Summer Sampler 2016

Another quilt-along quilt is done! I tend to start off the year by paring down my WIP list, which normally means finishing up my quilt alongs from the previous year. And the "fast finishes" (because all the blocks are made) are so satisfying. This quilt-along is the Summer Sampler 2016, hosted by three fantastic bloggers. I was drawn in by the fact that the quilt featured both curves and paper piecing along with traditionally pieced blocks.

I had a fat eighth bundle of Sun Print 2015 by Alison Glass laying around and I decided that this quilt was a good time to stop hoarding it and start using it. And if I had to buy an entire fat quarter bundle of the line to finish the quilt up, well, that's just a happy coincidence. I used her Text print as the background fabric to fulfill two personal goals: make a quilt with a text background and use a directional fabric without stressing over all of it going in the same direction on the quilt. As I started making the blocks, I also added a rule that each block had to use at least one little bit of the Text fabric.

My favorite block in the entire thing was this nine patch featuring drunkard's path. It was the reason that I joined the quilt-along. When I saw the quilt pattern, I immediately saw it with the main slices white and the outside pieces in color, but I got a lot of compliments on Instagram about how I turned it around. It surprised me because I honestly never even considered doing it the opposite way!

I finished all twenty blocks on time, and followed the patterns pretty faithfully. The only major change that I made was with the snow cone block. Instead of doing one large snow cone, I make four quarter-sized blocks and rotated them around so they could chase each other. I think it gives a little more movement to the quilt.

After the blocks were done, I procrastinated on actually sewing them together while I debated on a layout. I wasn't inspired by any of the ones provided by the quilt-along so I had to come up with my own. The final assembly is loosely based on a layout I saw in The Quilt Block Cookbook. It's not a traditional sampler quilt layout, but it's a little more modern and fits the vibe of the quilt well. For quilting, I did custom quilting across the entire top, using white thread in my bobbin and matching the colors on the top. I didn't really have a plan, just matched the thread color to the area I was quilting.