Sarah's Sampler

Years ago, many quilters were working on Jennifer Chiaverini's "Sarah Sampler" quilt, based on her 1999 debut novel The Quilter's Apprentice.  For the online book group I lead, I've been re-reading this "old saw" (as my former colleague Priscilla used to call them) and thinking about making the quilt I never got around to. 

In keeping with my resolve to use more orange, I got out my box of orange and added a pale gray/blue "American Brand" solid for the first two blocks, Ohio Star and Bachelor's Puzzle.  What fun!  There are only 12 blocks in the quilt but I have a nice print for sashing.  Should make a nice quilt.

Today I worked on the guild mystery quilt.  I like it so far because each clue takes about an hour to finish.  Mine is cream with a variety of Civil War-era prints in brown, blue, and rust.  I am hoping to use up all the Civil War prints on this quilt, including the back.  I hope next month will be the time for putting all the pieces together.  What we have so far is very intriguing.  One step called for flipping and sewing a solid to a print, leaving a whole lot of small half-square triangles.  This week I sewed them all together like flying geese for a mini which I layered with flannel to hand quilt.  With all the snow we've had, it's nice to have a couple of projects to work on while sitting on the couch.  I also have knitting - a scarf and a hat - but it's fun to switch it up a little.

Rainbow Scrap blocks

Now that we've begun a new month, the color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is pink.  Sunday I made all six of the blocks for this month, and made no dent in my pink box!

The double nine patch ended up 7" due to some dumb math on my part, so I had to border it to get it to size.  No problem, though!

Today I made another orange block for the Pat Sloan Vacation Time block of the month.  It's a mystery although she has already revealed the layout which is unusual.  I think I have the fabric for between the blocks in my orange box already. 

Photos

I've had a little trouble uploading photos to my blog lately, but I did want to post a couple of finished quilts.  I have no flimsies in my closet anymore!  Now it's just project boxes and pizza boxes full of projects in various stages.  Here are my latest finished quilts.

This lattice quilt will be going to the Parkinsons Comfort Quilt Project.  It was really easy to do and used up a lot of miscellaneous scraps.  It is fairly heavily quilted because making it sturdy enough to be machine washed frequently is important.

I have the Granny Square Quilt on the couch, and it sure is cozy on a snowy day!  I have had a cold for the last few days, and its cheeriness has been great.