Samplers are my favorite. I love the stories behind each block. I am now getting ready to make a quilt with 48 - 12" blocks - 6 across x 8 down. I have 48 different blocks - all 48 I have never made before - each one has three colors - dark, medium and light - all in the same fabric design. I have Clara Barton Museum fabric in a dark teal and tan, a medium tea dyed tan and a light tan background with teeny little dark teal flowers. I got all my designs from Quilter's Cache - went through each and every 12" and picked out the ones that used only three different fabrics. I am hoping it will be awesome. I can see it in my head, but I am hoping for the same when I am done.
I just finished one that had all different star blocks, some having up to six different colors. I am getting ready for the quilting on that one!
I keep track of the blocks that I use and at the same time I learn and write down the meaning of the block. "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", "Cross and Crown", "Diamond Star" and how as they traveled from here to there the names of the blocks change. I would like to make a History Quilt and go as far back as I can in the US and make a quilt depicting important events and the treks by covered wagon from East to West and their hand quilting on bumpy roads. I would like to make a block from the Underground Railroad that tells the story of the route North from a clue in a block that is hanging from a fence rail.
The history of sampler quilts is so interesting because people literally put their soul into them, to remind them of where they came from and where they are going, friends they left behind and the what is there in the future. I made a memory quilt. It is all from one block, but each block tells a story. I wrote about each block and so someday after I have passed this mortal coil, there will be a history of me for my grandchildren and great grandchildren (I am not there yet - great grandchildren) to know about. What I was about, my parents, my sisters, our son, our grandchildren, Christmases, our dogs, our trips, where our families originated, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota and originally Germany, Sweden and Norway, my favorite tree (Gingko), the time I got snockered on Christmas Eve and played the organ at church for the Christmas Eve service - perfect!!!! It is all in the sampler, it is all in the book I wrote for each block. I pull it out open and Bess (see avatar) and I sit on it and I remember. Good memories, sad memories, but memories nonetheless.
I think everyone should make a memory quilt. Edie