For a few years now Kate from Tall Tales from Chiconia has organised Foot Square Freestyle, or F2F, I’ve always watched with interest from afar, but this year I decided to join in. I haven’t got quilt-a-long commitments this year, so I felt I could commit to F2F, little did I know how this year was going to pan out!! It’s got to improve soon!!!

F2F is a quilt block swop, there are nine of us situated all around the world. We have each chosen a colour scheme, provided a ‘mood board’ and we have all been allocated a month. Each month everyone makes the lucky person three 12″ blocks in their colour scheme and posts them off. By the end of the year everyone will have enough blocks to make themselves a quilt full of friendship from around the globe.

We started in February and Tracy was the first lucky recipient, her colours were Christmassy, reds. greens and pudding browns. I found some cute Christmas fabrics on line and chose three blocks out of a book I picked up somewhere – it’s called A block a Day – 365 blocks, one for every day of the year! This one was my first one…

I was hoping to tell you the name of the block but I can’t find it now!!

The second block is the Alexander star, made just in two colours…

The final block for Tracy is called the Four patch Friendship Star, which I thought was fairly apt…

I managed to get these made and posted just before everything went pearshaped. Whilst all these came from the book, I did struggle with the instructions, the author uses a completely different method of describing how to make the blocks which I found totally confusing. At times I just worked it out from the photograph.

The blocks for March were for Sue, her colours were trues blues and browns. I managed to find some blues in my stash which worked well together. I tried a block of flying geese from the book but they didn’t come out quite straight enough, so they’re in the scrap box! It probably didn’t help that this was the first quarter inch seams I’d done on my new machine, it took a while to find the right settings – somehow they’re never just bang on straight! However I also abandoned the book and looked to Pinterest for inspiration! I found two lovely blocks there…

My first one was from Quilted Kitchen, it’s officially called Key Lime Pie, as mine is blue I’m calling it Blueberry Pie. The instructions were great and it went together pretty easily. I tried out my new wool ironing mat with this one, it’s wonderful, the seams look so much crisper! I’m definitely a convert!

The second block is my favourite so far! It’s by the Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Group and it’s called Circle of Friends – isn’t that a lovely name, very apt for a block swop. It’s a lovely crisp, clean block, I needed a few extra fabrics and it took a couple of days on my design wall to get the placement right, but I’m happy with this one! The bottom square doesn’t look as skewy in real life!!

For the final block I did go back to the book, but I just worked out my own way of doing it from the photo. It’s called Little Basket, I’m pretty pleased with my triangles on this one.

April’s colours are peacock inspired, I think I just might have a few suitable fabrics for this one! Do have a look at the F2F Gallery to see what everyone else has made.