One of my best selling quilt patterns in Stars in Stripes, and ever since I wrote it I wanted to do a spin on the original and make it a fun Christmas mini quilt! I just wanted to quickly share the method for switching up those stripes in case you’d like to make a striped mini too!

I made the stripes using the strip piecing method. Haven’t done that before? All it means is you sew long strips of fabric together before you start making the cuts for your block. In this case, start with (4) 1.5″ strips of Red and White. As you sew the strips together, stagger the ends so they are lower than the previous strip end, and alternate which direction you sew the strips (bottom to top, top to bottom, etc.). When you go to cut the sets, you’ll get better cuts from each set.

Either using the marks on your cutting mat or the marks on your ruler, cut off the selvedge at a 45 degree angle (notice the staggered strip ends! I could have probably staggered more, up to 1.5″).

Then, using your ruler, cut 3.5″ from each end, maintaining the 45 degree angle. The ruler markings will help so much at this step! Let it do the work for you. You should get 8 stripe blocks from each strip set.

Then, you’ll sew two of the stripe blocks together, lining up the ends so you have 1/4″ overhang for seam allowance.

Press, and trim those little dog ears you get from joining the stripe sets.

Trim the ends (blocks don’t have to be perfectly identical since they won’t touch and seams don’t need to match) so you have a 8.5″ x 3.5″ stripe section. Whatever your cornerstone fabric choice is, cut (9) 3.5″ x 3.5″ squares.

For the center design, I made some trees. But as long as your chosen design ends up 8.5″ x 8.5″, it’s perfect!

My favorite is this little tree, I just used a Triangle-in-square ruler to quickly make it (rulers are my friend) and added a quick stump. So simple. For a fun wonky look, you can use this tutorial by Amy of Diary of a Quilter. I’m sure you’ve seen her Patchwork Christmas Trees out in the online world before! As for my tree here, it was 5″ x 6″, so it needed small borders.

The other tree was once a wreath, but it didn’t have enough space for a nice border so I did some quilt surgery and replaced it with the trees. I just snowballed some corners on 2″ strips of different lengths for these trees.

Other inspiration for center designs:

Gracie of Burlap and Blossom patterns has great picture quilt blocks, and you can find all of them (individual or bundled) in her Etsy shop.

I have made a few of these Christmas Stars by Threadbare Creations, and it’d make a great variation on the standard sawthooth star block for the block centers!

Kristina made a few 6″ Christmas blocks last year, like this simple present block! She has the tutorial on her blog, Center Street Quilts.

Basically, keep an eye out for 5″-6″ blocks that you can add a small border around for the center of the candy stripes. I had a cute wreath that went all the way to the edges and it wasn’t as cute as the blocks with a border, so I did some quilt surgery and replaced it with the different trees. So, I recommend a border!

The mini quilt, when you have the 4 sections, will measure 25″ x 25″. It’s a cutie! I hope you try out the candy stripe borders and make something cute too!