Swaps - leaving and arriving.

I have finished the Baby Geese mug rug. It is a 7.5" square. It is made with bits of many colourful cottons and Kona white. I quilted it with Superior Threads King Tut white thread. I used a paper pieced pattern from Bryerpatch which is here and reduced it to 50% but any of the many patterns for a circle of geese would work.

This mug rug is for my secret partner in the spring round of the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap. I though a rainbow of baby geese would work. Originally I planned a colourful border of tiny squares but they overwhelmed the baby geese. I remembered that I was trying to work on less is more, and left the baby geese to fly so far above the ground that the colours on the ground are lost.



 I quilted it densely in a cross hatch grid of organic straight-ish lines. The dense quilting makes the ring of geese pop forward and adds to the impression that they are flying far above the ground. Well I am hoping that you get that impression.



It looks great hung on pointe too. I feel slightly bad about the impracticality of this little mug rug as I cannot see anyone putting a cup of coffee or tea on it. I continue to consider the idea of including a coaster for my partner.



Look at that beautiful mini quilt. It is about 24" square. It is made of orange, red and pink solids on a grey background. It arrived at my house on Wednesday night from Lori who blogs at Adventures in Fabric. Lori was my partner in the For the Love of Solids Swap Round 2.



Look at that lovely paper pieced star. She said this was her first time paper piecing. I think she is a natural! I had asked for these warm colours and I love stars. Early in the swap we were asked to pick three words to describe what we wanted and I said modern, graphic and bold - this quilt is perfect.



And look, she also sent me a coffee cup cozy and beautiful fabric. I am the coffee girl, that cozy is going to see some serious use.



A parting photograph. It is really hard to get my camera to handle these colours well. It is just that much better in real life. Thank you Lori.

Edited: I am linking up with {sew} Modern Monday and the button on the right.

Best,

Leanne