Monthly Mini Quilts for January – the Free Frienship Mini Quilt Pattern!
I designed this mini to be the first one in the Monthly Mini Quilts series, and I’m calling it the ‘Friendship Mini’ because there’s an adorable classic Friendship Star in the middle. If you’ve never made a quilt before, this is a great one to start with. You’ll learn how to make half square triangles (HST’s) becuase that’s all it is – 16 HST’s and 9 squares.
The finished size of the ‘Friendship Mini’ is approximately 8” square.
If you have mini-charm square packs like this that you’ve been saving, here’s your chance to use them! Mini-charm packs are pre-cut 2 1/2” squares of fabric. For the Friendship Mini I used 25 mini charm squares from 2 Flower Sugar Paisley Wind packs from Lecien. The reason why I used squares from 2 packs is because you’ll need 16 background print squares (mine are the white-ish prints). I’ll tell you more about how many squares to cut in the tutorial below.
So let’s get started!
Friendship Mini Quilt tutorial
You wil need:
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8 – 2 1/2” background fabric squares (for making HST’s)
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2 – 2 1/2” pink squares (for making HST’s)
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4 – 2 1/2” turquoise squares (for making HST’s)
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2 – 2 1/2” gray squares (for making HST’s)
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8 – 2” background fabric squares (trim down mini-charm squares, if using)
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1 – 2” focal point square for the center of the quilt (trim down a mini-charm square, if using)
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pencil or fabric marker
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1 – 9” square of backing fabric
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1 – 9” square of quilt batting
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Quilt basting spray (such as SpraynBaste) or pins
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1 strip of fabric 2 1/2” x 40” for the binding (can be pieced together)
Notice that you’ll need 25 squares total. 16 of them are 2 1/2”, which you will use to make half square triangles that trim down to 2”. The other 9 squares need to be 2” before you sew them, so if you are using mini-charms, just trim them down like I did.
Sew the Half Square Triangles (HST’s):
1. Place a 2 1/2” background square on top of a 2 1/2” pink square, right sides together. Use the pencil or fabric marker to draw a diagonal line across the block on top. This is the cutting line.
2. Sew a seam on either side of the drawn line, 1/4” away from the line. (Do not sew on the line that you drew.)
3. Cut the block apart along the line.
4. Press these open, and you now have 2 half square triangles! Trim the HST’s down to 2” squares.
Use the 7 remaining 2 1/2” background squares and the 7 remaining 2 1/2” colored squares to make half square triangles. Trim them to 2” squares.
Sew the Mini Quilt together:
1. Arrange the 2” squares as shown in the diagram above. I arranged mine on my little mat so I could move it next to my sewing machine.
2. You can sew your squares together in any order you like, but I prefer to chain-piece once I have reached this step. I carefully turn all of the squares in row 2 over onto the squares in row 1 so I can sew these all in a line.
Like this!
3. Press the units from rows 1 and 2 open.
4. Carefully place the squares in row 4 on top of the squares in row 3 so you can chain piece them. Sew them together.
5. Press the units from rows 3 and 4 open.
6. Then place the row 3/4 units on top of the row 1/2 units as shown above and sew together.
7. Finally, add the last row of squares.
And you have this adorable block! If my method of chain piecing is not clear, you can see it demonstrated on a full size quilt in the free Craftsy class Piece Patch Quilt.
Finish the Mini Quilt:
1. Place the 9” square of batting against the wrong side of the 9” background square. Center the pieced mini on top of the batting. Adhere the layers together with quilt basting spray (or just pin them together, if desired).
2. Quilt the layers together any way that you wish. I attached my sewing machine’s walking foot and quilted lines 1/4” apart, following the angles of the friendship star in the center.
3. Use the 2 1/2” x 40” strip of fabric to make and attach binding. Learn how I do it in my Tips and Tricks for Mini Quilt Binding post.
