GEESE HAVE LANDED

The flying geese from my last post have landed and are encircling Debbie's round robin.  It is now on its way home to Arizona.  She's planning to quilt some lovely feathers in the open space.  I can't wait to see it completed.

This block is a Buddhist Pinwheel.  The random look of the placement is actually very controlled.  The light, medium, medium-dark, and dark colors are in a certain placement.  The monks meditate while stitching this block.  The strange color placement took all my concentration!  No meditating here.  In order to stitch this block, I cut the triangles and then made the hourglass sections.  There was no way to quick-piece and have the color placement correct.  The hour-glass blocks finish 3" and then the border brings the block up to 12".

This block is going into a small block lotto, and was requested by Tricia, the winner for this month. 

TWO MORE

Two more lotto blocks have arrived today, all the way from London, England, and hand-pieced to boot.  Here's the current eleven.

 

Love, love, love these blocks.  They so remind me of the quilts I slept under in the 50's.  I'm a happy camper today.

LOTTO WINNINGS

One of my on-line groups has started a block lotto, where the winner is drawn and then she selects the blocks (size, fabric type, pattern) she'd like to receive.  Everyone gets one chance for the next month's drawing for every block they make (up to 4)  for the current winner.

Well, lucky me!  I was our first winner, and I selected the 12" Merry Go-Round block in 30's prints with white or white-on-white.  While this block looks a little tricky at first glance, it is actually easy.  The pattern is written by Eleanor Burns of Quilt In A Day, so you know she makes it easy!  You can find a link to it here, scroll down.  While you are there look at all the many free block patterns, and other things offered on the Quilt In A Day web page.  No affiliation.

LOTTO BLOCKS

Last night I made these 12" blocks for a small group Block Lotto I'm in.  On the left is my October entry, and while I had the black and whites out, I decided to stitch Nov. too.  I love black and white blocks with a touch of whatever.

BLOCK LOTTO BLOCKS

November Block Lotto block is Scrappy Trips from Bonnie Hunter.  This is a super block for using up left over strips.  The end result when you put them together is wonderful.  These are my nine blocks for the month.

Completely on its own, this little koala came out fussy cut!  What a surprise.  That block is a keeper for sure!

BLOCK LOTTO BLOCKS

For Block Lotto this month you can make any 8" fs blocks in blue/cream/tan.  I love this color combination, so I'm entering the maximum this month.  There's a link to Block Lotto on my left side bar.

AFRICAN VIOLET

Block Lotto blog is doing African Violets for August.  I love this pattern!  This is my first block.

LIBERATED CHECKER BOARDS

I haven't sewn in a couple weeks due to eye issues, so I decided to ease back into it, with blocks that are intentional wonky. These Liberated Checker Board blocks are for the July Block Lotto. It feels so good to be up in my loft working on patchwork again!

MODERN CLOVER BLOCKS

Block Lotto is doing a modern clover block for April. Here are my ten blocks. And if you are wondering, nope, I didn't win in March. I'll be mailing my D4P blocks off tomorrow to 3 of the 9 lucky winners. Yes, we had so many blocks last month, there were 9 winners!

BLOCK LOTTO BLOCKS

I ended up making 9 blocks for the Block Lotto this month. I think it's a record breaking month, as to total number of blocks made. That means we'll have more winners, and I have my fingers crossed to be one of them!

FIREWORKS

The Block Lotto block for July is Fireworks. Now you may see astericks, snowflakes, or whatever. But we are calliing them Fireworks in honor of Independence Day in the USA and Canada Day in Canada, and for anyone one else who does fireworks in July.

Since all blocks are Liberated this year, the fireworks are cut at odd angles, making each different and giving each their own personality. They go together extremely fast!

I'm only making these two this month, and I'm donating my chances, as I've won twice in recent months. Donated blocks/chances go to newbies and/or to those who've never won. If you are interested in Block Lotto, or in seeing more about it, click the button on my sidebar, way down.

I WON THE BLOCK LOTTO AGAIN!

I was one of three winners in the May Block Lotto. All of these lovely black/white/lime reed blocks have now arrived at my house, plus 2 more that wouldn't fit in the picture.

I don't have a design wall here in Michigan, so I used the dining table. Sorry about the angle. The floor may have worked better, but then my little helpers would have wanted to help.

My son's family was here last week as the blocks were arriving, and my DIL really thought they were neat and enjoyed playing with placement of them. I think perhaps this will become a throw-sized quilt for her, or maybe a set of place mats.

