Penny Sampler Quilt

A couple years ago I began an online quilt class by Rachel Hauser at Stitched in Color.  The Penny Sampler Quilt was so beautiful, I had to make it.  And some of the techniques were new, so I decided I had to give it a shot.  Well, I didn’t finish it at the time, and it sat and sat, but I finally finished it last week!  I am so excited that it is done, and the piles of fabric are off my floor!!!  Well the top is done, so now I need to sandwich it and quilt it. Rachel’s suggestion is for a combination of tieing and large quilt stitches, and that sounds about right.

One of the more challenging techniques I worked on in this quilt was foundation paper piecing. There were several different blocks to challenge me. The toughest was this dala horse. There were so many seems to match up! My husband also wants me to add a tea bag and some steam to this tea cup, so I still need to add that…

There were also some applique pieces.  These houses were pieced rectangles, with the roofs appliqued on top.  There were also some “dilly birds” with some machine stitch sketching to add detail. Loved how they turned out!

Several of the blocks allowed me to practice piecing some blocks precisely, carefully matching seams. I really think I improved with that, when I compare later blocks with some of the blocks I pieced awhile ago!

I don’t know if I made the best fabric choices; I’m not great at that, and this quilt used SO many fabrics that sometimes I was quite random about it, and sometimes just picked stuff I liked without knowing if it worked.  I think I could have put in more solids to keep it from being too busy. But overall I like it very much and I’m proud of it!    

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