself to one episode each evening and watch the artists create entire miniature worlds. 

And so... I had a craving to work on a miniature quilt! I found a bag of cut off triangle corners that someone shared with me. I spent relaxing time just running the triangles through my 1952 Singer 221 sewing machine (called Charity). She hasn't had an outing for a while so I gave her a fun project to work on.

Some people don't enjoy trimming HST blocks, but I find it relaxing with the BlocLoc ruler and a sharp rotary blade. 

The HST blocks were surrounded by 1" sashing and these are the little cuties I came up with. It's fun to get "in the zone" and just play with fabric without a plan.

Come by tomorrow to see how it turns it!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

Baggie Challenge

Block construction

Well I am way past the deadline for this project, but I wanted to blog about it anyway. Last year Rogue Quilter Janet issued a scrap baggie challenge and I got started on mine in October - see my starting point here.

Then the blocks were ignored over Christmas, and they resurfaced again last month.

I started with 1" squares and strips from my friend Jackie, and made these sweet blocks. Would you call this a quarter log cabin block?

I made 9 blocks and they were supposed to be 3". Some of them needed trimming which means my 1/4" seam allowance was not consistent. UGH. A difference of 1/8" - 1/4" is a big problem when working with miniature quilt blocks and I should have checked/measured more frequently during construction, but I was having too much fun.

I set the blocks with a 1" sashing and black cornerstones. It was fiddly work getting the rows together and having the seams match up, and I often had to say "close enough".

Here is the finished quilt appropriately called "Jackie's Scraps". It measures 10" square.

You can read more about the bloggers who met the deadline here.

Even though I made a hanging sleeve and sewed it into the  binding at the top of the quilt, for some unknown reason, I am currently enjoying hanging it this way!

I love the scrappy neutrals!

Thanks for the challenge Janet and I'm sorry I missed the deadline :)

Scrappy Saturday

My October placemat featuring light green QST blocks is done! This month's placemat creation was quite the interesting journey! It started with little HST blocks that wanted to be sweet little 1 3/8" QST blocks.  Many blog readers voted on a sashing fabric, and the green batik crackle fabric was the fan favourite by far.

The quilting was relaxing - straight lines with the walking foot between the columns, and sometimes (if I remembered) in the ditch also. And I stitching some free motion vines and leaves on the 2 side borders.

Ahhhh... the most relaxing part is hand stitching the binding. Here you can see the lovely green backing fabric, and you can also see the fact that two of the stitching lines are missing. That's okay... it lays flat and I am a recovering perfectionist, so I'm leaving it as it is! 

And here is October's finished project!

Linking up to the Table Scraps Challenge,  the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and Wendy will link me up to the mini quilts challenge at Constant Quilters.

Mini Challenge Started

Recently Janet (Rogue Quilter) issued a challenge to the "monthly Mini-acs" group at Wendy's (The Constant Quilter) to create a mini from one of our scrap bags. I have a lot of little scrap bags around here and am blessed to have quilty friends who share their scrap wealth with me.

These treasures are from a baggie that my friend Jackie shared with me. I dumped the bag out on the table and started sorting through the pieces. You can see some ideas emerging in the bottom left.

There was only 1 teal fabric in the bag and it did not appeal to me! To me it looked like hanging melons! So it got voted off the island and I started making some neutral and brown blocks.

This is the block idea that I came up with. A handful of sweetness made with the above scraps.

I started with a 4 patch and added to the sides. I stopped here because us miniaturists prefer small blocks! LOL

Here are the first 4 blocks. 

Love the total scrappiness of all the neutrals!

It's going to need a touch of colour added and for Janet's challenge we are allowed to add one neutral and one colour. 

What colour would you bring into this project?