DQS8 - I'm in!

For more than a year I've been watching the evolution of the Doll Quilt Swap, and now the eighth round has begun. I lucked IN! It pays to check your fav blogs regularly - while visiting Yukon Viv Sunday night, I saw that she had signed up. I know that there are over 500 members of the DQS Flickr group and that the swap was going to be limited to 160 quilters. Without passing GO, I immediately found the sign-up instructions, blasted an email off to Susan and within 6 minutes, received a confirmation that I got in. Phew. The panic. The stress (well, only 6 minutes of it, really). Now I just have to wait patiently while they sort out the swap partners. Once I receive my partner's details, I will stealthily stalk his or her blog and (hopefully) come up with some inspiration.

Making small quilts is so much fun; it is a great way to try out ideas and take on the role of designer without feeling overwhelmed by trying to cover an entire bed. Plus, if your small design works out well, you're free to expand and make a bigger one some day. When I first started quilting about 8 years ago, I made several doll sized quilts for my daughter and niece's dollies and teddies. In addition to trying new designs/blocks, it was also a great way to improve binding skills and try maching quilting without a lot of bulk to cram through my domestic machine.

My most recent small quilt is this one, coming in at 12" X 24":

It is my Fall-Inspired Mini Swap Quilt that I already posted (unfinished) here. When I worked in a quilt shop, a common request from customers was "how can I use batiks with other quilting cottons?" At the time, batiks were quite a bit more expensive than non-batik prints so people bought sparingly and coveted their batik stash. This is one way to blend the two fabrics together...let the batiks shine on a background that reads as a solid (light or dark). Avoid trying to equal the saturated glow of batiks with non-batik bright colours because there are few up to the task. I find the non-batiks inevitably stand out for their dullness, but make great backgrounds.

I will pop this little honey in the mail later this week to my secret swap partner. I can't say who it is, but as one of my all time favourite Canadian bands sings: "There's none more Scot than the Scots abroad." I hope she likes it - it's my first swap and I'm very excited to see what will arrive in my mailbox!