Sunshine mini quilts!

My sister introduced me to an English woman on YouTube named Rachel (Stitch With Rachel) who is a big quilter. I decided I had room in my crafting life for a bit of quilting in addition to the embroidery that has taken over most of my spare time for the past three or four years. I definitely don’t need any more large quilts – I still have two or three quilt tops waiting to be finished – and mini quilts are just so darn cute that I couldn’t resist trying my hand at them. I’m also a bit of a sun worshiper so naturally, the minis I made were sun quilts.

Foundation paper piecing (FPP) is a quilt piecing technique I hadn’t tried before. It allows you to make very precise blocks by sewing onto a paper foundation allowing for “intricate and precise blocks.”

There was a steep learning curve with FPP. I basically taught myself just from reading the directions and I screwed up A LOT. The first block, I had to rip out mistakes six or seven times. There was a lot of swearing (sorry, Dad!). Fortunately, I learn pretty quickly and the second block I only messed up once.

I’m not going to try and explain how to do foundation paper piecing. It’s unlikely I’ll do a very good job since I barely understand it myself. If you want to know how to do it, I recommend you check out YouTube for an explanation.

Using FPP, you have the ability to make precise, complicated blocks but the drawback is you can end up wasting a lot of fabric. Of course, if you’re just using scraps that might otherwise be thrown away, it might not matter. I bought my yellow fat quarters at the quilt show specifically to make my mini quilts since I got rid of all my scraps the last time I moved. It may have been fabric wasteful but it sure was fun.

Once you finish sewing your block, you trim the fabric from around the pattern.

When you’ve finished trimming your blocks, arrange the smaller blocks, if necessary, and sew them together. Then make your quilt sandwich (top, batting and backing fabric), quilt as necessary and add your binding.

These were so much fun to make! I need to get some those hooks that stick to the wall but come off easily. I’d like to avoid putting more holes in the wall. Once I get some of those, I’ll put these bad boys up in my craft room and I’ll take a picture. I’ve got two more mini quilts I want to make so those are next on the agenda. Have a good week!