Friendship Braid Quilt Top

This past wednesday I attended a quilting day class at Picket Fences Fabrics in Brockville.  My mother had signed me up for this class as a Christmas present (thanks mom).  The class was for a friendship braid quilt so I picked out my colours and away I went.  The quilt consists of 8 strips of "friendship braids" and then borders are added.  I worked the entire day at the class and got 4 1/4 of the strips done.  Waking up early before I went to work, I ended up completing the 8 strips by friday morning which allowed me to grant myself permission to go pick out border fabrics and batting on friday.  Saturday I plugged away at the borders and voila....here is the quilt top finished.  It measures 66" x 74" and I am soooo happy with how it turned out.


Here is a shot from a different perspective with careful photography so you can't see my disastrous bedroom:)


And one more picture to show the back of the quilt top.  I love looking at the backs of quilt tops to see all of the seams; accuracy and precision are very important to keep your quilt square.  All this work will be covered up and never seen again once the batting and backing are added and the quilt is completed.


The friendship braids are made from Tonga Batiks Fabric.  They come in a neat package of 40 2 1/2" wide strips called a "Tonga Treat".  I still had to cut out all of the hexagons that were used but having the strips saves a lot of time.  The borders are also batik fabric but I am not sure of the designer or manufacturer.  I think I will have enough fabric left over to make a couple pillow cases to match the quilt.  Overall, the class was lots of fun and relaxing too.  It was so nice to escape from the world with my sewing machine and spend the day with the ladies at Picket Fences Fabrics.

My intention is to make all 3 boys their own quilt.  I decided while making this one, that it will be Karson's. He was the most intrigued by the quilt-making process and the colours I chose; he was constantly coming in and touching the fabric (he has always been very tactile) and asking what the next step was.  I was going to go ahead and add the backing and batting so I could quilt it up right away but I think I will finish piecing all three boys' quilt tops first.  I've already started Arlen's:)  His is more crazy and bright colours...go figure.

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