#DYOSampler Quilt Along: Picking Blocks

This week, I’m happy to share with you the second part of my process for my sampler quilt – picking out the blocks I want to use. Remember that as part of the #DYOSampler quilt along, we’re designing everything ourselves, from the fabrics and size, all the way down to the layout and selection of the blocks.

Last week, I shared with you the layout I designed for my quilt. And this week, I’m sharing with you the blocks I decided to use in my design.  Before I started laying out my blocks, I took my scanned copy of my quilt pattern into Illustrator and traced the lines for the blocks, so that I would have a nice clean version to add the blocks on.

Once I had my nice clean version of the layout, I pulled it into Photoshop and filled in all of the blocks that would need to be one solid piece of fabric, using some color swatches that worked with my planned palette. Ok, they didn’t need to be one solid piece of fabric, but I’m refusing to piece anything finishing at 2 inches.

Then I started scouring the internet for block designs I wanted to use.  I started with the SewMamSew post on Favorite Quilt Blocks that was written for the quilt along, and went from there.

The Blocks

16-inch  & 4-inch blocks:

I decided that my 16-inch blocks would be focus blocks featuring fabric from my communique panel.  I then decided that the 4-inch blocks would work best as solids, or minimally pieced blocks made from bits of the panel print.

12-inch blocks:

The 12-inch blocks all came from the recommended block tutorials on the SewMamaSew site.

• Double Churn Dash
• Honeycomb Block
• New England
• Ohio Star in Star

These blocks all came from Quilt Blocks Galore. It’s one of the hardest sites to navigate in the world, but they do offer blocks arranged by size, which helps when you’re designing a sampler style quilt.

10-inch blocks:

• Alaska
• Baton Rouge
• Colored Wheel
• Farmer’s Daughter

8-inch blocks:

• American Charmer
• Braided Star
• Broken Path
• Cabbage Rose
• Compass Star
• I’ll Take Hither
• Old Favorite
• Pineapple
• Shooting Squares
• Thousand Pyramids
• Windmill #2

6-inch blocks:

• Arabic Lattice
• Atlantic Seas
• Aunt Sukey’s Choice
• Churn Dash
• Crazy Amish
• Economy Block
• Fiddler’s Jig
• Forest Paths
• Fox and Geese
• Houndstooth
• Interlocked Squares
• Invitation to the Devil
• Lucky Star
• No Name
• Ohio Star
• Patchwork Wheel
• Rolling Stone
• Three Little Birds
• Vertigo
• Wedding Rings

So, after adding in all of those blocks, here’s what my quilt template looks like:

I can’t wait to see what this quilt looks like in real life. I think that the limited palette I plan to use will really pull it together. What do you think?