The Smorgasblocks: How It Works

I get a lot of crazy ideas, I know that, but I also know that I’m pretty good at making those crazy ideas work. This is one of those crazy ideas.

Modern grocery stores are great. They have everything from marshmallow-filled cereal to kiwifruit to dish soap to bacon (I have a point, I promise). But to me, the best part of going to the grocery store is when the nice people, in all their hair-net glory, hand out free samples. Yay free samples! You could spend an afternoon on a Sunday and make a meal sampling all the tasty things…not that I’ve ever done that…which brings me to the Smorgasblocks.

There are a ton of talented quilt designers and bloggers out there who make so many pretty quilts, but I can’t make them all. Instead, I’ve contacted a bunch of my favorite quilty peeps who have free patterns and come up with a way to smoosh all the pretties together; the Smorgasblocks. Each week over the next 12 weeks, I’ll post a link to a quilt pattern and tell you how many blocks to make. At the end, I’ll tell you how to put your blocks together to make a throw quilt. There will be a variety of piecing methods, a little bit of appliqué, pretty much anything goes.

We’re going to sample those quilts just like the grocery store samples and make a whole meal of it…quilt of it. Who knows? You may not be able to stop at just one block of a favorite design.You may find a new favorite designer. You may decide that you will never ever have to do that particular method again. But you will have tried it! And learned something. And made a quilt.

As far as yardage for your new adventure, I’m making mine scrappy. No blocks are so fabric-intensive that you’re going to use up more than a fat quarter per color, often much less. I’m pulling out my Cotton + Steel Halloween groups, Spellbound and Boo, as a starting point, but with Alison Glass and Lizzy House added in for good measure.

Posts will be available Sunday night, starting next week. Let’s make some Smorgasblocks!