Now that QuiltCon judging is over, I am thrilled to start sharing with you a series of quilts that I made last year. Over the course of the next four weeks, I am going to share four quilts that I made last year. The first two finishes that I will share with you (today and next week) are exploratory pieces that gave me confidence to make an additional two quilts (that I will share in February), which will be on display this year at QuiltCon.
While today’s post is ultimately about a mini mini quilt, it is also probably going to be the longest post in this series so that I can explain the back history about how this idea evolved. So, let’s start by rewinding to 2015…
Tidy Seams
As I was piecing a mini quilt for my friend Renee (Life: Ups and Downs), I was really struck by the beauty of the seams on the back side of the piecing. After struggling for years to get accurately pieced blocks (my blocks tended to run just a bit small), I had just started to press my seams open and use a scant quarter inch seam allowance. Not only did these changes make my piecing more accurate, but I fell in love with the way the back side of quilt tops looked with the seams pressed open. A beautifully pieced and pressed quilt top is *chefs kiss* when viewed from the back. Over the years, I would occasionally find myself sad to lose that seam-side version of the quilt inside the quilt sandwich.
That idea and love for how the seam side of a pieced quilt top looks percolated and bounced around in my mind for years. Then in 2024, the third prompt of Project Quilting Season 15 was “inside out” and I got to explore having exposed seams on the front of a quilt top for the first time.
Inside Out – Hand Binding to the Front of the Quilt
One of the things I wanted to do with the Inside Out mini quilt was even make the binding “inside out”, so I sewed it down to the back and hand stitched it to the front.
Then, a lot of things happened in 2025. I got a part time job as an engineer again after 10 years of hustle trying to make money through quilting. I went to Robert Bosscher’s @rjbosscher Pushing Boundaries lecture at QuiltCon with my husband. My husband and I have talked about Robert’s lecture a LOT (it still comes up in our conversations now, almost a year later).
After starting my new job, I felt an incredible amount of relief that I no longer *needed* to make quilts to write a pattern for or monetize in some way. At first, I didn’t really have much free time or space to create while I navigated figuring out what a new normal looked like. Then, thanks to many things coming together, I got an idea for how to piece blocks with finished exposed seams that I just couldn’t shake.
First Finished Exposed Seams Block – May 2025
After thinking about it for years, I was really excited to finally take what had been an idea and turn it into a physical object. For my first block, I grabbed solid scraps from my scrap bin. I thought about garment seams, which tend to have larger seam allowances, so for this first block the finished seams are close to ½”, which means when pressed open like shown above the full seam is about 1″ wide.
Turn and Straight Stitch – Exposed Quilt Block Seams
Honestly, after thinking about it for so long, it was a lot easier to piece than I thought it would be. The next block I pieced used the same colored scraps but I was able to make the finished seams ¼” (I’ll share what that looks like a little bit later in the post). From there I started wondering what other blocks I could use with these exposed, turn and straight stitch seams.
First Exposed Seams Hourglass Block – June 2026
If half-square triangles were doable (again, more on those a bit later), the next block I wanted to try was an hourglass block. But it was time to pull out some prints. The solids were useful for the initial block testing, but if the seams were going to be shown on the outside, how about also incorporating the wrong side of a fabric print? If you look closely at the first hourglass block photo, you’ll see I was puzzling wrong versus right side together and ended up with a marked pencil line visible after the piecing. That’s all part of the learning process.
Testing Seam Bulk
The real question was what to do with the hourglass blocks after piecing them. I wanted to know if I could handle all the extra material in the corners, so I used an exposed seam hourglass block in the center of an exposed seam nine patch block to test out seam bulk.
Bulky Seams
Yeah, those are some bulky seams. I love precision piecing challenges, though, so this won’t be the last you see of the fun hourglass blocks.
Exposed Seams Mini Mini Quilt – First Quarter Inch Seam Block
With a handful of test blocks made, I had the confidence to design a few more ambitious projects. But before I purchased fabric or got too excited, I wanted to turn a few of the test blocks into a finished quilt. I chose to use my second (the first time I tried to get ¼” finished seams, shown above) and third (testing out HSTs) test blocks to make a mini mini quilt.
Exposed Seams Mini Mini Quilt – HSTs
I think of the HST side as the front for mini mini quilt, but I love that it is a two sided quilt. The mini mini quilt is 6½” square.
Now, I usually finish my mini mini quilts with a machine finished binding, so I am really, really thankful that my first exposed seam quilt finish was a mini mini quilt. As I was working on the binding, I had a quick idea…
Exposed Seams Mini Mini Quilt – Binding Details
What if the seams for the binding are also exposed? And voilà, there you have it – I was hooked, obsessed, and eager to dive into something a little bit bigger.
Yvonne with Exposed Seams Mini Mini Quilt
Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday, TGIFF, Finished or Not Friday, and Beauties Pageant.
Exposed seams – so interesting. It almost gives it a woven effect. I really love it and can’t wait to see the rest of the posts in this series.
Absolutely love what you’re doing!
Lovely, so inspirational!
I’ve always admired those backs that are so neat and threadless. This is so fun. I look forward to more in the series!
Super cool, Yvonne! I love when a creative idea percolates and just won’t leave you alone until you dive in and explore! Love the added texture and detail this new technique offers. Keep up the quilty play!
Interesting idea, so creative!
Quite the interesting technique! I look forward to seeing more exploration of new ideas from you – always inspiring!
What a cool idea and execution of it! I love the seam finishes as the finish provides subtle texture
I’m wondering if this technique is similar to the flat-felled seams I learned in garment-making…. I like that you carried the exposed seams to the binding – very clever! I look forward to seeing more of your series. Thanks for sharing!
That was a very interesting read this morning and look forward to more Yvonne!
A fascinating approach to turn the quilting world inside out and upside down, ha! The seams remind me of flat-felled seams from my garment-making days (that still call to me from time to time…).
What a fun idea. The exposed seams provide a unique texture to your piece.
A very interesting idea, which you executed beautifully. Looking forward to seeing more of the finishes from this project.
Your brain thinks in VERY cool ways!! I like this, and the thought process was cool to read. I am excited to see more of what you do with this technique
Wowsa! Not only are these examples/mini-minis cool to look at, I really enjoyed reading the narrative that went along with these explorations. I’m still trying to figure out if the seam allowance was cut to 1/2″ then folded under to yield a quarter-inch finish. I mean, I think that’s how it went, but I could be wrong. I love the colors that you used here, and am looking forward to the next installment.
That is sure some creative experimenting! I hope you enjoyed “just doing” it withouht the “hassle”. xo
inspiring and thought-provoking, thanks for sharing the back story