SAMPLER QUILT

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a craft tornado, blasting through and leaving behind me a trail of unfinished projects. It’s certainly not for lack of interest, but usually I’ve overloaded myself with too many things at once. Perhaps you have sensed this about me already. Perhaps you are like this too? Too many ideas and ambitions and not enough hours of craft in the day. I have resolved this year to return to many of those abandoned items and finish them up, once and for all.

This sampler quilt was my first priority. I took Johanna’s sampler quilt class last January! It was one of the nicest class experiences I’ve had. Seven heavenly weeks of working alongside a superb group of ladies. The lessons I learned about quilting and sewing were invaluable. I fell a bit behind the class because of my shopkeeping duties and before I knew it, the class was over and MONTHS had passed.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been working on finishing this quilt. I even made an embroidered label. Apparently, I shouldn’t do freehand embroidery. The label is not my finest work and the next quilt label I do will be done with more care. (and hopefully skill!)

My patchwork potholders gave me good practice on doing continuous binding, so I found that part very satisfying. As soon as I had finished attaching the binding I threw the quilt in the washing machine and then the dryer. The satisfaction of looking at my puckery, washed quilt is incredible. In fact, I’m sitting on the couch right now underneath my sweet sampler and it’s so incredibly cozy.

I’ve got two other quilts in progess that I hope to finish this year – my queen-sized quilt and a nine patch quilt. Truthfully, I’d like to make ten other quilts this year but I’ll try to be realistic and account for the fact that I should sleep a few hours each night. Johanna is hatching up some exciting new quilting classes, so in the very least I’ll certainly have to ‘test’ those out.

For now, I’m basking in the sublime feeling of having finished my first quilt. I feel like I’ve been granted the honourable title of ‘quilter’, at long last.