If you've been keeping up with the blocks, No. 78 is akin to entering the final turn on a racetrack.  You're more than halfway but not quite on the homestretch yet.

Seventy-eight Splendid Sampler blocks down, twenty-two to go.  Are you keeping up?  Do you know about the Splendid Sampler?

Instead of sending chocolate - a Whitman Sampler? - for Valentine's Day, Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson decided to do something a little more special, a little more splendid.  They launched the Splendid Sampler - 100 free blocks designed by their friends.  One hundred free blocks and then setting options.  There's going to be a book next year - filled with beautiful quilts made by some of the designers participating.

Just so you know, since the beginning, I've thought of this as Pat and Jane's Most Splendid Sampler Adventure.  It just fit.

The year started with this...

That was the first block - perfect for Valentine's Day!

As for me, I was asked to participate by making a block.  Something original-ish.  I started with a simple 6" Sawtooth Star block and then just started adding things to the basic parts.

I called it Jersey - after my Mom.  She was a New Jersey girl and she loved Sawtooth Star blocks.  She also liked doing things her own way.

As a sponsor of the Splendid Sampler, Moda Fabrics created to fat-sixteenth bundles for the designers - a Traditional-Reproduction bundle and a Modern-Retro-Bright bundle.  Depending on their preferred style, designers were sent one of the bundles.  A few got both.  My proximity to the Sample Room meant I was able to abscond with one of each.

The block above is the Traditional-Reproduction version.  It includes fabrics from Betsy Chutchian's Hope's Journey, Jan Patek's Garden House and Collection for a Cause - Mill Book 1889.

Strawberry Fields Revisited by Fig Tree & Co. and Little Miss Sunshine by Lella Boutique.

I made the first two blocks last January so they could be included in this super-cool book -

I hope you've been following along and collecting the block patterns but just in case you haven't, or you've missed a few, you'll be able to get everything when the book is published in April.

If you're collection, you can get the pattern for Jersey here!

When I made a Jersey block for this post, I used Pat's Sunday Drive collection.  The background is one of the gorgeous white batiks - it's really cool.  It mixes beautifully with the prints in the collection.

I wanted to show you the back of the block so you can see that I like pressing seams on small blocks open.  Not all of them but those that will make a difference in how the block lays.  I know some folks press every single seam open - including several good friends - but this is what works for me.

I also want to share the Prairie Sky Folded Corner Clipper - it helps with those connector corners.  If you've never used one, it's super-easy to do and it clips the corners so that all you have left is the scant 1/4" seam allowance.  Just stitch and flip - no lines to draw or "eyeball".

I've used other methods that let me square up the corners but on small pieces - like the 1 1/2" squares used in this block - this works really well.

That's all I can think of for today.

I hope you have a most Splendid Thursday!

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