Houston Quilt Festival: Miniature Quilts

As you may recall, this year my sister and I had the Huguenot Friendship Quilt exhibit at the Houston Quilt Festival. We realized that not everyone was able to attend the festival this year, so we thought we’d take you to the festival through our blog. Since the big prize-winning quilts have been readily available online, I thought I would focus on other parts of the festival starting with miniature quilts.

I’ve only written one other blog on miniature quilts, perhaps because not many miniature quilts are antique. It seems to be a more recent phenomenon. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History only has one quilt in the collection labeled “Miniature” and it was likely a Doll Quilt.

True miniature quilts are patterns/designs found in large quilts but recreated in a smaller scale. Ideally, in a photo with nothing to give away the scale, a miniature quilt can be mistaken for a full-size quilt. The print in the fabric is a smaller print, the block size, seam allowance and stitch sizes have all been reduced. Miniatures don’t require as much fabric, but they do require lots of skill and patience. Stay tuned for more blogs about quilts from the Houston Quilt Festival!