Sunday 29 May 2016

SQT Small Quilt Swap 2016...Outgoing...



Hello World of Blog..not much stitchyness in my world of late except a yahoo group's annual small quilt swap. A direct swap with lots of encouragement to interact, the Swap Hostess did an awesome job of partnering! Great email chats with my partner, Demi (not a blogger), deciding on "our" quilt. So much fun to start the process with a collaboration.

Our decision?  Medallion (frame) style, monochrome with white/or cream (main colour recipient's choice - Demi chose blue/navy).  Our likes very similar - including stars, secondary patterns...and same degree of fluidity interpreting "rules" - as guidelines! Yes, my kind of quilter!!

I drew a mud map of what I wanted to make and set to stitching the centre - a lovely Michelle Ridgeway monogram - "D" for Demi...
After framing it reality hit that I simply did not have sufficient time available for my original design (involves a lot of hand piecing and is now in the "one day" pile).
Back to the drawing pad - need less complex and machine friendly. Flipping through block books I came across Ribbon Block - perfect! Secondary pattern forming and my favourite Friendship Star to boot! I bought some navy dragonfly fabric while making the quilt and it and a floral kept floating to the top of the fabric pile demanding to be "seen". The top, while pretty much at maximum size, felt unfinished so simple squares and rectangles for top and bottom borders in the dragonfly and floral. Quilted, mother of pearl flower buttons on the corners and it was ready to wing its way to the USA.
I forgot to measure it so, doing the maths, something like 26" x 30" (a tad bigger than the maximum size - aim at 4" ribbon blocks - oops 6").  I enjoyed every minute of making Demi's quilt, loved working in the blue/neutral colour scheme and just had a heap of fun playing in this swap.

We opened our parcels on the same day too - international dateline aside - which really added to the fun. Big relief when Demi loved her quilt.

I made an "extra" something to add to the parcel but I'll put that in another post - and of course a post of the gorgeous little quilt Demi made for me...so after not posting for ages hold on to your lap tops kiddies there may be a flurry of activity!

Happy Stitching...