The New Shiny! Sampler

I've been playing around with the idea of doing a sampler quilt, something along the lines of a Dear Jane, a Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, or a Farmer's Wife Sampler. While these are all very beautiful quilts, I don't seem to be able to talk myself into trying one. Maybe there isn't enough creative license when someone else picks all the quilt blocks. Or I could be too stubborn. Either way.

I still want to do a sampler quilt so I've decided to do one On My Own Terms. I selected several (7 dozen so far) blocks that I liked of varying degrees of complexity. I'll be making them in four inch finished size and using my Moonlit Blooms fat quarter packs from Connecting Threads, with tone on tone black for the backgrounds. I'll keep making blocks until I run out of fabric - I have about 7 yards total.

Since I've been doubting my ability to make complicated blocks in such a small size, I was excited to discover that it has already been done! SoScrappy made a midget quilt, with patterns provided by Sentimental Stitches.

So I decided to dive right in this month as my NewFO. Here is the first block! The pattern is called Frayed Four Patch. I'm going to call this quilt the "Shiny! Sampler."

"Shiny: Something that is great, neat, very cool, peachy keen. From the short lived Joss Whedon television series "Firefly."" - From Urban Dictionary

Shiny! Sampler - Block #1

Reducing stitch size was critical for this, because the seams are so short. I also pressed all my seams open to reduce bulk, something I never do. But it looks so nice and pretty on the back I may start doing this on all my blocks.

I think it is going to be a Shiny year!