Oh, Happy Day! Sampler Sew Along Week 1

Welcome to Week #1 of the Oh, Happy Day! Sampler Sew Along.  Since wrapping up the Beautiful Day sew along, I’ve been eagerly waiting for the start of this one.  The weather is cooperating for me too…we’ve had some wonderful fall temperatures move in over the last few days and it feels like sewing weather!

First of all, if you’ve missed the previous blog posts about this sew along, it’s not too late to join in.  You can find the information I’ve shared so far in this blog post.

  When I was writing and planning the projects in Oh, Happy Day! I knew that I wanted to host a sampler sew along after the book came out.  I wanted it to be simple to host and simple to follow along with.  For that reason, when I designed each pillow project, I made sure to set up the instructions so you could easily see what you would need to cut to make one 12″ finished block (12 1/2″ unfinished).

The block we are kicking off with is the Generations of Love block.  Grab your Oh, Happy Day! book and turn to page 32.  Listed under “Materials” cut the 18 rectangles in the size listed.  Easy, peasy…those are the only fabrics you will need for this week’s block.

Here are the fabrics that I used (from my Buttercup & Slate line of fabric), as well as my fabric placement.  The rectangles are sewn together into pairs and then the pairs into rows.  After that, the rows are sewn together.  The block will measure 12 1/2″ square.  All of the 9 blocks that we are making from the book will be 12 1/2″ square.

Generations of Love block

I’ve also put together a quick piecing tutorial over on my YouTube channel.  You can watch it here.

I wanted to start with a nice simple block to kick things off as well as one that doesn’t include any background fabric.  That way if you haven’t yet picked up your background you can still start sewing right away.

Generations of Love quilt from the book Oh, Happy Day!

As I mentioned in my video, the fun of a sampler sew along based on blocks from a book is that it allows you to try out the different blocks.  You can decide which ones you enjoy making and think about which quilts and/or pillows you might like to make.  We will be making 9 of the blocks from the book followed by 3 weeks of finishing instructions.  You’ll find a schedule for the sew along below if you’d like to mark your calendars.  I’m also including the page that the cutting instructions are listed on each week as well as the page for the written piecing instructions.

I received a few questions about how to receive notifications when the blocks are released.  There are a couple ways you can do that.  If you’d like to subscribe to the blog posts,  you can be notified via email when a new post comes out.  On your computer, on the top left of the blog you’d just enter your email into the “subscribe to blog via email” box.  If you have a tablet/phone you’ll find the spot to enter your email when you rotate your phone horizontally  and then click the little orange arrows on the top left side.

You can also follow along over on YouTube as I’ll be releasing weekly videos there as well.  If you subscribe to my channel, right after you hit the red subscribe button, a little bell pops up beside that button.  If you hit the bell, it will notify you when new videos are up.

And lastly, we love seeing each others blocks as we make them!  If you’d like to share pictures of your blocks, come join the Coriander Quilts Facebook group.  It’s a private group where we share projects made with my fabrics or made with my patterns…or both! =)  You can request to join here…make sure to answer all of the questions to get your request approved.

Have fun sewing your Generations of Love block! Corey

Oh, Happy Day! Sampler Sew Along Schedule

September 24: Block 1, Generations of Love (cutting/piecing instructions on page 32)

October 1: Block 2

October 8: Block 3

October 15: Block 4

October 22: Block 5

October 29: Block 6

November 5: Block 7

November 12: Block 8

November 19: Block 9

November 26: Finishing Instructions 1

December 3: Finishing Instructions 2

December 10: Finishing Instructions 3