Be My Neighbor

I have some friends whom I became acquainted with, over 3 years ago, on Instagram.

We had an Instagram quilt retreat a couple of years ago, and are going to  have another one this summer.

For our birthdays last year, we decided to make this quilt.

There are 8 of us, and someone drew our names, and we were each given 2 blocks to make for each person on their birthday.

I was assigned these two blocks.

Another rule was that we used only Fig Tree fabric, that way no matter which colors or prints we chose, we knew they would match.

We also purchased the same color for the background.

There's a little bird appliqued onto a rooftop on every row.

As each block arrived, I pinned my friends names onto them.

Tazzie lives in Tasmania, Australia, so does Leanne.

Kristie lives in Utah, Nessa lives in Wyoming, Joanna lives in Oklahoma, Lynette lives in Idaho and Annette lives in Chili right now, but she lived in Utah when we were having our birthdays :)

When I saw Joanna's finished quilt on Instagram, I knew I had to get mine done!

Here's my finished quilt top, with my friends' names still pinned to their blocks!

I thought of them as I sewed their blocks into the quilt.

I'm on a self imposed fabric fast this year, because I have way too much fabric :)

I found this Amy Butler fabric in my stash, and it looks just like Fig Tree colors!

Here is the link to "Be My Neighbor" quilt, it's free!

AYOS and a little bit more - February

I loved February's parttern, it was Fig Tree's Mini Jumping Jacks.

I chose Pam Kitty fabrics because they're bright and happy.

The orange fabric with the flowers by the blue dot is Flower Sugar.

I used a text fabric for the sashing just because I love text fabric!

I love this color combo, it's the traditional Union Jack colors.

I'm Canadian and this used to be our flag until 1967 when Canada was 100 years old.

I used to draw this flag all the time in Elementary school and it was really hard to get the right dimensions because the lines are different widths.

This block should have had a yellow dot, so I'll be turning this one into a real little mini mini :)

Here are my little blocks :)

Each one measures 8 l/2" X 9 l/4".

I used an older Flower Sugar pattern for the back, and a black and white houndstooth to match the text sashing.

I machine quilted in the ditch, around the sashing and each jumping jack block.

The finished quilt is 21 l/2" X 29 l/2".

I really love it!

You can see the parade of other quilts like mine at A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion.

Mom's Quilt

I used a jelly roll and a charm pack to make a quilt for my mother for Christmas.

It is from Fig Tree and I think the colors will match her couch perfectly.  I used the same quilt pattern for Vanessa's quilt.

Emily's Garden in Blossom by Cotton Way.

The blanket stitch was pretty easy to do on my sewing machine.

18 circles are appliqued onto 18 squares.

This is the finished quilt.  I kept the colors in their groups....all the greens together, all the peaches together, and the browns together.

I like the appliqued flower with the nine patch center!

I machine quilted the quilt with a meandering stitch, or jigsaw pattern.

I love the back, it's from the same line and so is the binding.

I would highly recommend this pattern, it uses one jelly roll and one charm pack.  It is a lot of fun to sew, and is simple.

One thing I would suggest is that when you are sewing the strips together, rotate sewing from each end.  I didn't do that with Vanessa's quilt, and had to stretch it a lot to get it back into shape!