As always, I love to see the projects you make with my free patterns! Post a picture to instagram and tag me @sewcanshe or #sewcanshe so I can take a look!
Check out all my free mini quilt patterns!
xoxo,
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Disclosure: some of my posts contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of those links I may receive a small commission, so thank you for supporting SewCanShe when you shop! All of the opinions are my own and I only suggest products that I actually use. 🙂
I’m always insanely jealous of those beautiful mini quilt walls too!! I love this idea!
Caroline….love the idea of using mini charms for your mini quilt of the month..will have fun picking out some mini charms I have in my stash….also…what a great idea in using the friendship block as a starting point in your new BOM……binging friends together to make something for ourselves to enjoy….
I’m hoping to follow the mini quilt series for 2017. I have a question…is there a way to print out the directions? I’m not seeing a ‘print’,’download’, etc. type of button? To have to keep going back to my pc is not working.
Hi Fran,
My blog server doesn’t allow me to provide that service.
Try printfriendly.com. It works great.
Caroline
I am so excited about this series, I was honestly just thinking about how great a project like this would be! Thank you so much for doing it! I really wanted to make a sampler quilt this year but was hesitant about the time commitment of making another quilt.Following this will be a great substitute and who knows, maybe I will combine them all at the end of the year and have a mini quilt made up of mini quilts! I made the first block and posted about it just a few hours ago and loved how simple and clear the instructions were. Awesome post and idea!
Nicki @ sewuprising.com
Dear Caroline. I’ve followed your blog for a while, and I really love it. Thank you for this opportunity to make mini quilts together. I almost missed it out, because I’ve had a bad flu the last days. If I win your beautiful fabric, I’ve got a friend in the US to ship to.
I have never done a mini quilt. This looks like fun. I can’t wait to start making one, I love the first block.
Dear Caroline! I have visited your blog several times via Pinterest. I read about the " Mini Quilt challenge Tubakk`s blog. This is a challenge that suits me. Thank you! I enjoy to sew my Friendship Mini. 🙂
For giveaway, if I am going to be that lucky, I know someone in the United States that it can be sent to. 🙂
Lovely mini quit, and now I also made one. I would like to join this challenge. 🙂
Is there a way to download tutorial? this looks like fun & I have mini charm pack to use, but don’t like to keep my computer on for so long.
Try printfriendly.com.
Yessssss – how cute!!!! Now have a small space as my sewing room. Love these mini quilts for the wall. Thank you & looking forward to making these all year 🙂
I made a quilt from your instructions- how can I post a picture of it????
Just email me the picture at caroline@sewcanshe.com Thanks!
This is really cute! I’ve got a bunch of mini charm packs I think I will pull them out to play with.
This is a fun challenge for me. Count me in!!
I’m so glad to find this! I plan to participate! Thank you. I, too, have been wanting a wall of miniature quilts in my sewing room. I started with miniatures back in the mid-1980’s!
Just finished my first mini quilt. Is there a posting area to show sewing works?
Hi! You can send a picture to my sister at rebekah@sewcanshe.com (she writes the posts that show everyone’s quilts) or you can post it in a Show Off Saturday Picture Party post.
Can’t wait to see!
Caroline
Hello, I am sorry but I must be over looking the print button. Could someone please tell me where the print button is so I can print out the directions.
Thank you for your help.
I have no way to put a print button on my blog – sorry! But you can enter the URL of the page that you want to print into printfriendly.com, which will make you a printable, ad free file. 🙂
Thanks for the tip about printfriendly.com. I didn’t know about the site and will probably use it heavily. I am printing out the mini quilt instructions as I type this, and appreciate you blogging such clear info.
I’m a year behind the original post but made this darling mini quilt this afternoon and can’t wait to do them all! It was my first Mini and was so much fun… I think I love doing Mini Quilts! Got a little confused on the binding part (joining the ends) but got it and it turned out great. I’m trying to slow down, learn new things, and practice practice practice. Thank you for posting this! Now, onto the February mini!