Modern Quilt Guild Mini Swap

Last year, I attended QuiltCon in Nashville, TN with my friend, Christine.  I participated in the Make a Mini, Make a Friend Swap and my swap partner and I met at QuiltCon when we exchanged our mini quilts.  Evie made me the star quilt and I made the drunkard's path variation for her--I called it Maple Keys from Canada.

This year, I did not attend QuiltCon in Austin, TX, so I decided to sign up to swap a mini quilt with another quilter by mail.  I received my quilt from my partner, Ann, in Texas a few weeks ago.  I had told her that I liked Frank Lloyd Wright and orange when I filled out my swap form.  I think she nailed it!

Ann motioned she liked quilt designer/teacher Sarah Bond.  I had never heard of Sarah Bond before and set about doing some research to find out more information so that I could make a suitable mini quilt for Ann.  Sarah had done a webinar for the Modern Quilt Guild so I watched that and also googled images of her quilts.  I noticed three common themes in many of Sarah's quilts that I saw online...1.  Flying geese  2.  Curves and  3. Creative use of Striped fabric. I dug around in my stash and found some Kaffe Fasset fabric and a dark gray Essex Linen to use as a background. 

I don't usually design quilts on paper first, but I did this time.  I took a 24" by 24" square of paper and folded it in half diagonally and then folded it some more.  I used a piece of string and a pencil to create the arcs and then filled in the lines for the flying geese.  I used each of the flying geese arcs as a template to paper piece the flying geese. 

Here is the first arc. 

I used the quarter circle in the corner and the plain arcs as patterns for cutting out the background pieces. 

A little curved piecing and I was on my way!

The second and third arcs were completed and added to the quilt top. 

I used some turquoise and gray 28 wt thread for the quilting. 

The quilted arcs are blue and the quilting in the flying geese was done with gray thread. 

Some striped binding finished my mini off nicely. 

I used the leftover Kaffe fabric on the back. 

Here is the finished mini quilt. Ann has received it in the mail and loved it!

I would definitely participate in the Modern Swap again!  Maybe, next year, I will get to meet my swap partner in person at QuiltCon...