Make a Mini Make a Friend - 2023

This year I joined in with the Modern Quilt Guild mini quilt swap, it's the 2nd time I've participated, and it did not disappoint! This is a fun swap and I enjoyed creating something for my partner @margaretfleisher. I wanted to incorporate improv curves, and combined that with some paper piecing too. 

I started with some doodles, playing with the arrow shapes and then drew them out so they could be paper pieced. Other than a dislike of purple, I had free reign for color and started pulling the green and yellow from my stash, then added in the blues for contrast. After piecing the three arrows, I auditioned several fabrics before deciding on the orange dots.

I love free motion quilting, and once this was all together, it was fun creating different designs in each section! The middle design is a new one to me - and I'll use that again!

Swapping with Margaret at QuiltCon was fantastic! We pulled and flipped our quilts at the same time and I think both of our eyes lit up at what we saw. This is what Margaret made for me - and it's perfect. The curves, the colors, the fabrics, I love it all and can't wait to add it to my wall of quilts.

Many thanks to our swap fairy @lovinglissa as well. There's a huge crowd of swap groups and partners, so you get to see what others have made and there are so many amazing quilts being shared!

#mqgminiswap2023 

Seeing Stone

Naturally, springtime means it's time for a Star Wars themed quilt swap, this year hosted by Kristine @kcswapshost and you can go check out all the amazing quilts at #maythe4thswap2022. Star Wars swaps are such fun - which is why I can't resist!

My partner had some awesome artwork in her mosaic that I used to inspire the design for my quilt. I found the pattern for Grogu from FandominStitches and he is tiny, with some teeny pieces to boot!

I mixed the regular black fabric with the metallic print to add some extra fun, and after Grogu was complete, paper pieced the extra background space around him. I placed him on the Seeing Stone as he reaches out through the Force. It's free motion quilted, with some fun detailing across the stone, and a little bee too.

Secret swaps keep the element of surprise until you open the mail to see what lovely quilt came your way. I was thrilled to open mine and find this awesome Ahsoka mini made by @sew_some_good was for me! I love it a lot and it'll be happy as part of my mini quilt wall at home.

Update Fun Fact: Both of these quilts are featured in Make Modern Issue 47!

Happy quilting friends!

Mini quilt swap stories - the secret color version

Back with another early 2021 finish to share here, the 'Happy Dancing HSTs' mini!

I participated in the #tqs_secretcolourquiltswap2021 hosted by @tinyquiltswaps back in the spring. This was a fun swap challenge in that we had to make a mini quilt featuring half square triangles and the favorite color our partner had posted in their mosaics. This came with a twist, all photos we posted of our progress had to be in black & white!

My partner wanted teal and I was inspired by one of the HST designs in her mosaic. So i math-ed out this design with the squares finishing at 2" and set about pulling fabric from my stash! As I also love teal - is was not too hard to pull fabric. :) 

Making & trimming all these HSTs took some time as I love the scrappy look, and it was fun to arrange and see how it would start to come together. The pop of orange added some lively movement as well against the low volume background.

For quilting, I wanted something with curves to soften the angular lines of the design. There were a lot of quilts hanging in exhibits at work finished with Baptist Fan quilting and it was a design I'd always wanted to try so I did! It required figuring out how far apart the lines in the fan needed to be, and then marking the entire quilt with the design. Thank goodness for a light box and my trusty Dritz Mark-B-Gone marking tool!

Once it was entirely marked, it was easy to free motion quilt all of the fan lines and I absolutely love how it turned out and am definitely adding this design into my pocket for use in the future. Of course there's a bee stitched it!

Well, we swapped in April and my partner really enjoyed the quilt so that's always great to see. One of the extras I sent was a coordinated mug rug.

Here's what I received in return which I also love! It fits really well with a couple other quilts on my mini wall and a great scrappy, improv HST look.