The No.1 Sampler Quilt
is the new name for

The Block of the Month Club Quilt

The Block of the Month Club sampler quilt, which became
The One Block Only Twelve Block Quilt, has certainly had an identity crisis!

There are a couple of reasons why you may wonder why this pattern is now going to be called The No. 1 Sampler Quilt...,,,,,.

The No.1 reason is there will be another quilt coming soon which will
have twelve different blocks for you to sample. (I'm still trying to decide which new blocks should be in it.)

The second reason is that it is in homage to a favorite series of books. Indulge me here: A few years ago I was introduced to a fun little series of books written by Alexander McCall Smith called "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" about Precious Ramotswe, who is a traditionally sized lady from Botswanna who opens a private detective agency. I like to listen to audio tapes and these books are so much fun to listen to!

I couldn't help myself, the first sampler needed a fun new name. There is a lot of quilting's history and traditions that involves African-American women, in fact one of my quilts' center block was directly influenced by an RMQM exhibit of quilts sewn by the women of Gee's Bend.

It had a Martha Washington star in it and I took the idea of that star and after playing around came up with my "Bothar go Baile Atha Cliath" (Road to Dublin) which I made into two quilts for my Irish friend, Dory.

But, a little about this quilt's name...

I promised to reveal this quilt's identity crisis, so here we go!

When I first began to design it I was working on a Block of the Month Club idea. Here is a quote from the original page: "This is an excellent choice for the beginner quilter. The Block of the Month Club Sampler Quilt is simple and fun to make."

This was how I set it up on that earlier page:

This is a great way to get started if you want to make a more traditional quilt. Every pattern come with complete step-by-step instructions.

It is offered in a single block every month—or it can be set up as a two-pattern-per-month project (the advantage is you will finish the quilt faster—great if you need a gift in a few months—a baby, for instance).

But two things soon became apparent.

First, was about me and my nature:
I'm an impatient sort of person. The more I worked on the sampler as a block of the month project, the more I became convinced that a lot of you might be a lot like me—I realized I'd go crazy waiting for a new block every month!

Instead of dragging the project out over twelve months, one block at a time. I decided to offer it at a special price in a simple package (including the pattern, cutting instructions and the Mini-Block Instruction Booklet).

The second came from my friend Dory:
This was the notice on the sequence page (I the had to create to address her question): You can thank my friend, Dory, for this page—she wanted to see the blocks in the order they'll come!

So a link had to be set up to take you to the page that showed the sequence of the blocks in the quilt: "For a sequence of the monthly blocks..."

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This was the first row of that first quilt (which was later changed a bit). Each row had the names of the blocks and links to the larger One Block Only Quilts. {In the column to the right, I have provided the names as they appear in the Sampler Quilt illustrations and the links.}

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A short while later, I redid the pattern (with a minor change in the blocks used) and added the Mini-Block Instruction Booklet to the whole thing, making the pattern around 50 pages. The name changed to reflect that it was no longer a Block of the Month quilt. This is how the new name appeared on that old page:

Name Change!
New Name for the Quilt Offer...
I have decided to give
this quilt a new name
to reflect the way I'm offering it to you.
The new name is:

The Twelve Block Sampler Quilt
*************************

The Sampler Quilt Offer has the following:
.....The complete Mini-Block Instruction Booklet
.....Fabric Requirements and Cutting instructions for the entire quilt!
.....All twelve patterns for the quilt (Queen Size)
.....PLUS!! For a limited time—A Special Bonus Pattern which can
.....be used as a substitute block in the quilt or as pillow!
***********************************************************************************

It remained that way until I began the re-working of this site this last summer (2012). I began thinking about a new Sampler Quilt and needed a way to tell them apart.

Having listened to the newest No. 1 Detective Agency audio book, it occurred to me "No. 1" fit nicely into the plans.

So, that is how this quilt finally found its name.

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{Please note, due to the amount of work involved in changing the PDF file, the name isn't going to show up there for a while. But the file you will receive as a download after purchase IS The No. 1 Sampler Quilt!}