If you have made blocks this month and are in the drawing, are going to Houston for Quilt Market and/or Quilt Festival and may not be checking here (or checking your mail) on October 31, be sure to let me know so I’ll know what to do if you happen to win a set of the lovely Oak Leaf blocks everyone has made. … and while I have your attention, TOMORROW at noon on the US East Coast, is the deadline for posting your blocks if you want...

Jo has joined the Block Lotto from Australia.  She’s having some problems working the site, so I’m posting her eight Oak Leaf blocks.   Welcome...

It’s time for the mid-month reminders: If you made Boomer blocks LAST month and haven’t yet mailed them … please do so ASAP. If you have made and posted Oak Leaf blocks, make sure they are accounted for correctly on the at-a-glance page and let me know if I’ve made a mistake. If you plan to make Oak Leaf blocks for the block lotto this month and want to qualify for the sneak peek, you have a little over a week to do so....

Even though I already knew in January that I wanted to make a red and white sampler with this year’s lotto blocks … it wasn’t until sometime last week when I decided on which red fabrics and whether I’d go scrappy within each block or not. Once decided, things are going together quickly. I started with some Kona white solid yardage and a set of 10 quarter yards of these indigo reds–9 prints and a red solid–purchased at a...

WordPress has some limited image editing capabilities.  Once you find them, It’s pretty easy to rotate and/or crop images.  Here’s how. First,  you want to go to the media library.  In this example, where I rotated the images in one of Bonita’s posts, I started by editing the post, then clicked the Add Media button. If when you upload your image(s), you notice that they are not the orientation you expected, you can edit them...

Oops. I added my blocks to the list yesterday, but forgot to post them. Mea culpa. So far, I’ve made three, donated with no chance in the...

The mailing info for September’s Boomer blocks has been sent. It’s time to get out the envelopes and stamps and send them on their way to Kathie and/or Margaret. If you made blocks and didn’t receive the email from me or if you find an error on the mailing sheet, please let me know ASAP....

Two days have passed and I still haven’t heard from one of our winners, Madison.  I have randomly chosen an alternate winner–congratulations Margaret! Because Madison did not mail the star blocks she made in August, leaving three of the winners three blocks short, I’m asking for a couple volunteers to make a set of three of the Tall Stars and send them to one of the August winners. Because I have no way of knowing if we will ever...

I recently took a pair of scissors, along with some kitchen knives, to the knife-sharpener at the Farmer’s market. While I waited for him to sharpen my tools, I started thinking about how long I’ve owned that little pair of Dovo scissors and how they have become one of the tried-and-true quilting tools. Here’s a photo of some of the things I couldn’t imagine quilting without … and one gadget that seemed like a good...

I am waiting to hear from Madison–one of our winners in the September drawing.  She’s relatively new–she made her first lotto blocks in August.  Unfortunately, as of yesterday, it looks like she hasn’t yet mailed those August blocks to three of the winners.  And so, I’m a little worried. If it happens, it wouldn’t be the first time someone found the site, sent me their info, made blocks and posted them and … was...

 This month we are making this 6-by-9 inch (finished size) Oak Leaf block using batik fabrics of your choice for the leaf and stem and cream or tan tone-on-tone (TOT) prints for the background. Cathie L make this one. The block pattern directions are here: Oak Leaf Block Pattern The block pattern has been updated since it was sent out as part of the sneak peek and contains a bonus pattern for a scrappy version of this block.  The file is quite...

In September, 20 Quilters made 87 Boomer and Boomerette blocks. Our winners The winners for September 2013 were Kathie and Madison.  Because Madison did not reply within 2 days of my email notification to her, an alternate winner was selected – Margaret.  Because Madison did not mail her blocks from the previous month (her first lotto blocks), I didn’t have faith that she would mail these, either and removed them from the list....