A Sampler For All Seasons

Reminder: WIP Wednesday is on Christmas break! It will be back on Jan. 4.

I would like to briefly interrupt your Christmas planning to bring you a bit of summer in December—My Summer Sampler quilt is complete! : )

My mother-in-law had hip replacement surgery last Friday. The surgery had been scheduled for January, which I thought would be good timing for me to make her a quilt. When a spot opened up for her to have the surgery earlier, I thought I might not be able to manage it, because I was already so busy. But then I realized, I had the perfect quilt for her, and it was already very much in progress ... my Summer Sampler!

The top and the back were already done, so all I really had to do was quilt it and bind it. But of course, I can never leave well enough alone or make anything easy for myself. I immediately decided that the current size was too small to be useful, and I wanted to make it bigger. So between Wednesday and Monday, I took the borders off the original top, made eight additional sampler blocks and added them, put new borders on, added to the back to get it up to size, basted it, quilted it, and bound it. Whew!

When I decided to add the extra blocks, I wanted to find and choose new block designs quickly, so all of the pictures in the Summer Sampler Flickr group were invaluable to me. Many of my new blocks were inspired by the extra blocks that some of you made. I love Claudia's beautiful red and aqua quilt, and the additional blocks she chose were brilliant, so many of my new blocks came straight from her quilt. Thank you, Claudia, for inspiring me! : )

Here are the blocks I added:

Another Star of Virginia (tutorial here)

Another Greek Cross (tutorial here), but I changed up the colors/values to give it this octagon shape

This fun star-within-a-star block

This HST star, which Isabelle used in her colorful sampler

My version of the Diamond Chip block, from Sarah Fielke's book Quilting From Little Things, as seen on Monica's Happy Zombie blog

Snowblossoms block (free paper-piecing pattern available here)

Another HST-type block

This cute star variation

So here's how the top started out, before the extra blocks ...

And here again is my refashion/completion.

And my MIL seems to just love the quilt. She said it's beautiful work, cheerful colors, and that she will "treasure it for the rest of her life." Wow! She's a very practical woman who isn't at all prone to exaggeration, so that was a wonderful compliment coming from her and really made me feel great. I'm so glad she can enjoy it while she's recovering.

So, that's one major thing off my list. I've also got our Christmas decorations up and made excellent progress on my Secret Santa Twitter Swap item, so I am feeling a lot less stressed today! Score one (or several) for me.

Quilt Stats:

Size: 60" x 74"

Design: From the Summer Sampler Series Quilt-Along, hosted by Kate, Faith, and myself, plus eight extra blocks. For tutorials for the original 12 blocks, click here.

Fabric: Various lines/prints, with background in Kona White

Quilting: Free-motion stippling by me on my home machine

Back: Various lines/prints

Binding: Lotus Full Moon Dot by Amy Butler in Cherry