It's a Mini!

I love Mini's-Mini Cooper's and most recently, mini quilt blocks.  That is my little red Mini Cooper parked there in the photo.  We had a fun day playing in the snow.

I finally tried my hand at making a miniature quilt block.  It has some unique challenges, but what fun they can be, and cuteness factor is way up there too.

I had some scraps leftover from another block I was working on for my Moda Blockheads Block of the Week quilt.  One of the other quilters started making 'Mini's" with her scraps and several of us have joined along.  I will warn you now, they are addictive.
Now I had these little triangle scraps to work with, but for the same finished size you could start with 2 inch squares and use the half square triangle method we have been doing with the National Quilter's Circle 9-week challenge.

I am using a 1/8 inch seam on these little triangles and through construction of this block.
If you have not tried starching your pieces then now is the time to do it.  
These little pieces go together much better if you starch them.

For my blocks I am trimming these squares down to 1 1/4 inches
so that my finished size will be 1 inch.  Yes, 1 inch!!!
That sounded crazy at first and I wondered how I would manage such small pieces.

After trimming the squares I laid them out on my design board.  
​This is just a piece of cardboard I have covered with batting.  
Once I have a design I am happy with I begin to sew the the rows together.

My quarter inch quilting foot is able to do that 1/8 inch seam by using the inner part of the foot.
I have read that some quilters prefer to do a 1/4 inch seam so that the material is on the feeddogs all the way, but then they have to trim off 1/8 of inch before pressing.  I would rather not add an extra cutting step, but if you prefer that method remember to add that extra 1/4 inch onto the size of your squares to allow for larger seams. (So instead of trimming the half triangle squares to 1 1/4 inch you would trim them to 1 1/2 inches.)

This is why I like to use my little design board-
​everything stays in order right next to my machine

Playing around with my pieces this is what I ended up with.  Pretty darn cute.

I hope this gives you enough information to try your own mini quilt block.  Let me know in the comments if you do and stop by my facebook page and share a photo too.

Happy Quilting!