Dust Off a Book Blog Hop

March 3, 2025

I buy a lot of books in auction lots, which means I don’t even look at each one before taking them home. So I was glad to sign up for the Dust Off a Book blog hop from Beaquilter, and take some time to dive deep into one book.

The one I selected was Making a Sampler Quilt by Lynne Edwards, Reader’s Digest Books, 1996. I have been quilting as a hobby since 2000, and in all that time, I have used mostly squares and rectangles in my quilts. I thought it was time to branch out and improve my skills with other shapes!

Making a Sampler Quilt, Reader’s Digest Books, 1996

This book is really lovely because 1) it is aimed at beginners and 2) it alternates between hand- and machine-stitched techniques. It includes simple strip piecing, hand applique, Hawaiian quilting, curved piecing, flying geese, and many more techniques, for 19 in all. The techniques are not all ones that I myself would choose to teach a beginner, but the directions for each block are very detailed, averaging 5 pages of instructions for each one.

Every chapter also features a finished quilt made by one of Lynne’s students, so you can see the blocks in different arrangements and colorways. There are plenty of blocks that I didn’t think appealed to me, until I saw one of the student interpretations. The pink and gray sampler below is one I found especially interesting.

A finished sampler quilt by Dot Sidgwick.

I decided to make just a few of the blocks, using beautiful Asian-themed fabrics that I have collected over years, but never allowed myself to use.

Asian-inspired fabrics.

I didn’t follow all the instructions in this book religiously, I used it more as a jumping off point — if, after reading Lynne’s directions, I remembered seeing a short-cut version of the technique, I looked for the short cut in other books and YouTube videos.

The blocks that I made strictly by the book’s instructions were Card Trick, Wild Goose Chase, and Triangles. Each block took me over 2 hours. They turned out fine but I didn’t love them, mostly because I felt like I had to pay too much attention to which little piece went where, and I had to constantly trim the block components before joining them.

Card Trick block.

Wild Goose Chase block.

I made the Triangles block twice, one time following the author’s suggestion to draw guide lines on the back of large pieces of fabric, then stitching, then cutting the half-square-triangles apart. All my little squares came out different sizes and I had to do a lot of trimming. So I did it again, using foundation paper to mark the stitch lines, but the results were not much better.

Book’s method of marking and stitching multiple half-square triangles.

Block made from half-square triangles.

Block made from half-square triangles and squares. I wanted to make the most of some of this large-scale design without cutting it up!

Then there were the blocks that I saw in the book, but found more helpful tutorials on YouTube.

First was Dresden Plate. The pattern as shown in the book, had two templates, for both curved and pointed segments. The directions called for them to be needle-turned and hand-appliqued. Nope!

Dresden Plate, as shown in the book, in those 80s pastels.

Fortunately, I remembered that Eleanor Burns has a quick and easy version, and while I was hunting for template plastic, I found I already owned Eleanor’s acrylic template! It had been in an auction box.

I loved making this block! You can chain-piece all the little segments, there is minimal pressing involved, and extreme precision is not a requirement! I fussy cut and fused the large center (it looks like a sunflower head), small flowers, and butterflies. I used some metallic copper thread to blanket stitch all the petals.

Dresden Plate — machine-stitched, fused, blanket stitched with metallic copper thread.

Back to the book to try its directions for making Drunkard’s Path. I bravely tried stitching curves, and that lasted for about a minute. Then I found this great tutorial, that uses fusible webbing, from Elizabeth Epida!

This block again has everything I love –more impact than effort! I made two to look at different arrangements.

Drunkard’s Path Block.

My second Drunkard’s Path block. I used a large circle in the middle, again to showcase the fabric design.

So, so far I have 8 blocks. I think I will make a few more and then combine them into a wall quilt. I am going to keep this book a while longer because there are more blocks I want to try.

My sampler blocks, 2025.

I am so glad I participated in this blog hop. As I worked on the blocks for a few hours each day over the last month, I felt like I was giving myself a quilting retreat! I wasn’t rushing to finish anything, just taking the time to learn, and treating myself to beautiful fabrics and threads.

So thank you to Bea for hosting! I am looking forward to visiting the other participants to see what books they dusted off, and I hope you visit them too!

March 3

March 4

March 5

March 6