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.

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

In the Frame and a Finish

I finally finished the top (flimsy) of the garden quilt!

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It’s the bow-tie pattern with hand-appliqued hexie rosettes.

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It is now sandwiched, basted and in the frame – ready to be quilted.

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And here is another Because You Matter quilt. This little double Irish chain will go to a child through the RCMP Victim’s Services Unit here in Salmon Arm (via the Shuswap Quilt Guild.)  Fabric & batting donated by the Shuswap Quilt Guild. Labour donated by yours truly.

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Officially Samson-approved!

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linking in with:

My Quilt Infatuation