SPOILER ALERT: If you're a Sew Sampler subscriber and haven't gotten or opened your box yet, don't read any further unless you want to spoil your own surprise!
Still a little gravely in my speaking-box so I'm just doing pictures again. This was a well-timed Sew Sampler as there's something that will definitely come in handy during my quilt retreat this weekend!
First thing I picked up out of the box was this nice little set of 20 marbled glass-head pins. A quilter can always use more pins, although I'm more a fan of long super-skinny ones but I tend to bend those at an alarming rate. Skinny doesn't equal sturdy.
In any case, I'll pull these out of the pack and bring them with me on retreat, if only to show off the pretty pretty marbled glass.
Next up...
Whee! One of Olfa's endurance blades! I'm using one of these in my rotary cutter right now so I can't really tell you how long they last. Plus I'm really, REALLY bad at keeping track of that. I only change my blade when things start going horribly awry--I'm not particularly proactive.
In any case, another very handy thing to bring on retreat!
So, after the excitement of the endurance blade, the next thing I pulled out was a bit of a head-scratcher.
This is an iron-on suede patch depiction of the house block that you'll see coming up later. It's 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" and it's suppose to commemorate the start of this box's new Sew Sampler Quilt Along. It says it "adds a striking finishing touch to any sewing project."
Pretty sure I'm not ironing a gray suede square onto the back of any of my sewing projects. This will sit on the side of my cutting table, making me scratch my head more, for some time until I finally just toss it, not having found any inspiration for it whatsoever.
Next out of the box is a three-piece acrylic template set that goes with the quilt pattern. The templates make the long rectangular flying geese block on the four sides of the four-patch in the picture.
I don't much care for working with templates but if I ever get the yen to do it, these are nice, sturdy templates and would be better than cutting them out myself.
And here's the quilt pattern that goes with the templates.
I'm not sure I'm in love with it, but I might like it better in other colors. I know it's all the rage in the modern quilting world, but I struggle to warm up to gray backgrounds. Now that I think of it, that statement is a bit of a pun, since I think gray backgrounds just feel cold. Get it? Warm up? Cold gray? Ar ar ar.
In any case, I've seen a few gray backgrounds I like but this one isn't doing it for me. I'm picturing this in different colors and the pattern still isn't jazzing me a whole lot. I'll hang onto it, though, as who knows--maybe someday it'll flip my switch. In my 20-odd years of quilting, I've gone through a whole lot of changing likes and dislikes. I'm a mercurial quilter. Yeah yeah, that's it. Mecurial sounds a whole lot better than fickle.
And here's the Sew Sampler sew-along block that goes with that strange little suede patch.
I've been having a yen lately to make a house block, so this design is partially appealing to me. Not 100%, but I could stand it for one block. I may do this.
Maybe I should bring it on retreat. It might make a nice in-between-larger-projects change of pace.
And here's the fabric they included in the box, suggested for the 54-40 quilt.
It's a half-roll (20 strips) of Palm Canyon Aruba, by Violet Craft for Robert Kaufmann Fabrics.
I do love the saturated yellow and turquoise of this collection. I'm debating just breaking it up into my overall stash collection, though, especially if I'm not a huge fan of the quilt pattern.
So that's it! A couple of very handy things, some things I may want to use in the future but not immediately, and a head-scratcher.
Overall, not a bad box!
This is getting posted Thursday morning when I'm heading to my home office for a conference call. As soon as that call is done, I'm in my car and heading to my quilt retreat! Whee!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram where I'll be posting regular updates. I'll do one summary post on this blog when I get home. Here's hoping for a productive weekend!