This was a tough swap. The swap was all about using a pattern by Camille Roskelly. It wasn't a Bonnie and Camille swap. And that's why I signed up - I love Thimbleblossom patterns, but I don't love B and C fabric. Unfortunately I seemed to be in the minority, and my partner was an avid B and C fan. I didn't get much further guidance on fabric, so with no B and C fabric to hand I decided that everyone likes scrappy rainbows. Right?
The next problem was that the patterns I love and the patterns she loved didn't have much cross over. I picked out the one that was common (because whilst it's important to follow my partner's likes, if I can't stand what I'm making, it's not going to end well). I chose Starlight. The finished quilt, in the pattern, was 12"x 15". The swap requirements were for a minimum size of 16" x 16". Starlight is an equilateral triangle pattern, and my equilateral triangle maths is pretty much non-existent. I knew I needed to make it bigger, and I thought I had worked out how many extra units I needed. Fail.
I did get my GCSE maths. Honest. I realised I had cut only half of what I needed. Luckily I had done this well enough in advance to shove it an box and sulk for a while. And when I pulled it out again it just looked like a total scrappy mess. And not in a good way.
By being an ostrich and sticking my head in the sand and ignoring it, it was too late at this point to start again... so I ploughed on, adding a very dark navy for the larger triangles. And boy, did I underestimate how long it would take to piece this together. The number of seams coming together was not fun. It's not perfect, but all of a sudden, I liked it again! The dark triangles gave the eye somewhere to rest away from the scrappy madness! And it was just big enough (16" x 18"). I quilted it up with simple straight lines (there's enough going on in this quilt already), trimmed it and bound it. Ta-dah!
I really liked it, but was still very unsure whether it would suit my partner or not. I was happier with the extra I had created: a little zippy pouch! There was a mandatory three extras for this swap, so I added a few shop-bought goodies too!
My partner, Sew Hoity Toity received the parcel today and, to my huge relief, she is thrilled with it - I was very lucky especially with the extras I sent and hit on some of her favourites!
And I got a fantastic quilt all the way from Australia too. This came from @quiltingwithkim and a certain small person thinks it's for her...may be I'll share.
With some lovely goodies! Mia has been eyeing up the kangaroo on the shopping bag already! And that pincushion is in Kate Spain's new line, Canyon. I'm really tempted with a fat quarter bundle which I would then use, keeping with the theme, to make a Swoon quilt for our bed. But it's so hard to buy fabric without having seen it in real life!
The mini quilt I sent was on my Q3 Finish Along list, so that's another tick
So was the zippy pouch, but I'll link that up separately.
The next problem was that the patterns I love and the patterns she loved didn't have much cross over. I picked out the one that was common (because whilst it's important to follow my partner's likes, if I can't stand what I'm making, it's not going to end well). I chose Starlight. The finished quilt, in the pattern, was 12"x 15". The swap requirements were for a minimum size of 16" x 16". Starlight is an equilateral triangle pattern, and my equilateral triangle maths is pretty much non-existent. I knew I needed to make it bigger, and I thought I had worked out how many extra units I needed. Fail.
I did get my GCSE maths. Honest. I realised I had cut only half of what I needed. Luckily I had done this well enough in advance to shove it an box and sulk for a while. And when I pulled it out again it just looked like a total scrappy mess. And not in a good way.
By being an ostrich and sticking my head in the sand and ignoring it, it was too late at this point to start again... so I ploughed on, adding a very dark navy for the larger triangles. And boy, did I underestimate how long it would take to piece this together. The number of seams coming together was not fun. It's not perfect, but all of a sudden, I liked it again! The dark triangles gave the eye somewhere to rest away from the scrappy madness! And it was just big enough (16" x 18"). I quilted it up with simple straight lines (there's enough going on in this quilt already), trimmed it and bound it. Ta-dah!
I really liked it, but was still very unsure whether it would suit my partner or not. I was happier with the extra I had created: a little zippy pouch! There was a mandatory three extras for this swap, so I added a few shop-bought goodies too!
My partner, Sew Hoity Toity received the parcel today and, to my huge relief, she is thrilled with it - I was very lucky especially with the extras I sent and hit on some of her favourites!
And I got a fantastic quilt all the way from Australia too. This came from @quiltingwithkim and a certain small person thinks it's for her...may be I'll share.
With some lovely goodies! Mia has been eyeing up the kangaroo on the shopping bag already! And that pincushion is in Kate Spain's new line, Canyon. I'm really tempted with a fat quarter bundle which I would then use, keeping with the theme, to make a Swoon quilt for our bed. But it's so hard to buy fabric without having seen it in real life!
The mini quilt I sent was on my Q3 Finish Along list, so that's another tick
So was the zippy pouch, but I'll link that up separately.
Comments
I know what you mean about B&C - the ranges are so very popular - but they're not to everyone's taste. You stuck to the swap criteria, which is the right thing to do...