This framed mini quilt is so fun to make for yourself or others! It makes an adorable addition to any home décor. Who wouldn’t love receiving an adorable little quilt in a frame!?!?
The easy quilt tutorial walks you through the simple steps of making a little 5” x 7” framed quilt that can adorn a table, shelf, mantel, or nightstand. Or hang it on a wall where you need to add a little “pop” of fun!!!
I’ve made several of these framed mini quilts as gifts to others. They make great housewarming, birthday, or Christmas gifts!! But depending on the color palette you use, you could make one for every holiday or season.
The framed mini quilt comes together so quickly, you can make several of them in just a couple of hours! Let’s get started…
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Supplies Needed for Making the Framed Mini Quilt
The best part about making this fun quilt project is that it doesn’t take much fabric! Dig into your scrap bin to pull a variety of light and medium or dark fabrics that will give a nice contrast to each other.
I like to use all different fabrics to give the framed mini quilt a very scrappy look! But you can use just a couple different contrasting fabrics if you prefer.
The fabric scraps need to be at least 1 1/2” x 1 1/2″ in size.
You’ll need a small piece of thin cotton batting 5 1/2” x 7 1/2”. I always save my batting scraps when I make a quilt so I can pull from my scrap batting to make these adorable homemade gifts!
And you’ll need basic quilting tools like a rotary cutter, plastic quilting ruler, thread, and a sewing machine!
I purchase 5” x 7” frames on Amazon, at local craft stores, or at resale shops to frame my mini quilts. Make sure the inside viewing area of the frame measures at least 3” x 5” or part of the little quilt will be hidden from view when you insert it into the frame. It’s ok if this happens, it still is cute! See my final pic of the quilt at the bottom.
Here is an example of cute frames to purchase from Amazon!
I love the way a white frame looks with these little quilts. But you can use whatever color frame you’d like. Or spray paint a frame to get your desired look.
Making the Half Square Triangles (HST) for the Framed Mini Quilt
I absolutely love working with HST!!! They are such a fun and versatile patchwork quilt unit that can be arranged into so many fun designs.
Check out some of my quilt projects like my Happy Heart Mini Quilt, Single Snowflake Mini Quilt, or Majestic Maple Mini Quilt to see some other designs achieved by using HST units!
To keep the directions simple I’m going to reference making a cream and red framed mini quilt to use as a Christmas decoration or gift. Like I said earlier, you can make whatever color framed mini quilt you’d like!!
Prepare the Fabric
Because you’ll be working with such small pieces of fabric I like to press all of the fabrics with spray starch before I cut them into the required size.
Cut 15 – 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2” cream squares from a variety of cream-colored fabrics.
Use a fine pencil or washable marking pen and a straight edge to draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the wrong side of each of the 15 cream squares.
From cream fabrics also cut 2 – 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2” and 2 – 1 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ strips which will be the borders of this adorable little mini quilt! Set aside for now.
Using a variety of red fabrics cut 15 – 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ squares.
Place a cream square and a red square right sides together with the cream square facing up.
Sew along the diagonal line to attach the two pieces of fabric together.
You can continually feed the pieces of fabric into your machine without cutting the thread between each one. This is called strip piecing and it saves time and thread! Cut them all apart when you’re finished sewing them together!
Trim the unit 1/4″ from the drawn line and press it open with the seam facing toward the red side.
Repeat this process to make all 15 HST units.
Sew the HST Units Together to Form the Quilt Center
Arrange the HST units into 3 rows with 5 units in each row until you get the desired look you want. This is how I arranged my half square triangles into rows.
Placing right sides of 2 HST together, begin sewing each row together working from left to right. You’ll have 3 rows with 5 HST units attached together when you’re finished.
Press the seams of the top and bottom rows to the right and press the seams of the center row to the left. This way the seams will “nest” nicely together when you sew the rows together.
Take the top and middle rows and place them right sides together. Nest the seams so they align and place a pin at each nested seam area.
Carefully sew the top and middle rows to each other, removing the pins as you come up to them.
Repeat this process to sew the bottom row to the middle row so you now have the center of the mini quilt sewn together. Press the seams open or in one direction (either up or down) to get a flat unit.
Sew the 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ cream strips to each side. Press seams toward the cream strips.
Sew the 1 1/2” x 7 1/2″ cream strips to the top and bottom. Press seams toward the cream strips.
Give the quilt top a final press to make it lay flat!
Frame the Quilt
Place the little quilt on top of the 5 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ piece of thin cotton batting. If you want to get fancy you can hand quilt or machine quilt the quilt and batting together in the center area, but it isn’t necessary! They’ll be held together by the frame.
Open the back of the frame. Trim the batting to be the same size as the opening.
Place the little quilt into it. With the pretty side facing outward of course!
It may take a little maneuvering to have the quilt centered within the viewing area of the frame so just take your time and work patiently.
Some of the border of the quilt will probably be outside of the viewing area and that’s ok! You can either carefully trim it down or fold it over the back of the quilt frame.
Voila! Your beautiful little framed mini quilt is ready to use or gift!!
Enjoy!
For another quilty gift idea, check out my Balsam Gnome Pillow Pattern in my Etsy Shop!!
