A Lizzy House Finish

Four months ago, I wrote about the Lizzy House mini swap hosted on Instagram by Jo (Riddle and Whimsy) and Sarah (Smiles Too Loudly). At the time, I couldn’t decide whether to make the leap. Now, after signing up at the last moment, mulling over (for months!) what to sew for my partner, and finally shipping everything off in the most neurotic packing job of all time,* I can proudly say that I’m no longer a swap newbie.

I sewed for Christina, over at Made by Chrissymae. She wrote in her swap questionnaire that she loves geese, fussy cutting, and cool colorways. I decided that Better Off Thread’s Right Round pattern would fit the bill ...

I started this swap experience with modest Lizzy House reserves: a collection of Catnap in warm colors and Lizzy’s jewels and pearl bracelets in various colors. I bought much more additional fabric than I needed to, but I wanted options. Armed with a newly reinforced Lizzy House stash, I chose the four corner pieces and then pulled colors out of those fabrics for the adjacent rows of geese.

Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have bought this yellow print from the Castle Peeps collection if it weren’t for the swap, but I’m happy I did. It’s sweet, and I’ll be using the leftover yardage for fun stuff for my boys.

I’m very pleased with how the project turned out. As with every bag and quilt I make, this mini took longer than I anticipated. I’d say that each of the 12 Dresden wedges took me 30 minutes to paper-piece. Add fussy cutting, making and then trashing one wedge (which necessitated an emergency trip to my LQS for replacement Lizzy House fabric!), piecing the curves ... yeah, it was a substantial project but worth it.

I tried using the same background white in the center of the quilt, and it didn’t work. By using the corner fabrics a second time here, I got to fussy-cut some more.

I attempted stitching in the ditch on this project, but I never achieve success when I press my seams open, which I did here to avoid bulk. I opted instead to quilt on each side of the Dresden seams. Love it!

Of course, the flip side to this story is that someone made a quilt for me! (Somehow, so engrossed in my own making process, I forgot that another swap participant was stalking me, plotting a Lizzy House creation tailored to my likes.) That someone is Chelsea, from Vancouver. Check out the cool paper-pieced color spectrum mini she made me here. The challenge now is to claim a chunk of wall space to display my growing mini collection. : )

* I can’t bear to fold a mini for shipping. Since I received the one Kim, of Leland Ave Studios, made me nice and flat in a foam-core wrap job of her own ingenuity, I decided that it’s worth the extra effort and expense. Heads up: I found foam core at my local dollar store. I overlapped sheets of it to make two pieces that were big enough to protect the mini. Then I wrapped the quilt in plastic and sandwiched it between the foam-core sheets. Then I taped the heck out of it, wrapped it in brown paper, and taped the heck out of it again. It made it to Alaska from Massachusetts without a problem. (Please note: My husband witnessed the whole wrapping process and thought I was nuts.)

Linking up to Let’s Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, TGIFF, Finish It Up Friday, and Sew Cute Tuesday ...

My Lizzy House mini is also my entry into this month’s Le Challenge. I can honestly say that this is the only project I’ve ever made that would fit into the current theme: direction. It’s got geese flying in all directions!