This sad little specimen is my first ever finished quilt. The Snail’s Trail blocks are 4 inches square, the whole quilt is only 12 inches. A woman I had met through a mutual friend was teaching a paper foundation class and I decided to check it out.  The little quilt is made from two cotton shirts, one blue and one gray, and some white-on-white fabric  for the inner border that a fellow classmate gave to me. The teacher and I became...

I took my I-spy blocks to the post office this morning, thinking on my drive that I hope most of you chose to do as I say and not as I have done and waited so long to make the trip.   I made a quick stop for a latte because it’s Monday morning and I knew the line would be long. The line is long enough that I was almost able to post this from the line … except the site seemed to be slow for some reason and I couldn’t upload the...

I can’t believe it’s already August … and another Friday is here and time for the Weekend Update Linky Party.  Share a link from your blog below. This weekend, I’ll be deciding upon a project to make my focus for August.  Will I pull out an old UFO to finish or pick up the shiny new giant geese blocks I’ve been making for my Daily Feather project?  Decisions, decisions … FYI, the topic weekend for August will...

The mailing info has been sent to everyone who made I-Spy House blocks in July.

Maybe it’s because I am pretty tall myself that I always choose to see these blocks as tall rather than wide? I’ll kick things off this month with my three blocks, photographed on the studio’s concrete floor because my scrap-busting flying geese are covering the design wall.   And while I’m here, I’ll remind everyone that even if you emailed a photo of your blocks to me last week for the virtual quilt, you...

 Our lotto block for August is a rectangular adaptation of Bonnie Hunter’s Maverick Star. We’ll be using her block pattern with one small change (described further down this post): Maverick Stars This month’s block is a great example of one way to turn a change the size/proportions of a quilt block pattern. As usual, you may make up to a maximum of 9 blocks for chances in the drawing at the end of the month.  As always, if you...

In July, 33 quilters made 120 I-Spy House blocks, won by Michelle, Pat K and Maria.  Congratulations ladies! In July, Cathy joined the Block Lotto and made her first blocks; Michelle and Liz returned to the Block Lotto.  Welcome and welcome back! Complete guidelines for July with links to the block directions are in this post. In July, a Neighborhood party of I-Spy Houses The tag for ALL blog posts about the July block is: I-Spy House Archive...

Of the 120 blocks made this month by 33 quilters, 24 were donated to the pot, leaving 96 chances in the drawing today.  Because these blocks will likely be used in kids projects, I decided to divide them into three slightly=smaller-than-usual sets of 40 blocks, which I believe will still give the winners enough to play with and, if they want, use only those that fit their quilt design idea. This month, I ordered the names in the list based on...

My intent for the block lotto is that quilters may: Try something new, whether it’s a new block pattern, a new-to-them technique or a different color-way Win a set of blocks made by the block lotto community or be inspired by a block to make more of their own Have fun in a no-commitment activity that takes a minimal amount of time ALWAYS send blocks that are the type that they would like to receive and that will be usable by the winners...

I have fighting with the Linky Tool off and on all day long today … but it finally produced the entry we need for this week’s Weekend Update. Please share a link below from your blog.  Share a project, a rant, a recipe, a vacation travel log...

I’ve been updating things. The list of blocks made this year, with links to the block patterns and blog posts that are (correctly) on the 2013 Block Index page has been updated.   Especially if, now that you’ve seen/made more than half of the blocks … you decide to make a sample of this year’s blocks, you can now find the pattern link in one place. I’ve updated the at-a-glance page and all the blocks made and...

I’m sharing this in-progress photo of Brenda’s Housing Development, with her permission, because I think there are some great setting ideas for our I-spy house blocks here.     Something else you could use these blocks for is a pillow … like the Holiday Lane pillow that I made last year that inspired the idea of this month’s block.  ...