Tiny Quilt

This tiny quilt comes out about 5"x6" but you could modify to make it larger or smaller. Mine is about right for a small stuffed animal to enjoy.

You will need:

• Fabric (3-4 different prints or solids)*
• Fleece or thin batting (felt would work)
• thread
• sewing machine
• ruler something to cut with (a rotary cutter and a mat work best, but sharp scissors would work)
• needle
• pins or clips
• iron and ironing board

*Quilting cotton would be best, but anything thin will work. I had scraps and the smallest one was 12" so I cut my pieces based on that (see instructions)

My smallest piece of fabric, the floral print, was about 12", so I cut all the fabric into strips that were about that length. You could modify these cuts to match whatever scraps you have.

Cut each fabric into strips that are 3/4" by the length of your shortest piece.

I cut 3 of each fabric measuring 3/4" x 12" (a total of 9 strips)

Sew each set of three strips together.

Use a 1/4" seam allowance. It is more important to be consistent than be perfect, but get as close to 1/4 as you can.

To create the pattern on the quilt, make sure your three strips of fabric are in the same order. In my case, I put the floral with the green background in the middle.

Iron each seam flat (most quilters iron the seam allowance toward the darker fabric. That will work here, but it helps if you iron the fabric to both sides to spread out the bulk in this tiny quilt)

Your strips should be 1.5" wide. Cut them into squares. I cut 20 for this design, and arranged them 4 x 5. If you want an even smaller quilt, do 12 squares, 4 x 3.

Try different layouts. There are many patterns to make with these squares. I chose this one, a basic Split Rail Fence Quilt, but play around with yours to see what you like.

Stitch them together into pairs, and then two pairs together to make a row.

Once you have all the rows, iron them, and then stitch those together.

Keep a consistent seam allowance, and try to match the points (you will see I did better in some places than in others).

Iron fat.

Trim the edges square.

Cut a piece of felt, fleece, or thin batting the same size as the quilt.

Cut a scrap of fabric a little larger than the quilt. Pin this "quilt sandwich" together on the corners.

I did not have to change the foot to quilt this; it is quite thin. I quilted through all layers with a 2.5 mm straight stitch. I followed the edges of the dark lines. (Stitch in the ditch.)

Stitch all the way around the edges to secure.

There are hundreds of quilt binding videos on the internet, (this is one of my favorites) so I am only going to point out some important steps for a tiny quilt. A normal quilt binding strip is usually 2 or 2.25 inches. I cut these strips at 1.25, and had plenty. I machine stitched the binding on the front, and hand-stitched the back.

When you get to the end where you have to cut the tails to match, remember you used 1.25 inch wide strips. Leave almost the full side of the quilt for this finishing step.

Flip the binding to the back, pin, and hand sew on the back, using a whip stitch (almost invisible).