Fret Not Yourself: Thirty Year Sampler

What can I say that you don't already know? We've all heard the adage "the longest journey begins with the first step," but starting wasn't the problem. Consistency was.

All are traditional blocks for which I drafted and cut plastic templates. Then I pieced each by hand. In 1989. After that it seemed logical to hand quilt. Elaborate feathers were planned but I took this on a data shoot to work on in the evenings. Since the light was bad I just stippled everywhere. Now that seems like a lost opportunity. And I also lost interest.

I put it away but dragged it from home to home. Two years ago I got it out to work on on the evenings during the news hour. Even that wasn't consistent work. With our quilt show approaching, I decided to hand quilt the inner area and small blocks then switch to machine quilting on the sashing and outer floral. Good choices. Nothing shows on the black sashing. Originally I planned spirals but changed to quarter-inch straight lines. The floral is randomly free-motion quilted. Now that it's been washed, I can't distinguish it from the hand stippling.

Thirty Year Sampler quilt

Each of these is a traditional design based on various grids. For example, Dervish Star is a four-patch while Fish is based on eight-pointed star.

Dervish Star and Fish blocks

Once the Alexander Henry floral was chosen, the other fabrics were selected to go with it. Several lights seemed like a good idea then and still do today but I wish I'd used more fabrics for the colors.