"Modern Sampler" by Sue Nickels and Pat Holly was created for a sampler-themed retreat that the two held.

Sue and her sister Pat Holly have done retreats over the years and each one has a theme. Modern Sampler was born out of one of those retreats where the theme was, what else, samplers. She and Pat wanted to have a Modern version of the traditional sampler design, so Sue did straight line, circle wedge, and small half-circle ruler quilting on it to deviate it from the normal design. Sue estimates that the quilt is about a fifty-fifty split between ruler work and free-motion quilting, which she does after the structure of the ruler work is complete.