Micro-Mini Quilt

Last year, at the Northwest Quilters' Guild's Festival of Quilts, I saw a selection of "mini quilts".  Most were doll-bed sized.  I remember looking at them and thinking two things simultaneously: 

1. What's the point of a tiny quilt?
and 
2. I can make it tinier!

So one day, I took a post-it note for foundation paper, and marked one-inch squares on it.  Within those squares, I marked the lines of a pineapple block.  This picture shows several stages of the process in one frame: the back of the quilt-top, half made, half bordered, half-un-papered!  

But let's look at more pictures.  

The pineapple block is a popular block for foundation paper piecing, because you can start in the middle and add layer after layer around it.  I use very short stitch lengths (1.5mm) and sew turquoise and brown edges around an orange center.  

The yellow half-square triangles are remnants of the dandelion blocks I made years ago.  Each block is one inch square.  They look bigger here, because they have seam allowances on their edges.  

The orange fabric has little skulls set between acanthus leaves.  I neither love nor hate the skull motif, but I do like how it looks centered in the middle block, giving a focal point to the design, so I use it.  

Once the "flimsy" is done, I use polyester fleece for batting and more brown cotton for backing, and I hand-quilt it with tiny stitches to finish it off.  
​
Below, my finished micro-mini quilt!  

FRONT

BACK

My favorite part is the way the build-up of seam allowances make the blocks rise around their edges, but dip in their middles.  They remind me of the McDonald's soda cup lids that have those raised buttons you can depress, which are so fun to invert and play with!  My second favorite part is the color scheme.  

​For now, I have hung the micro-mini quilt above my spools of thread.  It is useless, and I love it! 

​So why make a tiny quilt?  For the fun of it!  

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UPDATE - March 30, 2024 
On March 8th and 9th this year, I exhibited my Micro-Mini Quilt in the Northwest Quilters' 47th Festival of Quilts show.  It won first place in the Miniature category!