Placemat swap

I took part in a placemat swap on Flickr in June and this is the lovely placemat I received from Solidia. I just love that colourful path curving it's way across the neutral background. Or maybe it's a staircase to a magical place, each step with a flavour of it's own - sorry, my imagination is running wild here, but I can't help gazing at this pretty thing. It came with a matching coaster as well, and some lovely fabric that I'm sure I will find good use for if I can bear to cut into it ;-)

This is the placemat I made and sent in return. I was reading a book set in Greece when I started pulling colours for this. I have never actually been there, but somehow blue and white houses, the colours of sea, sky, terracotta and olives seemed right for it. The wonky little houses are made from a technique in Keiko Goke's book "Patchwork".