I had a great Labor Day, choosing my labor of love to be sewing on my Sampler Spree quilt. I got it all joined and boy am I happy about that!

Here are the last blocks that went into those last few weeks before making my rows. Week 8 with more butterflies making their fancy flight across the blocks.

Week 9 I think my favorite was the angled one at the bottom of my line up of my new 10 blocks. It is block #60, Market Square.

And to the finish line on week 10! So much playing every week with light and dark, balancing of pattern vs solids (in my case Thatched) and having fun with the little butterflies. This was a whirlwind journey of block making.

The laying out of blocks with my trusty companion, Roxy. I needed to do a little rearranging from my original plan to get my lights and darks balanced. 

It took me a week (in between other things) to make the double sashings. And then on Labor Day weekend I got it fully joined and ironed.

Next up will be longarming but I have a few other things to do first. Hopefully I'll be sharing the end result with quilting and binding soon! 
Many thanks to Susan Ache for her lovely book, wonderful instructions, and engaging project that has made this summer busy and fun!

More butterflies and blues as the weeks progress with Sampler Spree quiltalong/sewalong. You know how sometimes one block just seems to act up? Well, I kept sewing my Sun Rays points on the wrong way! I know that is usually the time I should walk away and come back to the sewing later. But I felt stubborn with this one and ripped out and redid and ripped out and redid till it was done. I like to flip Thatched fabrics to the backside to get the lighter shades and I kept confusing myself with that on this one too. Yes, if you use that trick you do need to pay attention to how you are placing your fabrics together right/wrong sides. 

Seven blocks were sewn that week with others to follow later in catch-up sewing! 
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Week 6 had that adorable sailboat block! I had to slip a little green in for the sea and let it spill over to another block. The donuts block is so fun and even in blues, made me hungry for donuts! The last block, Goblets, makes me think of paddles to go with the boat. There were lots of new blocks I've not made before in this group. That is one of the things I'm really enjoying about this sewalong...all the new blocks to me!

It took a good Saturday sewing break to catch up on my last blocks for weeks 5 and 6. 

One of my favorite blocks for week 7 is this Snails Trail block. It is the first time I've done one and I love the spinning look of it with those little squares in the middle. 

I'm also a big fan of thin sashings and love the Lattice block for that reason. It reminds me a little of my Backslash quilt with the sashings and angles.

​I love seeing the little butterflies show up in the blocks.  I'm thinking my Sampler Spree might be named "Butterfly Cottage" since I'm using my Cottage Bleu fabrics and those butterflies seem to just flutter over the quilt.

Three more weeks of blocks then the joining! Lots of sashing with this one and I'm excited to start grouping my blocks into light and dark sections and making sub-groups. 
​
Many thanks to Moda Fabrics and Martingale for sponsoring this sewalong and thanks to Susan Ache for writing such an enjoyable sampler book!

Week 2 for Sampler Spree had a prompt for yellow. Since I am making my quilt in mostly blue, I will not be following the suggested colors each week, BUT I did think it would be fun to make some extra blocks here and there in the weekly color and maybe use those for an accent pillow at the end. I made an additional block 76 in yellows with a blue butterfly that flutters in the center in blue and teal. 

The upper right in the next group shows my block 76 that will be in the quilt body. I played with a gradation of blues in the background, going from cream to light blue. The middle sides are using the same Thatched light blue (Mist 146) but flipped to the back side for a lighter shade. Block 58 took me the longest but I am really happy with how this block looks. It is so interesting with that little patchwork center that the angled pieces point to.

Here is the whole group of 10 blocks for the week plus the additional yellow one. 

On to week 3 and the color was teal/aqua/turquoise/seafoam. I've lucked out with my accent colors within Cottage Bleu that those greens are right in line with the teal/seafoam family.

My extra block this week is the lower left, block 82. I tried this with a gradation of a light small corner building out to darker rows wit a butterfly accent. I also really liked making the fun ship this week! And I love the pinwheel blades on block 67.

The upper right is my actual block 82 for the quilt top. I must admit, I prefer the teal/seafoam one I made.

For the last blocks of the week, I made block 96 and the blues and whites look cheery with red for the 4th of July. The backdrop is red toweling from Pieces to Treasure/Jenelle Kent with Moda Fabrics. 

Each week I like to see the blocks all together and it feels like so much accomplishment!

Week 4 and my trusty Rilakuma sewing assistant looked on with approval. 

The pear block is the very first one I made, before the sewing officially began. I thought it was the cutest block and it was a sweet week with the tree and basket added as well. For my tree, I was thinking of the white and blue striped lower band as being an icy snowy ground. 

This summer, I'm sewing along with the Sampler Spree, using the book from Susan Ache. The other sew along I'm doing is Kinship Fusion Sampler for #100days100blocks and I'll share those next! I'm enjoying using two very different color schemes and plans for the two projects. I hope you are sewing something fun this summer or are joining in one of the numerous sew alongs happening. Next week we will be about half way through this one. Summer sure is moving quickly!
​Happy sewing.

