My Name Game Swap Quilt for Happy Quilting

At last I can show you the project I was working on when I gave you this sneak peak two weeks ago.

Samelia's Mum hosted The Name Game Swap where we designed a mini quilt to match our secret partners blog or real name, which ever they chose. We filled in a form with a few likes & dislikes then went a stalking of our new partner for ideas from their blogs and Flickr pictures.

My secret partner was Melissa from Happy Quilting in the USA. I have to say I was shaking in my boots when I saw she is a designer with great fabric combining skills & a real professional of our industry. I had loved one of her quilts I had seen in a US magazine just a few weeks before.

At least I was smart & ordered a charm pack of Terrain by Kate Spain straight away as Melissa said that was what she was redecorating her sewing room in. I have always looked at pics of Kate Spain fabric & thought gorgeous but when I laid out the charm squares I can see why Melissa has gone for it & especially the purple range. I am loving the bright orange too so it is a bonus to have those charm squares left for a project for me for later on.

I pondered on my design for a few weeks, checking out the sneak peeks on our group's Flickr page. For two weeks I had settled on cathedral windows. I knew Melissa loves them & they would look great in this fabric with white. I don't know whether it was the fact someone else showed a peak of the same or if I came to my senses & remembered I have never done them before, but the night before the sewing day for this project I changed my mind completely. So here's the end result.

The outside blocks are raw edge having only been sewn on by a cross once diagonally each way so some of the edges. In the middle of each flower is a button in either purple, white or green. The words are hand sewn on, raw edge again. The quilting is in the ditch around the flower blocks & then like little rays of sunshine radiating out from the important bit, Melissa's blog name.

When I saw Melissa's pics on Flickr & her blog post tonight it was a relief on two counts - firstly it got to the USA in time for today's deadline & secondly and most importantly - she loves it! It was a pleasure to make it for you Melissa & thank you for introducing me to a new range & style of fabric.

Thanks also to our swap mum Anorina for all her hard work. Now I just need to be patient & not scare the postie too much checking for my parcel tomorrow.

Happy stitching
Tracee xx