Friendship Quilt Along

Life has been such a huge juggling act for me the last few months - what with finishing a new book, designing a new fabric line, promotions for my new collection that's hitting stores any day now, and the usual commitments that come with running a house with two young kids (and a third much older one :-p ) I've been in headless chicken mode! I'm sooo looking forward to things returning back to a normal level of 'crazy busy' soon - I mean let's face it, it's never really quiet and peaceful when you have two young kids and a farm to run, is it?

Despite all this busy-ness I simply had to join in on a lovely quilt along that's taking place right now. It's called 'Friendship' and is hosted by the lovely Amanda Herring, a fellow fabric designer for Riley Blake. I wish I had the time to take the whole quilt (which is gorgeous! You can see it here.) But I only had enough time to make this block, which is called 'Empathetic' - it's an applique block and one of my faves in the whole quilt. The sweet florals I used are from my new range Summer Blush.

I confess I struggled to make the stem as per the pattern instructions - mine turned out quite wonky. So I just cut a stem piece slightly larger than finished size (which I worked out from the pattern), backed it with fusible web, cut it to down to the precise stem size, and machine appliqued it on - so essentially the same method that I used for the leaves.

 I love the concept of this quilt-along, which is all about attributes of friendship and bringing friends together in a project of love. Isn’t that what the quilting community is all about?  To find out more about the quilt along and get the templates go to Amanda's blog. Thanks for visiting today!