Very miniature quilts assistance

joan

A 1:12 scale quilt is very difficult to do Nann - I admire you for doing it. I have only done a very few at that scale. At the moment, I stick mostly to 1:8 (too big for dolls' houses, but OK for other purposes). Always use a quarter inch seam, and trim it down. It's not going to get hard wear, after all! Other things you can do include pressing seams open (the bumps left by pressing to the side look awfully big at such a small scale). Also, paper piecing helps a great deal, because you have 'more to get hold of'. Things like half-square triangles can be made about an inch, and cut down. That way you are always only handling the very small pieces as the last procedure. If you have done a TATW, you have my congratulations! I will be attempting a few similar things during this Autumn/Fall. As to printing the design onto fabric and then quilting it, a friend in my miniatures group actually *painted* a pieced quilt pattern onto a a fine fabric and quilted on that. She first quilted 'in the ditch' as it were, to make the painted pieces look like sewn pieces. Then there was a little quilting over that. If you do quilt, don't forget to scale down not just your quilting design, but also the stitch size. OK there is a lower limit, but the smaller you can get them the better it will look.

There are several books on miniatures, but really the instructions for making tiny blocks are the same as ordinary size. For instance, I am about to do some log cabin and churn dash 1" blocks. I will be using

Good luck and have fun with them. . In message , Nann Hilyard writes

I have an older book on sewing mini quilts for 1" scale. It recommended using a 1/8" seam allowance. If I remember correctly, it also advised using tape to make a guide both in front and in back of your presser foot, and moving your needle to the far left position if possible. When sewing, only the left side of the feed dogs moved the fabric. It was very tedious, but worked well, as I recall. Haven't made one quite that small for a while! Email me if you need more info, and I can get the book out and check out any more of the hints.

Rodale has a good book on mini quilts. Can't put my hand on it now, but it's great. Many minis lend themselves to paper piecing. I've done some blocks under 2" square with a dozen or more pieces. Works a treat, and you can work with slightly larger bits of fabric and then trim them down after you sew. No trying to get a 1/8" seam (or smaller) to go under the preser foot!

Monique in tX

Thanks for the advice, Patti and all!

Nann

That is soooo cute! I love mini's the best. I have those thangles. I just need to find some time to play with them.

Cindy

The smallest I have done is 2.5 inches. It was a paper pieced pineapple block in black and bright colors. I had 45 pieces. I used

I used flannel in a mini recently and I love the way it drapes, but it was kind of hard to quilt. This flannel had a really tight weave.

I have a piece of very, very thin batting that I have no idea what kind it is or where I got it. I've taken it to the quilt stores and nobody else recognizes it either. I found it in my batting box with no wrapping or anything.

I am almost out of it and of course, it works the best I've every seen.

Cindy

Splitting batting also works well for miniatures. I cut a piece of wool batt to size. Then hold it by the edge and pull it into two layers of batting. Then I have two pieces half as thick as usual. I find it drapes better than a regular piece of batt. I should think poly batt could be split as well, I don't know about cotton that stuff is needle punched pretty tightly.

marcella

Somebody else mentioned wool batt. Or else I just read it somewhere. I need to check it out.

Cindy

I can't imagine that wool batting would be "drapey" enough at miniature size. What about some of the fine soft waddings used by tailors in suits? They are specially designed to give body without detracting from the drape and soft feel of a sewn piece.

i think a layer of flannel inside for batting might be enough on a miniature. not that i've ever made one. eeeeek, all those wee tiny pieces and seams. nope i dont think i'll be making one of those. i have enough trouble with the usual size pieces/seams. jeanne