Living temporarily somewhere, for us, means less holiday decorations. Even our Christmas decorations were mostly handmade and very sparse, and we all know how easy it is to decorate for that holiday!
For Christmas, I did end up making an advent calendar from a panel print. After we took it down, I realized that I missed having something soft and cute hanging on the wall for the holidays, so I decided to make another mini quilt for Valentine’s Day, which is not widely celebrated here as it is only for couples.
In our house in the USA, we were always happy for an excuse for more pink and aqua and red and glitter around the house!
We simplified quite a bit, but still had some fun. I downloaded the free Love Note mini quilt pattern from Fat Quarter Shop, and with some minor changes (I “rounded” out my heart) I had a perfect replacement for the advent calendar! I think my favorite detail are the hearts in the quilting.
Now that Valentine’s Day is over, that mini quilt has made its way to the cupboard again, and Easter is making its way into our house.
Again, holidays are not nearly as commercialized here as in the States so decorating for specific holidays isn’t as popular. It’s both wonderful and sad 🙂 because we like celebrating (yay!) but we also hate how the expectation is to go big or go home back in the U.S. Here the pressure is OFF but we still want something to remind us there is more than homework to look forward to 😉
I purchased Kristina’s Easter Parade quilt pattern and although she has a small version in the pattern, it wasn’t small enough for the empty space on my wall. Instead, I followed the tutorial she has to make 6 bunnies, and sewed those together into a mini quilt. I cut some pieces a little too big so the ears come to a point instead of a flat top 🙂 but since it is uniformly too big, it’s like it is the right size, you know?
My girls were thrilled when they came home from school and saw the Springtime mini quilt hanging! My youngest two came in and hugged me tight and told me they were so happy that we had bunnies 🙂
Since our walls are cinderblock, there’s no chance of sticking a push pin into my wall to hold these mini quilts up. To fix that problem, I purchased the small, clear Command hooks and put those on the wall, and then I put a safety pin through the backing fabric of the mini quilts. It’s a great system, especially since the mini quilts are all within the same size range and it is easy to interchange between mini quilts without damaging the wall over and over. I plan on doing more mini quilts throughout the year (like making another mini pumpkin quilt !
Do you use quilts to decorate for the holidays? Mini quilts are great because they can be completed quickly and don’t use up a lot of fabric. I highly recommend it! You can even take a single block or just a few blocks from a larger quilt pattern and use that as a mini wall hanging, like with the bunnies from Easter Parade (or 5 bunnies and 1 carrot- that would be so cute!). Take a look at what you have already, maybe that pile of unused patterns can be the perfect solution to decoration AND trying those patterns you have waiting for you.