WIP Wednesday - Christmas swaps!

I know it's Halloween week and I shouldn't really be mentioning Christmas sewing until at least Saturday, when the chocolate is eaten and the barm brack has been toasted! So I'm breaking my own rules here with an update on Christmas swaps as the deadlines were last Friday and this Friday!



1. Christmas Ornament Pillow, 2. Winter pillow for Julianna (1), 3. CIMG9075, 4. Pillow-cover, 5. ChevronPillows - QuiltDetail, 6. Rear of my christmas pillow, 7. Aqua and pink christmas pillow, 8. Christmas Gifts, 9. Christmas FussySquares sewn together, 10. Christmas Snowflake ...a better photo and a little QAL, 11. Christmas pillow front, 12. paper pieced Christmas pillow, 13. Savvy Seasons pillow cover, 14. patchwork pillow cover, 15. pillow cover - christmas, 16. Christmas pillow

The Modern Quilters Ireland group are having another Christmas swap. Last year it was a table runner and this year we are swapping cushions! This is my mosaic of favourite picks from Flickr, to help my swap partner figure out what I'd like in a swap item. It seems that this year, I am drawn to Christmas decorations and can't go wrong stars and Christmas trees! Last year, I was all about the penguins and polar bears and to be fair I still love those guys (especially the penguins!)

Sign ups are open until this Friday and anyone resident in Ireland and a member of Modern Quilters Ireland can participate. Membership is free, if you want to join us in our Christmas swap! I've written a tutorial on how to make an envelope backed cushion for the swap here.



A second swap I joined in was Round 11 of the Fussy Cut Square in a square swap. This one was themed a Holiday swap. Amanda @ What the Bobbin organises swaps based on a 4" paper pieced economy block throughout the year with different themes for each round. This is my second Christmas round so last year I received 12 blocks and this year I made 12 more to swap.



The idea is to use a fussy cut centre and add coordinating fabrics for the outer rounds. You make and send 12 and you get 12 different ones back. It's a lovely way to be social and it gives you variety in your project that you might not normally have making all the squares yourself. I used fabrics from Riley Blake's Santa's Little Helpers, Joy by Kate Spain and Nancy Halvorsen's Holiday Favourites. Hope my swap partners like them!

I made a spring, summer autumn, winter cushion with 12 squares I received last year in a non-themed swap (added 4 more of my own to make 16!) This year I have a plan for a Christmas I spy type baby quilt with my 24. We'll see how I get on with that!



If you fancy making some of your own Amanda has the template available for download here.

Linking up to

More Fussy Cut Squares

Amanda @ What the Bobbin has been hosting a swap of 4.5" paper pieced squares with fussy cut centres.  Round 3 is Christmas themed so I made some squares using Joy by Kate Spain, Santa's Little Helpers by Riley Blake and some Nancy Halvorsen charms from Nancy's Favourites Holiday Collection.  

 

I received 12 from Amanda for Round 1 which was not themed and open to anything we liked.   I made 4 more to go with the 12 and yesterday evening pieced them into a cushion top.  Aren't they gorgeous?  I just love them!

I hope to do the same with the 12 Christmas themed ones from this swap.  4 x 4 gives 16.5" so I think they will make fantastic cushions.  I think they would be really cool with a 4.5" square in between as well and double your mileage!

My 12 are winging their way across the Atlantic.  If you want to try them Amanda has the paper piecing pattern on her blog here.  It's really not hard to do and they are quite addictive!