Week one of Sampler Spree is ON! Whew! I kept up and got 10 blocks made.

With block 42, I used a bigger mix of fabrics than the block in the book. I still made strip sets to subcut but just not as long. I'm happy with how that block turned out. With the top left light block, I used Mist Thatched and flipped it to the backside to get a lighter blue shade. 

Block 99 in the lower left is another favorite since I like how those white triangles sparkle in the corners. For this block I used a 4 1/2" rectangle that I added stitch and flip corners to, instead of the rectangle with half square triangles attached. I thought I would simplify by taking that seam out since I wasn't changing the background color.

The last two for the week are 86 and 80. I meant to put the butterfly fabric into the little squares in the middle of the block on the right and realized I used dark blue instead after sewing that part together. So guess what, it stayed! Getting to the last block of the week was an accomplishment and I wasn't going to undo that.

It is fun to look at them all together!

Susan Ache is sewing with different color groups each week and I'm doing BLUE each week so hope you don't get tired of seeing my blocks. I have to say, I am really happy to be doing this project in Cottage Bleu since I have not made many mostly blue quilts until I designed this fabric line. I think having a sampler in all blues with a little yellow and green will be really calming and serene.

I think I'll try to tuck in another block here and there, trying out the other colors, and those could make blocks for a nice accent pillow!

In case you were wondering if I am planning on doing color studies on the individual blocks...at this point I have not planned on it and the sewing is at a faster clip than blockheads...so I think I'm going to adopt a summer vacation break from color studies, at least for awhile...we'll see. Also, Sewcialites just ended and I need to still join my blocks and make the quilt top! AND...ANOTHER sewalong is starting in July that I am going to play with. I'll post about that too but it will be an all-Thatched project so very different feeling than this one.

​Happy summer sewing!!

If you've been to the blog before you probably know I enjoy doing sewalongs for quilt samplers. I love the community and seeing the different interpretations of the same block. Plus I find my motivation to "get 'er done" is higher when I have other people to sew along with. So why not add some summer fun with a sewalong?! Yup, I'm happy to jump back into the weekly community with the Facebook group from Moda Blockheads to do Sampler Spree by Susan Ache.

Sampler Spree is published by Martingale and is the book to get if you are sewing along. Susan has done a number of books- as a contributor as well as authoring them fully herself. I was first enchanted by her work in her lovely instagram feed (@yardgrl60) and enjoy seeing the beautiful quilts she creates. For this quilt, Susan is sewing in color groups but I'm keeping my colors a bit more uniform...more on that in a bit. Some of the things I really like about this project: I enjoy the little pops of fun things I see like a pear, some baskets, an evergreen tree and some boats, combined with other blocks that are purely geometric play. And I like making 6" blocks which feel so doable and cute.

Cottage Bleu fabric was a little delayed in arriving to shops. The perfect thing about that is that it is freshly in the quilt shops now and just in time for this sewalong! I'm making my whole quilt from Cottage Bleu, focusing heavily on the blues and using the greens and yellows as smaller accents. I will be following the sashing and layout that is shown in the book, although the squares where the sashing meets will be 4 smaller patchwork squares. And I'll be rotating between blue background colors.

My overall theme of the colors will go from darker blues on the perimeter, medium blues next and white to the middle. Think of light radiating out from the middle block. I mocked it up on the computer to play around with the idea and this was the one I was most satisfied with. It might look a little rough, messy, "off" to you but that is how I sometimes play quickly on the computer, with shapes I draw quickly and not so perfectly aligned and matched. 

I'm pretty excited! I haven't made many all blue or mostly blue quilts (except for my Gypsy Wife quilt with blues and grays and that was also in a sewalong) and I am just so happy to have my fabrics and see those big blue hydrangeas and yellow fluttering butterflies. The Thatched colors in Cottage Bleu that I am using for the borders are Midnight 148 (the darkest), Cornflower 147 and Mist 146 (the lightest). For the middle ring of light/medium blues, I'm planning on using Mist for all and flipping to the lighter back side for the every-other sashing to get that lightest blue shade. 

I know one of the next questions would be "how much yardage is this for each color?" and this is a computer generated mockup and not an actual yardage based file in EQ8. This is done in Adobe Illustrator and is a rough idea.
Moda so kindly put these yardage suggestions from the book page 8 on their blog:Page 8.  All yardage is based on 42" wide fabric. 

