2022 AccuQuilt BOB Sampler Sew Along

Sorry. I missed my planned announcement of the 2022 AccuQuilt BOB Sampler Sew Along, but only by 8 days. Friends, I sign up for too many jobs, and January has been incredible. I get a lot done, but I also leave a lot under the cutting table. I’ll have plenty to share with you in the coming weeks. For today, let’s talk about my AccuQuilt BOB Sampler Sew Along. For the remainder of the year I will be constructing a quilt using my BOB dies,.

First off – I don’t want everyone to go out and buy all of the dies I’m going to use, unless you want to. If you do, by all means, use my affiliate link. (Thanks!) Because I work with AccuQuilt I frequently get new dies. My job with them, as a Go Getter, is to make beautiful projects and excite people about new releases. I also feel like some of us buy so many dies and use them once, or maybe never. I wanted to have a project that everyone can participate in with a minimum of investment, and use the tools we already have. The one die that I think will really help with this project is the 1 1/2″ Strip Cutter (55024). This is the die that I will be using in my sashings to bring my finished blocks up to size.

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, BOB stands for Block on Board. A BOB will cut all of the pieces you need to make a more complicated quilt block.

My BOB Die Collection

These are the Block on Board dies I have on hand. There are some new ones coming out this year that I’m excited about, so I may sneak them in, too. If there are BOB dies that you are intimidated by, let me know. I might be able to get one and do a tutorial.

• Drunkard’s Path – 3 1/2″
• Robbing Peter to Pay Paul – 7″
• Starry Path – 9″
• School House – 9″
• Cross Roads – 9″
• Glorified 9 Patch – 9″
• Pickle Dish – 10″
• Tangled Star – 10″
• Basket of Lilies – 12″
• Cleopatra’s Fan – 12″
• Log Cabin – 12″
• Storm at Sea – 12″
• Feather Star – 16″

Fabric Selection

For this quilt I am going to use this gorgeous collection of Peppered Cottons, sent to my by my friends at Studio E Fabrics. Peppered Cottons are quickly becoming one of my favorite fabrics to work with. They are the best combination of a solid and a print – the colors are easy to work with, but because of the way they are woven, they aren’t as flat as a solid. And, if I decide to hand quilt this project, it will be soft and easy to stitch through. If you don’t get your fabric by the bolt, don’t worry. I think a bundle of fat quarters, or possibly half yards plus a couple of yards for background will be plenty. These are the colors I have:

• 35 – Oyster
• 46 – Vanilla
• 47 – Fog
• 14 – Charcoal
• 40 – Fuchsia
• 26 – Garnet
• 25 – Saffron
• 27 – Gingko gold
• 22 – Green Tea
• 45 – Ink

I also have some purple and orange somewhere in my stash that will get added to this rainbow. If you want to get a bundle of Peppered Cottons, The Fabric Monger on Etsy has a “build your own bundle”, which is fantastic.

My other suggestion is to sort out a bundle of fabric from your stash – maybe 10-12 fat quarters or larger that work well together, and some neutral yardage pieces for backgrounds.

My Inspiration

Why a sampler? I just love them. I used to hate samplers, then I made Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell. Now I love samplers, and I find quilts where I have to make dozens of the same thing over and over again to be soooo boring. This is my version of Long Time Gone. My favorite parts of this quilt are all of the different blocks. So many varieties, so I never got bored. Plus the way they all puzzled together was interesting to me, too. There is no obvious grid on this quilt, and I believe the final assembly portion involved partial seams. I may imitate the checkerboard sashing areas, too. I really liked their impact, and they will be easy to make with the 1 1/2″ strip cutter. Using strips of leftover block fabrics was a nice finishing step on this project.

Our sampler won’t be anywhere near this busy, but it should manage a similar feel. You could do what I did here, and just pull out all of the blue fabrics from your scrap bin. Mine ranged from a deep indigo to a very light blue, and I even allowed some blue-greens to sneak in.

The Schedule

I’m not going to lay out a firm schedule – I just can’t manage that right now. I will say that I am going to aim for a mid-month post and video tutorial (which means I better go record one now!). For January I am going to do Starry Path. It is my current favorite, and not too challenging for my already over-worked brain. There are some odd angles and some helpful tips I can share, though. February will be a Glorified 9 Patch, as I will be out of town, and do not want to travel with my large cutter. Glorified 9 Patch will fit through my Go! Me. My March block will be Feather Star. It is my biggest, at 16″, and probably the most complicated. I want to be at home when I tackle that beast. That is all I have planned so far.

The Plan

16 blocks, arranged in a 4 x 4 layout. Blocks will each be sashed with multiple 1 1/2″ strips to bring them up to 16″ square. This will give me a quilt that is 64″ x 64″, which is a nice throw size. I may put in some low-contrast checkerboards or other fillers in some of the sashing areas for additional interest, and to get some added use out of my Qubes.

Want to join the 2022 AccuQuilt BOB Sampler Sew Along? Hooray! You can follow my blog, sign up for my newsletter, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and follow me on Instagram. Or, you can keep checking in here – whatever works best for you. I share different things on all of my platforms, but most of it is all gathered up here for sharing. I’m hoping to do at least a couple of live events, maybe on Zoom, where we can do some Q&A about AccuQuilt. I just need to think about the logistics.