Every time I start a new project the first thing I think of, besides the pile of WIP sitting in my sewing room, is what fabric am I going to use and how much will I need? Luckily, I love my fabric and have a healthy stash to select from when starting a new project.
Knowing I have plenty of fabric and finding the right fit for a project can be challenging. Watching the designer blocks come in every week and the quilt story grow, I started to think of all the different combinations I could use for the quilt. I usually go down the road of colourful bold prints but this time I think I will dive into my vault of French General fabrics.
What is the sampler?
The Splendid Sampler is made up of 100 individual blocks made by 82 designers. There are fabric requirements for each individual block and the block is shown in two styles – contemporary and reproduction. The blocks are an assortment of embroidery, appliqué, paper piecing, piecing and english paper piecing. The blocks are only 6″ finished so many of them require a background piece of 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ the rest a combination of smaller pieces.
Plan
Start with planning your style.
- Are you going to go contemporary or traditional?
- Do you like a themed palette (from the one designer collection), a rainbow of different prints or a two colour quilt?
- Are you going to start with what you have and build your palette as you go?
- When you choose a final setting will you be able to find or match the sashing, binding and border fabrics?
Do a search on the internet, sift through Pinterest or Flickr or flip through some quilting books to see what colour combinations inspire you. The ones that captivate your interest immediately are usually the colours that express your style.
Requirements
For a full sized quilt (all 100 blocks) a base of at least 30-35 Fat Quarters would be recommended. You could create the quilt from the one collection or similar collections or make it totally scrappy and use the smaller scraps of fabric. Most importantly you should select a palette of equal amounts of light, medium and dark fabrics to provide enough contrast in the small blocks to highlight the block design and overall appearance of the quilt.
The setting requirements for sashing will come in a subsequent post.
During the year we will adding a linky to each block posts so we can see the wonderful combinations of colour and textures the members have chosen for their samplers. For those that have not decided on their fabric selection it will be a source of great inspiration.
NEW HERE?
- Sign up to receive an email notice that a post has been made. If you are already part of Pat’s newsletter, then you won’t get the notice as you are already confirmed.
- Join our Facebook group
- Are you IN? Leave us a Splendid comment at our sew along group, we want to get to know you!
- Take a tour of the designer’s websites via the links on the right sidebar.
- Use hashtag #TheSplendidSampler to tag photos you share
- Ask a friend to join, share with your guild and your favorite quilt shops, we want you to be a part of our adventure!
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