I sewed this quilt top about 3 years ago. It’s a pattern that was designed by Johanna Masko and sadly it doesn’t seem to be available any more. It’s a sampler quilt with so much personality and I definitely would enjoy making another one someday!
So why did it take me three years to finish? Because I chose to hand quilt it, and in a fairly dense Baptist Fan design. So in between other projects that took precedence, it simply took me a long time to finish!
I used a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton for the border that is one of my all time favorite fabrics but now loooong unavailable. So I look at that border nicely quilted into the quilt and think, ‘yes, you are lovely in this quilt, buy WHY did I use you all up in this border when you’re my favorite green fabric and now you’re gone!’.
Oh well, the joys of finding the right fabric. It seems I’m always realizing how much I love a fabric just about the time the fabric company has decided to discontinue it. And I usually say that there will always be more beautiful fabric… but there’s still some colors and designs that are just perfect and there’s nothing to take their place!
But anyways, back to the quilt. I used a combo of two cotton florals for the back. And the binding is plaid in a dusty blue that I think is just so pretty together with all the other colors.
Also, I can’t remember if I mentioned it here? I’ve decided that I want to put more time and intention into my labels, so here goes for this quilt! I have this piece of fabric that had all these labels printed on it with vintage florals. They are blank labels, so I cut one out and hand embroidered the ‘Sampler 2024’ on it.
Not sure what else to say about this quilt. I’ve decided to sell it, so it’s available in my shop, together with a few others that I listed.
What a beautiful quilt! I’m sure with all the time involved, it will be hard to part with. I think samplers are always fun to make. I thought shot cottons still were around. What color is that? Or do you mean that particular color is gone? A wonderful finish!
Beautiful!
I love this quilt! The colors are so lovely and warm. I can see why you’re sad the green shot cotton is discontinued.
Oh yet another beauty! I’m excited – waiting for your book to arrive. Just love the warmth your quilts reflect. Thanks so much for sharing.
Jolene- received and cracked open my Year of Quilts book and feel so loved and affirmed about my “quilting style”. Oh thank you, I have long followed your blog and this book is beautiful! The photos are inspiring.
You’ve refreshed my quilting soul!!
Xo
Julie
I love this quilt and your fabric choices. I would be honored to win this quilt especially that you hand quilted it. Thanks for the chance.
What a beautiful quilt – flowers, baskets and cheddar fabric included. I would treasure this quilt but don’t really need as I have many unmade quilts in my mind that will take up space in my home. I hope it finds a happy owner. Looking forward to your next book.
Such a beautiful quilt. How I wish I could find the pattern.
Hello Jolene,
I find your quilts have a special quality and it is your particular and remarkable talent. You make quilts that everyone finds they would love to have to snuggle under, You make quilts that so many of us wish we could make. You have the talent to make quilts in a style that is immediately recognisable as yours. Your eclectic designs, combinations of colours and fabrics exude warmth. Then when one adds your talent in writing about your quilts there is the added touch of magic. It is that feeling that makes each of your admirers wish they could have one of your quilts in their home. I am one of these many people. You bring us joy. Thank you Jolene for the pleasure you provide in your blogs and now your book. Well done.
Diana
Lovely quilts!! I would love to win one. I’m a novice quilter. hopefully someday I will make beautiful quilts like yours đź’—đź’—
This quilt gives me all the warm feels, the colours, the pattern, the fabric choices and the label.
Just beautiful! What a treasure it would be to own one of your quilts. Always full of colors, yet soft to the eye. To me they always appear to be just as soft and snuggly to the touch. Perfect.
this is a beautiful quilt. I would love to be the lucky person to recieve such a beautiful handmade quilt. I ve had a lot of changes in my life in the last year. my husband has been in a nursing home for over 3 years, can’t walk, had a stroke on January 20 which affected his speech and also the 30th anniversary of our oldest son’s death. I lost my best friend of 50 years in December, the church I attended for 70 years was closed down, my neighbor of 40 years moved out state. on top of all this my children want me to move. they say it’s not safe where I live, been in this house 51 years. so many changes. I believe that’s why the sampler quilt caught my eye. It reminds me of my life now all the different blocks. thank you for listening to me and considering me for this special. beautiful quilt.
