> Home > Back To Newsletters Page

April 2022: ORPHANS

We set this month's theme because we see so many students with little boxes and baskets of "odds and ends" - leftovers from workshops, ideas that didn't quite work, "I don't want to make 360 of these" blocks and the like. In the days when I did workshops with outside teachers I would almost always make all the samples from a limited colour palette (red, white, and black!), knowing that these would never go to waste. And, always, always, please, use Good Fabrics. It's impossible to learn with nasty old fabrics...

So, if there's a box of oddments which seem like they need a home, why not make a Sampler Quilt of some kind? Personally, I really dislike formal samplers as a breed. They are either much too disparate (start with a nine-patch, finish with a Baltimore) or all the blocks are too much alike, at which point it's not quite a sampler... My own Modern Jazz is an exception, of course, as it depends largely on your style taking over from mine, and the blocks are All Different Sizes!

I've tried to find interesting and inspiring online versions of the Sampler - there are lots and lots of designers making multi-sized blocks into the most exciting and interesting and delightful quilts, and perhaps you can be driven to add your own particular efforts into an existing pattern. The most obvious of these designers is Jen Kingwell, whose "Gypsy Wife" has been around for a while. I have put a good few variations of this and her other designs into this month's Pinterest page, which is called Orphanage

I have also made an Inspirations page, called Orphans, about fitting blocks together - there are various methods of making the most of oddments, and I have been known to use them all from time to time.

All this in the interests of Not Being Wasteful, and Not Having a Drawer Full Of Oddments

Helen Howes and AitchBee

Contact us direct on newsletter@modernartquilters.co.uk

HEADER IMAGE: MODERN SAMPLER QUILT designed and made by Helen Howes and AitchBee


RAGTIME: IMPROV Block of the Month with Helen Howes has now started - sign up at any time and begin with month one
NEW PERSPECTIVES The latest Block of the Month by AitchBee, being launched soon - watch this space for more details


Jess of ELVEN QUILTS has created a fairly formal Modern Sampler with a group of quite different odds and orphans - this is a good example of putting together a group of otherwise unrelated blocks in a limited colour palette. You can imagine that these might have been made at a whole series of classes and workshops, but by using just two or three colours and including a common colour in all the blocks (in this case white) they go together very harmoniously. Any of these blocks that didn't quite measure up to Jess's underlying grid structure could be extended with addition of a strip or two of her base colour.
American fabric retailer BLOOMERIE have fantastic modern quilt fabrics and patterns so I was surprised to see in this article a much more formal, and indeed quite traditional way of setting regular sized blocks: with sashing strips and corner stones. It does, however, show an excellent example of the limited colour palette holding the different blocks together and any blocks shy of the finished size can be extended to fit.
In her blog, CUPCAKES & DAISIES, Thelma has an article called Long Time Gone which is singularly appropriate. It shows her excellent, step-by-step, process for uniting all these oddments looking for a home. Here we see a wildly different set of colours, scales and patterns, but Thelma really pulls it off with the addition of just some small pieced strips to pad out a shortfall here and there. It is also a great example of building your project up in sections.
This is a truly Modern sample quilt - STATE FAIR by Leila Gardunia - run as a block of the month a few years ago and based on an underlying grid pattern. Do scroll through the many images for fantastic colour inspiration - the quilt designs and layouts are identical, but the maker's have imposed their personal colour choices to great effect.
I (Helen Howes) am travelling to the West Country in May for a round of teaching and talks, then to West Wales and home across the Midlands - if you would like to add a class or a talk into my schedule please email me (helen@helenhowestextiles.co.uk) to discuss - this will, of course, save you a huge amount in mileage! I have a class page linked from the image, and new examples almost ready to go!
We are regular visitors to Cath's blog, WOMBAT QUILTS, and you may remember us delighting over her Modern designs as well as her extensive portfolio of free foundation paper pieced designs (go and have a look!) This quilt is billed as a Modern Sampler, but we are not sure if it qualifies, but then no-one is ever quite sure where Modern starts and finishes - least of all us. On one hand the setting is very traditional (regular sized blocks with sashings in between) and some of the blocks are traditional... but some aren't. The choice of fabrics and colours is Modern. Oh, it's all too complicated - we'll leave it up to you to decide. We like it anyway!
This fun, and most definitely Modern, quilt is by Rachel Hauser of STITCHED IN COLOUR and is called, unsurprisingly, the Dutch Penny Sampler. I love Rachel's mixture of geometric and pictorial blocks (foundation paper pieced mostly) and the way she jigsaws together blocks of differing sizes and shapes. The soft blues and greens in this quilt are really brought to life by those occasional flashes of hot colour. Rachel makes a whole series of these 'Penny' sampler designs - follow the links on her site for more inspirations and patterns.
Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson work together to produce a series of quilt designs called THE SPLENDID SAMPLERS. This link will take you to a gallery full of amazing images from people who have made this quilt which, fair enough, has all the blocks the same size. What it shows magnificently is the varied and ingenious ways different people have set the blocks once they have made them: straight, on point, in crosses, as hearts, in half-square-triangles and the list goes on. We particularly like the ones with the drop-shadow surround. Mmmmm, food for thought...
This amazing charity quilt was made by a group in the USA lead by Melanie Traylor of SOUTHERN CHARM QUILTS, her brief to the group was that they could choose and send whatever block they wanted as long as it was 12.5 inches square unfinished and was in jewel toned colours. Melanie is obviously surrounded by a group of very talented Modern quilters to produce sixteen blocks of such complexity.
Brita Nelson's style swings from staunchly traditional to playfully modern and her optical illusion quilts are eye-wateringly clever. This is Brita's MAKING MAGIC - Disappearing Block Sampler Quilt. I must stop looking at this and trying to work them all out, and go and get on with some work!




This has got to be one of my all time favourite sampler quilts: GYPSY WIFE by Jen Kingwell. I have seen countless versions of it, and am rather drawn towards this sort of limited palette version of it - there is a stunning version in black & white too. When Jen first published this pattern in 2012 (yes, ten years ago!) I don't think anything quite like it had hit the market before. You can find more images like this on our PINTEREST board for April entitled: Orphanage.
This month HH has written a new INSPIRATIONS Page entitled Orphans Rehomed, in the hope that it will encourage you to get those odd blocks together and make something of them. Not everything has to be a bed quilt - make tote bags, pencil cases, pot holders... At this rate you will have all your Christmas presents made before the Summer!


We have been refreshing the Special Offers page - do take a look!
Our mailing address is:-
4, The Raveningham Centre, Beccles Road, Raveningham, Norfolk, NR14 6NU. United Kingdom