New Pattern: Protostar Mini Quilt
My latest mini quilt pattern is here, ready for you, now available in my shop. Say hello to Protostar, a modern, geometric mini quilt pattern perfect for beginners looking to try something new, as well as intermediate and advanced quilters. Practice or perfect constructing half-square triangles, a bit of strip piecing, and working with blocks cut on the bias. Not to worry though, this pattern includes step-by-step instructions with detailed diagrams for everything and includes links to handy tutorials. With a finished size of about 15” by 24” you can either finish this weekend project as a pillow or wall hanging. Or you could combine multiple minis to create a baby, throw, or even larger-sized quilt.
Kona Cotton Solids
This is my first and original version of this mini quilt and I went with some of my favorite Kona cotton solids for the color palette. I used Doeskin as the background and Roasted Pecan, Peach, Spruce, and Lapis for the design. I also used the Roasted Pecan Kona cotton for the binding and backing. To finish this min quilt I added a couple of corner pockets on the back to create a wall hanging. (You can read my How to Finish a Wall Hanging tutorial if you’d like to do the same!) Once you have the pockets in the upper corners on the back of the quilts it’s so easy to either use a wooden dowel or some flat head thumbtacks to hang your project wherever you please.
Hand Quilted Mini Quilt
As I love to do with mini quilts, I hand quilted this version with coordinating pearl cotton threads in a big stitch style. The thicker size 8 thread and the longer stitch length make me so happy and create such a lovely, crinkly texture. My go-to brand for pearl cotton thread is DMC and the colors I used for this project were 353 (pink), 793 (blue), and 780 (brown/copperish) which match the Kona Peach, Lapis, and Roasted Pecan fabrics respectively. If you’ve never hand quilted before and you’re looking for a peaceful way to pass the time I highly recommend giving it a try. You can check out my free Hand Quilting course if you’re interested.
Design Inspiration
Protostar is the third in a series of mini quilts I’ve been creating inspired by nordic runes. This particular design is loosely based on a nordic rune that symbolizes boundaries. Though the gesture and general structure of the Protostar design are similar to the rune, the shapes I incorporated are much different. My goal with this series was to combine the simplicity of symbology with a retro, arcade-like aesthetic, and somehow make it modern. If you take a look at the other designs in the series you’ll notice some repeating shapes and layouts.
Quilt Rune Series
This rune-inspired series came into being as a form of self-exploration. As a mom of two (soon to be three), wife, daughter, sister, and friend I was feeling, at times, as if I was forgetting myself. Not that I forgot I existed but that I didn’t know what I liked and disliked anymore. So, in an attempt to investigate that I thought of going through a list of aspects of life that either leads to or are part of healing and put some real thought and energy into each. When I found this circle of healing runes, everything just clicked into place. Regardless of whether this image is actually historically accurate, I liked the list and the shapes and I thought it was a great springboard for simple quilt designs.
Thinking About Boundaries
As I mentioned above, this design, Protostar, is based on the rune meaning boundaries. The idea is to think about boundaries in your life while making the mini quilt. Are there places in your life or specific relationships where you need to place more solid boundaries? In a society that conditions us to believe that our self-worth is directly related to how much we give, or how hard we work, it’s so important to know our own limits and stand up for ourselves. On the flip side, it’s a good idea to re-evaluate our boundaries every once in a while. Maybe a boundary you set five years ago is actually holding you back now. The Protostar mini quilt pattern comes with a short prompt on this subject so you can meditate on these ideas and put those energies into the making process.
