Americana: Exchange Quilt

Last year, We're in Stitches (the Del Mar quilters) entered our finished Americana quilts in the San Diego Quilt Show at the Convention Center. It was lots of fun to enter as part of a group. Though, it was super to just enter at all. Here I stand in front (blocking) of my quilt. It was a really fun show to look at though I knew we could do better as a community and enter more of our wares! Several of my group entered more than one quilt and one of them won the President's Choice award.

We each did our own Lone Star and other blocks to complete the quilt. My exchange block was the houses. I had a few extra so I put two on my quilt front and one on the back. I also put three extra blocks (that didn't fit on the front) on the back. There was no real layout to go by with our quilt blocks though we used a book by Fons and Porter for our inspiration. We took liberties in the blocks we made and put them together how we liked. As a result, many of the group haven't finished their quilts. We are so tied to patterns! (I was pet-sitting when I tried this layout.)

Same place again. It took a long while to come to a decision.

Here is my layout at mom's. What finally worked for me was barging ahead and sewing about a third of it together. I loved that third and was sure of it. From there I could put the rest together. I am surprised it happened. Mine turned out to be horizontal and will be great on a wall. For now, it's on our bed. I like quilts to be used. 

I found the backing at Rosie's sale room when I shopped with Mary Morrison after the temple one day. She helped me make the decision. I put the quilt show label on and my own label. Click the photo to enlarge.

Here is a close-up to see some of the intricate work our group did. I made that little nine-patch from a Dear Jane pattern.

Here is the back with the remaining blocks.

And here is the whole finished.

I loved being in a quilt group for the show-and-tell alone! I need to join a group here. There are two traditional groups plus a modern group. I am leaning toward the modern one for some reason. Simple appeals to me. I brought this one out for July and it has stayed. Linking to Finish It Up Friday!