Sampler Spree fun with a rainbow of fabric squares

Last week I cut a rainbow of 3 3/4″ squares using fabric from each of my scrap bins. I was preparing for a project I’m doing with my daughter’s 5th grade class (she’s the teacher) involving hexagons and tessellating shapes. I’ll give you the full report on that later next week. Anyways, it turns out that 2 1/2″ squares will work better, but I didn’t want to trim the previously cut squares. Too much work and who wants to waste fabric? I had a bunch of mini charm packs that were perfect and 5″ charm packs that were easily cut into 2 1/2″ squares. One problem solved!

Now I had all of these beautiful 3 3/4″ squares just staring at me and wondering what to do with themselves. The perfect answer was found in Sampler Spree, 100 Fresh & Fun Quilt Blocks by Susan Ache. I just purchased this book last week at my local quilt shop and it’s full of the cutest 6″ (finished) quilt blocks. Susan sprinkles her own scrap fabric wisdom throughout the pages and it’s just full of tips and inspiration.

I skimmed through all of the blocks and found that roughly 70 of them could be made using my fabric squares (after cutting to the required sizes). A rainbow of sampler blocks are in my future friends!

I just finished my first block today. I’m picking blocks randomly and I chose to start with Dandy, #25, and the color blue. Isn’t that fussy cut butterfly adorable?

I recently started using a Tailor’s Clapper when pressing seams. If you want a thorough education on how a tailor’s clapper works, check out this excellent blog post at Suzy Quilts. Combined with a wool pressing mat, this makes my seams lay really flat. This is especially helpful with small piecing! The size of my wool pressing mat is approximately 14″ x 19″ which is versatile and works great for me.

I know this will turn into a long term project and something I can look forward to in between my other big quilting “jobs”. If you’re interested, Moda is hosting a Summer Spree quilt along this summer using the book, Sampler Spree. Every week, a new color and block assignment will be given. You just have to raid your stash and then follow the instructions in the book. I guess I’m already ahead!

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That’s all for now. I’m looking forward to a long Memorial Day weekend at home. We have one graduation party to go to, but that’s it. I have some gardening to do and look forward to making some more 6″ rainbow quilt blocks.

Thanks for visiting today. I hope you have a wonderful day!