Working Ever-so-small

Week of miniatures, me doing small stuff as HB quilts...

Today's blocks, trimmed to 1-1/2 inches (note the 50p piece for scale) for a version of Green Venus, long sold but still a favourite


Fussy-cut!
Micro-trees

A good day's work
And the mess. Silk is frightfully messy
Original, sorry the colour is so poor
More tomorrow
HH


 

Here's a Glimpse...

of my latest Goth Baby Quilt
See the page, top right, for the whole thing...

 

Dearie Me

Not enough posting lately. Having been somewhat moribund all Winter and Spring, now the sun is shining and we actually have Somewhere To Go (Festival of Quilts, Birmingham NEC, 29th July - 1st August), stuff needs finishing and patterns writing and such and such

Here is Little Crosses



 Old Oakshott Fabrics "Summer Check and Stripe" charm squares (no, sorry, all long gone) and two whites, improv blocks and conventional-enough sashings. Ages in the making, recently finished 
And 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 22 x 22, for The Modern Group Challenge "It Takes Two" - making a pattern for this soon
And, finished last night
Goth Tiger, my latest Goth Baby Quilt, ready to give away (ETA, now gone to a new home)
This is the back - interesting "Lascaux Caves" print
So, a bit of progress, now I will go and melt gently till after supper, then attack the Post




Week of Minis, Saturday and Sunday

 

Another place mat in gorgeous yellow, ready to quilt. The pink and green ones are finished, as is the French Hen, for which I now have all the pictures for a pattern

Table runner quilted...

And trimmed
Other things on the way, but not yet photographed..

Hanging up our Smalls

 Another productive day in MiniQuiltVille: it's been a day for smalls - here's what we've been doing.


HH has been improv-ing on charm squares and mini charms, and I have been paper piecing as is my wont! Patterns for each of these mini quilt projects will be hitting the web soon. If you haven't already done so, sign up to our joint newsletter: Modern Art Quilters, to find out when. CLICK HERE to view past issues (lots of inspiration, ideas and patterns) and sign-up.

Still heading home in daylight since there's a lot of snow and ice on the roads which gave me the chance to make more of these miniature blocks while the other half was on Zoom with his Scouts.


These will finish to 1.5 inches each and I can only make a few at a time before I start to go cross-eyed and have to do something else for a bit so this one is growing slowly but I am loving it. Only another four to go.





Further Adventures

 Well, after a slightly hair-raising trip to the Post Office, we got together at lunchtime again for further minis-and-miniatures

I've been sorting blocks for a pattern - these will be table mats to go with a table runner, in assorted colours - my little Tigers, trimmed and ready to sew together...

And this is an almost - finished sample for a new pattern - this is "French Hen"
I took photos for the pattern at every stage so it took most of the afternoon, but I'm really happy with this

Shown here with the table-mat flimsies, later layered and I have quilted some, ready to bind tomorrow. The Table runner set will be a new pattern and a video quite soon...

All day working on  one of my nice 99s, they are so quiet and easy to use and don't get in the way of conversation. And this one will be really ready to go to a new home when I'm done with it this week

HB is working on true minature blocks - see how tiny the strips are, and one star...
More tomorrow

Assembling a small forest...

Yesterday and Monday's Week Of Miniatures project. Finished quilt is 11-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches and is suitable for Miniature Quilt categories in competitions... Quilted in very fine matchstick lines with an Aurifil variegated 60 weight thread...



Detail of the quilting.

This little tree piece is all made from an old pack of Oakshott Fabrics Autumn (the original 21 colours, but the new selection is pretty nice too) and I started with a pack of 5-inch charm squares which have been lurking for a while

I cut the pieces like this, used the biggest piece as the background for each tree and the strips for the branches, the wider strip as the trunk. Tutorial HERE but I do NOT recommend you start this small...

 

 


 I arranged the trees on my little design board, then took a photo in black-and-white to assess the shading. Note the second tree from the left in the second row up - it's much lighter than the others, so I moved it up.  Your phone camera will do this for you, it's really useful



Trimming each pair to make straight edges, I sewed them together...

I arranged the pieces into slightly random blocks, as this makes for a better result...

 Only trim when you are ready to sew together. Two straight lines sewn together will always lie flat, of course. Press every time!

And sew on...All assembled. Quilt before trimming...