It’s June, and I’m so happy to introduce my 8” mini quilt block: Micro Mini Gingham!
For those of you who know me well, you know that I’m trained as an engineer. When approaching a
design project, I love combining precision piecing techniques (strip piecing, nested seams) and novel
cutting techniques (like trimming and twisting assembled blocks into another pattern). It’s a perfect
union of science and art that appeals to both my training as an engineer and curiosities as an artist.
So, when I was asked to create a design for this year’s 12 minis in 12 months, I knew that I wanted to
share some of these techniques that I find useful in tiny piecing projects, and my mind went directly to
gingham.
Gingham, as I’m sure you’re familiar, is a woven fabric pattern that has existed for centuries.
Characterized by its striped, check, or plaid patterns, gingham has become an iconic motif in popular
culture, fashion, and design. The illusion of checks and plaids is created as the weaver changes or
alternates warp and weft threads. As these changing threads overlap, they appear as a new color, a
combination of the colors that are being woven together. Magic, indeed!
But for us quilters, whose medium is fabric rather than thread, we must take a slightly different
approach. Translating a tiny gingham pattern into this quilt block design was accomplished by choosing
fabrics in four different values of the same color and sewing them together in a way that suggest
weaving or overlapping.
The tiny gingham squares in this block finish at ¾”, but construction is simplified by relying on strip
piecing and nested seams. Could you imagine sewing all those ¾” squares together piece by piece? In
some instances, I might suggest to iron open the seams of strip-pieced-sets to allow them to lie perfectly flat. Here, though, there is an advantage to ironing the seams to once side: all the tiny strip pieced blocks can be nested to create perfectly aligned points. An engineering marvels!
I share one more trick with this pattern, to carefully trim the partially assembled block on the bias, twist
and turn the components, and sew them back together. This turns these tiny squares on-point resulting
in this mesmerizing micro mini gingham block.
My wife has confiscated a few of these to use as potholders. Flashback to the woven potholders that we
used to make on a loom when we were kids.
I hope you really enjoy making one (or one hundred!)
Are you sewing 12 Minis in 12 Months with us this year? Or maybe just following along:
12minisin12months #12minisin12months2023
The pattern is available in my Etsy shop or you may grab the wholeyear’s bundle at 12minis.com
Follow #12minisin12months2023 to meet the other designers and sew along with us for the rest of the
year.