One Thing Leads to Another

I just love how quilty inspiration and friends lead to something fun.

Earlier this month my friend Cherie (Quilted Jonquil) published this post which included an antique top we saw in a shop in Paducah. I drafted the block in EQ7 for her.

Friend Kevin the Quilter liked the block too, and invited Cherie, Dar (Dar's Patchwork Garden) and me to a sew day at his Quilt Cave. The plan is to make this block in patriotic colors for a future Quilt of Valor.

Since this block requires templates and paper piecing, I thought it would be wise to make a test block before we get together. I made templates and printed arcs for paper piecing.

This block turned out to be quite challenging. Barbara Brackman calls quilts made with this block Snake Quilts, and you can see some examples here. Here's an EQ image:

I'll bring the templates and several blocks worth of paper piecing arcs to our sew day. Kevin, Cherie, Dar and I are gathering our patriotic scraps and white background fabrics and we'll get together on Friday. I'm looking forward to a fun day!

This is turning out to be much bigger than one antique top in a shop window inspiring one person. At the end of it all, four of us will have the pleasure of getting together and making something none of us may have tried on our own, stretching our skills.  And the result will be a quilt for a good cause.

Linking up with Patchwork Times, Em's Scrapbag, and Love, Laugh, Quilt