August is Sunflower month at my house and this is the quilt that hangs in the entryway…. In 1988 I was active in a Quilting Bee that was part of my local guild.  We were called the “Friendly Starters”…..intimating that we started a lot but didn’t get much finished!!

After making several charity quilts as a group, we decided to make a Round-Robin quilt.  The rules were as follows……  each person would make one 12-inch  block in the style and theme that they wanted.  They would put it into a box, along with miscellaneous fabrics that fit with it.

The box then traveled to each person in the group and that person would make blocks that would fit with the desired theme.  These blocks had to be in multiples of 4-inches….ie 4 inch squares, 8 inch squares, 4 x 8 inch rectangles etc.  You could simply include a 4 inch piece of fabric.

When the box was returned, we each set out to make our quilt using the blocks that we had received, plus any others that we wanted to add.   We also included the rule that you didn’t have to use all of the received blocks and could even include them on the back if necessary.

 

 

I started out with this block , and told my group that I wanted the theme to be “Sunflowers and Summer”.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the blocks that I received was this sun

 

 

 

 

I added it to the paper-pieced chickens and added a stem and 3-dimensional  leaves to make this section.

 

 

 

 

These four patches were embellished with some bobbin threadwork

 

And I made these three dimensional flowers to fill in some spaces…..

 

 

The final part was to add this wonderful pieced flower garden

 

 

 

 

 

The last of the fabric patches were added to the background and the label was made to dub this piece “Friendship Flowers”!! 

 

I have lost track of several of the ladies that added to this quilt and I am afraid that one has since passed away, but I think of them each time that I look at this Sunny and fun quilt.