The purple and black Square-in-a-Square at right is another one of those blocks I don’t see myself making more of. (The dime is for scale.) It is pieced for real, not painted, stamped or fussy cut. I can’t imagine why I ever made it in the first place, but I can see why there is only one.

I was digging in my scrap box for more of the sheep fabric, but couldn’t find any. What I did find was this little gem, already inset into the muslin and just waiting for me. I think it fits in rather nicely.

happy quilting! =(^_^)=

Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts are part of The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative, founded by quilter Ami Simms to make a difference one quilt at a time. Here is my first Priority Quilt, On a good day. Artist Statement: I imagine snippets of memories floating by on a breeze. On a good day you can almost reach out and touch them.
This quilt is made from cotton and lamé fabric, with fusible machine appliqué, machine quilting and hot-fix Swarovski crystals. Fusing tissue lamé for machine appliqué is not as hard as one might expect. Just follow these simple steps:

1). Iron WonderUnder to reverse side of tissue lamé (the right side is whichever side you like best, if you can tell a difference between the two) using a medium-hot iron and a dry press cloth (I like to use a piece of cotton jersey cut out from an old T-shirt or a scrap of muslin as a press cloth for this).

2). Cut out your appliqué shapes, remove the paper backing, and iron shapes to the background fabric with your medium-hot iron and dry press cloth. Don’t hold the iron in place for longer than the recommended fusing time, instead check to see how well it is fused and then give it another 10 seconds or so if necessary, repeat ironing and checking until all the edges are securely fused. It is better to check and repeat a few times than to iron too long in one go and melt the lamé.

3). Machine appliqué around the edges with a zig zag stitch. Use a sharp new needle and sew carefully because it’s better not to rip stitches out of the fused tissue lamé if at all possible.

This is a terrific technique for art quilts and wall hangings that will not see a lot of rough handling or excessive washing. I have never tested it on a bed quilt or wearable art garment.

Here are the Swarovski crystals I used on my Priority Quilt. These are different than the usual bling bling hot fix crystals that we all know and love. It is an opaque turquoise and is perfect for those times when your quilt calls for a little embellishment, but not the sparkle. You can find them at Kandi Corp.
Stay tuned for part 2 for directions on how to make an Alzheimer’s Fidget Quilt.

1. For pieced quilts, trim all seam allowances after sewing and steam press your blocks to flatten the seams as much as possible. Do not slide the iron back and forth across damp blocks, press and lift the iron instead.

2. Split your batting apart to make it thinner or use one layer of cotton flannel as the batting.

3. Simplify and reduce full-size commercial quilting templates or patterns. Trace the design onto a piece of paper, leaving out some of the lines, then reduce the modified design using a photocopy machine or scanner.

4. Use a fine #50 cotton thread such as Mettler Silk-Finish for hand or machine quilting and the smallest needle you’re comfortable with. Regular-weight thread tends to look too bulky and distracts from the miniature effect.

5. Try hand quilting one stitch at a time, rather than loading several stitches on the needle.

6. When machine quilting use a smaller than normal stitch length.

7. Don’t be afraid to take your time and quilt slower than usual. With miniatures you have only a fraction of the ground to cover than with full-size quilts and it is no fun removing extra-tiny stitches.

Hope this helps! If you have any other suggestions for quilting miniatures, please add them to the comments section. I’d love to hear what works for you and I’m sure the other readers would appreciate it as well.

^_^ happy quilting!

1. Let the sunshine in. Get lots of light—natural sunlight and/or a lamp with daylight bulb.

2. Use tiny tools. They are usually more accurate and less clumsy when working small. Some of my favorites are: 2-1/2″ clear rotary ruler with 1/8″ increments, extra fine tip mechanical pencil, small sharp scissors, Clover Mini Iron, and size 70/10 sharp machine needles.

3. Tightly-woven quilting cottons are the best for miniatures. A thread or two unraveling doesn’t usually make much difference on a full-size block. For a miniature, the width of just two threads could mean the difference between a pointed appliqué star tip and a rounded one, or whether a closely trimmed seam allowance stays together or falls apart in your hands.

4. Choose fabrics with a little extra contrast when working small. Fabrics blend together more when cut into tiny bits of color.

5. Let your fabric do the work for you. Use a checkerboard print to suggest a 16- or 25-patch block, or a striped fabric for multiple borders.

6. Explore your stash. Cut a window template from card stock to preview the many options your fabrics have to offer. Tiny prints are great, but don’t overlook large-scale prints either. You can find many different pieces from just one great large-scale print.

7. Don’t forget the starch. It helps you cut and sew accurately.

8. Piece larger, trim smaller. Many units, such as half-square triangle blocks and four-patch configurations can be sewn at a slightly larger, more manageable size, then trimmed to perfection with a rotary cutter and mini ruler. (The four-patch on the far right is 1-1/2″. Trimmed exactly to 1″ it make an easy and perfect 1/2″ finished block with four 1/4″ squares, near right.)

9. Try paper piecing. It’s an extremely accurate way to stitch complicated mini blocks with lots of tiny pieces, such as a pineapple block. It’s easy to reduce the scale too: just let the photocopy machine do the math.

10. Relax and take frequent breaks. Stretch, focus your eyes on something far away, take a walk. Your body and your miniature quilt will thank you.