Like many others in the group, when I heard that our prompt would be “neighborhood,” I immediately thought back to when I was a kid. I moved around a lot, but always lived in suburbia. Kids played outside a lot. We rode bikes, built forts, and went from one yard to another. I’ve spent all my married life in a “rural residential” community. It came with my husband—and horses. I am not, nor have I ever been, even as a kid, a horse person. And I wasn’t about to start. The horses are gone, but we are still here. Come to think about it not many people in this community have horses anymore. We are all on 5-acre-minimum lots. What that means in water-scarce northern California foothills is trees and weeds. OK, let’s call it native vegetation. We are connected by this vegetation, often-dry creeks, and wild critters. The only people I see are the occasional jogger or walker, no kids playing in the streets or front yards. It’s not what most people call a neighborhood. But I’ve lived here for over 30 years now, so I guess it is my neighborhood.

You’ll have to stop by for the big reveal at the end of March to see how these 3 images formed my “neighborhood” quilt. Spoiler alert: It looks nothing like any of these images.