I decided to participate in two swaps before Christmas, the Festive Mug Rug Swap and then the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt. It is my first time participating in a handmade project swap, but I was super excited and eagerly waited for my partner assignment.

Festive Mug Rug Swap

I immediately knew I would use my paper-piecing gift tag pattern (see on the right, free to download) for mug rug. These are the final goodies that was sent to my partner. I love this perfect fabric line for some fuzzy cutting of the Santa’s Elves (Robert Kaufman).

Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap

This one took me a while to work out, what I was going to do, but I wanted to try a new skill – sketch stitching to applique shapes. I had also been talking with my friend Daisy, about making an improv. hippo quilt with a low volume background. So, those two ideas resulted in this….

I added some straight line quilting to the background, then appliqued the hippo. I think the sketch stitch went pretty well and happy with the final outcome.  I love how the black and white binding to finishes off the quilt.

For the back, I used this much loved hippo fabrics (Puti de Pome, So Happy, Hippos) from my stash and added some hanging corners.

Let me know if you are interested in the hippo template and I can provide it. Linking up with Amanda Jean over @ Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.