Welcome to the Quilt Block Sampler Sew Along!
Greetings everyone! Here we are at the beginning of an exciting adventure! A quilt block per week throughout the summer and perhaps into fall (or winter into spring for those of you in the southern hemisphere). I don’t have an exact plan for this quilt because it will be more fun to let it unfold as we go. I’m thinking 24 weeks will give us a nice variety of blocks and techniques to explore, and a nice sized throw quilt to boot. If you want a smaller quilt you can simply stop early, and if you want a larger quilt you can create doubles of your favorite blocks so you have more. I’ll continue adding blocks to The Quilt Block Library after this project ends so you can continue on if you please. My biggest hope for this project is that you gain the confidence and skills that are required to recreate traditional quilt blocks and quilt designs on your own. The weekly blocks will live forever here on the blog so don’t worry about keeping up!
The Jackrabbit Quilt made from a traditional Old Maid’s Puzzle quilt block
How this Project Came to be
For several years I’ve been receiving emails asking if I sell patterns for the quilts I make. When I set out to make a quilt I often look to traditional blocks for inspiration and when I find “the one” I dissect it on graph paper and recreate it without a pattern. I don’t purchase patterns. Recreating blocks on your own may sound intimidating but it’s actually often very simple. When I wrote my book Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy my goal was not so much in writing exact patterns to follow (although there are some in the book), but in explaining how the reader can gain the skills necessary to create and recreate blocks on their own. Fast forward to this winter and I started a Quilt Block Library category on my blog to expand on the blocks I shared in my book. The library is slowly becoming a collection of traditional quilt block tutorials. Last month in a blog post I mentioned I’d probably be using the blocks I’m creating for the library to make a sampler quilt and a couple commenters chimed in that they wanted to join. After announcing the project through my newsletter and Instagram we are now nearly 1000 strong and growing! Putting The Quilt Block Library into the context of a sampler quilt really helped folks get excited about the project. Context is everything right?!
Block 1 was posted last week but the sew along doesn’t officially begin until today so I won’t post block 2 until next Wednesday. I know many of you have already made your first block and are eager for the next one, but there are still folks joining so I’d like to give everyone a chance to catch up before proceeding. I’ve had a lot of questions about palette and materials so let’s focus on that this week.
Some blocks from The Quilt Block Library
Palette & Materials
If you’re familiar with my work and you’ve read my book you know that I’m not big on buying fabrics or fancy tools when it comes to quilt making. For this project I really want to encourage you to work with what you already have on hand. Don’t feel like you have to purchase special fabrics. The background color fabric will be the one thing you may have to purchase if you don’t have sufficient yardage on hand. Three or four yards should be good. Quilter’s weight fabric is perfect and I recommend going with organic cotton (often referred to as muslin) if you do end up needing to purchase fabric. When it comes to cotton fabric, purchasing organically grown is ideal to avoid GMO cotton that is laden with pesticides and herbicides amongst other toxins.
Tip
Since we’re making 1 block at a time I recommend making your first block from fabrics you love and using that block as your starting point. When you make your second block choose fabrics that will compliment your first block. When in doubt I recommend keeping the palette simple. Minimizing the amount of colors can be really helpful. Let’s study this extraordinary antique sampler quilt for some palette inspiration.
Image found on Pinterest where it’s stated that this quilt is part of the The International Quilt Museum collection in Lincoln Nebraska
In studying this palette we notice that the background color is white and the dominant color is red. The palette is pretty minimal: solid fabrics in red, white, two shades of blue, pink, brown or brownish purple, a little pop of green, and very minimal use of khaki, gray, and black. There are a couple of prints but they register almost as solids, and then there’s that one plaid print block that’s a real banger! There is a red sashing border framing the blocks. For those asking for guidance: using this quilt as an example you could select solids in 1 background color, 1 dominant color, and 2 colors to compliment the dominant color perhaps in small prints, then a couple subtle shades, a couple little pop colors for fun and 1 fun and unexpected banger print!
Using Pinterest as a Tool
I fully intended to post more examples of antique samplers but after scrolling Pinterest for too long I can’t decide on which to share. There are so many amazing samplers to be discovered over there. If you’re a Pinterest person I totally recommend creating a board of quilts that you love. Study each one and dissect the palette as I did in the example above. Dissecting a quilt you admire is a powerful tool to help discover what you like—and often what you like is not what you think you like. For example, I used to think that I didn’t like solid fabrics (!!!) or pastels (!!!) but after dissecting the quilts I love those were the most common factors. For those seeking palette advice, your homework this week is to dissect some quilts that you love, take notes to figure out if there are any common factors, and come up with an idea or just a basic starting point for your palette.
A Note to the NAtural Dyers
Most of the blocks I post for this project will be naturally dyed and I’ll share the dyestuffs I used for each block in each post. I hope to be able to write posts to share the color recipes but this being busy planting season for me I can’t promise it. I have a good amount of recipes already posted to the blog that I can link you to when relevant. If you have a copy of my book that will be your best bet as all my color formulas and my best instructions for working with natural dyes can be found there.
My Book
My book Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy is a great companion to this project! I have signed copies available here or you can get a copy wherever books are sold. See my FAQ page to see where you can find it if you’re international. I share a lot here on the blog but the book and blog combo is ideal. Purchasing a copy of my book is an amazing way to support my work. Thanks so much!
I’ll see you here next week for block 2! I’m really looking forward to seeing your blocks come together. Please continue to share and tag me on IG so I can see and share your work. Please be sure to ask any questions you may have here in the comment section. Other folks may have the same question so it’s really helpful to keep them here. I’ll do my very best to keep up with answering. Please note that I’m out of town this week teaching in NH so I won’t be able to reply until evenings. Please no DM’s on IG—I can’t keep up to them and I much prefer to keep everything here. Thank you for being here!
