Alike but different, that’s how I’d describe my IMQE exchange partner, Judy Garden, and myself. We both like traditional quilting and are starting to learn more about new techniques in art quilting. However, we are different in our color preferences. I love color, especially red, and use as many fabrics as possible in a quilt. Judy likes two color quilts, blue and white is her favorite color combination. I rarely use blue and she rarely uses red. We agreed to make a miniature medallion quilt for the exchange in each other’s favorite color. Restricting myself to two colors was a challenge but also a great learning experience about value and monochromatic colors. I did include other colors for some of the tulips so I guess I bent the rules a bit! I enjoyed learning about Judy’s lifestyle which is different than mine. She lives near a lake, I live in a more rural area currently in a drought. She’s accomplished many things in her life, I’m a homebody. Even though we’re different, we share a love of quilting that allowed us to connect and share our happy and sad times. During the construction of Judy’s quilt, I thought about her likes and dislikes. Will she like this blue? Is the quilt too scrappy? I was concerned about my lack of machine quilting skills. In the end, I realized that the meaning of the quilting process and the generosity of the resulting quilt is a gift between friends.