July 28, 2007

Mini Art Quilts

By Elizabeth Ruffing

I made this set of mini art quilts mostly from cotton batiks, with an occasional cotton print thrown in. I started by paper piecing the backgrounds where I could. In a couple of places, like on the background for the sun, I made a pattern piece in a curved shape and cut it out from my paper-pieced section, then sewed it to another section.

I used fusible interfacing to stiffen the moon, star, and sun shapes before I machine appliquéd them onto my backgrounds. I experimented with different machine stitches along the raw edges of the shapes.


I used Pigma pens, which are permanent ink markers, to draw the faces on my moons, sun, and flower.

I added layers of organic cotton batting and cotton duck/canvas underneath my designs, then did some machine quilting on the surfaces.

I had intended to sew bias strips around the edges, but opted to use cotton terrycloth as a backing right up to the edges. I placed the terrycloth and the designs right sides together, sewed a 0.25 inch seam, left an opening, then turned them right sides out. I also added loops of cotton which were folded and top stitched to the tops for hanging. The openings were then slip stitched closed. I used some embroidery floss for ties in several places on the back just for stability.

Original designs, art quilts, and photos copyright Elizabeth Ruffing, all rights reserved.

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