Summer Sampler Series Intro

 

I love love love this series! I think its a great place to start even as a beginner quilter because it covers so many different piecing methods.  Three bloggers/quilters got together to create this series: Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt, Lee of Freshly Pieced, and Faith of Fresh Lemons Modern Quilts.  There are two ways you can join in on this quilt along: 1. You can purchase the compiled collection called The Complete Block Anthology in the form of a PDF file from Faith's shop, print it out and bring it to class, or 2. You can read the tutorial ahead of time directly from Faith's website.  My role in the class is to help guide you through the piecing and answer any questions you may have. 

 

So for our first class I thought it might be helpful to have an introduction to the series.  I know sometimes when you start a new project it can be a bit overwhelming to even just get started cutting the fabric, so that's where we'll start.  There is some homework involved.  Use one of the above links to go to Fresh Lemons Modern Quilts' blog and read the Welcome Post to the Sampler Series.  This discusses the fabric requirements needed. 

 

For me personally, I used all solids in the neutral tone family, similar to that of Pat Bravo's Pure Elements.  I bought I half yard of each 9 colors and 2 yards of the off-white.  These blocks also look amazing with prints, just check out Katie's finished quilt here.  The possibilities are endless!

 

So lets talk supplies needed for the quilt along.  Of course you will need your fabric, small thread scissors, fabric scissors, seam ripper, a rotary cutter, straight pins and/or basting glue (optional), a cutting board, a ruler, an invisible ink marker, curved basting pins, and throw size batting (last two not needed until the end).

 

 I like using a 12.5in x 12.5in ruler since that is the size of our unfinished blocks.  It makes squaring up the block super easy and it is sufficient for any other cuts we need to make for this series.

 I love this particular cutting board because its small enough to take with you, big enough for most projects, and its coolest feature is that the back side is an ironing board, which is very convenient. This one is a 12in x 18in, but I know they have other sizes as well.

The size of the rotary cutter is really up to you.  I have a small 28mm which has been fine for me but I know most people prefer the larger rotary cutters, especially if you need to cut through several layers of fabric.  I bought all of my supplies (including fabric, excluding basting glue) at Hobby Lobby.  The basting glue was purchased at Zig Zag in Chelsea.

 

In class I plan on going over the differences of straight pins vs. basting glue so if you want to hold off getting those I items until the following class in February, that's fine. 

 

Pertaining to our class schedule, this months class will be held on January 23rd at 6:30pm.  Christy at Zig Zag in Chelsea, AL has been gracious enough to let us use her shop for our classes! The sewing studio in the back of the shop has tables, sewing machines, an ironing board and iron for our use and I'm so grateful to have access to it.

 

So to those of you joining us on January 23rd, please bring your fabric, rotary cutter, cutting board, and ruler.  Please let me know if you have any questions, I am more than happy to help!

 

See you soon,

Rachel