If you are interested in Block Lotto, or playing along (you can't win if you don't play), click on the Block Lotto button on my side-bar, down on the left. There's a picture of my quilting helpers there too, if you don't know who I'm talking about, LOL!

BLOCK LOTTO FOR JUNE

The June Block Lotto blocks are liberated baskets. The backgrounds will all be yellow/gold, and the handles and bases are all red tonal. The baskets can be made from crumb blocks. All the cutting is without measuring -- just do it. Wonky is good in liberated quilting. I love this color combination, and was able to use up some strip sets of 30's fabric for the baskets. I've made these four so far. That may be it this month, as June is very busy for me.

I just found out yesterday that I am one of the three lucky winners of the May Block Lotto, so squishies of lime free form reeds on black and white backgrounds will be coming my way. Ideas are dancing in my head. Some of them involve frogs, tropical fish, and/or pink flamingos. We'll see.

If you are interested in playing Block Lotto, there's a button for it on my blog, scroll way down, on the left. You can't win if you don't play, LOL!

THANKS!

Thanks for all the help! I've now got my choices down to three fabrics. There's enough of the blue stripe for the first narrow border or the binding. The other two I have more than enough of. I'm thinking narrow blue stripe border then wider of the print and the use the black tonal for binding, or I could use solid black for binging too. Or I could use the blue print for the outer border and binding.

So the question is, Use the blue stripe for a narrow inner border, or no inner border and use the blue stripe for binding. I'm pretty set on the print for the wide border.

Thanks!

LIB LOGS BORDERS ON AUDITION

I've been playing with possible borders for my Liberated Log Cabin quilt. This quilt is so out of my comfort zone, can you help, please? Any and all suggestions are most welcome. Thanks!

LIBERATED LOGS TOP TOGETHER SANS BORDERS

Yesterday I finished sewing the top together, from my Block Lotto winnings. Now for the borders. Hmm....... First I was thinking purple, since the theme for this quilt is purple/green/blue with black and white thrown in. I used black in the sashing, and the cornerstones are a perky lime and blue print on white. Hence all but purple are used in setting the blocks. But now I'm thinking maybe use all three colors in progressively wider borders, and bind it in black. What do you think? Opinions are most welcome. Since shopping is involved here, it will be a few days at least until I finish it to flimsy stage.

This whole modern looking quilt is sooooo out of my traditional box! Block Lotto stretches you!

LIBERATED LOGS PROGRESS

Wow! Thanks for the comments. Someone on Block Lotto even called them Picasso 'ish and Cube' ist. High compliments for simple Liberated Logs from Block Lotto! Maybe I'll name this quilt 'South Beach'.

In the original rules for each block, you had to stick with the blue/green/purple color palette, but you also had to include a black and white or a black and a white. Other colors could be in there, but not dominate. There's a blatant red start to one of my blocks. So sassy! She doesn't belong, but I love her spunk! Also half the blocks had to tilt upward and half downward.

After taking comments into consideration, I decided to use sashing and not to use sashing. I didn't want to lose the up-angle and down-angle of the blocks, so I decided to group them in sets of four. Then I'm sashing those in Kona black and using a perky white/blue/lime print for the cornerstones. Now that leaves purple out, so I do think the border may need to be purple. We'll see.

Shown is my first row. All the rest are sewn in sets of four, awaiting their sashing and cornerstones. More progress tomorrow, God willing, and the creek don't rise.

I WON THE BLOCK LOTTO

I started playing The Block Lotto in Dec. and was one of the lucky winners in March. All of my Liberated Log Cabin blocks have arrived now, 49 in total. Do you have any suggestions for them? Maybe sew them together as is? Maybe sash them in navy or black? Maybe use 4 for each side of fun tote bags? Any suggestions at all are most appreciated.

AND THE WINNER IS................

ME! I won! No, not on the Good Egg Hop, but the March Block Lotto! I will have 24 sets (48 blocks) coming my way! Yippee! Now, how to set 48 wonky log cabin blocks. What fun. I will share pictures with you as they arrive.


Since I finished mine early (before the last week of the month) I got the sneak peak at April blocks. Shoo-Fly! I love this block. I'd love to win and make a "Shoo-Fly, Don't Bother Me' quilt. Here's my 9. I'm loving this 'Wonky' year of blocks. I took a wonky stars class with Gwen Marsten last year, and this is just her kind of stuff! Oh, how I'd love to visit her on Beaver Island, MI! It is such a refreshing change to do wonky, when I usually do DJ or SBS blocks! So tiny, so precise. These are anything but precise. Don't you love the green one, middle row of the right hand column. She seems to be skipping and waving all at once!