Sentimental Stitches

Think back to when you first started quilting and began to remember the names of quilt patterns. When someone talked about a wedding ring quilt my mind pictured those beautiful, interlocking rings of what seemed like a zillion pieces and they were curved. That was almost as scary as the “A” word (applique)!
I remember how surprised I was to find out there was more than one kind of wedding ring quilt. Lucky for us this Midget Mania block is considered a single wedding ring and it’s made with just squares and triangles.

Midget Mania Block 19 – Wedding Ring

Block 111

When I looked at how my version of this Midget Block turned out I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s only a two color block with a simple applique shape. How could you mess it up?
If there’s a way, I’ll figure it out!

Do you see the block in the photo, just a little to the right, above the one I made? Duh, I reversed the colors! I wasn’t happy with the way my two fabrics worked together anyway and was going to do the block again but it gave me a good laugh.

Midget Mania Block 18 – Indian Hatchet

Block 110

Another cute Midget Mania block. Who am I kidding? I think they’re all cute.
This one would be fun to make in a larger size too. Even if you aren’t a fan of 1930s fabrics, it’s such a versatile block you could use just about any selection of scraps. Batiks, Civil War reproductions, brights or my current girly favorite – soft pastels.

The remaining Midget Mania blocks are drafted and most of the instructions are finished so we’re going to wrap up our little adventure this weekend.
I have more things I want to share with you and it’s Block of the Month time but I didn’t want to muddle things up by putting new stuff in the middle of all this.

It’s clean up day around here for me. Now that I have spare pairs of my new favorite $2 garden gloves I tweeted about last week I’m at it again.




Now you don’t want that nasty bruise I got in an altercation with a tree limb but it you have a Meijer store in your area, don’t walk, RUN over there….




and get yourself some of these $2.29 gloves. You wouldn’t believe how they protect your hands. I’ve been digging rocks, clearing brush, hauling tree limbs, raking and now I’m cleaning the storage shed and they’re still going strong. Best couple of bucks I ever spent!
Time for me to get moving and I’ll let you work on the next block.

Midget Mania Block 17 – Night & Noon



Block 109

I really like this 16th block. I think it has great design possibilities with both color and a secondary design. With the foundation piecing construction it would be a great scrap quilt with the addition of a couple of planned colors.

Here I used 1930s scraps and put a black & white polka dot in all the diamonds


Set together side by side with six rows of four blocks each


Change background fabric to pink


Softens all the fabrics a little


Put a blue print on each side of the polka dot diamonds and background back to cream


Same setting – 6″ blocks finish 36″ x 42″


Don’t like black? Go for a splash of yellow!


Midget Mania Block 16 – Lucky Star



Block 108

It’s a hot one here today. The heat doesn’t usually bother us at the lake but the humidity today is pretty bad and we can’t get away from that. It helps having the lake breeze. I could turn on the air conditioning but it just doesn’t seem like the thing to do.

I have to head out to vote in Michigan’s primary election taking place today. Clutch will probably want to tag. It’s no fun staying home alone!

I’ve got a few more blocks ready to go and will post them throughout the day. Enjoy!

Midget Mania Block 15 – Garden Maze

Block 107

It’s the first day of August and I can’t believe how quickly the summer is flying by. It’s been a whole week and I’m still trying to get you all 24 of the Midget Mania blocks. Don’t worry, we’ll get there.
I have to admit I’ve taken a little time to work on hidden stitches in the next block for the Beyond The Cherry Tree quilt that’s part of the Polka Dot Garden Series.

The cherry tree quilter must have had a couple extra cups of coffee the morning she quilted this month’s block. It has more hidden stitches than any block we’ve done so far.

There isn’t anything special you need to know about this Midget Block. It’s pretty easy and I hope you have fun making it.

Midget Mania Block 14 – English Ivy

Block 106

I’m not a superstitious person but this, the 13th block, is a stinker. Tiny pieces, tiny pieces, tiny pieces. Did I mention it has tiny pieces? If that isn’t enough let me tell you about the measurements of those pieces….

If I rotary cut and machine piece the block based on the EQ7 cutting guide (which is what I’d do with only squares, rectangles and a few triangles), the block’s finished size will be 5 1/4″.
I knew when I was drafting it that the usual rounding measurements to the nearest 1/8″ was going to cause problems but I didn’t realize it would add up to 3/4″ overall.

I thought we’d get to the outside pink border, cut it wider and trim to the unfinished 5″ after sewing it on. Not quite that easy………

I changed the print settings in EQ7 to round measurements to the nearest 1/16th of an inch thinking I’d find a way to get around one or two odd sizes. That plan bombed in a big way. All those cute little squares in the nine patch sections have a cut size of 11/16″ which makes them 3 1/6″ finished. I don’t know about your rulers but none of mine have 1/16″ markings and if they did I probably couldn’t see them anyway and it’s not just the squares, it’s almost every piece. I had 11/16″ x 3 11/16″ rectangles, 11/16″ x 1 1/8″ pieces and on and on. Note to self: don’t use 1/16″ EQ rounding EVER!

Here’s a look at the back of this cutie -

This is all hand pieced! I have no idea how she did that or what possessed her to even try.

In the end I’ve come up with what I hope will give us an accurate block. It’s a series of two individual foundation patterns. One is used to construct the center (and two inner border strips) section of the block and we then use that as the beginning of a second foundation pattern to add the rest of the border strips. You still might want to cut the last round wider and make a final trim to the 5″ unfinished size. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m also going to add a hefty dose of Bailey’s Irish Cream to my coffee before I tackle this one! There are 89 pieces in this block – follow the diagrams and you’ll do just fine.

Midget Mania Block 13 – Missouri Puzzle

Block 105

Quilting Books

I’m giving you instructions for foundation piecing this block using a little trick I pull out of my magic bag from time to time. If you want to print a foundation pattern based on the finished block you’d either get an error message telling you it can’t be foundation pieced or you’d have a jumble of weird sections. We’re going to take a short-cut and make this really easy.

The center 4 Patch squares in each unit are a tiny (5/16″?) squares. The rest of the block is basically a traditional Square in a Square design. In order to foundation piece the units you need to get past that 4 Patch in the beginning.

Light bulb moment!

• Sew the 4 Patchs using slightly oversized squares.
• Press them nice and flat.
• Insert a pin right through the center of the 4 Patch and then through the center square on the foundation paper.
• Make sure you have the vertical and horizontal seam lines lined up, pin in place.
• You can now foundation piece the rest of the section

Midget Mania Block 13 – Snail Trail


Block 104

It’s been rainy and gray since I got up this morning. We need something bright and cheery to work on. After all the tedious work on the last block this one will be finished in no time at all.

I’ve seen some beautiful antique string quilts but was surprised to see such a mixed up group of stripes in this little block. I love using stripes for their ability to totally change the look of a design but my eyes can’t take so many different ones all in the same block.

Grab your scrap bag (and a stripe or two) to put together -

Midget Mania Block 11 – String

Block 103

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