Splendid Sampler

 I was looking for a block of the month to work on this year, and this is the one that grabbed me, Splendid Sampler. I love doing block of the month/week projects with a group because it can be so inspiring and it helps to keep it fun and fresh as the year progresses.

I knew I wanted to do soft colors for this one since I am on overload with brights.  Even as my go-to favorites, I need to take a break now and again. I chose to pull out some fat quarters that I bought a long time ago--Robyn Pandolph's Folk Art Christmas (I think the first grouping of this title. I believe she had a few different Folk Art Christmas lines). That will be my base for the 100 blocks, but if I find other fabrics that would work well, I will add those too.  The fabrics are a brushed cotton, and I also added a creamy yellow flannel to use as the background when needed. So far, I love it. I know I will be sick of the fabrics in time, but for now it's my happy place.



Today I did the first, second and seventh blocks. I pieced together what needed it, and then did some needle turn applique for blocks 1 and 7, and embroidery with my Valdani thread for 7.



ugh... I'm obviously too lazy to make sure there were no stray threads before pictures. I am definitely too lazy to take another round of pictures! :)

For the pieced and appliqued quilt in block 7, I pieced together some scraps of 1.5" into a nine patch and then tilted it a bit to fit the pattern.  It helped to add a little whimsy that the original line drawing for the embroidery has.


I played around with the layout for block 2, and I like it. If I had a blue on hand, would have added that so it would have been more scrappy.


I don't plan to post every time I finish a block, but perhaps I will do a weekly update on the progress.  I have four more blocks to make to be caught up, and then the newest will be out on Thursday (two blocks each week).   I already have my ArtBin case all prepared for this project :)  This is officially my first project of 2016!