Christmas swap!

Even though I may count up the days on the calendar I really dislike it when I'm reminded of how many weeks it is to Christmas or how many shopping days are left.  For some reason the DJ's on Irish radio like to remind us of this every day!

I much prefer the Christmas conversations that revolve around ideas for gifts or decorating the house.  So today's post is about the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland's Christmas swap.  We are making either a table runner or a table topper.   Something manageable between now and Christmas and something to help make the house look pretty, how could I resist?

This is a secret swap so to help our partner choose material and designs a mosaic was called for.  I really love making these.  Big huge labs makes it very easy to either add in the url of an image or make a mosaic from Flickr favourites. 

1. Winter Baubles, 2. From Belair to Yosemite, 3. Tablerunner Progress, 4. Minimalist trees Modern Christmas Table Runner, 5. brrr christmas table runner, 6. Table Runner for the SHG Table Runner and Wall Hanging Swap, 7. Christmas table runner, 8. Christmas Fabric Bee- Finally!, 9. Holiday Table Runner, 10. Snowman Table Runner, 11. Christmas table runner, 12. Christmas table runner finished!, 13. Christmas Wonky Star Table Runner 1 Detail 2, 14. Nutcracker Sweets Table Runner, 15. Finished Christmas table runner, 16. Funky Christmas Table Runner

I'm liking the first two especially.  Almost everyone had trees in their picks at some point and the colours were mostly red and green, traditional Christmas colours, but used in a modern style.  My swap partner's brief was very open, any size, anything you want really.  So I have decided to take a break from applique and make this design I came up with from my star crossing block earlier this year.

I had intended to make this for Christmas in frosty colours as part of my Finish-A-Long goals so I'm killing two birds with one stone and using the design for this swap.  I did get some guidelines on colour from my partner.  She likes contrast and the colour red so I pulled fabric and tested it on the design and it has been a few days of tormenting G with:  What so you think? Does this go with this?  How about...

Options included:

 

But in the end I decided to go with these from Joy by Kate Spain with a Kona Snow background.

 

So now I'm drafting the design on point to make it easier to make.  The original design was based on a large block with flying geese, HST and squares.  Turning the design on point and constructing in rows I should be able to get the number of seams down from over 200 tiny pieces to about half that in larger pieces, mostly squares & rectangles.

So that's the plan.  I have to have it in the post by the 9th December.  I hope my partner likes where I'm going with this!

Linking up to Needle & Thread Thursday and