Circles and Curves Swap

There are lots of tutorials out there for similar circles. Here's how I did it:
Cut 2 squares of each colour - mine are 7.5 inches square.

Layer your squares, both right sides up.

 Use a circle template or household item to draw a circle on your top square and then stitch a decorative stitch on that circle. Go slowly and your fabric should stay lined up without pinning.
Make one with purple on top and gray underneath and another with the gray on top.

Cut both your prepared squares into 4 pieces.

Very carefully, cut away the top layer as shown.

Arrange your pieces to form a pleasing pattern and sew together. The seams on the circles will probably not match up exactly, but don't worry about it - the effect of the circle is there even with the imperfections.

Although I liked the purple and gray combination with the yellow/green stitching, this little quiltie still needed a touch of pizzazz. I did have some green that was the same fabric line as the purple print, but not enough to do this next step, so I found something else in my stash and cut some 1" strips. These were folded in half lengthwise and pressed. Using a 1/8" seam (just needs to be narrower than the 1/4" seam for the border), sew these strips around your blocks.

Adding a green "zinger" strip.

 The border is made from 1.5" strips and sewn right on top of the "zinger" strip with a 1/4" seam.

And a purple border.

Layer and pin your top to batting and backing.

Now it's time to quilt - because these mini's are not large, they are a great place to practice your machine quilting skills. The gray reminded me of paving stones placed in a flower garden, so I decided to quilt pebbles on the gray fabric and stipple quilt the purple. I had some great variegated purple thread and went to work.

Click on pictures to see the quilting close up.

And the final touch was a double-fold binding in gray. Hope my swap partner likes this one! It turned out to be a similar pattern and colour to the one she sent me, but they say "great minds think alike"!

Happy Quilting
--Ann