Show and Tell - Fall Swap Blocks

One of my Covid isolation finishes was completing a block swap quilt.  I had participated in the swap with a group of online friends a few years ago, 2018 to be exact, and needed to get this off the UFO list.  The guidelines for this swap were to make a 10" block with fall colors and use Kona Bone for the background.  We each made fifteen blocks, kept one, and mailed the rest out to the other participants.  I was really happy with the blocks I received.  Swaps can be a little risky, but that's half the fun!  [photo credit Krystal Kane]

I made the block in the upper left corner.  I wanted to make sunflower blocks, but all the sunflower block patterns I could find online were pretty complicated, and since I had to make fifteen of them, I decided to call this a sunflower.  

Coming up with an arrangement I was happy with (and that didn't look like a traditional sampler quilt) was another opportunity to play!  Once I had all the blocks up on the design wall I started filling in the spaces with pinwheels, flying geese, and more.  Playing always creates a huge mess.  At least it does in my sewing room!

I played with the quilting too.  I mostly use a meander on my quilts, because I'm not very good with Free Motion Quilting so I had fun trying my hand at different designs.  Mostly just squiggly stuff.  It works, and I don't have to sew straight lines!

I tried my hand at designing my own block since I had to make an extra to round out the group.  I just cut out pieces and kept rearranging them until I had this.  You can see where I had to do some odd piecing by adding rectangles to make things fit.  Maybe not the best way to go about it, but I really like it.

It was fun.  I should do that more often! 

I really enjoyed making this quilt.  

And I decided to keep it.  It's mine!  What a concept, right?