Creating For Joy: The Point of Mini Quilts

Last weekend, in celebration of my new mini quilt patterns – Little Liberties – I put up a poll on Instagram about Cinque Terre, asking if people would make a mini or make more blocks and make it bigger. One person commented, kindly enough, that she’d make more blocks to make a quilt you can actually use because what’s the point of minis?!

And you know what? I was once her. What on earth can you actually use them for?! Sure, some are the right size to turn into a cushion, or a table runner. And if we weren’t renting, then perhaps I’d hang more. But… ehhhhh…

I have had a slow realisation over the past twelve months or so. Life is busy. Life gets chaotic. Life gets stressful, and at times overwhelming. My husband’s work is intense and I’ve never seen him so stressed. My kids are getting older and with what feels like each passing week, their needs and my role as a mother changes. My relationships with my friends and family are important to me. Making sure that I can be the best wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend that I can be? It takes time and effort, and it is totally worth it. These people and relationships are worthy of the best that I can offer.

Yet in the midst of life, I still need to create. I’m not talking about it from a work perspective, given that this quilty thing is my job. But from that innate need to make and create and play with colours and shapes and styles and techniques. I know I don’t need to try and explain that any further, because you, dear reader, are the exact same way.

You and I? We desire to create. If we don’t have a chance to play with fabric and thread, we get antsy. We miss it. Making that first stitch after time away? It’s a feeling of coming home. Of being back in our happy, safe place. We relax and take a deep breath, and smile, as we begin to sew once again.

When life is, well, life, creating is somewhere that we can retreat to, even if it’s just for 15 minutes to stitch one more shape onto our English paper piecing project. Even if it’s just spending 20 minutes pulling fabric for a new project, knowing that we won’t have time to cut into it just yet. Creating is a soul-fulfilling place to pause, even just for a few moments.

And that’s where mini quilts come into the scene. In many seasons of life, we just simply do not have the time to complete a full-sized quilt. But that need to create, and the desire to at least be able to finish one thing in our life, doesn’t go away.

When it feels like the laundry and dishes are never ending, and the vacuum cleaner is still sitting in the living room from the other day, and the kids’ drawing supplies from their art session on the weekend is still sprawled across one end of the dining table on Wednesday… hey, at least I finished this mini quilt this week! I have this one pretty thing to show for my time!

Will it keep me warm on the sofa at night? No. Will it be used by the kids for building a fort? Only if it’s for dolls. But I created something. I finished something. I felt joy and peace and happiness along the way. I used my fabric stash, and made something beautiful. Look what I made.

There is nothing wrong with mini quilts. There is nothing wrong with stockpiling quilts, mini or otherwise, in the cupboard – you never know what needs will suddenly arise. You never know when someone will have a baby, and you can wrap up a mini and give it to them to be used as a pram blanket, or a play mat. Your children may get given a toy who, “Really needs a quilt, please mum!” Or perhaps friends are moving house, and you can quickly add a hanging sleeve and now their new, big, white walls aren’t quite so empty anymore.

Perhaps one option is that at the end of each year, you donate the pile to charity. Many childrens’ hospital charities will take quilts as small as 24″ square to be used for babies, like Very Snuggly Quilts here in Victoria. In fact, anything smaller than that can very easily become a cushion and be put to use right away around the home!

Don’t let the unknown purpose of mini quilts hinder your creativity. Create for the sake of creating. Create for the sake of the joy that it brings. Create because you need to create, and don’t let size hold you back.