Miniaturists! Need your help with a Barbie Quilt
 

Using an extremely scientific method*, I have figured out that a Barbie Quilt should be 10.5" by 10.5" for a "full size." Now what the heck do I do? Should I just do something with squares, sashing and corner blocks, or is there some repository of tinyified patterns out there in cyber space? I'm trying to decide if triangles in that scale would make me go blind, crazy(er) or both. It's a serious consideration...

*ESM- measured my hand from heel to fingertips, got 7". Decided to consider myself a big handed freak, and rounded down to 6", which is so convenient. Measured Barbie's hand and it is .75", rounded down from 7/8th, because apparently she has the same problem I do. Who knew? I have something in common with Barbie! So, if our hands are both half a foot long, and hers is .75, the means one foot in Barbie's world would be 1.5" long in ours. A full size quilt is around 81" by 88". 7 feet =84", so an 84" square quilt would be 7 feet times 1.5 inches per foot, or 10.5 " square. And Bob's your Uncle!

Note: I still have my drafting scales, (those are rulers that allow you to measure in different scales, like 1.5" = 1') so I could make an 81 by 88 quilt, but even I'm not that crazy! Lol, here's the proof!

I'm not a miniaturist, but I have made a doll quilt or two in my time, and I've done some Dear Jane blocks that have teeny tiny pieces. Triangles in that scale would be tricky to do. The seam allowances would look really bulky at that scale and it will appear lumpy.

If it were me, I would most likely pull out some heat and bond, a pair of tweezers and my Clover mini iron and fuse the pieces down. Another option might be to make a little cheater quilt by drawing a quilt design onto some muslin and coloring it in with some pigma pens.

what I have found- batiks are made from finer thread, so often have less bulk in seam allowance and fold over with sharper folds. Use 60wt thread, and very small stiches. When you end up with a seam that is only 1/2" long, you want a lot of stitches or it can pull out.

cut larger, sew and trim when possible. THen you are not dealing with super small peices to start with (like when making a HST that is UF at 1")

paper peiceing works really well for very small peices. I've downsized the Carol Doak blocks from 12" to 3", but I did find that I needed to select those that did not have more than 8 points coming together. I still hand tacked the points before sewing. Sometimes hand sewing is the only way you can get everything to line up.

Grade your seams, trim one at about 1/8" and the other 3/16", this will give you less bulk in the seams, and you'll find you are sewing over seams often. Watch how you press so you can overlap seams and not be pressing them back the other way (this is overlap the long way, not crosswise).

I've found online a person that does a lot of log cabin type blocks in miniature, done PP. On some, the visible part of each "log" is about 1/8th of an inch.

these stars finished at 3". When I put them together, I cut them bigger so I didn't need to match points. Each star is made of of 8 paper pieced sections.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psfiqhaiww.jpg

My hand measured 7.25", so maybe we should start a Big Hand Freak Club! :D

Do you have EQ? You can print paper-piecing patterns that finish at any size. I made a 5" feathered star for a friend who is into doll houses.

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Macybaby - I love your minis! What is the name of the block, top row, second one from the right? Blue with yellow tips?

peckish, those are all from Carol Doak's 50 stars book. that one is one of my favorites, the dark navy makes the tips really pop.

I thought they looked like Carol's work. I think I have that book around here somewhere, if only I could find it.... :D

I want to thank you all for your answers! It made my arrival home from work better than ever.
JJBlaine- I actually thought of that as I was taking off my coat! I was thinking of a cheater cloth that was already teeny, and only had to be quilted.
MacyBaby/ Cathy- You are an animal!! Those stars are crazy small for being so intricate. I think you should take some pictures of the intermediate steps. You've really got something going there.

What is a good way to learn paper piecing?
Janey- Bahahaha! That's why I typed out my ESM, because I knew someone would have a different idea for it. Its just fun for me to get to confer with other scientists. You make my life more wonderful, I'm glad you are there. I got the size from one of those charts on the web, too. I looked at a few, and randomly chose a number. I think Barbie has a twin bed, too. My friend's DD got a Dream House from GMa and GPa for Christmas, so I'm going to have her measure the bed for me. Then I will have the Definitive Size for the BQ. But I started this last night after Haylee's bedtime, so I had to wing it.
Peckish- Holy cow! Those tiny little feathers are smaller than the nail on one of our pinky fingers, they must be 1/4" or smaller. That really is crazy. We should get that club going so we can be Charter Members, lol.

I like to use the freezer-paper piecing method of paper piecing. You sew beside the paper instead of through it. There is no paper to tear away. You can also reuse the pattern several times. I learned from this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqMiC1_JdqQ

I like to do minature log cabins this way. This quilt's log cabins finish at four inches, but it could be made smaller.

I love feathered stars and that is beautiful. I think the EQ/PP way is a great idea. thanks

How big is this quilt?