Island Batik Ambassadors had two assignments our first month (Island Batik provided the fabrics for this mini quilt). Minis area so much fun - they are fast. You can hang them or use them on a table as an accent. Having just downsized to an apartment, I have a little more wall space! So some of my minis are hanging on a closet door and some hanging on sides of my storage unit. The requirements were fairly simple. Less than 24" on a side, use any fabric except our surprise fabric, and any design and post any day.

Today’s mini is an adaptation of an Amish Hex sign. I grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania where there are many Amish and Mennonite communities. I loved seeing the hex signs, which are traditionally a sign of welcome and many had hearts on them. I haven't always loved the colors, so I thought why not do it my own way. Hearts - mini love - batiks - my home town melded into this little quilt.

I did a little work in EQ8 to see what I could do. Two problems arose - time and not enough of the background to make larger pieces. What to do…. AH - make a drunkards path to get the circle - which could use the fabric I choose. Furthermore, I could solve problem two by hand-piece while waiting for furniture fabricators to finish up a job. Brilliant!

Hand pieceing while waiting

The rest was easy. I did do machine appliqué as my quilting - again a time saver for this project.

A mini tutorial:

1. Make a 4 Drunkard's Path Blocks (size was 6 1/2" unfinished)
2. Sew blocks together to make a circle or use this method if you have more fabric
3. Iron fusible web - per instructions - to fabric for points, hearts, and petals
4. Cut out shapes
5. Iron shapes to background (for a limited time you can download the shapes here)