Christmas Swap!

Every year, my dear quilty friends at the beach, engage in a gift swap. We select a fabric, place it in a brown bag and then blindly choose a bag. From that fabric the most wonderful gifts are made, I'll show you in a different post. While in past years we swapped Christmas themed fabrics, we decided to do something different this year and swap batiks!

 

This year I chose to stretch myself a bit, by learning English Paper Piecing. This pattern caught my eye and as is typical for me, I did not consider that perhaps a less complex pattern would be a better start for my first EPP!

 

 So the batik I received was the green zig zag on the muted pinky beige background. I auditioned a few pieces of background for the center star and decided on the dark batik. I wish the pictures were more true to the colors.

I started in July......

 

 

And through the late summer it started taking shape! I used the glue basting method which I really liked. It was quick to make the shapes and easy to remove at the end.

 

I started with a beige background on the first ring....but decided to add a pop of violet in there!

 

Another ring done!

 

Definitely a great football watching recliner activity!

 

The back...fearing what will happen when I take the paper off....

 And ta da!!! The finished product! The recipient was quite happy with it and oddly enough I received a nifty set of placemats made with the fabric that I submitted from the same person that I stitched for. Can't wait to see what they come up with for next year's swap. Merry Merry!!