A Sampling of America

I always loved to participate in swaps each year with the members of the Quilts Your Way Forum.  Even though the board is not active anymore, I still think of that group of quilters fondly every now and then.  Especially when putting together a quilt that was inspired by or begun by them.

"A Sampling of America" - finished quilt & tag

This quilt, for example, began with a "squishie swap" back in 2009.  The way the swap worked was each member sent the other members of the group a F8th of fabric.  The other members of the group would make a quilt block using the fabric and any special instructions given and send the block back to the original fabric owner.  In the end, we ended up with several coordinated (by fabric & special instructions) sampler blocks.

I finally quickly put the blocks together - I feel like it's been a UFO forever (it's my December UFO project chosen by Judy over at Patchwork times) - and I'm giving it to my in-laws as one of their Christmas presents.  I named it "A Sampling of America" because it's a sampler and the blocks were made by women from all over the USA!