Good neighbors ...

Those of you that follow know that we live in the boonies ... beautiful boonies ... but middle of nowhere.  John moved out here permanently in June 2015 as we sold the Seattle house and I followed in mid-February this year as I retired.  

His first 6 months were spent building a shed (the kayak shack -- or "the shack" as it's now known) and then parlaying those skills into building a quilting studio (which still remains nameless) for me!  

While he did 95% of the work himself ... he had sage advice from a great neighbor, Jim, who helped him think through various aspects and was indispensable when it came to putting both roofs on ... literally climbing up to help (who knew I was afraid of heights ???).

This quilt ... the first one out of the new studio ... is for Jim and his wife Diane.  To thank them for being such amazing neighbors.  

I wanted something that was a bit more traditional and settled on a patchwork ... but still wanted to lend a touch of modern to it ... and I love "white space".  So I landed on a design put about half the squares into a neutral Kona ash. 

My process was to cut 198 3.5" squares.  Then stitch them together is pairs and then, for the most part, stitch the pairs to a solid piece of the same size, creating a block.  The finished quilt is 18 rows by 22 columns.  

As usual, Madigan had to get her first lie on it once I laid it on the floor to square it off.  

You can't really tell by these photos, but I quilted it on the diagonal both ways ... probably my straightest lines yet, so the 3.5" squares were small enough for my vision to follow and not have to mark where to sew.

I did a mixed binding and a pieced back.  

John (on roof) and Jim finishing up the roof on the quilting studio.  

Hope all is well with you and yours!

All the best

Lisa