Placemat Quilt Swap

This is installment number 2 on the October Swap round-up.

The Placemat Quilt Swap organised by Krommama was an opportunity to think small.

The mats were to be pieced, quilted and bound as usual, but to be roughly 13" x 17" in size.

My partner was AnnaMichelleQuilts, and as it turned out we both have 2 kids (one of each colour) we decided to make them one each!

I struggled for ages trying to decide what sort of patterns to use.

For Anna's toddler son I settled on an I-Spy design inspired by Cindy Carter's Scrappy Split Rail Quilt.

As the mats needed to be durable and washable I used fleece as batting and I backed it with a couple of polka-dot fabrics.

The quilting was simple and outlined the blocks.

Instead of seperate binding, I made the backing big enough so that I could wrap it round to the front and then be machine sewn. This was a new technique to me, and I think it came out OK, although the corners ended up not perfect - but I'm sure they'd get better with practice.

For her young teen daughter's placemat, in the end I settled on a Spiderweb block design using Quilt It's tutorial for guidance.

Each of the strips finished at @ 1/2" wide so they were quite fiddly to make.

I backed it with a single piece of patterned fabric I had lurking and quilted it along the segment lines.

Again I used the backing as the binding although this time the edges turned out quite wobbly!!

The 2 placemats that Anna sent me were phenomenal.

The first used my favourite rainbow inspired colours sewn into a hollow hexagon central shape, plus 2 sidebars.

The second was just so fun as she used applique, and some fabulous food fabric to make it look that dinner was served.

Thank you so much Anna - I've really enjoyed this swap xx

Teeny Tiny Quilt Swap

October has been the month for swaps, so to give each one justice, I'll be writing about them seperately over the next few days.

So I'll start with the Teeny Tiny Quilt Swap organised on Flickr by Quiltinkimmie.

There was an "anything goes" theme, with the only requirements being that the finished product measure 6" or smaller, be sandwiched and quilted, bound and labelled.

My partner, Ma.rysia, and I decided upon a Halloween theme.

Hers was first to arrive, and was a cute little appliqued Pumpkin, which was embellished with a cobweb in the corner. She also sent a little lavender scented hanging.

Bizzarely, I had also decided upon making a pumpkin!

I made it mostly from pieced squares, which when finished measured 1".

I also pieced the back, this time in a pinwheel pattern.

I quilted it by sewing around the edges of the eyes, nose and mouth, and then some shaped parallel lines on the face.

I finished it by adding a label and a ribbon for hanging.

It was only after finishing the binding it that I realised that I had miscalculated, and it was in fact @ 6.5" square.

Shhh - don't tell anyone in case they don't let me play again!!