I’m a guy. I’m a 5th generation Iowan and I suspect when the first branches of my family arrived here in the 1833, weaving was more popular than quilting. As the Industrial Revolution exploded, making the cost of manufacturing finished cotton cloth within reach of the average citizen – including those living along the Mississippi River in Iowa, my people, Somewhere along the line, quilting was integrated into the culture of our family and the needle arts were held in high regard,
Fast forward to the 1960s and 1970s when I hung out on my grandparent’s farm for weekends and longer yet during the summer. As a little guy I have vivid memories of my Grandmother sewing quilts on her treadle Franklin sewing machine, in a sunny upstairs bedroom she had claimed as her “sewing room”. Like the house she lived in, the Franklin sewing machine was purchased from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog shortly after her marriage in 1914 and delivered the the local train station. I can still see that room, filled with fabric and a quilting frame. If my Mother and her sisters were around, they would all grab needles and thimbles to help finish the quilts. Being the youngest grandchild I was present for these “gab fests” as my Grandfather would refer to them. I took naps on the day bed and sorted buttons and put matching buttons on strings, I loved looking at the patterns and the feel of different materials. I thought it was fun! With additional life experience it may have been to shut me up and my incessant questions borne out of sheer curiosity.
The decades went by, my grandparents and their generation passed. Future generations were born, educated and often, left the state. My Mother, of all her siblings was designated as the “link to future generations.” Upon her retirement, she returned to quilting with a splash, much as her mother before her had. So did her sister and they belonged to the same quilt guild. There could not have been two more opposite, beautiful, strong and independent women, My Aunt’s quilts were in soft colors and she would push the envelope on challenging herself and does so to this day at the age of 94. My Mother’s sewing was different. Unlike my Aunt, she had four children and a busy household for years and her sewing, by necessity, was practical and pragmatic. Retirements was different – her pent up creativity exploded and her output stunned us all. Quilts, wall hangings, Christmas tree stockings, tree skirts, ornaments and more. We got used to it and I am embarrassed to say, took her creativity for granted.
My Mother, also the youngest of her generation, was a free spirit and quickly grew tired of patterns, rules, color wheels and being constrained. She refused to participate and her work began to show it. We started to notice “critters” showing up such as embroidered spiders and bats with beaded eyes in a Halloween wall hanging; a black bear she and my niece had viewed from the living room window together, etc,,, She would alternate patterns (much to her sister’s horror), create works of her own and freely blend the needle arts in her quilts. My favorite, known as “Hildy’s Heaven” consists of multiple packs of cross stitched seed packets that reminded her of her childhood and incorporating those blocks into a quilt of her own design.
We lost Mom in 2019 due to memory loss. Even when she could no longer speak, she would point to the walls in her room where we had covered every inch with wall hangings and placed one of her prized album quilts on her bed, It has taken some time, but in order to honor my mother, I am working on a compendium of her life and works. Her output was extraordinary and I felt it should be captured in some way… to be a link to future generations.
As I’ve studied her life, I felt I needed to have a better understanding of her youth and growing up as a child of the Great Depression. There are amazing videos available from the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, NE and my 94 year old Aunt has been an invaluable source of history and the experiences she and my Mom shared throughout their lifetime.
Sharing my Mother’s history is good, but still doesn’t totally get at passing the link to future generations. It means that I need to start providing quilts to loved ones as she once did, Most members of my family have a reverence for, enjoy and understand the work (and love) that can go into a quilt. My start was buying at a farm auction a “Sunbonnet Sue” quilt top at a farm at an auction and a second “Sunbonnet Sue/Suspender Sam” at a local estate sale. With the guidance of my Aunt and the wonderful women who work at a local quilt shop, I got my act together and they long-armed the two quilts that were given as Christmas gifts to my two great grand nieces, both born in 2023. The “link” now feels more pragmatic.
Why am I asking for this quilt? I do not sew and regret I did not fully understand the craft until my Mothers final years when she was no longer able to sew, My “thing” is history and I began to understand I could combine the two and how world events impacted the needle arts in my family, My intent this year is to hire a tutor to get me started sewing 1:1 which will allow me to “Rescue” works of art that women decades and generations before me began, The quilts and these women’s art deserve to come out of drawers and closet’s and into the light as a finished works, My Aunt has given me a 101, but it is clear I do not have her years of experience, The Brother sewing machine I own terrifies me and I’m going to need to conquer my fear, Therefore, I’m looking for an inspiration quilt/community to help me, The quilt I can study in moments of frustration; one that reminds me of many of the warm colors my Mother used and one that also encourages me to continue finding my own creativity and joy, The quilting community I would like to use as mentors, cheerleaders and teachers.
Thanks for taking the time to read my windy request!
Your God’s gift of quilting is beautiful, not everyone could or would want to sit down to create such a masterpiece. My GrandMa made quilts with a peddle sewing machine out of necessity, but she always put love into them. My Mother would take me to the local Belk Store and I would get to pick out patterns and material for my summer clothes, then as I got older Mother taught me to sew my own clothes. Mother decided to make quilts for awhile and gifted them. She passed away recently and as we are sorting out 58 years of living in one house I found boxes of material with a few quilt pieces here and there. These hidden treasures have me thinking about quilting as my GrandMa and Mother did years ago.
