This seems to be the year of Doll Quilts here at Blue Mountain Daisy. In January I was lucky enough to get into Doll Quilt Swap 1o. This is the Doll Swap that started it all and this is the 10th round so it's very well organised with lots of fun along the way. Not to mention the amazing talent of the participants!

It's a secret swap so we don't know who is making a quilt for us and we try not to let our partners know we're stalking them. We all posted mosaics of our favourites as inspiration for our partners as well as a brief description of our likes. Megan of BoutiqueNutmegDesigns posted this mosaic as well as saying she likes wonky stars and houses. In addition I had a thorough read through her blog and spent time going through her Flickr stream. Stalking is an apt word!

Playing with the wonky star suggestion I used lots of the bright colours Megan likes and picked up on the black/white dots that popped up a bit in her favourites.
But... I felt it wasn't quite snazzy enough, so it was back to the drawing board. I then came up with this little 18 inch quilt.
I had to play with the colours a bit and I admit I made 3 center stars before I had one I was really happy with. Then I had to walk away and leave it for a week before I could decide what colour binding to use but I was so happy with the result.

It played on my mind that Megan had also said she loved wonky houses. There was also a reminder from our Swap Mamas to everyone that DQS10 should be on the label. The idea for the backing/label came to me in the middle of the night.
One rooftop on the house has my details and the other rooftop has Megan's ( it's covered in this photo as this was before I sent it off and it was still a secret)


I had so much fun being part of the swap that I signed up for the DownUnder Doll Quilt Swap.
This is my partner Sally's mosaic.

The bubbly circles quilts jumped out at me and I planned to make pieced circles. I had to laugh when Sally posted her progress photo and she was making a bubbly circle quilt for her partner. I thought it too obvious to continue down that path.

so I settled on a bright star! I auditioned a few backgrounds but black was the obvious choice. The Star almost looks it's floating off the background.

The backing is a parade of flamingoes and more black/white fabric and a little lady pointing to the label.

The little circles from my first idea weren't wasted, I whipped them up into a mug rug that went to Sally too.

A few people have asked how I can part with my little creations. I guess I know from the beginning that they're not for me so I don't get attached. My reward is the challenge of making the perfect quilt for my recipient and learning new things along the way.

Both my partners have received their quilts and have said they loved them. I'm still waiting for my little dollies. It seems my quilt from the DQS10 has gone missing and my lovely, kind partner has had to make another one for me. The Downunder Swap final sending date is the 27th May so it might be a few weeks away yet. One day there'll be a parcel or two on my doorstep.

Cheerio