Saturday Sampler

I went to an outdoor quilt show on Saturday. This show, The Berthoud Outdoor Quilt Show, has been held for the past several years. I remember last year, CarGuy and I were coming back from an appointment and the weather was quite nasty: wind and rain. All I could think about was all the quilts hanging on lines under the trees in the park. This year the weather was absolutely beautiful. The quilts. Ah... I saw so many wonderful quilts. There was one that was a very unassuming Double Irish Chain in browns and off-white. When I got closer I saw that the quilter had machine quilted various leaves and leaf sprays in the off-white block. The border was quilted in a bark-like pattern. Very nicely done! But when I looked at the back it was tied. I looked at the front--quilted. Back--tied. The only thing I could figure out was that she quilted the top and batting. Added the backing and very carefully tied through the backing and the batting. Then she bound it. Very intriguing!

I saw a Shakespeare in the Park quilt that was beautiful in scrappy blues and whites. Wonderful WOW impact from across the park. There was a spiraling bargello in brights. There was a small wallhanging done in purples and pinks (the type of colors one sees in a pastel sunset) with silhouettes of a train tunnel and trestle and train. Very well done!

The photo at the beginning of this post is of a quilt I made a couple of years ago. I had joined a quilt shop's Saturday Sampler Club. This club met the first Saturday of the month. The first meeting I paid $5.00 and received a kit of the pattern and fabric for that month's block. If you don't know the premise it is that if you complete the block and take it to the next meeting the next block was free, and so on. If the block is not completed then you have to pay another $5.00 for the next block. It is a very good format for the quilt shop to highlight new products and for a beginner to try out color schemes and techniques.

At the time I was doing this sampler, I chose the brights colorway which was bright fabrics on a black background. To test the block before I used the limited fabric supplied I made them in red, white and blue. This is the quilt that resulted. I also made 2 extra pieced star blocks to round out the setting. There are a couple of the appliquéd blocks that have a definite top and bottom, so I did a straight set on this one and on the black one I sewed on point. I have not set the blocks together on the black one yet. That is one of my UFO's.

Update: I am thinking of donating this quilt to Quilts of Valor Foundation.