A sampler quilt is a little bit of everything, one block at a time, each one a small experiment in color. Stitched Across the Land is the Chic Quilter collection that treats the whole map that way. Every design looks as if it were cut from fabric scraps and pieced into a landscape, with hills in patchwork greens, rivers in rippled blues and rock in every warm shade from rust to rose. The pattern for the whole thing is SewJourner, a compass rose with a sewing machine at its heart and a winding road running off toward the horizon. Ready to start piecing?
The red rock blocks
Some blocks are all warm tones. Grand Canyon cuts a deep red gorge with a ribbon of river at the bottom, and Colorado Springs raises tall rust-colored spires in front of a snowy peak. Bryce Canyon frames its pink and orange hoodoos inside a rounded arch under a starry sky, and the Badlands block lays down layered buttes in sand and gold, with prairie grass waving across the front. Kauai brings the only beach in the bunch, green and red ridges folding right down to the sand and the surf.
The mountain and water blocks
Then come the cool colors. Mount Rainier rises white above a still lake, with wildflowers along the shore and a black bear wandering by. Glacier National Park pools turquoise water between sharp gray peaks, and Jackson Hole sets jagged summits behind a split-rail fence with a cowboy hat hanging on the post. Coeur d'Alene fills its lake with little sailboats in front of a colorful waterfront, Missoula sends a blue river curling past a red brick building, and Bend follows its own river through a cozy mountain town. For something greener, Hocking Hills tucks a waterfall and a crackling campfire into a mossy gorge, and Stitchin' in the Green Mountains wanders a stream through birch trees, with a moose along the bank.
The whole-state blocks
A few blocks take the shape of an entire state. Idaho fills its outline with mountains, patchwork farm fields, a pile of potatoes and a rainbow for good measure. New York packs in a waterfall, a bright red apple and rolling green hills, and South Carolina shades a sailboat and a sunset under a pair of sprawling trees.
Signing the label
Every sampler needs a maker's label, and every one of these blocks has somebody's name written all over it. Maybe it is the friend who came home from Glacier talking about that water for a month, or the sister who still calls Missoula home, or the quilter who plans every vacation around the local quilt shops. Choose the block that is SO her. She will tell you the story behind it, and it will probably involve a wrong turn, a scenic overlook and a fabric store she found completely by accident.
Written by Jenny. Thanks for reading.
