In the spring/summer of 2017 I joined (probably) thousands of other quilters around the world and made 100 blocks in 100 days. We used Tula Pink's City Sampler book for our block patterns. I shared 1/2 my blocks 1/2 way through the project here.
It was fun participating and finishing all my blocks on schedule.
All my fabrics are from Carolyn Friedlander collections. The online support and encouragement was quite something. One follower even offered to share some Carolyn Friedlander fabric from her stash. I declined at first but later thought better. I offered to trade her for something she was in need of. New fabric added new life to the project. Bonus - it's fun to have a special friend I haven't met yet!
I had no plan for arranging my blocks when starting the sew along. Tula's book offers several different options for finishing. I figured if I used all Carolyn Friedlander fabrics, they would all go together, and I'd fit them into one of the designs with no problem.
That would have worked except along the way, while trying to choose a background fabric, I noticed that certain blocks would just sing on some colors and not so much on others. I couldn't narrow my background down to just one or two colors. So I made this my own way. I bordered each block individually. About a week after making this decision Carolyn posted her new Wainwright quilt. It made me think she'd approve of my decision.
I could write a book here telling you all the ways I considered arranging my blocks but that would be a waste of time. Ultimately, I put them in order 1 to 100. Seeing that Wainwright quilt made this decision easy. (Actually the quilt is 9 blocks wide by 11 blocks long so I left one block out. I think #7. I'll use it for something else, eventually.)
I quilted this row by row with an organic grid. Organic meaning no rulers so nothing is exactly straight. I started with vertical and horizontal lines block by block but it got extremely boring. Sometimes when 2 of the same color bordered blocks are together the quilting runs 2 blocks. Sometimes it doesn't because it was blending too much with the row above it. So kind of random, kind of not.
The binding is 1/2 inch single fold. It's my favorite. The backing is Carolyn's 108"wide crosshatch print.
Lorna, if you're reading this far, I used your link and ordered labels. Do you like them?
Finished size is 73" by 89"
Batting is Warm and White
Piecing thread is Aurifil 2021 50wt
Quilted with Omni thread in Natural White.
I'll link this up with Let's Bee Social.
I'm really missing the Finish it Up Friday links and I'm wondering, what are your favorite links?
Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful week.
