Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Block Therapy

Sometimes, when life takes over, it is difficult to spend much time on a large, demanding design.  It's times like these that I'm grateful for projects that you can dive into, spend an hour  and then switch off.  I have two such ongoing patterns - both samplers.


 This pattern is from Lori Smith of "From my heart to your hands" fame.  I bought it in 2008 and have added blocks whenever a quick respite from real world issues was required.  It's not too demanding because Lori did the hard work, draughting all the blocks to be the same size of 7.5" finished.  Here is a picture of Lori's quilt.


I have only managed 19 blocks out of 85, so I can see that I'll have plenty of chances to do more satisfying blocks.  I don't intend to do all the blocks, just the ones that take my fancy.

The other sampler is from Barbara Brackman's civil war blog where she posts weekly stories relating to the American civil war along with an 8" finished block.  I have done a few of these too, having had my arm twisted to join in a group thing


It's a pity that the block size is different because they look like they could have gone into the same quilt. 

Still, I do enjoy them when I pull them out.  No pressure there.

6 comments:

Quilting By Celia said...

I also have that pattern and you have inspired me to get it out and seriously consider doing it.
Probably great learning

Carol G said...

What wonderful ongoing projects. I can see that samplers provide enough interest and challenge to keep you going--long term. Did you pick all your fabrics in the beginning or are you evolving your plan?

Lynette said...

Those will be stunning when they're made into a quilt. I think it's good to have long-term projects like this to use as a break between the intensity of pushes for finished items.

Crispy said...

Both of your samplers are wonderful. That's what I love about a sampler too....such great pick up/put down projects that aren't demanding at all :0)

Crispy

Lori said...

Both quilts will be awesome!!

Sharon said...

Very pretty, lots of pattern variety and your fabrics look great.