My first finish of the year is my "Liberty Bird" sew-a-long 2025 with Barbara Brackman on her Civil War blog. Although it is done in the potholder method, this one is a bit different in that I chose the same fabrics for the back of each block. It was due to pure laziness on my part. At the time I quilted my first block, I just didn't have the gumption to pick different fabrics for each one. I plan to donate this to the auction at the American Quilts Study Group (AQSG) at the end of the summer. Barbara and I are both long term members of AQSG so the combination of her design and my assembly usually brings a good amount for the coffers. Thanks Barbara for another great sew-a-long! Since it is my first finish for 2026, I've decided to call it "Love Thy Neighbor". This quote has meant more to me in the past year than any other.
I also finished this top last week. A few year ago I bought a table cover at my favorite junk store with 4 of these fabulous fruit bouquets on it. The label on the back said "made in Czechoslovakia" and I'm guessing it is from around 1890.
I auditioned a few fabrics for the setting fabric and decided on the neutral.
I decided to keep the quilt simple. The inner border was from a fabric that my friend Karen had given me. Then I just pulled colors from the bouquet and made a simple "squares" border. I liked it more than I thought so it is now in the "hand quilting" queue. It will likely be my first finish of 2027! 😏
Last weekend our Kaleidoscope Quilt group had a quiltathon dedicated to making quilts for veterans. I finished this little top but decided it might be too small so I'm going to dd a border of this Cadet blue. I rarely get much done at our quiltathons. Too much yacking and eating, but I was determined to finish this one and get it out to one of our quilting angels.
