Thread Love Mini Quilt

I'm happy to finally get to share my Thread Love mini quilt with you! For 2026, I'm doing a Mini of the Month series in the Stash Artists membership and Thread Love is our first mini quilt pattern.

When quilters first started raving about Aurifil, I avoided trying it for a couple of years. I knew people seemed to really love it, but I also knew I wouldn't be able to get it at my local quilt shop, which meant I'd have to think ahead enough to order it before I actually needed it. Then I won a small spool (it was 1231, Spring Green, if I remember correctly). I held onto that little spool for a while, before finally breaking down and trying it. As a suspected I would, I loved it and started making the switch away from the Gutermann polyester thread I had been using up to then (and could buy at a little shop within walking distance of my house). It has been the only thread I use for years now, for piecing and quilting, by hand and by machine, though I still can't buy it locally and have to remember to think ahead to order what I need. I've also been known to send Aiden to East Coast Quilt Co. in St. John's before he comes home, so he can bring thread with him. All of that to say that, even though I'm not a big fan of the colour orange, I still had to make my spools Aurifil orange. 

I had so much fun choosing fabrics for my 'thread'! My go-to colour palette these days seems to be pinks, purples, and teals; those colours have been together in Inner Beauty, my quilting tattoo, and two quilts I've been working on over the past few days. In Thread Love, the pinks, purples, and teals really pop against the navy background and the orange spools are another kind of pop.

Since no quilter ever has all new spools of thread, I included full spools and partial spools in the design.

For the quilting, I decided to outline each spool twice, then I quilted a dense loopy meander all over the background. The spools aren't quilted, so they stand out nicely. As always, the quilting is especially noticeable on the solid pink back.

I think this one will eventually go on my sewing room wall. I have one long wall that is still almost completely bare that I want to use for mini quilts, but first I want to add the word 'CREATE'. I haven't decided yet how I want to do the word (Wood letters? Painted directly on the wall? Something else?), so while I've pondered that for a couple of years the wall has stayed blank. All I know at this point is that I want it to be something other than a quilt, to be different from the quilts that will be on the wall around it. If you have suggestions for a fun way to add a word to a wall, let me know!

Have you noticed the snow all around the quilt in these pictures? We got 90 cm (35") of snow over the course of a few days (including Christmas Day), and had to use our snowshoes to get into the backyard to take the pictures. While beach photo shoots are my favourite, the ones that require snowshoes are my second favourite. There's something ridiculous about tromping around the backyard in snowshoes to take pictures of quilts that entertains me. 

If you like the idea of a Mini of the Month series and you also love stash-friendly patterns and virtual sewing with friends, join us in the Stash Artists membership! The doors are open this week and you'll receive access to the Thread Love pattern as soon as you join. (And if you're seeing this post after the doors have closed, join the waitlist so you'll be notified when they open again.)

I'm hosting TGIFF again this week, so link up your finishes! And please consider hosting the party; our hosting schedule for 2026 is looking very bare. You can sign up to host here. Be sure to visit some of the other links to celebrate their finishes, too.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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