This was my first time participating in a quilt exchange and enter for a show.

This take on a Jean Wells technique was made for my new friend Maria Rosaria Roseo for the IMQE 2017 swap.

This is one of my favorite Christmas projects to date.  The Christmas tree quilting on the border was done using Bonnie Browning's method of mathless borders using adding machine paper (see episode 609).  After tracing the trees onto adding machine paper I then transferred that design onto Golden Threads Quilting paper and quilted the borders.  This method worked very well; I will definitely use it again.   I enjoyed using various free motion quilt designs in the blocks.  

This mini is a modern interpretation of a tic tac toe game and a comment on our complicated digital world.

I joined the International Miniture Quilt Exchange because I wanted to meet quilters from aroundworld, and to challenge myselft to do something outside my comfort level. I have a great story around my experience as well. I was originally paired with a women in Queensland, Australia. She was a member of a guilt there, but didn't have a computer or smart phone so couldn't communicate directly with me. One of her guild members, Caroline McGilld offered to be the link between us. Caroline, who also joined and was paired with a wonderful woman in PA, Nancy McClelland. In a very short time Caroline and I became very fast friends. Sharing all our out families and lives, not just quilting. We really grew to like each other very much. Well unfortunatly my original partner fell and had to haave hip surgery so she dropped out of the group. So Caroline introduced me to her partner, Nancy, and the two of them just pulled me into their group. And what fun we had. We shared so much and worked so hard on our mini's that we couldn't wait to exchange them. We didnt give each other pics or hints so it was a complete surprise one we sent them off. Personally I was just floored when mine came. And I got 2 since I had 2 partners! they were absoultly amazing, and they loved the ones I made for them. 

The mini I made for Caroline is a vivid colored paper pieced large quilt I reduced to a mini. It was one of the hardest project I've ever worked on. It has about 230 pieces and is 21" by 21" and I called it organized Chaos. Caroline like vivid colors and often does modern quilts. 

. Nancy's quilt is sunflowers made of 3/4 hexies. My son is a bee keeper, and sunflowers are grown in the delta near my home. I just love seeing huge fields of them when I drive out that way. I call Nancy's quilt Bee Joyful. It was all pieced by hand and I have a hole in my index finger to prove it! LOL. There are over 300 hexies in that mini. Nancy likes more traditional  quilts and more subdued colors so I tried to make something closer to her tastes. 

Caroline travels as do I. Nancy not so much. Caroline has invited me to come visit her in Queensland, which my sister and I are planning a trip this coming year. I told Nancy I'd come see her as well since I go to VA once or twice a year to visit my daughter there. Such a wonderful experince which challeged me and brought me two new wonderful friends.

Jan Harvell

Made for partner in the Ukraine.

Miniature quilt Team 123.  My partner is from Canada and I live in Texas.  Carole & I discovered many things in common.  The one thing we did not share was that she is a professional quilter while I am not.  Oh mercy she is a professional!!  No pressure, right? 

 Well, I found Carol to be a delight. We both live in small towns  that have a  river and a  special bridge.  Her town has Inuksuk which are rocks stacked originally by the Aboriginal people, while our town has the International Rock Stacking competition. 

We choose “Happy” as our theme.   I wanted to design the project myself, but in the end I used a pattern by Kathryn Patterson called “The House That Kaffe Built” published in the 1997 McCalls.  This smaller paperpieced. version was published by McCallsQuilting.com in 2011.

It just seemed perfect for my partner.  It is houses made with Kaffe Fassett fabric, a designer I knew my partner liked.  I had just completed a project with his fabrics and loved the colors in his designs.  Plus she and her husband have built a new home and moved into it in 2017.  Now I am sure I choose the right project for my partner even though it is not my original design

My name is William Kane. My wife and I own a quilt shop in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. I have always wanted to make a miniature quilt but didn’t know what type. A friend of ours had made a full sized Amish quilt and when I saw it I knew this would work as my inspiration. When I joined the IMQE I now had the incintive to start ( and finish)! My IMQE partner, Elaine White, had told me she liked “some color” and I thought this project would have great color and contrast as well. The project was more challenging that I thought it would be as it used fairly small pieces (3/8 inch half square triangles, not paper pieced). I ma now in thhe process of making one for myself.

• My partner loves Dragonflies so that was the inspiration for the quilted gift for her.  Personal lives on both sides of the world got in the way of actually entering both quilts but it has now been gifted.  Painted, hand embroidered, digitized and machine embroidered dragonfly wings, free motion quilting were the techniques used to quilt this small quilt.  Made for the International Quilt Exchange.  

Made for my IMQE partner in Kiev, Ukraine

Made for my exchange partner who lives near London.

     I am a traditional quilter, but for this challenge I tried something new.  My teammate and I live in very different climates.  Here in northwestern Pennsylvania, we have a true four seasons as compared to Australia’s two: hot summers and cooler winters.  I attempted a landscape quilt that showed some local sights in all of the four seasons. Out of a window frame, spring, summer, fall and winter are crafted out of fabric.  My teammate Caroline and I decided to make our own designs, so our quilts will be a total surprise for each of us. We have communicated through many e-mails, getting to know each other’s quilting experiences, climate, geographical locations, family, traditions, etc. In many ways we are very different, but quilting is one of our common threads.  We have talked about meeting someday. I am not much of a traveler so, I think that will mean Caroline will visit me on one of her trips to the states.   .   I am sure the IMQE challenge has sparked many long-lasting friendships and has made quilters from around the world seem like close neighbors.  It has been a wonderful experience and I am anxious to see all the creative mini quilts that have been entered.

Techniques used: Free-motion quilting on a domestic machine.  I also used raw edge applique, hand-sewn beads and buttons with some crystal embellishments. Clip art objects and birds for each season that were printed on fabric and fused.

Participation to the 2017 International Miniature Quilt Exchange.

We choose to work around the theme of flowers, in yellow/orange.

This is a sample quilt created for Quilt Market 2018 in Houston to feature Paula Nadelstern's new "More is More" and "Piece & Joy" fabric lines from Benartex.

This quilt was inspired by photos I took while on a vacation driving from New Mexico to north of Durango, Colorado. We drove through stunning landscapes, and I wanted to capture some of them in a quilt. I used portions of photos from both states to create the design for this quilt. The top portion of the quilt is based on photos from northern New Mexico, the rocks on the left side and the cacti are from photos near Baker’s Bridge, Colorado, and the center front rocks are from photos near the Durango library. This was a new way of working for me. Previously I mostly used drawings or clipart to create my designs, but this time I used my own photos as “clipart” for the landscape, though I did use a drawing for the roadrunner, the state bird of New Mexico.

One of my first appliqué teachers was Suzanne Marshall, and she is incredibly good at finding textures in commercially printed fabrics that she can use to achieve the effects she desires. Following her example, all of the fabrics in my quilt are commercially printed cottons. All of the appliqué is needle-turned.

The pretty ribbon is for Best Use of Color in Wall Quilts at the 2018 Pacific International Quilt Festival.

This was a miniature version of a magazine pattern using some scraps to create a splash of color inside this tan border. I used the baby blue binding as a reference to blue skies on a day in the park. It measures 19 1/2 by 16 1/2 inches.

This is twin sized quilt made in Johnson City,TN for my grandaughter Sophia Joe who's mom said she would like BRIGHT colors!