Quilt Finish – Shimmer City Sampler

This is a quilt finish nearly five years in the making! Back in 2016, I happily signed up to participate in Gnome Angel’s #100Days100Blocks sew along. The directive was to use Tula Pink’s City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book, make one 6″ block per day, and then sew them all up into a quilt layout of your choosing. At the time, I was obsessed with Jennifer Sampou’s Shimmer fabric ranges, and was actively sewing up my first dick quilt with them. I had purchased several fat quarter bundles, and ended up putting a call out to the quilt community for even more of the fabric offerings from later releases in Sunday Stash #194. Needless to say, I had a lot of fabric inspiration, and went wild creating each block piece by sparkling piece!

This is the first block I made, and had no idea at the time it would take me on quite a wild journey! The best quilts are like that, aren’t they? They have their own secrets and stories to tell. I am often just the conduit to allow them to share their magic with the world. You can find all of my individual blocks for the 100 Day 100 Blocks challenge on Instagram with the #ShimmerCitySampler. I made each block without much intention except to enjoy the process of combining fabrics. There was no forward planning on how they would come together, as I’m more of a design-on-the-fly type of guy.

When it was time to assemble all 100 finished blocks, there were so many design options to choose from. But of course, I knew I had to do my own Molli Sparkles thing! My new, creative goal was to create a metallic colour wash with all of this gorgeous fabric. Y’know, give you all that Vogue Living / Architectural Digest / Real Housewives of Beverly Hills realness! Even though at the time, me and my design wall had many tantrums with each other, we got there in the end!

In these detail shots you can see how using the same fabrics in adjacent blocks allow for the colours to run together. This was really important to me because I wanted to ensure the grid (that would inevitably be present due to the 10 x 10 layout of the consistent 6″ block size) evaporated to the eye. Instead, the flow of colours melt and meld into each other drawing the viewer to look across the entire quilt.

This black section was my starting point for the layout. I knew the black fabrics would create an area of recession and depth in the quilt, so I wanted to bring them all together to emphasise that. If there’s a point of perspective in the quilt, this is where it originates. Your eye is drawn here and then radiates outward and around the rest of the building blocks guided by the colour wash.

This really became the essence of Shimmer City Sampler — it feels like a city landscape bouncing light around structures and metallic surfaces. I know I’ve walked these streets, and watched the sun setting, while it enveloped me in its glow dipping behind buildings. While this quilt is the sum of it’s many parts, exploring the details is just as exciting as letting it wash over you completely.

Deciding on an appropriate longarm quilting pattern was another design decision that nearly left me paralysed in fear. I felt I had created the quilt top to its full potential, and wanted the quilting to reflect that. I finally decided on this design, and consulted with Leanne Harvey of Mount Vincent Quilts for her expertise. It was her idea to scale down the motif, and use a bevy of coordinating threads across the quilt. It so good, y’all! I know it was an intense amount of work, but the thread colour changes keep the colour wash flowing brilliantly!

In other exciting news, I entered this quilt into the Sydney Quilt Show 2021 by QuiltNSW on a complete lark. It was my first time entering the show, and it was recently announced it won two ribbons. It placed first in the category Entrant’s Quilt Top Quilted by Another (Professional) and the overall Best Use of Colour Award! Two ribbons on one quilt, can’t be mad about that! While winning such prestigious prizes excites me to bits, having this quilt finished with such success excites me even more. It’s now time to retire this quilt and let it have a lie down for a while!

Thank you to the prize sponsors, Quiltmania Editions, Art N Quilting Studios, Cottage Quilt Works and The Digital Cloth.

Title: Shimmer City Sampler
Size: 58.5″ x 58.5″
Pattern: Tula Pink’s City Sampler
Fabric: Jennifer Sampou’s Shimmer 1 and Shimmer 2 fabric ranges
Piecing: Machine stitched on Juki TL-98P with Aurifil 50wt, White 2024
Quilting: Long arm quilting by Mount Vincent Quilts
Binding: Hand stitched with Aurifil 40wt, Dove 2600
Backing: Shimmer Netting in Sky
Timing: August 2016 – April 2021
Favourite Part: She’s a winner, baby!