Community Sampler Week #14!

It's Community Sampler sew-along Wednesday and we are so close to finishing our quilts!



For those of you that are new to my blog, Sharon Holland and I are co-hosting this block-of-the-week community sew-along, and you can visit my Community Sampler Page above in my tabs bar to retrieve all of the released PDF's so far to jump in anytime! We're so thrilled to have so many sewing with us once again!



Today's PDF for week fourteen is -- Borders. Last week we chose our background fabrics and set our blocks on-point into a quilt top. This week we' re making lots of flying geese, using the make-four-at-a-time method that we've used several times when making our blocks, and we're creating pretty little beads to border the inner quilt top with. This is an optional step, so please feel free to be as creative as you'd like! Once again this week, if you're in need of extra visuals for adding the borders to your sampler, be sure to visit Sharon's blog to see her helpful tips for adding these border pieces!



For my Community Sampler I used my Love Story fabrics collection, so my solid fabric choices have all been inspired by the colors in this collection. For my block setting I used AGF's Pure Element solid Grapefruit, and for my border fabrics I chose one Love Story print, Reflections of Love and three solid colors -- Sienna Brick for my inner border, Denim Blue for my flying geese units and Mediterraneo for my outer border frame.

Notice how nicely the Denim Blue PE solid matches my Flower Stamp Spell print, it's perfect!



This week, for me, the most time consuming part is the making of all the flying geese units, something I truly love making! I took my time to make mine throughout the very rainy day we had yesterday, so I unfortunately didn't get the best photos. It was so dark! I was also sewing from home for the first time since I settled into my new studio. My husband is working a bunch of twelve hour shifts the next two weeks, so it's much easier for me to bring my machine home and to bounce back and forth between sewing and being with the kids, house chores, etc...like the old days vs trying to carve out a chunk of time to have gotten this done at my studio. It's funny how odd it felt sewing from home. I've become so comfortable both with my new studio and with not doing "work" at home, which is a pretty nice realization!



You can see below how choosing the three solids look altogether. I think it's really pretty and I'm happy I decided to do something a little bit different than my original plan. I may even add another wide solid border to make my quilt just a bit larger. I'm still on the fence about that.



I wasn't able to get full shots just yet. It's much too rainy and wet out to have gotten shots this morning, but I hope to later this afternoon to add here and to share on my Instagram and Facebook. So stay tuned!



I'm excited to see what you all do for your own borders this week! As always, when you share on Instagram use the hashtag #CommunitySampler and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns and myself @maureencracknell so we can be sure to see your beautiful Community Samplers!

Using #CommunitySampler hashtag will also automatically enter you in the weekly IG Giveaway pool! Remember that your Instagram account does need to be a public account for your post to show up in the Instagram hashtag pool. But please don't worry, if you don't have Instagram or you'd like to keep your account private, we will also be hosting the same giveaway prize, alternately between Sharon's and my blog, so you can choose how and where to enter each week!



Be sure to check back here on Friday for more info on this week's Community Sampler Giveaway with our wonderful sponsor Art Gallery Fabrics!

xo Maureen