Sticks and Stones Show and Tell

On Saturday it was exciting to see all the sampler projects that people brought to show each other.  Last year's Sampler blocks used a colorway that included grays, taupes, browns and charcoal, as well as light colored neutrals.

 Karen used a lovely feather design fabric for the sashing, and sewed stars for between the blocks, and smaller blocks to use around the edge in the setting triangles for a beautiful allover look.

 I loved the cobblestone like borders and setting triangles on this one.

 It will be interesting to see what gets quilted in those alternate squares..

 This sampler from the batiks colorway from a couple of years ago had a stained glass look to it.

 Verna also brought her 30 block king size top using the topsy turvy setting,

 I was sorry to see it get folded up,

 This was the first totally finished project that we saw.  Dianne used a light colored border, and it was all-0ver quilted with Baptist fans,

 Another finished one!  Very impressive!

 Beautiful quilting, and done on a home sewing machine!

 This was the third totally finished quilt, and again, quilted on a home sewing machine,

 You need to see some closeups of the beautiful motifs in the setting triangles and outer borders,

 Sheila made her quilt pretty zingy with her fabric choice for the sashing and inner border-- that diagonal stripe is great,

 what a difference you can make just by the addition of a narrow little strip of fabric:

 Another gorgeous quilt that uses a light colored border.  (I might have to re-think my plan for using a dark border....)

 I love what she did with the arrangement of the sub-unit s in that square on the lower right...

 It was refreshing to see this black white and lime green quilt!  Love everything about it!

 She also had her sticks and stones quilt, using a two-sided sashing

 I like the way the blocks seem to float on the light background:

Thank you again to all of you who brought your projects.  I was inspired.

The new Sampler Colours

as many of you know, each year we run a program at the store called the Saturday Surprise Sampler.  This year is the twelfth year we have done it, and I am getting quite a collection of sampler quilts!  actually, it is a nice wedding present, although I still have most of the ones I've made.  This year, our first block pickup is not too far away, and so I am starting to play around with the fabrics.  

Rather than basing it on one particular line of fabrics, it will use a colour theme of Neutrals.   

These are indicative of the fabrics we will be using.  

I need to sew up some tester blocks, because I'm not too sure about the cream colour up in the right hand corner.  I do like the darks a lot!   

Well, that's my job for today..

Although I do want to add the borders to my "Jelly Belly" quilt using the zen chic fabrics.  I'm anxious to get it quilted!!  My friend has said she will quilt it on her long arm, and I know she will make it look great,

A sampler finish!

This weekend I finished the binding on a sampler quilt that was started a few years ago as part of our Saturday Surprise Sampler program.  The fabrics were based on a group by moda called Shangri- la.  I somehow had so many blocks that I made two quilts from them.  The first one I finished right away!  This one took a bit longer.  

I ended up making a special border using half Dresden plate blocks on white.  I thought about adding a darker outer border, but decided to just finish it off.

The machine quilting was done by Margo Halpinny, and she did a great job, I especially like what she did in the outside border

Of course I can't help picking out my "Favorite" block, don't you always do that with a sampler?