Workshop: Mini-quilts

Last Saturday, I led a mini-quilt workshop showing the girls how to make simple but pretty mini art quilts like this one I made a while ago.  These quilts can be hung like pictures or converted into cushions or bags, if you are feeling adventurous!

Before everyone arrived, I cut up the fabric and wadding and laid out the sets.   Thank goodness for my parents’ lovely big kitchen table at their new house!

The quilts are being made using material which starts out 12″ x 12″ so the finished products will be just smaller than that.  It is of course possible to use what ever size you want.  I used three complementary fabrics so the first step was to choose which would be the backing fabric, and of the remaining fabric, which was going to be the ‘sky’ and which the ‘ground’.

Alysa's quilt

Using a fabric marker, we drew a curve on the ‘ground’ fabric about half way up and then cut along this line.  We pinched a 1/4″ inch hem along the curve at the top of the ‘ground’ fabric.  We then positioned the ground fabric over the top of the ‘sky’ fabric ensuring the bottom of the ground fabric either met or overlapped the bottom of the ‘sky fabric and pinned the fabric in place along the top curved edge.

We sewed the ground fabric to the sky fabric using an invisible whip-stitch.  You can alternatively use a running stitch just below the folded edge, making sure you catch the hem as you go.

Next, we made templates on paper of the tree shape – either all one piece or different sections for the trunk and branches.  We used these templates to cut the tree pieces from felt which either matched or complemented our top fabrics. The felt was pinned in place and then using embroidery thread (3 strands), we attached the felt to the top using a running stitch.  Either cutting freehand or using a tempate, we did the same for the leaves.  Some used a different colour felt for the leaves or cotton.

You are then free to embellish the front as much as you like, adding buttons, beads, embroidered lettering or shapes.  As this will be a mini-quilt for my baby’s nursery, I added to mine when I got home. This is how mine is looking so far:

Unfortunately, this was all we had time for at the workshop but I will be adding a full tutorial for making the whole mini-quilt to the blog very soon.  For those who can’t wait, the next steps are:

• Finish embellishing your top.
• Place backing fabric right side down, place the wadding on top of that, then place the top right side up on top of the wadding.
• Pin or tack into place (using pics, safety pins or long running stitch with thin cotton.
• Quilt by hand or using a machine as much as you like.  At least some quilt across the middle (for eample, following your ‘horizon’ will secure the layers).
• Make the binding and attach using these instructions!