Tag Archives: quilt swap

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Leasa hosted the Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap on Instagram. The shipping window ended earlier this week and my partner Kathryn received her package yesterday.

Right around the time that our first check in photo was due, I was working on my first Swoon block. I sew a second line of stitching 1/2" from the first where triangles are going to be trimmed off so I'll automatically have HSTs that just need to be trimmed to size. (See an example in step 4 of my Watermelon Plate Tutorial.) I had stitched these HSTs (trimmed down to 2.5" unfinished) with my Swoon scraps and they were in some of my partner's favorite colors.

I decided if I made some progress on a couple more Swoon blocks I would have a nice variety of HSTs to use for a mini. And remnants from another projects was definitely in the spirit of sewing my stash. Each swoon block provided a variety of print A/print B HSTs, print A/background HSTs and print B/background HSTs, so using the pieces from three Swoon blocks gave me nine different varieties of HSTs, and my background fabric, as you can see, is scrappy low volume. I used four of each variety, giving me 36 blocks to play with. I considered creating a pattern with the HSTs, but opted to go with random. I threw all my HSTs into a bag and pulled them out one by one and lined them up. I made one switch to avoid a section there was a cluster of one fabric. So, it's 94% random. ;-)

I opted to quilt it with match stick quilting, using white Aurifil 50wt thread. This was the first time I didn't worry about my lines being perfectly spaced and perfectly parallel and I love the effect.

For the binding I used some of my favorite Alison Glass fabric which coordinated well with the colors in the quilt. I didn't have a navy blue thread, so I opted for turquoise (Aurifil #2810, 50wt). I love this effect, but it did make the imperfections stand out.  You'll see lots more photos of this binding when I get my binding tutorial up on the blog.

I used more of my HSTs to make QSTs as a feature on an openwide zipper pouch. I'd already cut the main fabric out before I realized that my extra was practically larger than my quilt. ;-)

 

Yesterday I also received this amazing swap package from Ginny! I love the big mini and the mug rug. Plus mini charms, chocolate and a fun wind-up toy. So excellent!

I'm linking up to TGIFF, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Link-A-Finish Friday, Finish It Up Friday and Adrienne's 2015 Q4 Finish Along post. See all my Q4 goals here.

Thanks for visiting!

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My next mini swap in the queue is the Home Sweet Home Mini Quilt Swap. The shipping deadline is Wednesday. Eek. So this is not only a September goal, it's a 72-hour goal. Luckily, I've got some time in my schedule to sew sew sew today and tomorrow.

This is the first swap I've been in that we've been assigned partners and we're making for each other. I generally am so excited about what I'm making that I show it off while it's in progress, since nobody knows who will be receiving it. This time, I'm making for Brittany and she knows it. (And she's making for me.) So, I'm not showing much along the way. In fact, this glimpse below is all anyone will see before Brittany receives her package.

I designed my mini and included one pieced curve (gasp!). Since I'd never done this, job one was to figure that out. I cut pieces from my hand-drawn templates and then pinned the heck out of it. I think it was a mistake to piece it with the outer curve on the bottom. It was a puckered mess when I finished. Oops.

I shared on Instagram and Amanda and Jessica both recommended Leanne's curve sewing tutorial. Oh my gosh! Game changer. I never would have attempted to pieces a curve without pins, but her short video illustrated it beautifully. Here's the result of my second attempt. No pins were used in the making of this one.

Overall I'm happy with it, but it is just a smidge shy of the intended size. I made one more (oh, cause I've decided to make this mini twice, one for Brittany and one for me) and cut my pieces larger than necessary so I could trim down to 2" by 3.5". (Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to the position of the shape of the fabric as much as to the pattern on it when trimming, so it's not quite symmetrical, but I think it'll be fine.) Here's my third curve.

Now on to all my straight seems. Stay tuned for my big finish after it reaches its destination. And after that I'll be wanting to sew all the curves! This little piece and Leanne's tutorial opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Once again I'm glad I've used a mini swap to push myself beyond my normal quilting skills.

Do you participate in quilt (or other craft) swaps? What's your favorite part?

Linking up to ALYoF September Goal Party.

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My latest Instagram mini quilt swap was Kate's Rainbow Mini Swap (#rainbowminiswap). Talk about a lovely bunch of rainbow wonderfulness! Nearly 600 people participated and it's been such a happy hashtag to follow. (If you aren't already following me on IG, find me at @sarahmgoer)

I was making for Mary, who likes modern brights, geometrics, and typography and dislikes pastel. I decided to use my quilt block (tutorial coming soon... just need to write it up and find a couple testers) that I designed for Antioxidant Delight to make her quilt, but with no borders, so I'd stick to the 24" x 24" maximum size restriction. I chose an assortment of rainbow colored blenders for this rendition and named it "Boxed In Rainbows". I struggled with wanting to do some epic free motion quilting, but in the end I took inspiration from my son's quilt and did edge to edge straight lines "wherever" until I felt done.

I bought the amazingly colorful background fabric from a vendor at the SCVQA quilt show. I'm trying to track down more of it, because I wish I'd bought the whole bolt!

I find it fun to put together some extras to go with my swap packages. Sticking with the rainbow theme, I included skittles, rainbow colored magnets, a little airplane and rainbow pin and a rainbow selection of note cards. I also included a spool of heavy weight aurifil thread, some wonder clips and a selection of tea, including my favorite, Wild Sweet Orange.

All wrapped up and ready to go:

Mary received her package this week. Now I'm waiting patiently for mine to arrive. ;-)

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday and Needle and Thread Thursday.

This finish is one of my Q2 Finish Along goals. I'm linking up with the Q2 Finishes party.