The Friendship Garden Quilt

Warning: this post is photo intensive!

036Let me introduce you to The Friendship Garden Quilt!

017 It comes by its name honestly, because it started out life as a bee block!

018I am part of a Flickr group quilting bee with 5 other ladies. We call ourselves We Bee Canadian. We each make 2 blocks for the month’s Queen Bee.

031When it was my month to pick a block (a couple of years ago!), I asked everyone to please make me two bow tie blocks using garden-themed fabric.

008Because we were all pretty much beginners, nobody’s 1/4″ seams were very good and the blocks didn’t square up very well. There were an awful lot of mismatched seams.

007Then I had an idea!

025I decided to cover some of the wonky seams with English paper pieced rosettes. Perfect! Before you knew it, I had hand-appliqued a flower in every single blank square, wonky or not!

033Because a garden should be an absolute riot of colour, don’t you agree?

011I used a bed sheet on the back. I think it would qualify as a vintage sheet. I remember having sheets like this on my bed in the 70s.

027The quilt is hand quilted in circles.

034I don’t think I’ll try to do hand quilting through a bed sheet again. I actually bent needles and had to use pliers to pull the needle through the layers. Ouch!

035Mr. C. did a marvelous job behind the scenes, don’t you think?

022I used black for the binding to set off the colours. Oh, how I love this quilt! It is so cheerful and bright and sunny! A bit of summer in the depths of winter.

010I hope it will be as loved in its new home as it is in mine 🙂

029These photos were taken at the sweet little Notch Hill Community Hall and Church on the only sunny day in January.

041
Linking up with the binding blitz at Julie Quilts and Lets Bee Social at SewFreshQuilts.

11 comments

  1. Gorgeous!!! Love the layout you chose for those bow tie blocks. What a great solution for those mismatched seams. The black binding was a perfect choice for framing in that beautiful garden.

  2. Harsh Nita, really harsh!lol. Come on we weren’t that terrible were we? I love seeing this finish, it is awesome. I am close to posting a couple of those early requests myself.
    P.S i haven”t forgotten your blocks, live is just crazy right now.

  3. Oh NIta I so enjoyed your photo shoot and the transformation of this quilt. It IS beautiful!!! I love everything about it. What a wonderful colored hug during these wintery snow days!! Mr. C is just as good as my guy! (We are so lucky!!) Thanks for the bedsheet tip too…I always wondered how they be used as a back. SMILES!! V

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