Final small quilt swap of 2017

Yep, you read that right--I said 2017. So what, if it happened in January 2018?
Early last year I had set up 4 swaps with blog friends, and Julie and I would be ending the year with a November swap. For a variety of reasons, we each needed to extend the deadline, more than once. This week it finally happened. Look at this beauty that arrived at my house!

Can you believe it? Those little 9-patches are only 1 1/2" finished! And it is hand quilted, to boot! Here is a glamor shot.

Julie has made an entire big quilt out of those tiny blocks! What was she thinking? LOL You can find the pattern for it on her website, here.
I'm thinking I am pretty lucky to have this sweet thing. Take a peek at the gorgeous backing fabric.

There were some other goodies in the package, too.
There were Deb Strain note cards, and one of those wonderful spray bottles that you are going to want, if you don't already. I just purchased one at retreat last month for water. Now I have one for my Best Press, as well! You can find them on Julie's website.
Thank you, Julie for a marvelous swap!



And what did I send to Julie? This mini feathered star went to her house this week. The star finishes at 5 1/2". I can't recall for sure, but I think the whole thing is around 12" square.

Here is the glamor shot for this little thing.



This was made with a foundation piecing pattern designed by Cindi Edgerton. The pattern was sent to me by my sweet friend, Annie M., and I have been wanting to try it for some time.







I knew her patterns were printed on tissue paper, and I was interested to see how well it worked. I have to say that it didn't work well for me. The tissue paper wasn't stable enough for the precision I was seeking. So I copied the pattern onto sheets of newsprint. It is solid enough to be stable, but easy enough to tear away when you are finished. I bought a pack of 500 sheets on Amazon 4 years ago, and I don't think I am even halfway through it. Very reasonably priced. You can find it here.

You can see to the right how wrinkled the tissue paper pattern was after pressing--and I didn't even use steam. You can also see how flat the newsprint paper foundation is after stitching and pressing it. I ended up having to draw a foundation for the border I wanted, and copied it onto the same newsprint.

 Got the top completed November 8, 2017, and ditch stitched it soon afterward, but the rest of the quilting didn't happen until this week. Just couldn't decide how to quilt it.

I tried a new-to-me thread for some of this project, which I will report on later. This is too long already. Also, I took photos of the binding process to answer some questions I have received over the years about binding minis. That tutorial will be coming up.

Thanks, again, Julie, for such a great swap.  I am thrilled with my little 9-patch quilt!

Until next time, 
Janet O.


It was cloudy here when the eclipse of the super moon occurred, but the evening before, I caught the moon coming up over the mountains.