My First Flickr Swap!

Wow...5 weeks between posts.  That's too long!  I have a lot of catching up to do - but I'll need to spread it out over a few posts...otherwise we'll be here all night.

Many of my KC MQG friends participate in online swaps and bees.  I happened to be on Flickr one day and found a new swap that was just getting started - For the Love of Solids Swap (FLOSS).  I decided to go for it and sign up.  I needed to experience this for myself!

I bought a bunch of Kona Solids on sale at Fabric.Com...and I combined a few with my stash fabrics to come up with this selection:

I posted the palette on Flickr, got a ton of feedback (including from my Swap Partner) and waited for inspiration.  The well was dry...I had NO ideas.  And then...one day, I saw this post on Alex's blog.  I really loved the colors - they are absolutely gorgeous!  HOORAY!  I was Inspired!

Back to the stash, I pulled out my blue and green Moda Crossweaves FQs and a big chunk of Kona Glacier.  I cut various width strips of the crossweaves and foundation pieced them to a chunk of muslin.  I know I'm not the first to say it, but the sheen and texture of the crossweaves are fabulous. Seriously, you must try them for yourself!

I pieced my placemats and used some variegated King Tut for the quilting.  1/4 inch around the seams on the color bars and then straight line vertical quilting - with varying spacing to "go" with the varying widths of the color bars.  I knew from the start that I was going to go with the FunQuilts single-step machine binding method using a matching thread so as not to distract from the main quilting.  Needless to say, by the time I got to the 3rd and 4th placemats, I had the binding technique down pat!

Of course, what use are placemats without coordinating napkins?  I didn't have enough to make four of the same color so I mixed it up using Moda Light Lime and Moda Turquoise.  In retrospect, I think mixing it up turned out to be a very happy accident.  For the back, I used the Moda Light Lime with a strip of pieced colors going through the middle...pretty nice, huh?

I am so happy with how these placemats turned out.  They turned out exactly as I had envisioned - and I am so thrilled.  My Swap Partner was awesome...very active with comments and feedback on Flickr and other blogs.  It made the whole experience a lot of fun and I am very confident that she'll be happy!

Next post I'll share the FLOSS package that I received!  If you have some time, check out the FLOSS Flickr group to see all of the amazing work!