Friendship Mini-Mini Quilt Swap

Kudos to Seattle MQG leadership for keeping our guild strong throughout the last many months of meeting virtually. Our monthly meetings have been great, with all the features we've come to love, along with great presentations by talented makers. There have been some 'extras' along the way, too, and the latest was the Friendship Mini-Mini Quilt swap. The whole purpose of the swap was to make a new friend! We have had so many new members join the guild during the pandemic, that long-time members were paired with a newer member, which I think was a great idea!

So now I'm regretting not prepping this post back in June when I actually made my mini-mini, but such is life. Soon after being assigned as partners, Janet Darcher and I connected and chatted it up some. We fully intended to get together to exchange our swap projects, but unfortunately, that didn't work out.

So early on, Janet and I agreed to give free reign on what we made for each other - no color or design preferences, just make something we enjoyed. I was in the mood for improv courthouse steps, and after rummaging though the scrap basket, found a fun motif for the center. Sadly, I don't even remember how the rest of my fabric pull came about, but I clearly remember enjoying the mix I settled on and creating the mini quilt. The fabric that the motif came from also made a perfect backing. The quilting - a dense improv diagonal grid - created the best texture! My mini-mini finished at just under 7" square (50 square inches was the maximum allowed in the swap) and I confess I love it so much. 

So I sent off my mini-mini to Janet and a day or so later, I received what she made me! Surprise, surprise, she sent two minis. I love them both, for different reasons. I'm especially drawn to the hand-stitching on the one, and the different circles on the other. I asked Janet to tell me about them both, and here is what she said:

"I got a circle attachment for my Bernina and it is a lot of fun and I can use so many of the built in stitches." I think Janet's quilting pairs nicely with the background fabric, and the fun placement of the circles.

"The blue one has some hand stitching which I'm beginning to do more of in smaller pieces. And there are samples of my initial efforts at Eco Printing, the leaf and circle. There is a small piece of rust dye (not a new technique but one I love to do)." Cool. The leaf motif is awesome - reminds me of leaf prints I made as a child - and as I mentioned before, gotta love than hand-stitching!

So what a great swap. Special thanks to guild-mates Martha Peterson and Jackie Benedetti for hosting!