Sugar and Spice Sampler

I hope many of you have had the opportunity to check out the first quilt in the Quilt Concert Series, First Notes, and are excited about joining in the quilt along fun! First Notes was heavily inspired by the Sugar and Spice Sampler that I made as a 100 day project last year, so I thought today would be a great time to share a bit of that process.

100 day projects are a favorite of mine- I did three and a half in 2020! Recently, several of these projects have revolved around a color theme. For this sampler I decided to go with a pink and red quilt because I had never made a quilt highlighting them. This is especially surprising since bright pink is my favorite color.

On more open ended projects, such as this one, I find it helpful to set some parameters for myself to help keep the project on track. For this quilt those parameters were:

• Focus on using traditional or traditionally inspired blocks by using Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilts Patterns for inspiration.
• Finished blocks must be created in 6″ increments to make it easier and more predictable to fit together
• Stash fabrics only (including the backing and binding)
• All blocks will be pieced traditionally using the rulers and tools I have on hand (no paper templates or foundation paper piecing.
• The math for the blocks needed to be easily done in my head or on scratch paper.

The last couple “rules” basically meant that I shouldn’t have to sit down at a computer in order to make a block. There certainly isn’t anything wrong with that- I use a computer a lot when I design, but sometimes a different creative approach allows you to grow artistically.

The blocks in the quilt finished between 6″ and 24″ which opened up a wide range of block options using the Brackman book as a reference. This quilt was made prior to the release of the new edition, so I was using the black and white version that has been very will loved over the years!

The rulers for this quilt are fairly basic, 6″x24″, 3″x12″, 8-1/2″x8-1/2″. The specialty rulers I used for the project were the Classic Curves Ruler by Sharon of Color Girl Quilts and a 6″ Half Square Triangle Ruler from BlocLoc. these were both rulers I had on hand, and they did make the construction process go very smoothly.

Once I had quite a few blocks constructed, I started adding them to my design wall and planning an overall layout. By having a general idea of where this project was heading, I was able to plan additional blocks with their placement in mind.

This project is ultimately a quilt that will be used, and with all of the fun printed fabrics I incorporated, I decided to keep the quilting very simple. I used vertical straight lines in a few different colors in the pink and red range.

Working with all of these amazing traditional quilt blocks inspired me to further explore modern traditionalism and helped pave the way for our current Quilt Concert!

Quilt Stats

Title: Sugar and Spice Sampler

Size: 72″x 84″

Techniques: Traditional piecing

Quilting: Vertical hand guided lines on a longarm

Fabric: Prints and solids from my stash

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: 50wt Aurifil in four colors

Binding: Assorted binding from my pre-made binding stash