I Made a Mini for Me

I spent this week tackling one bear of an unfinished project and felt like I was entitled to do something fun for myself.  I figured it'd take me a couple of days, a bit of sewing here and there.  But color me surprised ... from cutting out to the border only took me about 4 hours!

It all started while I was reviewing Quilting Gallery's 2011 list of BOMs, Quilt Alongs and Challenges which included a mini-quilt tutorial by Terrie Sandelin of Bits and Pieces.  Well, after the mini quilt swap that Liz and I just did I absolutely had to go check it out.

Civil War Crossing Quilt Tutorial
by Terrie Sandelin of Bits and Pieces

Terrie's four-part tutorial was fantastic and uses the methods in her book Miniatures in Minutes and a super simple cutting method by Anita Grossman Solomon.

Here are the steps I followed and comments where I might have done things a little different than Terrie.

For the twelve blocks I chose twelve, four each of three colors: Turquoise, Red and Pink

I followed Terrie's cutting instructions and cut twelve 4-1/4" squares (one from each fabric).  Instead of using the diagonal lines on a mat, I used a 1" wide ruler I centered it corner to corner on the square and cut along each side.

I did not foundation piece the blocks like Terrie did - I pieced them like any old patchwork with a scant 1/4" seam.  This did mean that all my seams were on the bias, but I sewed and pressed carefully and did not have any problems.   Here's a couple of pics of what my blocks looked like after they were sewn.
FYI - I've added two links to tutorials for foundation piecing.

Once my blocks were pieced I could have trimmed them to 2-7/8" squares so they would have finished at 2-3/8" but Terrie's finished at 2" and I wanted a small quilt so I went ahead and trimmed them down to 2-1/2" (I am going to check if 4" squares would have been big enough).

Terrie and I add our sashings differently.  Regardless of whether I'm sewing a large quilt or a mini I always add my sashings to each individual block. First one side strip and then another strip that already has the cornerstone attached.

I left off the last row of sashing and cornerstones all the way around before adding a wide border (it doesn't show well in my pic) - the same white as my sashing.

I also put my side borders on before adding the top and bottom.

Needless to say, I am totally jazzed about having a finish for me!  For now it's pinned to the wall with this other turquoise and red lovely while I decide how to quilt it. And now I can get back to work ... it looks like another busy week ahead.

Happy stitching to you all ... and go check out Terrie's blog!  xox Jovita

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