Miniature quilts

This weekend was another City & Guilds session, this time with Mhairi Matheson as our tutor, who specialises in miniature quilts.  We made various samples on Saturday and on Sunday we looked at foundation pieced miniatures.  I started on what I hope will be my finished miniature piece for my C & G assessment.  I am mostly using Liberty Tana lawn prints, because the fabric is very thin and tightly woven, but I am also including two Japanese patchwork prints which I have fussy cut for the kimono and kamon crest 'blocks' - mini cheater fabrics.

I am using a finished strip width of approx. 3/16in, so the squared paper above is 0.5cm squares, which are the same size.

It took most of Sunday to make two mini braid strips.  Foundation piecing is not my favourite thing, either life size or in miniature, but it seemed the best way to make the braid patchwork I wanted to include for this quilt.  I find thinking as a mirror image and working from the back very confusing.

I also made one square in a square block but I think I will remake it with solid red in the middle, as there wasn't enough contrast.  The fabrics also include some very fine stripes from Oakshott. 

 

The quilt is inspired a little by 'Kamon' from 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations' -

After my C & G course finishes, I will use it in one of my 1:12 houses, probably as one of the display quilts for the quilt talk scene in my mini village hall.  The left hand downstairs room is going to be set up for a quilt group meeting, with a workshop set up on the top floor and a kitchen (with mini cups of tea ready to go) on the right.

  I thought about making an improvisational patchwork with the bits left over, something like this -

The pieces I've got left over would also work for a mini version of Super Strips. The 2in wide finished strips in 1:12 scale would be about 3/16 wide, and the design would adapt rather well to stitch and flip foundation piecing on very thin Vilene.

This is the only other miniature piece I have made so far, using leftover bits of Japanese tsumugi cottons, which are really a little too thick for miniatures.  It is only 4 1/2in square.

Mhairi gave us a lot of tips and techniques for miniatures, including miniature applique.  I have done very tiny needleturn applique on full size blocks, so I don't think it will be too tricky, such as the 3/8in circles in this one.

 

I also did very narrow needleturn on the hairpins on 'Kyoto Dreams'. I don't think I'll include mini applique on the plait quilt, but I would like to make a mini version of the vintage Japanese fabric quilt we use as a table cover at shows, which has a version of Dresden Plate as the block, so I would need to use mini reverse applique for that.

It was a fascinating weekend, but miniatures seem to grow more slowly than full size quilts, at least for the first time...

Miniature inspirations

A new miniature project for winter - my own pub (in 1/12th scale)! I won this hand built house on eBay for a snip earlier this year, when I had a Paypal voucher to use up. The design was different to anything else I've seen and not a kit house. The roof terrace offers interesting design possibilities. At this stage, I'm interested in decorating the building only - furniture can come later. Phoenix Miniatures have a great selection of white metal kits for pub fittings & furniture. I've made several fireplaces for my other houses. Matlock Miniatures have the best pub bars I've seen (I will build the back of the bar myself, basing it on The Crown near Birmingham New Street Station, which has a fantastic original Edwardian bar) - I like the curved end bar design.

It reminded me of buildings on Bridge Street and Lower Bridge Street, Chester. On Saturday, I took some photos.

My original plan involved stenciling the front with a brick effect and painting the mouldings to look like these eighteenth century buildings. Maybe I could add a bit of seventeenth century half timbered detailing too?
Click the next photo for a link to more info about the building -
I also visited my favourite shop in Chester - Sofa Workshop at 21 Watergate Row (Old Leche House - scroll down on linked page to see the shop front) - interesting to visitors not so much for what they sell but for the interior of the building (unless you need a new sofa when you visit Chester!)