Make a Mini, Make a Friend!

I am just home from QuiltCon 2019 in Nashville, TN!  This is my first of several blogposts about my experiences at the conference...there is so much to share!  

When I signed up for QuiltCon, I also signed up the for the Make a Mini, Make a Friend Swap.  They had over 600 people participating in the swap with some people mailing their mini quilts to each other if they were not attending the conference and others exchanging their quilts at a pre-arranged time at the conference.  I was given the name and preferences of my swap partner last fall --Evie lives in Maine, USA and likes curves and bright colours.  I decided to use my new Drunkard's Path rulers to make her quilt. 

Two years ago, I took a design class from Jacquie Gering.  She often uses fun foam shapes to design her quilt before cutting the fabrics for her project.  I took out the fun foam, cut out several quarter circle shapes and started to play.  I did not take pictures of all of the designs that I tried out but the picture below shows my final arrangement of the shapes. 

I found a fat quarter in my stash with brightly coloured maple keys on it...perfect for a mini quilt from Canada. 

Next, I had to choose a background fabric...  I tried several options from my stash including solids in various colours, greys, etc.

 This Essex linen in navy was the perfect background!

I sewed all 12 units together and then added sashing to separate them from each other, working from the centre out.

At the last minute, I decided to spin my design by 45 degrees...

I looked over all my quilting thread options and decided on orange, my favourite colour!  I found some backing fabric in my stash with spools of thread on it.

I used my walking foot to add curved and straight lines to the quilt.

Then, I added some orange binding to frame my design.  I called it "Maple Keys from Canada".

Evie and I met up at the swap fairly easily as we had sent pictures of ourselves to each other ahead of time.  Evie's picture included a quilt in her favourite colour...orange!  I had already finished her quilt by then so I was thrilled that she also loves orange.  Evie loved her quilt and I loved mine!  She made my mini quilt with liberated stars and faced the quilt rather than binding it.  I will hang it in my sewing room.

Here is a picture of a small group of us with our mini quilts.

Here is a picture of my mini quilt showing off the spiral quilting.

I will definitely be signing up for the mini quilt swap again.  It was fun to make something for another quilter and to make a new friend!