Over the last few months I’ve gotten involved with a group on Facebook that does fabric swaps, The Quilt Square Fabric Swap.  It has been a lot of fun and the administrators tow the line about keeping things nice and making certain that folks follow the rules.  Of course there will always be blips, but this is all about fun and creativity.

The first exchange was really rather generic.  All you did was send five 6″ squares to the other 24 people on the list by the deadline.  No color specifications, anything you wanted to send, as long as it was good quality 100% cotton quilting fabric.  I was working on floral quilt so I used those fabrics as my exchange pieces, and that kept me true to my resolution.

This was fabulous fun!  Everyday I would come home and the mailman would have dropped off these little envelopes from all over the USA, Canada and Australia filled with squares of fabric!  What a treat!

This caused me to sign up for another swap with the group – The Challenge Swap, and then another – the Eye Spy, and then another – Polka Dots!

The time has come to use these squares in a project!  After all, that’s what it is all about right?

These first blocks were an eclectic mix, of brights and subdued color, traditional calicos and florals, geometrics, stripes…all sorts of stuff.

It took a little while to find a block that would showcase and allow all these fabrics to play nice together.  While on Pinterest one day I found a block called “Friendship”.  The block is in the book “The Farmers Wife”.  Those blocks are only 6″, but I worked it out so the blocks are 8 1/2″.  It is a really simple block, and they are a lot of fun to do.

What a great block for this particular project.  With the new fabrics and new friends I made this block is very appropriate.  And look how nice they play together.

I’m going to need a bigger design board.  Won’t this be a sweet piece when it is complete!

I’ll post again when it is complete.