Thursday, September 12, 2013

Friendship Blocks

Yesterday morning we were awakened at 5 AM by Jack's cell phone ringing. It was a wrong number but by the time he got up and turned on the light and found his phone I was wide awake.  I tried to go back to sleep but after 15 minutes I realized it was futile so I got up. I am always surprised at how much I can accomplish before noon when I get up early.
I did some preparation cutting and joining strips for the T shirt quilt borders and sashings  in order to be ready to layer and start quilting when the backing fabric gets here.
What to do next...... Friendship Blocks! I needed some 6 1/2 inch squares of Halloween fabric and I had previously unearthed a fat quarter with several different motifs.

I wasn't sure if they would be alright as Maryann asked for  orange, lime green, purple and black  strips for 2 sides of the square to make wonky block. I wasn't sure if the blue background would be OK. I had checked with her and she said they are fine.

I dug out my bright strips and my black fabric and made the two blocks. When she gave us our instructions she told each of us where to position the motif squares so they would all be right side up in the quilt. The strips were cut 2 inches and the block was to be 13 inches and left untrimmed so she could do that herself. Because when you wonkicise a block, the size sometimes comes up short,  I used some 2 1/2 inch strips on the outside. That will make it easier to trim. It is my guess that she will trim to 12 1/2 inches.

I had missed a number of meeting this past year and I have blocks  I received from at least 3 years that I have not made into quilts.
I thought that maybe I would not join in the block exchange this year and only go to the meetings when I could get there. I realized that I really like to make the blocks when given the instructions and color palette.
It makes me explore new possibilities and try something new. Oh, and not to forget once a year I get to request either 2 or 3 blocks, depending on the size, and I get to make a quilt without making all the blocks myself.

So what if I have a stockpile of blocks!
No one is ever going to check up on me
 to see if I used them yet. 

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