Don't really need another UFO!

I finished the orange and yellow guild "block robin" quilt yesterday, which leaves only one quilt left to be quilted in my closet.  My dilemma is whether to ask Marie to quilt it or to do it myself.  She is away for a few weeks, so I will leave it hanging for a while.  I still need to make a back for it anyway.

But naturally, as I've been quilting, I've been thinking about other projects.  Two quilting friends posted photos of samplers recently, and Moda's "Blockheads 2" begins in May.  All use 6" blocks.   I love making samplers and just can't stand to make the same block over and over for a full-sized quilt.

Patterns for the Blockheads quilt along were issued weekly and most were rather difficult.  I would put it away and then get it out again a week later or so which was a pain.  I picked my fabric at random, too, so it ended up being a bit of a hodge-podge mystery quilt.  Luckily, I found a black print to use as sashing that tied them all together.  Here's the quilt before I finished putting it together.

This time, I have shirtings received in a birthday fat quarter swap for a background for whatever sampler I decide to do.  I hope that will unify the blocks a bit.

I was intrigued by the blocks for The Splendid Sampler as I read Pat Sloan's blog regularly, but I was already doing Blockheads so didn't take the bait.  Then Karen in Ontario posted a photo of her lovely finished quilt.  I like the variety of blocks, so I ordered the book.  Splendid Sampler 2 is being published in October, but Sloan plans another quilt along to begin in the summer.  But it's another weekly surprise.

Leigh in Australia posted a photo of a sampler quilt she saw which was a daily block project made to commemorate a woman's 60th year.  Each day, the quilter designed or made a block that reflected her life that day.  It's a little like the weather scarf I knit a few years ago - just a couple rows of various blues, white, grays, all reflecting the sky that day.  But, after working on the 365 challenge a few years ago, I know I can't do a block a day.  I gave up after just three months because of the "get it out - put it away" aspects of it.  Sometimes I like to concentrate on a project and get it done. 

But I like the idea of making each block represent an aspect of my life, and I AM going to be 70 on July 31.  So... maybe I'll start my own sampler project on August 1.  It will probably be a mix of all of these ideas with perhaps some blocks from Just Plain Nuts besides!