Quilt Reveal! Pen and Paper Sampler Quilt with additional Border

Today, I’m here to share this quilt I just finished. It's the Pen & Paper Sampler Quilt with an additional border.

I made this quilt for Milo’s college bed, and it turned out very large—almost a queen-size quilt. I wanted the quilt to be used throughout their college years, so we made it larger than a twin bed size. Milo will probably sleep in a twin bed for freshman year, but they can fold the quilt to make it fit.

To make the quilt larger, we used Pen & Paper's sampler quilt pattern and added a few borders. The large border includes an additional pattern, Sparrows, by Pen & Paper.

Learn more about our version of the Pen & Paper Sampler quilt by watching our video or keep reading.

About the Sampler Quilt Pattern

We purchased the Sampler Quilt pattern from Pen & Paper.  The sampler quilt in the pattern finishes at 65" x 76".  The part of the quilt with the white background is the sampler quilt.  We added the peach and green background borders to make the quilt larger.

The sampler quilt pattern includes six separate quilt patterns and 25 blocks from those patterns. The six included patterns are the everbloom, firefly (alternate bee block), folk blooms, daisy, garden snails, and oak moth.

The quilt pattern is expensive, but you will get six full patterns bundled into one PDF download. Each pattern includes a coloring page so you can experiment with your own colors. Also helpful were the tags for organizing the cuts of fabric.

In addition to the six quilt patterns, is the Sampler Quilt Pattern that includes fabric requirements, quilt block information, instructions for assembling the sampler quilt top, and finishing instructions.

We added an additional pattern, Sparrows, also by Pen and Paper, and used this pattern on the border.

Changes to the Sampler Quilt Pattern

To make the quilt larger and experiment with fabric colors, I used Electric Quilt 8 to mock up all the blocks in the sampler quilt pattern.

We wanted to make the quilt large enough for a full-size bed. Electric Quilt let me experiment with adding borders and reusing the blocks to create a new border.

In the end, Milo and I added a narrow peach border (1-1/2" wide), a narrow outer green border (1" wide), and a larger 10" wide border that uses many blocks from the sampler pattern. The peach border separates the white background center and the green outer border.

To create the large outer border, we added six daisy blocks, two moths, two snails, and four sparrows. To fill in between the blocks, a piano key-type scrappy border was added. This border was created using leftover fabrics.

The finished quilt measures approximately 91" wide by 103" long. 

Quilt Fabric Colors

Once the quilt was in EQ8, Milo experimented with fabric colors to finalize the design. By mapping out each of the blocks, EQ8 then lets you place different colors in each patch.

So, for the birds, Milo decided to make them have goldfinch and robin colorings. Some Folk Bloom blocks were colored like sunflowers, and the Daisy blocks were colored like white Daisies and Black-eyed Susans.

EQ8 allowed us to truly make this quilt unique and provided an estimated yardage of each of the fabrics.

Purchasing the Fabrics

At the fabric store, Milo selected each fabric, and we purchased cuts of fabric using the estimates given by EQ8.  I rounded up to the nearest 1/2 or whole yard for each fabric.

I ran out of the white background fabric before I added the final border. As suggested by the pattern, we purchased four yards. Luckily, I could find more of the same fabric from an online quilt store.

The sampler pattern instructions state that the yardages are estimates, and the amount you need can depend on the order in which you cut the pieces. I was good at reusing smaller pieces but still ran out of white.

So, if you make the sampler quilt, I recommend buying an extra two yards of the background fabric.

I also came close to running out of the green background, but I had just enough since we purchased extra to use in the flange binding. We paired the green with the peach border fabric to create the binding.

Keeping Organized

Since this quilt used so many different patterns, I printed them and placed them in a three-ring binder to keep myself organized.

The quilt printout from EQ8 was on the first page, followed by the fabric swatches and yardage. On the fabric printout, we taped a swatch of each fabric so I could keep track of which fabrics were purchased for each color in the quilt.

The sampler quilt instructions were followed by each pattern included with the sampler quilt purchase.  

Assembling the Blocks

For each block pattern, I cut and assembled all of the individual blocks for that pattern, working my way through each of the seven different blocks.

Once all the blocks were completed, the sampler quilt top assembly instructions were followed to assemble the quilt's center.

Peach Border

A 2" wide (1.5" finished) peach border was added around the white center section.  This provides a nice transition between the white and green sections of the quilt.

Extra Green Border

The green border is 10" wide all the way around, adding an extra 20" to the length and width of the quilt top.  The daisy, moth & bird block sizes determined the border size.

The snail block was smaller, so an extra green border was added around it to make it 10-1/2” x 10-1/2” like the Daisy and the Moth blocks. 

To make the border, I laid out the quilt blocks in their positions around the completed quilt center.

The bird blocks finish at 10” x 16”, so they fit along the top and bottom. Since they were side by side, I sewed the bird and daisy blocks together.

Next, create the scrappy strips from the leftover fabrics. Cut strips of fabrics varying widths to around 12" long. Then, sew the strips together and trim the strip set to 10.5" wide.  Finally, cut the strip sets to size.

I created the following scrappy strip sets.  Each was 10.5" wide:

• 36-1/2" long for the top and bottom border
• Four 5-1/2" long strips to use between the daisy and snail blocks and daisy & moth blocks
• Four 20-1/2" long strips between the snail and daisy blocks and moth & daisy blocks.

If you are replicating this quilt, verify the lengths of these scrappy strips for your quilt.

Once the scrappy strip sets were made, the border could be completed and added to the quilt.

Cut 1.5" strips from the green background fabric and add the last border to finish the quilt top.  

Backing

Milo selected this beautiful print fabric for the backing. Since the quilt was wider than the fabric, the fabric was cut and pieced into a large enough piece to fit the back.

Quilting

For this quilt, I wanted to use an all-over design for the quilting. Since I am not good with free-motion quilting and this quilt was so large, I decided to take the quilt to my friend Becky from Sugarloaf Quilting to have it longarm quilted. 

We consulted with Becky, and Milo selected the pattern and the thread color. They selected a pretty swirling pattern for the quilting.

Becky did a wonderful job quilting this quilt. She does longarm quilting and also makes beautiful quilts for sale.  Check out her site!

Binding

For the binding, I used my favorite binding method, Flange Binding.  Milo picked to use the peach for the flange and the green background fabric for the binding.

Labeling the quilt

The label for this quilt was created by tracing a design with permanent fabric markers.  I use Sakura Pigma Micron and Pigma Brush markers in various colors.  They are archival ink and perfect for waterproof and fade-proof lines.

Below are some extra close-up photos of the quilt.

We hope you enjoyed learning about this Pen & Paper Sampler Quilt I made for my child, Milo.  They are very excited to have this quilt for when they attend university in the fall.

Other Quilt Patterns you may be interested in are:

• Baby Crib Quilt Pattern
• Charm Pack Quilt
• Green Vertical Stripe Quilt
• Whirlwind Quilt