Midnight Garden Sampler

Midnight Garden Sampler

I love sampler quilts and enjoy working on them. What makes quilting them so time consuming is that each block needs it's own design, but the finished piece must work as a whole. This sampler was a mix of various shades of brown and turquoise, which made a stunning "garden."








Looking at the border, I decided the brown needed a little softening, so I used a turquoise thread and a spiked swirl pattern like a fill. The smaller inner borders I quilted as one unit in an alternating swirl pattern. I like to vary my textures so that there is both heavy and light quilting throughout the quilt. This adds more interest to the overall look and makes some parts of the quilt stand out more than others.

The blocks need some cohesion to them, so I like to use similar quilting to tie them all together. In this case, since all the centers were the same star shape and size, I quilted them with the same pattern - a combination of continuous curve and
cathedral window.

The blocks were of 3 basic styles. I used continuous curve in the triangle and square background areas (curved lines that go from point to point), swirls in other areas, and pointed ovals to look like buds in the flower areas. I hope you can see this in the blocks I have shown here.

Even though similar designs are used, each block has a different look, but the overall look of the quilt is cohesive. I always liked the way the triangular and flower areas came out.

For the background area, I wanted something tight so that the blocks would stand out, so I used a paisley fill. This swirly pattern was a nice contrast to all the points of the blocks, and allowed the block patterns to come forward. The finished quilt at the top of this post is the finished result.