This edition is all about quilting Penny Sampler quilts! Lucky me, I’ve been invited to quilt several amazing Penny Samplers. Of course, each one is different - with different blocks and different themes. Still, there have enough in common that I’m surely learning and improving. It’s been a fun opportunity!

Penny Sampler by Yvonne @PapierWerkStatt

Yvonne’s Penny Sampler is Dutch-themed, with liberal use of a navy/white tulip print and the Dutch-themed blocks like Bicycle, Neighborhood, Windmill and Bridges. In lieu of the Hanging Diamonds left-side border, she repeated one of her favorite sampler blocks and worked in a Penny Bird too. Yvonne’s quilt has a focused color scheme of mainly blue, red and yellow, with a sprinkling of other colors.

Yvonne asked for tulips as a quilting theme, which makes total sense for a Dutch-inspired quilt. Oddly, I actually hadn’t used any tulips for my own custom-quilted Penny Sampler, as I didn’t realize I had any really good patterns. Thus, her request sent me on a search, and I’m glad, because it yielded great results!

I found this circular tulip motif for the Compass block.

Plus, the edge-to-edge tulip pattern that I quilted over the navy fabrics at right, as well as in other areas of the quilt.

But I was the most excited about a new border floral that I happened upon. Check out the flowers quilted over the Penny Squares at the top of the quilt. It’s so soft and dreamy. Love!

I always love quilting the Windmill block with a burst of straight lines. It really draws attention to the block and gives the windmill blades a bit of life!

Penny Sampler by Gaby @WelliPatchwork

The next Penny Sampler to come my way was this beauty sewn by Gaby. Hers is an even more focused palette of blues and red. The different shades of blue give it depth, and make perfect sense with the nautical fabrics.

I asked Gaby to share some favorite blocks and quilting motif ideas with me and then explored the quilting design from there. I repeated certain elements from quilting pervious Penny Samplers that worked particularly well and also tried new things as inspired by her quilt.

Many of my choices were prompted by her fabrics. For example, the Ribbon Square block floating in solid aqua has a fishy print background. I thought swirly watery quilting would compliment nicely. Scattered over her quilt are several plain squares in nautical fabrics. These I often quilted with a sailboat motif. And the almost-plain-white squares above Neighborhood? Those wanted to be clouds!

I even found a starfish motif to quilt in the seashore square beside Penny Bird. Obviously, I had a good time with it!

Penny Sampler by Eva-Marie @ZusJeb

When I opened the box containing this Penny Sampler, the colors immediately made me smile. Eva-Marie’s quilt feels like a spring carnival, with playful fabrics, cheery colors and whimsical combinations.

This time I was asked to do all-over quilting and, if I remember correctly, Eva-Marie suggested Baptist fan quilting. Brilliant choice! It has a subtle directionality that compliments this directional quilt and a soothing structure. I thought you would like to see that you don’t have to go custom to make a sampler quilt shine!

Thanks for letting me be a part of your Penny Sampler stories, ladies!

Would you like help finishing your project? I am taking orders now for quilting that will be completed in March at my new address. Please be in touch if you have any questions or start the process off by placing your order. I can’t wait to see YOUR quilt!