Over the past couple of months I signed up for quite a number of sewing swap and I am really enjoying getting my creative cap on to sew for them. While most are one-off swaps I did also join a monthly swap group Doll Quilters Monthly. October was my first month to swap, and the optional monthly theme, that my partner and I decided to follow, was “Where I Live”.
Before ever the partner details were sent out I had been planning this quilt and my original idea was to do something that would depict Switzerland. However, as my partner turned out to be living in Germanyand has been to Switzerland I decided I would go with something a lot closer to home and draw on ideas from my surroundings. And so I designed my “Through My Window” mini quilt. I started with a garden as I do love mine, especially in spring and summer when it is full of blooms. I made some quarter inch hexies flowers and one QAYG flower, added some quilting for the greenery and created a garden in red and blue shades.
Next to our house is a train line, in fact I believe our house may have been originally built to house a train watchman for a train crossing. So of course the train line was the next item to be added.
Beyond the train line, across the road and through the little park there is the lake and that was my final addition, complete with two sailing boats.
The whole quilt is sashed in black to give the appearance of a window frame, and I then used red binding to pick up on the colours of the garden and boats.
From my partner Karen in Germany I received the most beautiful quilt depicting her home town. To the left is the river Danube, to the right her stunning rendition of the hill-top Schloß (castle) complete with round towers and the castle wall that follows down the hill.
Isn’t it just magnificent? I will be hanging this quilt in my sewing space in our sitting room so that it can be enjoyed and admired by all. I can not imagine a more wonderful start to swapping with this group and look forward to seeing what the future monthly swaps will bring.
