at embroidery overlaps barbara explains that the contemporary quilt group of the quilters' guild has set its members a challenge for 2007: an A4 quilt a month. as a novice i'm loving the opportunity offered by tiny quilts to try new techniques without any great investment of time or money. it helps me to sustain my interest through to the end as well, always an issue for me in any project.

in the interests of research i've been trying to track down as many of these little quilts (mini contemporary or art quilts as opposed to doll quilts) as i can. it turns out that finding quilters who share my aesthetic is harder than i might have expected. as shannon pointed out there's a hell of a lot of embellishing going on out there. although that certainly doesn't put me off, i tend to lose interest in things even quicker if i'm surrounded by people doing exactly what i want to do only much better :D

one of the few that strikes a chord is margaret cooter. i especially like her two "kilim' quilts that draw inspiration from woven textiles. i think that's a direction i'd like to move towards, exploring the relationship between quiltmaking and other fabric construction methods.

the art and mini quilts flickr pool is the most varied source of different styles i've found to date, i feel i've just begun to scratch the surface there.