Sampler Block #7 - Arkansas Traveler

I am a little early with this block post, but here is #7 in my sampler adventure.  I have actually decided to only do 8 of the 12, so there will only be one more post on the sampler series for the summer.  I do intend to do another set for myself with a completely different color pallet, though.

I wrote my mother a poem for mother's day back in 1999 that was about a quilt.  She has had it framed and hanging in her living room for the last 14 years.  We have often talked of making a quilt with it by screen printing the poem onto blocks, etc.

Well, my mother finally decided it was time and had the poem embroidered onto 4 white quilt blocks.  I have decided to give these sampler blocks to her to go with her poem blocks.  It is so fitting that the poem is about brightly colored quilt blocks that were pieced together with love and patience.  I am so anxious to see the samplers with the poem blocks finished.

At any rate, back to the block this week.  This one was not too difficult once I figured out exactly how to cut the angles I needed!  This whole project has been an awesome skill builder for me and I am so happy that I have done it.

The tutorial for this block was very nicely done and can be found here at Freshly Pieced.

Here is a shot of mine:

It pains me that I cannot do a shot of all 7 blocks together on this post, but I already mailed what I had done to my mother so that she could get started.

Happy sewing :)

Summer Sampler Fun!

I came across a fantastic quilt along sampler on Pintrest recently.  I took a look and it was from 2011, but hey, if I haven't seen it before it's new to me!

This sampler has 12 blocks and a hand full of bloggers doing tutorials on each.

I am not a big fan of solids, but when I saw this sampler, I fell in love.  It is also very interesting to see everyone's blocks on the various blogs that have tutorials!  But, my favorite by far was the white and solids.

I decided to take up this project for the summer and do one block each week.  I will post links to the original instructions each week also.

I am really excited about this project!  I think it will be a skill builder and I am looking forward to learning a new thing or two :)

For my first block, I chose the "Mosaic".  

Here is a shot of mine before final assembly of the 16 HST in it.  (These will be laid out a little differently before assembly)

Mosaic

Here are some shots of the assembled block:

Mosaic Assembled 

Mosaic Assembled

The tutorial for this block can be found at FreshlyPieced, just click here.

I am so excited to see how mine comes along this summer!

Circle Quilt Part 2

Today I got through enough steps on the quilt to do Part 2 of this tutorial.  Now that you have your circles made, you are ready for your next step.

Arrange all of your circles on your backing fabric.  I used a roughly 42" X 42" piece of muslin.  I really contemplated putting these on a white background (which would have looked great), but I have always wanted to do a top with muslin.  I had this muslin lying around that someone had given me and I used a little more than a half of a charm pack on this quilt, so for the roughly $3.50 I have in this top....I figured I could chance it with the muslin.

After you have your circles arranged the way you like, pin each one down.  I just used a single quilting pin in each circle.

Next, following the package directions on your fusible stabilizer, iron each circle down.  

Now, using a narrow zig-zag stitch.  Sew each circle down to your backing fabric.

Here is a finished circle.  They are actually quite flat once they are sewn down.

And, here is a shot of some of them tacked down and some not sewn down yet.  

 I have not quite made a decision on how I am going to quilt mine just yet!