Sentimental Stitches

I’m glad to be back to the scheduled posting of Midget Mania after a migraine induced pause. I won’t bore you with all the aggravating details because these Midget Blocks are much more fun. Having said that, this block was probably part of my migraine trigger!
The Midget Block quilt top is at home and I’m at the cottage so I’ve been writing my instructions from photographs instead of the actual quilt. I thought about asking Rob to measure something for me but because he works with numbers in the context of home construction he doesn’t relate to our inches, quarter inch, eighth inch concept.

Look at this little stinker! It’s like a quilt within a quilt!


In BlockBase the block looks like this

What was she thinking ??? I’ve never seen the block illustrated with just two sections together so it’s a rectangular block and I’ve never seen it with sashing inserted. Was this a settion option pictured in the newspaper? Did she make the little hatchets and find out they weren’t the right size and the sashing was her solution? That’s my assumption and I’m sticking to it!

In the end I decided to draft the block for you exactly as it appears in the quilt. If you want to make it without the sashing that’s okay. It’s your quilt and you can stitch it as you heart desires. Remember you’ll have to adjust the square hatchets to a finished size of 1 1/8″.

Midget Mania Block 10 – Indian Hatchet



Block 102

Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork and Quilting Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork and Quilting by Not Available (NA) 1st Published in 1985 by Better Homes & Gardens Books

How about some easy rotary cutting and simple machine piecing? That’s what we’re doing with the 9th block. You’ll have this one stitched up in no time at all!

I’m not used to having what is usually my background fabric be an accent color in a block. With this one, pink is the background color with off-white and red as the accent colors. It sure makes for a beautiful little block.

This one might be fun to try in a 6″ size using different color scrap fabrics.

I wish I knew why our quilter penciled in the name she did on the old quilt. In BlockBase it’s listed as Harrison from the 1929 Dakota Farmer. According to the Week by Week Sampler quilter it’s called Cat’s Cradle.

Midget Mania Block 9 – Cat’s Cradle

Block 101

Block 100!

I never thought about the fact that we’d get to the 100th block while doing this Midget Mania. I imagined making a very careful selection for what would be block 100 but like most things in life, let go and let God. I’m thrilled with the little beauty that was next on my Midget Mania list.
When you first look at the block you think it’s one you’d just rotary cut and machine piece. I saw those corner squares pop up on the cutting chart at 3/4″ cut squares and decided that was smaller than I wanted to navigate and have come out accurate. The 3/4″ cut size makes those babies 1/4″ finished size. Yikes!!! Adorable but possibly aggravating so I looked at the foundation pieced option and it was practically perfect so that’s what I went with. In fact, I think I could make lots of these blocks.

Midget Mania Block 8 – Magnolia Bud

Block 100



Free Shipping. Tall and Narrow Quilt or Towel Rack

I always thought this block was called Railroad Crossing but sure enough according to Block Base and the handwriting on the antique sampler quilt it’s Rope & Anchor. Who am I to question authority?

Whatever you decide to call it it’s an easy block to cut and sew so enjoy! Say that ten times really fast

Midget Mania Block 7 – Rope & Anchor

Block 99

Well I can see I’m just not going to get to 24 blocks in 24 hours when we’re only on the 6th one!It was a great plan and I’m going to keep going until we get to 24. I have to tell you I’m loving my new EQ7. Great upgrade EQ team!

This block is a quirky one. At first glance it appears kind of boring in the old quilt. Just solid brown and a cream background. When you find out the name is Turkey Track the colors make sense. Plain ol’ turkeys are kind of boring, brown and white. I jazzed mine up with a brown and white polka dot!

Midget Mania Block 6 – Turkey Track

Block 98

How about a little applique? This is a cute and easy block to work on. If you haven’t tried the Back Basting technique yet here’s your chance. Once I tried it I was hooked.

Our 5th Midget Mania block is called Western Rose -

Block 97

This is an interesting little block. I know it looks like there are lots of extra seams in there. That’s what I thought when I looked at it too but I drafted it exactly like the block in the antique quilt.
It’s not in either my EQ7 library or Block Base so I’m guessing it must be a pretty unique block. I hope you enjoy this design honoring the 1929 World’s Fair.

Here’s Midget Mania Block 4 – 1929 World’s Fair

Block 96

There’s just no way you can have a quilt with 187 little blocks and not have a signature block! It’s too bad the quilter who stitched the original blocks didn’t put her signature on the one in her quilt. Because some of the embroidery of the block names isn’t finished I’m going to assume that adding her signature to the Album block were the last stitches planned and sadly she never finished them.

Here’s our Album block which is #3 in Midget Mania -

Block 95

Clutch and I got up bright and early. Well, I got up bright and early while Clutch was in no way ready to face the day even with the morning sun shining on him.

This block will take a bit of time to put together. I think I’ll hand piece mine. If you want a little help with hand piecing take a look at the Eight Point Star Tutorial. It will help you with every step of cutting and sewing this Midget Block, especially adding the Y-seam triangles.

Block 94

Welcome to the crazy Midget Mania day!

Things have gotten extra crazy for me. My Electric Quilt 6 quilt design program has crashed no less than 20 times over the last day so it’s a good thing I had my new Electric Quilt 7 upgrade ready and waiting. I have no idea what happened to my EQ6 but it sure slowed me down.

At any rate, here is our first block -

Block 93


I need to get a few hours of sleep and then I’ll catch up on blocks.