This mini quilt was made back in 2018 but I have only just now released it as a pattern. My original quilt was made with a fat 16th bundle of Liberty Fabrics I received from Westwood Acres when I was a brand ambassador for them for a little while. From the bundle I pulled out 5 fabrics that I thought would look pretty together in a mini quilt design. I decided to pair them with some solid cotton and spot fabrics. I had wanted to try using a traditional quilt block design using the English Paper Piecing method for a while. I decided on the star block created from squares and half-square triangles.
For this quilt, I created nine 4″ star blocks. I cut the papers myself and worked out the best way to handpiece them all together to create the block. I used Electric Quilt 7 to draft the initial design and work out roughly what colours and fabrics would go where. I like working in this way sometimes as it allows me to play around with fabric and colour placement until I find the right combination.
When it came to making the mini quilt I first made all of the nine blocks. I then pieced them together in rows and then pieced the rows together. I used paper clips to hold my rows in place while I stitched them to prevent them from sliding and not lining up. I attached four hand-pieced borders to the quilt by making long strip templates out of 220gsm paper the size of the border I wanted. I then used my paper clips again to hold the borders in place while I stitched them on. Adding borders this way can be fiddly, but for small quilts like this I find it creates nice, neat and even borders. If I were to machine sew borders on I would need to be very accurate and work the machine slowly to ensure I pick up the quarter inch seam allowance properly and don’t leave any holes in the seam.
I am really please with this finished mini quilt. The large center squares mean you get to see a large part of the pretty Liberty print, even though the quilt is quite small. I decided to hand quilt using a single strand of white quilting cotton ‘in the ditch’ around every shape.
When it came to writing the pattern I actually tweaked the colour/fabric placement a little. That’s the fun part about re-visiting a project to write up the pattern. You have fresh eyes and can see where things could be improved to make them even better. The pattern includes a full colour piecing chart, block piecing instructions and charts, as well as step by step photo instructions for basting the shapes and piecing the block together. The pattern also includes a colouring -in chart so you can experiment with your own colour/fabric combination.
I am terrible at coming up with names for patterns. I put a call out on Instagram for name suggestions and I got lots of great ones. The only downside was that a lot of the names were already in use for other Quilt and Patchwork designs. I wanted the name to have something to do with Stars, so I looked up an online thesaurus and came across the word Flicker. I instantly connected it to the word beat as it reminded me of the Lorde song of the same name. I think the two words together work well to describe the quilt. The stars flicker through the quilt, standing out but receding at the same time. The whole design has a rhythm to it, like the stars and squares are dancing together to their own beat.
If you would like to make your own Flicker Beat Mini Quilt, you can find the pattern here. The PDF Pattern includes a supplement Printable Shape Template file. If you don’t want to cut your own papers, you can purchase a pre-cut paper template kit separately.
I think this design would look equally good as a cushion and I have plans to make it again, possibly using only solid fabrics.
Happy Stitching,
Miss Leela x
