Challenge Announcement: Summer 2021 Mini Quilt Challenge

Hello Friends and Welcome!

Being that it is the 21 June, it is now officially summer! I'll be spending this season working towards a few of the goals of this blog with a little quilting challenge!

For anyone who doesn't know, the goals this blog was built upon were finishing more projects, and learning about and experimenting with new fibre art techniques. An additional goal I have for summer is to spend more time working on my projects outdoors, at least as long as the weather is nice!

If these are goals you have for your own quilt making journey, feel free to join me in my summer quilting challenge! You can follow along the whole time, or just pick a few weeks that interest you. Either way friends, I will be happy to have you along!

Now, without further ado, let's talk about the challenge!

Summer 2021 Mini Quilt Challenge

This summer, as a way to experiment with the variety of styles and techniques commonly used by quilt makers, I've challenged myself to create a series of mini quilts!

The first miniature quilts were scaled down versions of large, bed-sized quilts. They contained the same number of blocks and pieces as their larger counterparts, just much smaller. As the genre developed, the name miniature quilt was shortened to mini quilt, and the definition expanded to include patterns that had been intentionally designed as small format quilts.

Today, a mini quilt is generally defined as any quilt that is smaller than 24" (60cm) per side. There are lots of different types of mini quilts that I'll be exploring throughout the summer, including postcard quilts, mug rugs, wall hangings, and many more!

Due to their size, mini quilts can be made and finished quickly and easily, and they're ideal for experimenting with new techniques, since they don't require a huge time or monetary commitment. A series of individual small format quilts, rather than blocks within a single large quilt, don't need to be cohesive to be complete. Working on mini quilts provides the opportunity to experiment with a variety of styles, colours, and techniques, offering a lot of creative freedom to anyone who who wants to learn!

Check out The Quilt Show, APQS, and Quilting Hub to learn more about mini quilts.

Guidelines

This week, rather than making a quilt for the challenge, I'm going to start by laying out the guidelines I'll be following. These guidelines are based on art challenges like Inktober, and quilting ones like the TrendTex challenge, which I recently participated in.

Quilt Size: finished quilts must not exceed 24" (60cm) on any side. The largest possible quilt is 24"x24" (60x60cm).

Materials: my quilts will be pieced using scraps and remnants from my stash, allowing me to use up fabric I already own. While this keeps the cost of the challenge low, it also adds a limitation to what can be made. Other participants can feel free to adhere to this or not.

Design: feel free to use original designs or patterns made by other designers. If using a pattern, credit to the original designer must be included any time photos are posted.

Finishing: to be considered "complete," each mini quilt must be quilted together with the standard three layers, top, backing, and interlining. The interlining layer does not have to be made of batting, feel free to experiment with different materials to see how they alter the effect of the finished quilt. All quilts must have properly finished edges, this can be done with binding, facing, or any other common method.

Schedule: this challenge will run for the whole summer, starting today (21 June) and ending 20 September. Participants can feel free to set their own pace and make as many or few mini quilts as desired. Note that if you choose to make more than one a week, you will likely run out of prompts, so feel free to add some of your own or revisit some of the ones you loved!

I will be making one mini quilt every week featuring a different prompt from the list below. The research and making of that quilt will be featured on my blog every Monday for the duration of the challenge!

Prompts

As the intention of this challenge is experimentation, the prompts consist of a variety of quilt making techniques! The prompts have been sorted into several different categories below; feel free to use as many or few prompts to inspire your quilts as you see fit!

EDIT: I'll be adding links to each of the individual mini quilt posts as they are released. Links can be found beside the prompt chosen for that week and labelled with the week the quilt was made.

Week seven was designated as a break week.

Quilt Genre:

Postcard quilt (week three)

Mug rug (week eight)

Miniature quilt

Wearable quilt

Piecing Technique:

English paper piecing (week four)

Improv piecing (week six)

Needle turn applique (week eleven)

Foundation paper piecing

Patchwork piecing

Quilting Technique:

Free motion (week nine)

Straight line walking foot

Hand quilting (week five)

Wholecloth (week one)

Thread painting

Finishing Technique:

Machine sewn binding

Hand finished binding (week ten)

Facing (week two)

Bagging out (week twelve)

While I will be working on a weekly basis, there are more prompts than weeks in this challenge. This was planned intentionally so myself, and anyone else who wishes to participate, will always have choices available. This challenge is meant to be fun and inspire creativity, if any of the prompts don't offer that for you, feel free to skip over them!

Friends, I am really excited to start this summer challenge! The first prompt I've chosen to work on is whole cloth, look forward to seeing what I come up with for that next week!

If any of you want to join me, I would be thrilled to have you along! Whether or not you have chosen to follow the same prompt as me, feel free to share your progress in the comments of my posts or on social media using the tag #summer2021miniquilts!

I can't wait to see what we create together!

Until Next Time Friends,

VA