A few months ago I decided to join the UKQU Mini Swap 2019, this was my 3rd mini swap. Not only is this great fun with all the ‘stalking’ but it pushes you into making something very special for your swappee.

After joining we are eventually put into groups headed by a swap Mamma who has the task of keeping our group in some kind of order, guiding us along the way. We contact her privately on Messenger for advise, encouragement and final approval.

The day came when we were all privately allocated our swappee, that’s the person who you make a quilt for and it’s a secret between you and your Mamma.

That’s when the ‘stalking’ begins, posting questions to your group and hoping your swappee answers, so you can take notes on her likes and dislikes. Mine liked brights and a black background…no animals (apart from butterflies) and flowers were a definite no no!.

So I thought of designing a Stained Glass butterfly. This is one of my favourite techniques and as I love brights too it was a pure delight to make.

A visit to a local patchwork shop to choose some gorgeous fabrics and I was excited to start.

I made up my own black bias and used fusible web to adhere the strips into place, then hand stitched the bias all round. I purchased a little bling, as my swappee didn’t mind a little sparkle, and later added a little butterfly motif for the corner.

Everyone posts little teasers, but not to give too much away…

This got everyone guessing, can you see what it is?

 

 

 

Of course it is…

Template for the antennae

Stained Glass Butterfly

Pattern can be found here on ukqu.co.uk    https://ukqu.co.uk/shop/patterns-4/stained-glass-butterfly-pdf  

A label was added…..

 and the fact that the only strip of fabric leftover for the rod tube matched up is more luck than judgment…

I really enjoyed making this…so I made another…just for me…

Stained Glass Butterfly

 

It’s customary to send a little gift so I made a little needle-case and picked up a cute ‘butterfly’ notelet pack and eventually found a butterfly card (with flowers!..whoops!)

https://ukqu.co.uk/shop/patterns-4/patchwork-needlecase-pdf-pattern/

Then the long wait, until the day arrives, when everyone had completed, Mamma sends us all an email with our swappee’s address….off my butterfly flies to it’s new home…hope she likes it!

I sent mine first class signed and tracked ( this is a must as occasionally they do go missing), hoping she would get it the next day, not guaranteed..but fingers crossed.

Next day arrives and the posts start appearing on the Facebook ukqu page…the first one was breakfast time…that Postie was up early!!

But, as the morning went on my swappee wasn’t posting that she had received it! Or….maybe she had and didn’t like it…argh!!

By 1pm I had almost given up and was feeling a little disappointed and annoyed with Royal Mail as I’d paid extra for first class mail.

Yay! at 2pm she posted it up…her Postie was new to the job and he was late…she liked it…phew! Apologies to Royal Mail.

But this was the day when Facebook had a glitch and no one could see any photos until late that night. How frustrating. Bad timing Facebook!

By the next morning, all the photos had appeared as if by magic. It was a sheer delight to see photos of the amazing mini quilts arriving.

Now as I write this blog at 7o/c in the morning, I’m up and having a quiet cuppa, in my favorite patchwork mug.

There’s a loud knock on our front door….I kid you not…our Postie (who usually comes at lunchtime) is standing there…with a parcel…yes…my mini has arrived!

I’m excited like a kid at Christmas, but managed to control my eagerness to rip open the parcel until hubby got up so we could share the experience.

And here it is, I love it, isn’t it gorgeous…

We both agreed it would look lovely in our living room for all to see…

If you haven’t entered into this yet, I urge you to give it a whirl, such fun!