The Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap

Hi everyone :)

This project has been under wraps for the looooongest time, but my swap partner has finally received the mini quilt I made her so I'm finally allowed to share :)

The swap was hosted by Kristi over at Schnitzel and Boo and there were some AMAZING mini Quilts created by all those involved so head over the the flickr group or on Instagram (the tags used were #schnitzelandboominiquiltswap and  #makeaquiltmakeafriend) to have a look.

Kristi paired me up with Kerrie for the swap.  Kerrie blogs over at Pretty Lady Baby and makes some beautiful quilts and bags.  When we were paired up I did a little stalking, and started following Kerrie on Instagram (http://instagram.com/theprettyladybaby), so I was lucky enough to see the progress she has made on her modern maple quilt and her cathedral window pillow case - wow!  

I did a little more stalking as I knew from the questionnaire Kerrie filled out for the swap that her Favourite fabric designer(s) and or line(s) was Anna Maria Horner and her quilting hero was her friend Diana Taylor - now being semi new to sewing, and having never made a quilt or even really looked at anything too quilt-y before, I needed to do some searching, I mean who were these wonderfully awesome ladies I had never heard of?

Anna Maria Horner - OMG how had I never heard of this designer before?  Her fabric designs are beautiful!  So glad I have found this wonderful designer now - but maybe my bank balance isn't :P

Having never made a quilt before, I was a little intimidated by Kerrie and her wonderful sewing abilities.  So, I decided to stick to my strengths, so that I could make this fellow crafty lady the best mini quilt I could manage.  Kerrie's favourite colour was listed as pink and her least favourite colour was listed as brown (Snap Kerrie! I hate brown too :P).  A a fellow pink lover, I know I had some amazing pinks in my stash...I decided on these:

I made sure to take Kerrie's likes,  "I like bright colours! I am a very happy, easily excitable person. My friends say Joy is my super power. I love really cool designs, appliqué and nifty designs", and dislikes, "I really can’t think of anything to don’t like…No sadness please", into account when I decided on a design for my mini quilt.

So I had a quick look around Pinterest and developed my inspiration board - your welcome to take a peek here :D

After a little more looking around Kerrie's blog, I found out that she likes hexies...and seeing as I'm a little hexie obsessed right now (hello!  I'm in a year long hexie block swap - blogged here) the design came together quite easily :)

The front

The back

This was my 3rd time ever using binding to finish an item off...now the 1st time was a complete disaster - see here - and I had read about Ros from Sew Delicious using a cheats method...so on the hunt I went!  I needed the binding to turn out better on this quilt :P

I found a great tutorial over at prudent baby :) 

And here are the results...

The binding

I'm so pleased with how this turned out :D

I sent the quilt off to Kerrie with a quilt pattern from an Australian designer: Clares Place

Kerrie received the quilt yesterday, and we have written a few messages to each other since...I'm so glad she likes her mini quilt!

Now, I'm just waiting to receive one from the secret partner who was making one for me :)

Emma