I’m participating in the Quilt Fiction Club’s QAL! Straight from the pages of Friendship Album: Forget-Me-Not, a contemporary quilt along with a decidedly mid-century vibe. I’ve joined Patty Dudek of Elm Street Quilts and a huge Quilt Fiction community on Facebook for a fun and fabulous Quilt-Along. “Loves Me, Loves Me Not” features six unique blocks based on Quilt Fiction’s new Milton Falls novel, Friendship Album 1934: Forget Me Not, written by Frances O’Roark Dowell.
For this quilt, I’m using a Moda Fabrics collection called “Buttercup and Slate,” along with a solid white batik from Windham Anthology (both available in my online store). Batik solids are indeed my fave as the fabric is fantastic to work with, doesn’t fray/ravel and it stitches and performs beautifully as you sew.
The pattern starts with a wedding ring block that corresponds with the storyline of the audiobook. Here’s the deal with the wedding ring block… I will not stitch blocks that I don’t think are pretty (it’s an OCD thing), and I really didn’t like the block pattern for the wedding ring block, so I didn’t make it.
So, instead of a wedding ring block, since Florence didn’t get married in the story, I made what I call a “Florence is happily single” block for the quilt. This block was designed by Amber Plemones of Sew Simple Quilt Shoppe in Ozark, Mo.
The blocks of the Ohio Star (pictured on the left) and Milton Falls Star (pictured on the right) are next in the pattern. I’m super happy with how these look. The fabric is so pretty! Milton Falls, Ohio, is the fictional town featured in the story. The author owns and publishes her quilt fiction stories, podcast and other content under Milton Falls Media, Inc.
This is the “Florence” block named after a character in the two novels, Friendship Album 1933 and Friendship Album 1934: Forget Me Not. This block features a star with a pinwheel center and is shown here with the Ohio Star and Milton Falls star blocks.
The next block in the QAL is a Rosetta Star. This is my favorite block in the pattern. I think it’s so pretty!
The last block in the pattern is the large center medallion, “crown and star.” Now that all the blocks are complete, I can start cutting the stashing. I plan to make the quilt larger than the pattern by adding scrappy inner and outer borders. The inner borders will be strips of the fabric collection in random order. The outer border is from the book “Nickel Quilts & Borders” by famous quilter Pat Speth.
Pat did an in-person trunk show and presentation at Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild a few years ago, and I bought her book after her program. It was great to receive an autographed copy of the book! The outer border from her book will compliment the pattern nicely. It will also be scrappy and made with leftover fabric from the quilt blocks.
The fabric for this project was purchased at two different local shops. I bought two five-inch charm packs at Quilts and Quilts the Fabric Shoppe in Branson, Mo., when two quilty buddies and I went on a fabric shopping day trip. A couple of weeks later, I bought several one-third-yard cuts of the prints from Sew Simple Quilt Shoppe in Ozark, Mo. If you’re in or pass through Southwest Missouri, they’re both fantastic places to shop.
Update 05.14.23: Borders are now on all four sides. I used the pattern and graduated the colors on each side so that the lightest fabric was in the center, forming a half-star shape. Then colors are in the same order on each side, moving from white with small flowers to larger flowers, peach with small then large flowers, green, light grey and then ending in the charcoal floral.
Here’s a photo after pressing.
The quilt top is finished and ready to go to Shelley at Willow Tree Quilting so she can work her longarm quilting magic. The quilting pattern will be lots of pretty swirls using pale yellow Glide 40wt. thread. Since some of the fabrics in the collection have a light grey background, I will use a light grey backing by Kimberbell Designs for Maywood Fabrics with tiny white polka dots as the backing fabric.
Here are photos of the complete quilt! I think it’s gorgeous! Don’t you just love a scrappy binding?!!
