Home » Arts & Design » Crochet, Sewing & Knitting » Quilting

Miniature Quilts - Tips, Tricks and Free Patterns

Ranked #42 in Arts & Design, #340 overall | Donates to ASPCA

Miniature Quilts - Beauty in Small Packages!

If you have never made a Miniature Quilt, why not try one for a change of pace? You can make a miniature quilt for a dollhouse bed or larger doll cradle, a decorative wall-hanging for the holidays, or even a lap quilt or small throw to match your furnishings.

The miniature quilt shown to the left is 8 1/2 inches square and is appliqued and embellished with embroidered details.

Contents at a Glance

What are Miniature Quilts?
Helpful Tips for Making Miniature Quilts
Make Miniature Quilt Piecing Easier with...
Seaming Help for Miniature Quilts
Tools to Use When Making Miniature Quilt...
Small Scale Quilting = High Visibility

There are different approaches to making mini quilts. You can use a reduced number of standard sized blocks to make a smaller lap size quilt or even enlarge a block to make a wall-hanging from a single block. Other mini quilts are made in similar fashion as traditional quilts but in reduced scale, typically being made using the same number of block units as you would use in a bed-sized quilt. The blocks are so reduced in size that the entire miniature quilt may end up being smaller than the original block.

The miniature quilt shown here is made using the Double Wedding Ring pattern and the total size is 8 by 9 1/2 inches.

As you can imagine, making mini quilts takes patience and attention to detail because they must be precisely assembled. Below, I have some tips to make small scale piecing and putting together miniature quilts easier.

Helpful Tips for Making Miniature Quilts

Mini Quilts Require a Focus on Accuracy

Grandmother's Flower Garden Miniature Quilt

Accuracy is key. While accuracy is important in standard quilt making, it is absolutely crucial when making miniature quilts. Your mini quilt units must be cut accurately and you must be able to sew a consistent 1/4" seam. When you are dealing with units that are less than 1/2" wide, any variation on the 1/4" seam will cause problems with matching seams later. Certain blocks, such as half triangle sets, can be made deliberately larger and then trimmed down which can save some time. Before starting to sew, take a look at your quilt patterns and decide if this assembly technique would work with your pattern.

When it comes to matching seams, it is important to pin carefully prior to stitching. Be sure to use quilting pins which are thinner, longer, and sharper than regular pins. Time spent pinning accurately will save time ripping out seams later. One trick that I use frequently when trying to perfectly match seams is to insert a pin straight up and down through the points that am I trying to match and leave it standing up. If you angle the pin to one side or the other, the seams will slip slightly, so it works best if the pin is completely vertical. With the seams matching, you can then pin on either side of the vertical pin and then sew the mini quilt units together.

The quilt in the photo is a miniature Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. The individual hexagons finished at 1/2" each.

Make Miniature Quilt Piecing Easier with this 1/4" Presser Foot

This sewing machine presser foot can make quilt piecing easier, especially miniature quilts, because it has quarter-inch markings on three sides to ensure accuracy. Because the markings are on numerous sides, it is easier to tell when to pivot. Also, the small center hole prevents the fabric from being dragged down into the feed dogs.

Brother SA125 1/4 Inch Piecing Foot

Amazon Price: $1.00 (as of 02/16/2012)

Seaming Help for Miniature Quilts

Tips for Making Miniature Quilting Easier!

If you have trouble feeding your mini quilt pieces into the sewing machine in a straight and even manner like I do (it seems as though my machine likes to eat my fabric), there are a couple of tricks that you can use to make this easier. The first trick is a variation on the chaining technique where you feed multiple sets of fabric pieces into the machine except that you use a piece of scrap material to begin and end your stitching. Another helpful tip is to use your straight stitch feed plate (this is the one with a small hole rather than a slot). This helps prevent the fabric from being pushed down into the feed dogs.

When you press the seams on your miniature quilt blocks, take care that you do not distort the seams nor the fabric out of shape. This is an especially important consideration when using bias pieces that easily stretch off grain.

The blocks in the mini quilt shown here are only 1" wide. The sides of the quilt are embellished with beautiful silk ribbon embroidery.

Tools to Use When Making Miniature Quilts

Here are some essential tools for making mini quilts

Small Scale Quilting = High Visibility

With Miniature Quilts, Small Errors Can Look Huge

When you reduce the scale of quilt blocks, it has the effect of magnifying their features. Any error, however minute, will be much more apparent than in it's larger counterpart. Also, people are generally intrigued by miniature items and tend to scrutinize them more closely. I know I do.

Another option for precise small scale piecing is to use the foundation piecing method. Foundation piecing enables the quilter to create complex blocks with a high degree of accuracy.

If you are interesting in learning how to make a miniature quilt, I have suggested some of my favorite books below.

Find Miniature Quilt Patterns in These Books

This book offers 18 different Mini Quilt Patterns

Pretty Little Mini Quilts (Pretty Little Series)

by: Ray Hemachandra

Amazon Price: $3.55 (as of 02/16/2012)

Mini quilts are no larger than three feet in length or height, making them perfect for quilters in the mood for a smaller, quicker project. These wonderful, modern designs-suitable for beginners and intermediates-are the creations of 25 leading artists, many of whom have a prominent online presence.

The featured techniques, all explained in the Basics section, include machine and hand quilting, piecing, embroidery, fusing, embellishing with beads and other materials, and trapunto.

Free Miniature Quilt Patterns

I have listed some links to free patterns for mini quilts. If you know of one that I have missed, please feel free to add it!

Miniature Quilts - Tips, Tricks and Free Patterns

Miniature Quilts - Beauty in Small Packages!

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

What are Miniature Quilts?

Helpful Tips for Making Miniature Quilts

Mini Quilts Require a Focus on Accuracy

Make Miniature Quilt Piecing Easier with this 1/4" Presser Foot

Seaming Help for Miniature Quilts

Tips for Making Miniature Quilting Easier!

Tools to Use When Making Miniature Quilts

Here are some essential tools for making mini quilts

Small Scale Quilting = High Visibility

With Miniature Quilts, Small Errors Can Look Huge

Find Miniature Quilt Patterns in These Books

This book offers 18 different Mini Quilt Patterns

Free Miniature Quilt Patterns

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila! Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

Whip Up Mini Quilts: Patterns and How-to for 26 Contemporary Small Quilts (Hardcover)

A New Miniature Quilt Book from the Creative Minds at WhipUp.net!

What others have to say about miniature quilts...

Mini Quilts on Exhibit

If you liked the Oh Wow! Gallery above, here is the book that tells more of the story!

Mini Quilts to Inspire You!