7 Fun Uses for Mini Quilts!
I’ve had a couple of readers leave comments wondering what to do with a mini quilt. At first I was shocked at the comment, my first thought is, why MAKE THEM, of course! LOL. I find so much joy in making little quilts that I don’t even care what happens to them afterwards. Okay, maybe I do care a little bit. But I could be happy making mini quilts all day long and never worry about the purpose of them if I didn’t have to do other things like cook, clean, and make sure homework gets done.
But I guess some people need to have a purpose for everything they sew, so I decided to sit down and make a list of some cute uses of mini quilts that I have either done myself or seen around the web.
Birthe of Norway sent me this photo of her mini quilt wall that goes up the stairs!
#1 Use for a Mini Quilt: Put it on your wall!
A mini quilt wall (or lots of mini quilt walls, depending on how many walls are in your house) is my favorite use for mini quilts. The walls of my sewing studio are about 1/2 covered in minis and I won’t feel the need to stop until they are completely full. 🙂
FYI: I use double sided sticky foam tape to attach my mini quilts to the walls. I find it is the least damaging way and they never fall down. I also love how Suzy Williams frames hers (watch this video to see).
#2 – Make it a Table Topper
A mini quilt on a table is a table topper or sometimes called a crumb catcher. Put a plate of cookies, a vase of flowers, or a bowl of fruit on it and you’re good to go!
#3 Make a Special Potholder
If you put use Insul-bright on the inside, you can use it at a potholder!
Tip: If you use double batting or Insul-bright on your table toppers, you can put hot dishes on them too!
#4 – It’s a Mug Rug!
Really small mini quilts have another name – mug rugs! I love this adorable one from Swoodson Says.
#5 – Add a Pillow Cover Backing
On Facebook, Kimberly R. told me she likes to add an envelope pillow backing to her minis so they can double as a pillow cover when she feels like it. That’s a genius idea – something I need to try!
p.s. I took this photo at Quilt Market. The pattern for Frankie the Frenchie is here.
#6 Make a Tote Bag
Even if you don’t plan out your tote bag before you start, you could easily hand or machine sew a mini quilt to a market bag like this. So cute!
#7 Sew a bunch together to make a Throw Quilt
Wait until you have 12 (or more) mini quilt tops sewn up and sew them together to make a throw quilt or baby quilt. Adding sashing and borders is a quick way to help it grow bigger quickly. But I must admit, I have never had the patience to save mine to do this. 🙂
Even if you need a justifiable reason to make a mini quilt, I still think that you’ll have so much fun doing it, you won’t stop at one! Come join us and make a year of mini quilts starting with January’s Flora Mini Quilt or see all of the 2017 mini quilts here.
Happy sewing,
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 added a bigger border to the mini quilt (the one with the crosses on the left of your sunflower in the top photo) to give it to our hospital for premature babies – the quilts are labelled with the name of our quilting group. I really enjoyed doing something different too. All the little triangles snipped from the corners have been turned into tiny pinwheels – not exactly sure where I’m putting those just yet, but they looked too cute to throw!
What a wonderful idea. I love it!
Thank you Caroline! <grin> I appreciate your taking the time to show us some ways in which to use a mini! I have thought long and hard about them because they are so adorable, and I may have one more for you – it becomes a teaching tool. My 5 year old granddaughter was really turned on to hand sewing for the very first time when I taught her a couple of stitches this past summer. If I give her some scraps, she’d love piecing them together for her very own first quilt. As soon as an eye problem clears up a bit for me, I will also be teaching her machine sewing on the machine I bought her for Christmas! Uh,oh – I see lots of mini quilts in her future!
<big wide grin>
Yay! Great idea and I’m so glad you are teaching a new quiltmaker. You are keeping the art alive! 🙂
Thank you for showing different ways to use the mini quilt. Maybe I will use my for something else eventually. It was very nice to sew the mini quilts last year. Thank you for all the nice patterns! 🙂
You’re welcome. I’m so glad you sewed along with us! xoxo
I love this list, I think they are cute framed, too! I appreciate you linking my little mug rug but yikes I am glad my binding skills have improved since then 🙂
I didn’t even notice. 😉