Schnitzel and Boo, Round 3, but Round One To Me

Amazingly a year ago I had never heard of Schnitzel and Boo. I thought Schnitzel was a type of German pork with breadcrumbs and mushroom sauce. I had some in Dusseldorf in 1977 with my friend Liz, and our German teacher, but that's another whole story. Very nice it was too. And rather tactless of me to mention this now I know that Schnitzel and Boo are two dachshunds. So far it is Schnitzel and Boo round 3 but round 1 to me.

Schnitzel and Boo is actually a blog written by Kristi and named for her dogs. Twice a year, or 3 times altogether, she organises a mini quilt swap, and raises some money for animal charities into the bargain. I take my hat off to Kristi and her ilk, the organisational skills involved in this must be phenomenal. Anyhow, following my new way of living, being spontaneous, I signed up. I have survived two Christmas swaps with the Modern Irish Quilters and this gave me confidence. And, as always, the international postage date of 16 January was ages away.

I was put in Nicole's group and my secret swap partner was Helen in Sydney. Her ig name is @helenisintheburgh. I seem to spend a lot of time now on the dark side, on instagram, and secretly stalked Helen for a while. She seemed to be fond of the red riding hood fabric from A Walk In The Woods by Anneela Hoey. I duly ordered my fat quarters from ebay thought I would make interconnecting squares, almost like a walk or path way. All went well until I ran out of fabric and I ordered some more. Then I ran out again, and at the last minute. I frantically emailed two very kind bloggers and one of them came up trumps. Very kind of her. Luckily before she posted them I realised my maths was completely haywire and somehow my 24" mini quilt had morphed into 36" and counting. Of course, I had worked out the math, but failed to take into account that the main square was bordered on all four sides and not just two. Duh. I  backed and bound with some nice spotty stuff bought locally. I was going to use the Ikea numbers but it didn't seem just right. I hand quilted a little with some perle cottons and added my label on the back.

close up

the finished walk, four square not nine square

the spotty behind

Helen has two little girls, so I reckoned they were like every other little girl in the universe and bought some Frozen sticker books, hair clips and some jelly tots. For mum I made a covered notebook in the same fabrics as the quilt and made a quick key ring. I had a rollup tape measure in a tin which just seemed to match. I must admit I dithered over the tape measure! There then passed and anxious 2 weeks until Helen received her parcel. The lady in our post office was wrong, it didn't take 5 working days! Thankfully Helen really loved the quilt and had hoped it was for her during the making photos on ig. That was a result then. And her little ones were happy too.

 

my extras for Helen

 

And what did I get in return? I received a lovely parcel from Hazel who is on ig as @tizerandtings.
Hazel had really done her homework too. She made me a gorgeous double sided, that's right, double sided quilt. She used hexies, which I love to use myself, but they reminded her of the Giant's Causeway, here in N Ireland. She used a linen background, again reminiscent of the linen industry in N Ireland, and again, I love linen. And the range of fabric she used is Doe by Carolyn Friedlander, a selection of which I bought in the Autumn as medicine to help the vertigo go away. And, just to perfect it, there are some little dragonfly hexies included.

the front

the other front

She was also spot on with her extras. Hazel made a brilliant pin cushion stuffed with walnut shells. It has a linen and hand pieced rainbow fabric top and doe underneath. Far too nice to use. And, some vintage Liberty fabric, which I will treasure and she hit the star with the Dr Haussen lip balm. That very morning I had put my lip balm through the washing machine! (point of note, washed lip balm does survive, but is rather soggy for a while). Hazel's wall hanging is so nice we have laid it on our big white table.

We were to give a donation to an animal charity. I have yet to do this, but my donation will be going to the Donkey Sanctuary. We hare having a few friends over tomorrow night to celebrate my husband's 60 birthday and one of our friends works for said Donkey Sanctuary. Negotiations will follow!

I don't seem to have been blogging so much the last week or two, but have lots to catch up on. The plus quilt has gone to Philadelphia, the son says he told me not to bother! I still haven't blogged about the lovely quilt I WON before Christmas and the usual bee squares etc.  And my books for the 52 book challenge.

Helen x