DYO Sampler

I have quite a bit to catch up to in documenting 2019 quilt finishes.  Here's one of my favorites that was started over five years ago:

The DYO sampler!  It's a hodgepodge of techniques, blocks, and colors.  I still can't believe it's finally done.  I was constantly annoyed with all the different pieces of this quilt that would be lying all around my sewing room (it was started in CO and followed me back to New England, unfinished!).  

But here she is in her finished glory!  Yay!  I love it.  I also love that my kids love it.  Making something that ALL my kids want to claim can be rare- so that's been fun.  

Most of the elements of this quilt were completed years ago, the work I did on this quilt in 2019 was just putting it all together.  I had to do things like: applique the EPP hexagon flowers to a background after sewing them together in a line, add "filler" patchwork- like all the 2.5" squares you can see in the top- all made from scraps!, and I made the wonky patchwork forest trees for the bottom right.  Love it!

Ages ago, in anticipation of finishing this, I bought all sorts of colors of longarm thread: turquoise, chocolate brown, and green.  But I finally realized that this top is SO busy and doesn't need all that custom quilting with tone on tone quilting.  I decided to do an all over spiral with grey thread and it worked out great and was much quicker than the custom quilting approach I had been planning.  Now I am not sure what I will do with a huge spool of chocolate brown longarm thread!   

That stag!  It was days of foundational paper piecing.  If I had to do it over again, I definitely would have picked fabrics with more contrast (more darks, mediums....) but I am still very proud of it and I know it's one of the key highlights of this quilt.

The choice of the phrase "Live Free or Die" relates to my love for NH (state motto), the fact that it's succinct and was only 13 letters, and I think it's kind of funny- so passionate!  So clear!  So New England!

I backed this quilt in stuff from my stash- my surplus of stash backing fabrics is ridiculous.  I constantly find good deals on fabric and justify my indulgence by saying it will be for a backing.  It felt good to use up some of these oldies here:

Thanks for reading!