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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!
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 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! 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!! |
About ROBINDesigner of colorful florals for Moda fabrics. Modern to transitional quilt designer. Illustrator, sewist, crafter. I am proud to be a designer for Moda Fabrics!
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