• 1 yard total of assorted cream prints for large blocks
• 3 yards total of assorted light scraps for blocks - or approx. 3 yards for a single background.
• 3.875 yards total of assorted medium and dark scraps for blocks - referred to collectively as "dark".
• 1.25 yards of white solid for sashing
• 2.375 yards of peach solid for sashing

​My best estimates based on my sashing plan is to have:
1.5 yards (one and a half) of each of Midnight, Cornflower and Mist for sashings. 
.5 yard (a half yard, in case you can't see the . decimal) of  each Midnight, Cornflower and Mist for making blocks background
.5 (a half yard) of Broken Lines from Cottage Bleu in Midnight 48694-18 if you like that on the outer sashing
1 fat quarter bundle of Cottage Bleu (and this is really a guess...you may want more of a particular print or a little extra of yardage on the hydrangeas)

So its not exact and is an estimate/best guess. The great thing about this sampler quilt is that it will look great being scrappy and having more fabric friends join in!

I couldn't resist. I had to make one and get started. Hydrangea pear anyone? 
Hope you are joining us over on the Facebook Moda Blockheads group, starting next Wednesday, June 16th.
​See ya there!

​Just a note about the giveaway I was doing with the Martingale book...I have drawn a winner and congratulations to Karen Cole! Thanks to everyone for such nice comments!!

I am so happy to announce that the last of the new patterns that accompany the Cottage Bleu fabric line have finally arrived! To celebrate, I am releasing my brand-new quilt designs which are called Wind Drifter and The Collector!

First, let's talk about Wind Drifter!

If you are a beginning quilter and are wanting to make your first half-square triangle quilt, this pattern would be a perfect place to start. This is because Wind Drifter is an easy quilt pattern that uses half square triangles (or HST blocks) paired up and stacked in lines to make pinwheels of motion! They remind me of rows of flying geese blocks but with more dimension by using the two fabrics of the HST.

When designing Wind Drifter, I wanted to combine rows of triangles, basic blocks, and individual triangles, to create a fun quilt design that looked complex but was still easy to put together. I JUST finished putting the binding on the small version of Wind Drifter and have been trying it out around the house. I intended for the small one to be a wall quilt but I think it also makes a lovely table topper! I think you could add large borders and make a lovely baby quilt or crib quilt as well.

When it comes to the size of the quilt, Wind Drifter can be made in two different sizes. The large quilt size is 65" square and the small is 32 3/4" for the small. Below you can see the finished quilt in both sizes.

For the larger version, I've used the same color palette as I did in the smaller version. The biggest change that I made was using the white/cream tonal Floral Fling print as my background fabric. Using this particular print, gave such a nice, subtle texture in those open spaces.

Both of these quilt directions are written for using Fat Eighths. However, when it comes to fabric choices, the possibilities are endless! You could easily make different variations of this quilt using solid colors, prints, or even textured fabric. Plus, I love the idea of using a larger, scrappier mix of different fabrics for the half square triangles. If you have a stash like mine, you can imagine making the entire quilt top as a scrappy triangle quilt!

Since we are on the topic of fabric and triangles, I did want to point out one thing about this pattern. If you are looking for a great way to show off bigger prints within this pattern, try placing them in the sections which have the larger triangles or arrows. They create a balance between large and small. The combination of arrow directions leads your eye around the quilt and to the center where the Quarter Square Triangle Block lives.

Moda Fabrics is kitting Wind Drifter in the large size with the cream background. The kits will have triangle paper on a roll, which makes the paper piecing of the small half square triangles so fast! I love triangle paper. There is less trimming and they are so accurate. You do not need to make a drawn line on the backs of your squares. Just follow the sewing lines. They also make creating a half square triangle quilt such a breeze!

My other new pattern, The Collector, was a really fun project with vases, jars and bowls to show off pretty prints. I went with a chinoiserie feel with my vases, thinking of lovely blue and white ceramics. but I also think these would be super cute in novelty fabrics like cookies and pickles and crackers in the pantry...just flip the wide vase angled top upside down and you have a wide jar with a lid instead of a vase. Is your collection of sewing items? Fill your vessels with buttons, thimbles and threads. Or maybe you like toy airplanes, marbles and jacks? So many different ways to show your treasures in these collector jars. 

These vessels are arranged into sets of 2 or 3 units, then repeated. I had sewn together one strip and put it on the dining room table. Wouldn't that make an interesting table runner? ​

And I used a couple extra blocks I made to make a coordinating pillow with my quilt.

The quilts shown here are using Cottage Bleu, which should be shipping from Moda Fabrics in April. This quilt also goes well with English Breakfast mini quilt with tea cups. I enjoyed a little home decor theme with this collection and had fun with those big hydrangeas in bursts of blue splendor. I hope you have as much fun as I've had with these patterns and I'll share more as other versions are done with new fabrics. I've been gathering fabrics to make one like jam jars (so fruit themed fabrics) and one with sewing notions (I'm still looking for the perfect buttons!). And I might even do a spooky Halloween one with curiosities in the jars! Stay tuned for that one!

Happy quilting!