IG Mini Swap

I haven't participated in a swap for quite a while, but when @curlyboy announced the #IGminiswap a few months ago I signed up almost straight away. I was part of Flossy's group (aka Brioni Greenberg) and the level of awesome in our group was astounding - I think I would have been happy to receive pretty much any of the mini quilts that people were posting.

Last week, my parcel of awesome arrived and I couldn't be happier. Seriously. I love this quilt SO much it isn't funny. Even better it was made by my friend Adrianne, so I feel especially lucky to have something made by her living in my house :o) When I posted on IG that I'd received this one, a few people said they suspected this was for me, and I'm so glad they were right. The prints are some of Karen Lewis' amazing hand printed fabrics, and the low volume background is totally me (obvs). I really can't thank you enough Adrianne, it is an incredibly beautiful mini.

Not only is the design perfection, it is even hand quilted. I will cherish this forever, and it is now adorning my sewing room right above my machine so I get to see it all the time. Sorry to get all gushy, but I'm just SO IN LOVE with it :o)

Adrianne also included some gorgeous extras in my parcel - this beautiful pouch (which was filled with some New Zealand candy which was gobbled quite quickly by my grabby children ;o))

The mini I made for my partner (@imasavanovac) also reached it's destination yesterday so I can share that with you too. The stars were made with 1.5" diamonds so it was some pretty teeny tiny piecing - but a lot of fun to put together. It all came together really easily, apart from the binding which I wasn't all that happy with - because of the angled edges I had to use bias binding, and it was an absolute nightmare to sew down. It mostly looks okay - but a couple of the inner curves are a bit bulgy. I certainly won't be trying to bind something this shape again - although if I'd left myself more time to bind it I might have been able to figure it out better. I wasn't completely happy sending this off to be honest, but I'd run out of time at this stage so I didn't have time to try to fix it.

I was really happy with how the quilting turned out - and Sami loves it so it's all good (although in all probability she is probably just being polite about the dodgy binding).

xx Jess