Summer Sampler - Bloggers' Qulit Festival

It's time again for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side! It is such a great event twice a year for the quilt bloggers to get together and support each other. I missed the one in the spring (and I don't really know why) but I am ready for this one. I don't have anything new to show at the moment, but I thought I would revisit what is perhaps my proudest quilting accomplishment of the past year: my Summer Sampler Series quilt.

This quilt represents a lot of firsts for me. It is the first quilt along I completed; it was my first paper piecing experience; perhaps most importantly, it was my first free-motion quilting experience. When this sampler came up this summer, I jumped at the chance to follow along and push myself into some new territory. There are just some fantastic blocks in this quilt and it pushed me to really improve my piecing.

To finish it, I opted to sash it in gray so that each block would pop and be framed. I am so proud of each of these blocks, I thought they each needed to shine. I was so scared to quilt this. When I made it I knew I was going to use it to practice free-motion quilting since I had no specific recipient in mind, but when it came down to it I was scared to death I was going to destroy it somehow. But I pushed through and did it (pretty quickly I might add) and it actually came out pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised. It has its imperfections, but overall it looks really nice. And for the first time, I got to experience the crinkly goodness that a freshly washed stippled quilt brings :)

So there you have it. I am happy to be able to share this quilt again. Now go, enjoy all the other quilty eye candy!