I’m so excited about our upcoming trip to the Birmingham Quilt Show in England. We leave this week!!! As you may remember, I’m not one of the “leaders” of this trip, I’m just one of the lucky travelers, but Kristi was kind enough to invite me to come up with a small project to add to the fun (she knows I love to do that sort of thing). So I began noodling on what the group might like to do.
In a previous post I told you about my Liberty fabric from the 80s (click here to read that post).
I chose to use the smaller pieces that didn’t become part of my tote bag in a pre-trip friendship block exchange. This was the signature block we’ll be exchanging (the participants didn’t need to use fabric from Liberty):
And four of these squares make a fun “pinwheel” block:
These blocks come together with sashing between them to make a modern looking basket weave design:
I sent the instructions to Kristi, and she emailed them out prior to the trip. Anyone who wanted to participate could make the needed number of blocks, sign each one, and bring them along to exchange. After the trip they can then be made into a table runner, tote, small wallhanging, or ???.
I’ve done numerous friendship block exchanges in the past and here are photos of just a few of the resulting projects:
A table runner from our Baltic Cruise:
A tote bag from a riverboat cruise in France:
And an Irish lap quilt:
It will be fun to see what these blocks become. I love using my friendship quilts and reflecting back on fun trips and dear friends. I actually have a lecture all about my collection of signature/friendship quilts I call Friendship Quilts Then and Now. If your guild would find that interesting, please click here for all the information.
While I’m away I’ll still be posting by scheduling some “topics of the week” I’ve already written, and I think you’ll enjoy them. Hopefully I’ll figure out how to do it 😊. Please understand if it doesn’t go well, and you don’t hear from me for 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to writing the “post-Birmingham” posts I’ll share upon my return!
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Also…
A friend recently wrote to me asking for information about laundering a vintage quilt. A few years ago I did a post about my method for washing any quilt.
If this is something that interests you, please click here.
judy raddatz says
Have a wonderful time!
Gail Celeste says
After reading your hints on laundering a quilt, I scrolled down to your Lodi retreat pictures. I was amazed that two of the ladies were barefoot. I am not a barefoot person. Pins and needles not withstanding, I am very afraid I will break a toe. One of my sisters loves to go barefoot, but she has broken 11 toes – at different times, of course. But she still continues to go barefoot. In the house, I wear “hard” slippers and won’t take one barefoot step after I get out of bed. I can’t wear soft slippers — besides slipping and falling, I know I could still break a toe with those kinds of slippers on —
and funny that “slippers” have that name.
Well, just my opinion.
I enjoyed your talk at my guild, July 10th, “Gone to the Dark Side”.
Jill Carriveau says
Do you know the name of the quilt pattern that is the quilt you launder? Beautiful!
clkquilt says
The block is called Friendship Star. I made this quilt many years ago, and I did a blog post about it back in 2012. Here’s the link: https://www.chrisquilts.net/2535/