At the beginning of the year, my group, The Barn Quilters of Mosman decided to do another round of friendship quilts. About 7 of us signed up and we are now in the 3rd month.
February 2013: The first block was given to us by Sue R. The pattern was from an old edition of Patchwork and Quilting from 1999. It is an antique Iris Quilt. I loved the end result. I have attached a picture of Sharlene with her finished block.
Sue provided some new fusible webbing called Steam-A-Seam. It was interesting to work with. Unlike Vliesofix, it does not separate when stored - which is a real advantage. However, when on the fabric, the glue is very heavy and it is difficult to sew through. I am not sure that I will rush out and buy it again.
March 2013: Narelle handed out her blocks to everyone. I wasn't at that meeting and got my block a couple of weeks later. Well I managed to finish my homework and handed it in on Saturday (we had all been read the riot act earlier in the year as a previous friendship block club had fizzled out as we were a little tardy!).
April 2013: Sharlene's chuppah strip
We all live a little in fear of what Sharlene will come up with as there is usually no pattern and it is always out there. Well Sharlene certainly didn't disappoint.
One of our good friends, Savanna, is getting married soon. She is Jewish and also makes traditional Jewish chuppah's (bridal canopies). Each guest is asked to contribute a strip of fabric to the bride and it is woven together and made into a chuppah by Savanna. Well she has asked Sharlene to provide a strip of fabric and in typical Sharlene style - she has taken the idea and run with it.
She has given all her friendship group strips of fabric and thread/beads etc to embellish it with. Our instructions are vague - we can embroider the bride and grooms initials (SR) onto our strips - but otherwise we need to use our imagination.
I will definitely be following this one and will post pictures of the strips and then the chuppah and hopefully the wedding. I have four weeks to work out what I am going to do.
Hopefully, we will be able to complete some of these friendship quilts in time for our group show in October 2013.