Moda Be My Neighbor

 I finished machine quilting and binding my quilt, yay!!!

It's called "Be My Neighbor" and is a free pattern by Moda from 2016.

This quilt has a great story!

I have a group of Instagram friends, there are 8 of us.

They live in Tasmania, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Utah, and Idaho.

We used to make each other gifts for Christmas and birthdays.

After a couple of years, that got to be too much to handle.

Lynette found this pattern with 16 blocks and thought it would be a great idea to make the blocks for gifts for our birthdays.

Each name was drawn and randomly assigned two blocks.

Mine were the sailboat at the bottom and the house with the bird and mailbox at the top.

When it was Cathy's birthday in Tasmania, everyone made her their two blocks and she was able to make a quilt.

We felt like we were neighbors even though we were miles apart.

The other cool thing was that we had to use Fig Tree fabric and the same background fabric.

That way, all the blocks would match.

It's really such a pretty quilt, I'm in love with it!

I posted about my quilt in 2018, here.

I'm thrilled with my machine quilting!

I used a meandering feather, 

although I'm not sure that it looks like a feather.

Either way, I'm thrilled with the outcome.

The quilting is very dense and there aren't any ripples.

I used a lot of thread!

Another thing that makes this quilt so special to me, is the back.

I had an Alexander Henry piece that was large enough to use.

Don't the people looks like they're having a great time visiting, 

just like neighbors do?

I love how colorful it is too.

It looks much more colorful in person :)

The label is from a "Sweetwater" label group that I joined,

 it's called tagged and comes at the end of every month.

Kimberly Jolly mentioned it on one of her YouTube videos.

It's always  different and my name's always printed on it.

I added some Fig Tree fabric to frame the label and sewed it on.

I think I might have to change the date to 2018-2020,

I'll do some further investigation.

Every quilt has a story, this one is about friendship.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Thanks for following along :)

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!

Be My Neighbor

I have a group of Instagram friends, and we always exchange homemade gifts for Christmas and birthdays.

It was becoming quite time consuming, so Lynette came up with the idea of this Be My Neighbor quilt.

You can get the pattern here.

For everyone's birthday, we make them two blocks from the quilt.

We are each pre assigned two blocks, and we make those same two blocks for everyone on their birthday.

There are eight of us, me, Tazzie, Nessa, Joanna, Lynette, Annette, Kristie and Leanne.

The blocks are made with fig tree fabrics and we all used the same Moda color for the background.

Here are the blocks I received on my birthday.

The blocks below are the ones I made :)

Look how beautifully all the blocks match!!!

The rows will be separated by sashing in the background color.

Every quilt has a story, this is one about friendships :)