I started by sewing three strips of fabric together - a floral and a green linen with a white one in between. I trimmed this element down to 4.5" square with my rotary cutter and quilting ruler. For the back, I cut another green patterned fabric to the same size and used my sewing machine to stitch the batting to it following the lines of the patterns. I stamped "BE CREATIVE" on the white strip using green permanent ink and a small alphabet stamp set. I then placed the back and the top facing each other and stitched around the edge leaving a gap which I used to turn it inside out. Having sewn the batting to the back really helped to keep it in place during this process. I pressed it my quiltie flat and stitched closed the gap. I started my hand stitching on the front by adding pink french knots to the round petaled flowers, then I added yellow french knots to the center of the pointy flowers and used a pencil eraser with blue ink to colour the swirly flowers. I used a running stitch to highlight both edges of the white strip and added a blue stitched flower. I made a row of green briar stitching on the lower strip added pink seed bead flowers with yellow centers.
One of the other girls in the swap has used her ink jet printer to print words on white fabric which I would dearly love to do but unfortunately I do not have an inkjet printer so I am researching other ways of getting laser printed text onto fabric. In the meantime, stamping is working out very well.
This little quiltie will be on its way to my partner in the next couple of days!!
Therese