I think when you are familiar about all the work that goes into making a quilt it makes you appreciate the time, effort, and apart of the person who made the quilt that goes into it. I would be honored to receive your beautiful artwork. Thank you
I no longer have friends that quilt with me after one moved away and another has passed on. I love the fact this lovely quilt sampler was hand quilted. Whomever you decide to gift this quilt to will feel special because of the time and care you took to create it. I don’t think I will receive a quilt made by another woman after the loss of my friends. I am starting a new stage of my life right now. Hopefully, I will get the chance to make myself a quilt just as lovely. Blessings, and sew on!
Your quilt is beautiful and you have a very creative eye…I have only done one, that was cross stitched top,from Maryann Maxim kit..I made for my daughter 56 years ago…I knit all the time. on Facebook Patsy traveling sweaters, they are fun too…You are a true artist..
Hi! I’m Angel from North Carolina. I happened to stumble across this page right before my morning Bible study. As I went to use google, your link was on my home page! I’m 34. Moved out at 17 because we got pregnant, married 2 months later and had our daughter three weeks before I turned 18. Then at 19 we had our son. I’ve never been a Jesus follower. We moved around a little, tried to live a good life on our own, raising our kids with manners and respect, and I was purposely pushing away any thoughts of “Godly things”. In 2018 I chose to leave my husband. I wanted to live a partying lifestyle, at the beach and date someone I had met at a bar… yet I still wanted to be a loving mother. Well, my daughter ended up staying with me full-time after some time because she turned to alcohol and drugs which lead to anger, sex and witchcraft. Long story short; my choices of dating and drinking left me homeless and with cirrhosis of the liver and an out of control young teen. I was almost bald by the end of 2021, fluid leaking from my head to toe, bleeding out of my mouth, eyes, nose, bottom, eye lids… I was gross but I kept drinking. Finally got in my first doctors appointment on March 7, 2022. There I was told I was in my last stage of cirrhosis, my body was shutting down and it was time to make preparations. I was told I was in my last days and needed to make peace with people. I waited too late. And the only hope would be (IF I could live), to stay completely sober for six months so I could have a liver transplant. As tears started to swell (and I didn’t want doc to see me crying because I was too “hard” for that), I looked out the window and as tears flowed and I started to pray for the first time in a long time- not even knowing how to pray, my husband was walking through the parking lot. He was there for me. After everything. He showed up to my appointment. I walked out that day and haven’t drank a drop since. Within three weeks, the four of us moved back into our first home together (an old farmhouse). The man that owns it, told my husband to bring our family home and all he asked was for us to come to his church every Sunday. Well, guess what?! “My” way didn’t work! Living on my own didn’t work. My stubborn wayward ways, almost cost me my life. It definitely caused me and my kids and husband a lot of heartache. But let me just tell you that I hit lower than rock bottom but *He pulled me out that day, March 7th. And all it took was a mustard seed size of faith. My daughter got baptized in the fall and by December 2022 (after all kinds of procedures) my liver was completely healed. My husband, son and I were baptized together last year. We are unapologetic Jesus lovers. He did what only He could. And our family is proof! With that being said, I picked up quilting classes last year with my sisters at church and I LOVE it! After having to tell my kids I was sorry for my actions and life choices leading me to death, crying so hard telling them to never tell their children about me because I was a mess-up. God healed me, forgave me and cleansed me. Of course I’m going to take quilting classes and make my children and future grandchildren- prayer filled quilts!!! My daughter will be 17 on March 23rd and is a leader in the FCA at her school and spreading His love and word. And my son is 14, six foot, 250lbs. Loves his family, the gym and Jesus most of all. It’s been a journey for sure. But for two years now, for the first time, I’m truly living and loving. And quilting is now part of my journey!! I love your sampler quilt! I’m so glad I came across your page!! ”May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.“
â€â€Numbers‬ â€6‬:â€24‬-â€26‬ â€đź•Šď¸Ź
What patience that took to make such a beauty, I don’t think I could do it. I have a king size quilt all hand stitched by the Amish that my husband got me for our anniversary. I love it, they took 6 months to put it together, but I know it wasn’t just one person. Kudos to you for all your hard work. What a treasure!
what a beautiful quilt! I have never attempted to quilt but have a love for them. The creative minds of those who are gifted with the talents to make these amazing fabric pieces of usable art have my utmost respect. The colors show me the love of colors used in amazing designs to make useful items never cease to amaze me. You learn a lot from people who are talented enough to quilt. I never tire of going to quilt shows. Any gifted quilt you give someone is a treasure. You are blessed with an amazing talent!
Jolene, this Sampler quilt is all you, your color combination, your style. I read your blog regularly and tried to make one of your quilts but I failed. I think it is hard to copy you! Thank You Jolene!