Biblical Quilt Saturday Sampler 2006 at Gathering Fabrics

Yesterday I completed the quilting for a quilt I started in 2006. This is a Saturday Sampler that mom and I have signed up for every year(minus the first year for mom) since the shop opened. Each month we get the fabric for one block. This has been a great class for me, I have learned lots of new techniques and the color palettes are ones I would not normally pick. So it moves me out of my comfort zone which is necessary to grow as a quilter. For the most part I have been able to keep up with the piecing of the blocks, then when I have the urge to finish a quilt, I have a project all ready to go. Now that I have the machine, I have been using these samplers as practice pieces.

This is the 2006 Sampler from the book More Biblical Quilt Blocks. I was overzealous that year and made 2 blocks each month, one from the shop fabric and one from my stash. So this one is actually the 'extra' and the one on the design wall to the right is the shop blocks. I also did this the year before and the extra one mom and I merged our blocks, pieced together and it went to the Domestic Violence shelter for raffle or auction.

I picked a panto called Alpine flower for this quilt, it is a simple panto, but it looks nice and elegant on this quilt. They just fit together well. I matched the thread to the back, it is a brown thread that I thought would blend more on the top, but I was pleased that it didn't because you can see the quilting on the front. The quilting really disappears on the back.

Here is the whole quilt....
Detail of quilting....

Quilting....

Closer look at the piecing....

The kids wanted a picture of them with the quilt....

Claire said I should take a picture of the back, a good idea, it is a beautiful floral....

I am practicing a new panto for a baby quilt that I will be quilting this week. New Year's Eve I oiled my machine, greased all the gears, cleaned the table, tracks, tidied the room and organized projects. She is running smoothly and is all set for 2010! The domestic machine is at the shop for it's own spa day. Happy 2010, back to quilting!