Last June, I said yes to a thing without really thinking it through. Kate from the Fat Quarter Shop reached out and asked if I would participate in their Flower Farm Quilt Along. Without thinking twice, I said yes.
In my head, I was thinking two blocks a month for 12 months. There are duplicate blocks in the quilt, so I thought, Awesome. I can handle that. So I ordered my fabric, got my book, and dove right into coloring the quilt. Then I looked at the schedule.
Wait. What?!
I actually needed to make two of each of two different blocks every month. Cue the panic. After a week or two of wondering what I had gotten myself into, I realized there was no turning back. And then there were the fabrics…
The fabrics were talking to me. They were making my heart sing.
The Fabrics Made Me Do It!
This is Love Letter by Lizzy House for Moda.
I have been obsessed with Lizzy House ever since her Catnap line many years ago. I still have a project that is full of her out-of-print fabrics from her Andover days, and I have many EPPed rings from my Peppermint Way pattern just waiting for background blocks.
But these fabrics… The teals. The purples. Those oranges.
I love everything about them. To my surprise, I actually kept up with the quilt along! Every month I finished my blocks, and I had so much fun taking photos and making reels along the way. Each month, I used the same audio in each reel. After the third month, I found the perfect background for all the rest of them: My husband’s vintage Combi.
It became the unofficial Flower Farm Quilt Along photo studio.
Late-night sewing for the win!
Once all the blocks were finished, I put the quilt top together during a late-night sewing binge.
And let me tell you—it is a BIG quilt.
For a while, I seriously considered splitting the blocks into two groups so I could make two smaller quilts. I love quilting my own quilts, but I have a hard time basting and quilting anything this large. So the quilt top sat in limbo for about five months.
Then I took it to Eryn at True Threads Quilting, and she brought it to life using Hobbs Batting to add extra texture.
She used the Rasbery Lemonade panto, and it was absolutely perfect. It complements the quilt without competing with the fabrics.
Eryn also quilted my Twilight Frenzy Quilt!! You have to see how that one turned out.
A Scrappy Binding
For the binding, I used up lots of my scraps—and my mom helped me get it just right.
The Flower Farm Quilt in Japan
I really wanted to finish this quilt in July so I could take it with me on my trip to Japan.
It became a thank-you for my cousin Pollo, and of course, once we hauled this enormous quilt all the way to Japan, I had to take it along for a few cherished quilty photos.
A huge shout-out to my husband for caring it and helping me take photos with the quilt and the deer.
I’m so glad I said yes to this quilt along—even if I completely misunderstood what I was signing up for! And perhaps the biggest lesson I learned?
Read the instructions better than I did. LOL.
I hope you have a wonderful week, find a little time to slow down, and get a few stitches in.
Big hugs!
