miniature quilts
 

While at a BoM class last week (my first class ever) the instructor/shop owner was showing some miniature quilts he had made. These quilts were all maybe 6"x8" and were pretty detailed. He said he will be teaching a class on them, but it looks like it won't happen for a couple months and it will most likely be during my workday... but for the first time ever I am tempted to take a day off work for a sewing class! I am really intrigued by these tiny quilts.

I have been googling mini quilts in my meager spare time lately, but I haven't really found much to help me yet. Or maybe I have found too much, and am just having trouble sorting through it all to find what I am really looking for. It seems a lot of the "mini quilts" I am finding are really just small quilts... I want to find patterns or foundation paper templates for tiny quilts. Should I instead be looking for doll quilts? Even though the doll quilts I saw still looked larger than what he had made.

If any of you guys know a good site or book for teaching the techniques for making teeny tiny quilts, please let me know. Or if you know an online shop that sells foundation papers for them, or patterns.

Thanks!!

Everything is the same as making a full sized quilt ... just smaller!

If you are wanting to do paper pieced minis, then just use regular PP patterns and reduce their size down to whatever size you want to work with. For non-PP minis, again just scale down your pattern pieces.

Here's my first mini .... and it was also my first Irish Chain ..............
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...h-t189484.html

I took classes from Sally Collins. Amazing techniques. Miniatures are different from a small version of a large quilt. Her book Mastering Precision Piecing is worth the purchase. Carol Doak also has some paper pieced miniatures. Google miniature quilts and you will find lots of info.

If you enjoyed the class you took and the instructor was one you found helpful and knowledgeable, you might find out a lot of useful information at the class. There might be some special techniques that you might find helpful. I suggest you treat yourself to a one day vacation and take the class. Like the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" I think sometimes a live experience might be worth the time. And if you have questions there is a knowledgeable person right there to answer, plus you might also get some useful info from others in the class.

I took a mini-quilt class once. The finished 4 patch and 9 patch blocks ended up 1 inch, so it was definitely some different technique. We used a tear away stabilizer to assemble the tiny pieces, and the seam allowances were a scant 1/8 inch. They suggested using a flannel instead of batting. One key thing is to find interesting fabrics that have designs or textures small enough to read well at such a tiny size.

To be honest, I found it pretty tedious piecing, and I never actually finished my mini. I do think they are intriguing though.

I am a miniaturist and if you'd like to check out my stuff you can search Rhonda on QB and find alot of my tutorials. I use shortcut methods I created that allows you to make small tiny stuff without using the tiny pieces. I use templates usually 1 1/2" or 1 1/4" or 1" acrylic templates that I have available. I'd be more than happy to show you how to make htem the way I do.

This is not paper piecing.

I make checkbook covers bookmarks yes the 5" x8" mini quilts keychains with 1" hsts and more
7" x 4 1/2"
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These bookmarks are 7" x 2 1/2"
[ATTACH=CONFIG]466344[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]466345[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]466346[/ATTACH]

Coin purses are 5" x 5"
[ATTACH=CONFIG]466347[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]466348[/ATTACH]

There used to be a Miniature Quilts magazine and I loved it. Maybe you could search some out on ebay or at your library?

You could spend a lot of time looking through this blog. http://makingminiaturequilts.blogspot.ca/

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t110405.html Check out this info, wow!

Rhonda, do you have a name for the center block on the checkbook cover you showed here? And the last coin purse block? I used something similar for a large block quilt, and couldn't find a name for the block I used.

OH Rhonda, those are beautiful! You are really good!!

Dina