God Bless America. And... Oh, Canada! Eh!

The testing of blocks for the Forest Friends quilt has begun!

On Friday, I sewed up the American Eagle block. And then marveled at how small it was!

On Saturday, I spent the entire day preparing the pattern for the Canadian Beaver block.

And I don't know how I did it.... But on Sunday I managed to attend both Bible class and church service, do the dishes, make a lasagna, celebrate at my in laws 50th Anniversary party.... AND get this cute little beaver block finished as well! Perhaps the start of my day helped me make it through the rest of my day?

I did not want to cut into my shipment of Cotton Couture from Michael Miller Fabrics without first testing these blocks out. So I rummaged through  (my stash) and found some suitable fabrics to make these two as a matching set.

All the while I had in mind to turn these blocks into a set of pillows for my niece who lives on the other side of the border from me. Not too far away to be out of my thoughts and prayers.





I added borders to bring each block to the correct size to use for my 13" x 20" pillow inserts.





And then quilted them using my signature organic wavy lines. I chose this variegated King Tut in Rosetta Stone thread from Superior Threads. I was torn between using a white or a black thread. So this choice just made the most sense to me!





Each pillow has been made with a hidden zipper closure on the back. If you are looking for a great tutorial for making a pillow with a hidden zipper, check out this post by S.O.T.A.K Handmade.





This was my first time using a home decor weight fabric for the back of a pillow. I hope it holds up better than using a plain quilting cotton. And the zebra stripes are quite striking!





For the binding I finished it off with some more of the Chicopee's Ladder Dot in Black. I'd love to get my hands on some more of that print! It's such a great black.

The "American Eagle" and "Canadian Beaver" pillows each finished at approximately 13" x 20"

and were the 60th and 61st use of my 100 labels

ordered from Ikaprint.

Sandy of UpStairsHobbyRoom has been hard at work, not only on her own designs, but also helping to test blocks for this Forest Friends quilt, too! Check out her Instagram feed here to see!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday with 

Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts

Keep On Quilting On!

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