Skip to main content

Summer Sampler 2016 [A Finish]


Two years after the Summer Sampler 2016 was announced, I finally have a finish! And it is so summery and colourful and I love it! I especially love the irony of finishing up the blocks and photographing them in the snow!

 The fabrics I picked are Dreamin' Vintage by Jeni Baker from Art Gallery. I bought a fat quarter bundle when it first came out - on 11th May 2014 - four years ago! Then six months later, I picked up four metres of the large floral print in the sale for the backing of the as yet unstarted, unplanned quilt. It was so summery, that it was perfect for the Summer Sampler when details were first announced.



I made the first block and didn't like it. I made the second block and I still didn't like it.


 I was gutted. Whilst the fabrics were beautiful, they are all quite busy and lots are large scale and or directional. And I was struggling to make them work. I decided to add in some solids. I found a list of the coordinates on-line, and a UK stockist of the Art Gallery Pure Elements I had picked. It was exactly what I needed. In the end I used the Dreamin' Vintage fabrics as "focal" pieces and pieced most of the blocks with the solids. And it totally worked. The solids gave the prints room to shine and stand out in a way they couldn't before.

When I came to remake those first blocks I messed up and remade one twice, and one not at all. As a result I have two blocks the same in the final quilt - I liked the remakes better than one of the other blocks in the quilt so swapped - I don't think it's too obvious! I finally added the sahing at the beginning of March and quilted it a week ago. I bought a little extra dark pink solid - my favourite fabric of the solids - to bind it.
The introduction of what Michael calls "1980s-caravan-orange"

And the best part of my change of direction to include more solids: I have loads of the fabric left, so I've added a new project to my WIP list - a hexagon table runner for the sideboard in our dining room.

As far as I'm concerned this is the ultimate happy fabric and the quilt just makes me smile - even when it's snowing outside! This is my first all Art Gallery quilt, and I'm looking forward to getting it washed and crinkly from the tumble drier!


This is a Finish Along finish - in honesty it's been on the list several times - but you can find it on my Q1 finish along list here.
Marci Girl Designs

Comments

It's gorgeous! And congratulations on the finish! *waves pompoms*
CapitolaQuilter said…
What a great palette. So many fun blocks on their own but together makes it all worth it. On behalf of the 2018 FAL global hosts, congratulations and thank you for participating in the linky party.

Popular posts from this blog

365 Quilt Challenge 2016 [A finish]

I can't believe I've just typed that heading! When I made the block for January 1st 2016 I could not have imagined the journey this quilt would have taken me on. So make yourselves comfortable and grab a cup of tea, because this blog post may get lengthy! I'd seen the 365 Quilt Challenge on Facebook. I think every quilter on Facebook must have been aware of it. Loads of my friends had signed up and it kept popping up as a "Page you might like" thing. In the end, in November 2015, I joined the group, had a poke round. Decided it wasn't for me. One of the things that really put me off were the fabric requirements: you needed x amount of dark dark fabric, x amount of medium dark fabric, x amount of dark medium, medium, light medium, light, background.... I just couldn't get my head round those requirements. I'd looked at the mock ups on the wesbite and couldn't bring myself to pick a colour. I put it to the back of my mind. But I had obvious

Hidden Agenda [A Finish]

This is very possibly my favourite ever finish - I know I've said that in the past, but this one is going to be hard to beat. This time last year, I attended a day long lecture/workshop with Tula Pink and it was inspiring. Having not really loved her fabrics in the past (but loved her patterns), I suddenly saw them in a new light, linked with my 2018 new year's resolution to try more fussy cutting). Fast forward 8 months and I confess that my Tula stash has expanded quite a lot. I found some UK shops with older ranges of fabric, splurged on a few destashes and found the odd piece of her fabric already in my stash. The plan was always (and remains) to make a Smitten quilt, but I'm well aware that I have plenty of fabric to make other projects as well! So when I saw the Hidden Agenda quilt pattern by Angela Pingle, this fabric sprung instantly to mind.... and we all know I love a rainbow! And what could be better than rainbowfied Tula? I was ably assisted by my friend Ti

February Embroidery Along [A Finish]

I've really been enjoying my embroidery this year, after not doing very much last year. One of the challenges I set myself at the start of the year was to learn to colour tint my fabric before adding the embroidery - I love buying the pre-printed panels, but I'd like to do this myself as well. And the opportunity to learn this arose in February. Meg Hawkey of Crab Apple Hill Studio hosted a stitchalong to celebrate National Embroidery Month, and the first step was colour your fabric. I bought the pencils she advises,  the blending stumps, something called fabric extender and the pigma pen. And I gave it a go. My first attempt ended badly. Because the one thing I didn't buy was a new, clean paintbrush. So when I came to add the fabric extended, it went all bleary and muddy as, despite cleaning the paintbrush thoroughly, it obviously wasn't clean enough. It was unsalvageable so I started again, and I was so much happier with the results. The practice piece was, in

Labels

Show more

Archive

Show more