Feeling Lucky: A St. Patrick's Day Mini Quilt

In the spirit of the holiday, I made a little luck charm for my house- a four leaf clover mini quilt!

As with the other mini quilts, it took just an afternoon to make. That's my favorite part about them. You start with your uncut fabric and thread and just a few hours later you have a finished product. It's a lovely break from working on the bigger and longer quilting projects.

I really enjoy St. Patrick's Day, as it gives me a good excuse to wear green and make some excellent potato-laden foods. In the crock pot right now is a pot roast with carrots and potatoes, but instead of using all beef broth, the liquid is part Guinness! I'm quite looking forward to the results this evening. If it's good, I'll post a recipe to follow.

Have a lovely day, and if you're going out to raise a pint to Ireland, please be safe!

Mr. Frosty Mini Quilt!

I finally finished my very first original quilt pattern. I was so inspired to make this snowman that I skipped over Halloween and Thanksgiving and right into winter. It's no surprise, I'm sure, that it's a mini quilt!

I'm a big fan of raw edge applique, so this guy is fused in place and appliqued with a blanket stitch. For some reason, I could never get the blanket stitch to work out right on my old machine. But with my new one, it's a breeze. I love the look that the blanket stitch gives to an applique.

But, now that this one is finished, I have some time to get cracking on a few more patterns... perhaps a spooky ghost or a big-tailed turkey? So many possibilities, so little time.

This mini quilt pattern is available for sale from my Etsy shop.

Eek! A Halloween Mini Quilt

 This mini quilt came from a quilting magazine I like a lot, Quilts and More. In the most recent issue for fall, there were two patterns for cute Halloween pillows. The finished pillows were 22" square, but I really don't have anywhere to use them. Instead, I decided to use the spiderweb applique pattern to make a mini quilt.

 
The original applique pattern was intended for a 22" pillow, not a 12" mini quilt, so I had to do a little tinkering. I scanned the original applique from the magazine pullout into my computer. I had to do 4 separate scans, because my scanner isn't large enough to capture the whole image at once. I stitched the image back together on the computer, and then shrank it down to fit in the center square, about 8".

It only took about 40 minutes from start to printing out the resized applique. After I cut out the applique, it took about 4 hours to cut, sew, applique, quilt, and bind this little guy. Fall, in my opinion, starts on September 1st, so this Halloween addition to my decor is only a wee bit early.

I've started drafting some designs for other mini quilts- including a fall one and a snowman. I've been a bit under the weather the last few days, but with any luck I'll be able to get them finished by next week. Those patterns will be available on my Etsy shop after I've tested them out and worked out the instructions list.

I Pinch! Mini Crab Quilt

After finishing up a large project like the Halloween Circle Quilt, I like to take some time to work on a smaller project. Nothing big or fancy, just something I can finish in a couple hours or an afternoon. I bought a small table-top quilt hanger ages and ages ago along with a small quilt kit to fit on it.

 
I thought it was about time I finished this quilt up. I cut out the appliques and stitched the top together last summer and then set it aside for other things. With my big quilt finished, it was the perfect opportunity to finish him up.

I changed the applique a little. The crab had eyestalks in the original pattern- but any good Marylander will tell you that crabs don't have eyestalks! So I left those off and placed the eyes on his body. The quilt kit and frame came from the Wooden Bear, they had a booth at a show I attended last year.

They have two sets of "Little Quilts", one for each month of the year (and a birthday cake, too). For the most part, the patterns a little too folky for my taste but the idea of having a small frame to hang interchangeable quilts on really appeals to me. The frame itself will hold a 12"x12" quilt, but I could also fit one that's up to 16" long on it. This frame and several other sizes and styles are available from Ackfeldwire.

Before starting up another large project, I think I am going to design a few of these mini quilts. They take only an afternoon to complete and you don't need much fabric for them at all. I finished up a Halloween one already, but I see Thanksgiving and Christmas ones in my future.