Scnitzel and Boo Swap- round 3

 Mini quilt swaps are so much fun! This is my second time swapping with schnitzel and boo. This time, it was all based in instagram. I love the concept of #makeaquiltmakeafriend. Since it is a blind swap, you actually get to make two new friends!

Here's the quilt that I'm putting in the mail today. I hope it is vague enough to tell you that my partner likes cotton & steel fabric. It's a good thing I bought a pile of fat quarters of c&s last fall. Since I couldn't figure out her color preference, I used what I had and made it work. The aqua background was a stretch for me. Oh, how I wanted to use some Kona snow!

The block pattern is from a V & Co pattern called Flower Box. I made a 16" block. With the border and after quilting, the mini is 20" square.

I didn't take many process pics. I wanted you to see the backing fabric. I used what I had, even though it doesn't really go with the front. I like spray basting minis, but I'm too cheap to use it on larger quilts. I spray on my kitchen table because it is easy to clean up if I do it right away. I leaned my cutting board against my machine to protect it.

I posted this pic to instagram when I picked out thread. I used the two that blended the best. The soft, shiny pink is Sulky 40 wt rayon. I'll be using more of this pretty thread. The Aurifil 50 wt cotton is #2600 dove grey that is just a bit blue. Just to illustrate that the numbering system for threads is not uniform, the Sulky 40 wt feels thinner than the Aurifil 50 wt, even though higher numbers usually mean thinner thread. The Sulky is way thinner than a YLI 40 wt quilting cotton. The more you know...

I had fun with the filler free motion quilting. In the border, I did some parallel straight lines then went back and quilted the serpentine lines in between. I think it's a cool look for a small border.

Of course, I had to add some goodies including some local chocolate.

 

So that's my second mini finish of 2015. Maybe I should finish something larger!

 

I received the most perfect mini quilt from Tiffany @loisanddot. She admitted to stalking my sites and it totally paid off! She nailed it. I am totally in love with this mini!

She did some cool concentric square straight line quilting around that feature square.

Look at the print on the back! It made me squeal when I unwrapped the package.

 

The extra goodies are as great as the quilt! Matching magnets and tea wallet, some Kate Spain Horizon, and a magnetic needle minder that I put to use immediately! I had never seen those Lindt chocolate sticks before, but now I'm seeing them everywhere.

I'm not sure if it will hang in the hallway gallery...

 

or the kitchen. Hmm. It might look better on the yellow wall.

 Thank you, Tiffany! It's perfect!!