Story of the Mix and Match Sampler - Two Sisters Quilting!

In the Spring of 2021 just after the pandemic shutdown, I began chatting with my sisters about getting our heads together to make a quilt. Some ideas were tossed around, but nothing ever came together. Time passed and I decided to create this Quilting Blog to journal my quilting activities. It gave me something to do during the shutdown.

One day I was trying to decide what to do with all the old cotton fabrics that I have. Some of these fabrics were purchased as far back as the 1960’s. Ultimately, I set out to make a hand quilted traditional sampler using as much vintage fabric pieces as possible. I always loved samplers and the vintage fabrics seemed suited for this. Mix and Match would be the most practical direction since the fabrics were a mixture of colors, prints and textures, all 100% cotton. I had no actual plan. I went about piecing blocks, one at a time as the mood struck me. 

During this time, I had taken a Sewing Machine Quilting class to see if that would work better for my arthritis. Then I started posting both hand stitched blocks and machine pieced blocks on the Quilting Blog. My sister Mid followed my Blog and she became interested in the sampler quilting and wanted to join me in making a quilt. By then I had made about five machine pieced blocks without a plan.

Our loosely defined plan was to mirror each other’s blocks but select the fabric for each block as we wished individually. What we knew was that it would be a Mix and Match Quilt. We quilted with the fabric we had on hand, occasionally supplementing with a purchase of cut or fat quarter piece. As each block was completed, I would post it on the Blog and then select another pattern for the next block that we would complete.

We made changes along the way and learned so much from each other chatting every day about quilting. We were both challenged with accurately cutting and maintaining the (scant) quarter inch stitch. One day we decided to size our blocks before getting too far ahead. Both of us had to adjust several of our blocks. It was a lesson in accurately cutting and stitching the elusive quarter inch seam. All the blocks needed to be 12 ½ inch unfinished.

When our blocks were completed, we sorted them according to our personal liking. To finish, we used the ‘sashing with squares’ lay out. In the end, I took a leap of faith and machine quilted mine using skills that I had learned in a Free Motion Quilting class. After trying several sewing machine quilting techniques, Mid hand quilted hers. We started mirroring each other in November 2021 and now have two finished quilts, almost 12 months later. They are so much more beautiful than I had pictured they would be. 

My hand pieced Mix and Match Sampler is still in progress. Quilting by hand is still my favorite and quilting with my sister Mid is the absolute best! This has been an experience that I will always cherish. I am grateful!

We are already discussing the next sampler!

 

Eleanor's Sampler 

Mildred's Sampler