Categories for Discussion: Block Lotto Community and (new) My Sampler
I don’t know how many of you are making (or maybe even finished) your own sampler quilt from lotto blocks … or if you considering making a sample from this year’s rectangular blocks.
I thought it might be nice to have a place to talk about our sampler ideas and support one another and so I have created the new category My Sampler.
Or maybe *I* just need some support to finish a couple Block Lotto samplers in progress and help me justify my plan to start another–a 60 x 90 sampler quilt from this year’s blocks. Here are two simple layouts I’m considering.
If you are thinking of playing along, here are some of the characteristics of this year’s block choices.
- All the blocks can be made in two colors. (My plan is to make a minimal-ish 2-color quilt using the black and white drawing above.
- Half the blocks need a Tall orientation to make sense, but the other half will also work as short, wide blocks.
- A couple of the blocks would work well as borders. The black bars in the drawings above represent multiples of those ‘border’ blocks in a horizontal (wide) orientation.
Whether you plan to make a sampler from this year’s blocks (or any year’s blocks), or are just sampling a couple of them (like the April-December combination I posted earlier today), if you’d like to share your progress, ask for suggestions, or share your finished quilt, please do so and use the category My Sampler. If you are posting a finished project, also add the category Show and Tell, so it will show up in the home page slider and in the Gallery.
Since I’m talking about categories, I also wanted to mention Block Lotto Community. Use this one for posts that you want to share here that aren’t specifically about the Lotto, like sharing a work-in-progress o finished project, asking for input on a design, looking for others in the lotto community to maybe meet at a quilt show.
April + December
I kept thinking that last April’s Hot-crossed 9-Patch block would combine well with December’s Star-crossed. Before jumping into a larger quilt, I decided to make a table topper from 9 blocks.
I’m still thinking about borders (your suggestions are welcome), but I liked the combination so much I had to share this in-progress photo.
I modified the Hot-Crossed 9-Patch block to make the crosses wider (cut at 1 1/2-inch) to match those in the star blocks.
If you are thinking this color combination doesn’t look like me, you’d be right. It is the result of one of those “what if” questions–I pulled fabrics to match the striped sisal rug under my table and when I looked at the stack, I REALLY didn’t think they’d work. I had to suspend disbelief while I cut and sewed the blocks. But it has grown on me and now I like it quite a lot.
And I really like the combination of blocks, too. If only we’d made the HC9P blocks in May, then I could have called this combination a May-December romance 😉
Happy Holidays
I hope to get one star posted later today, but I want to wish Happy Holidays, belated Happy Hannuka, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my BlockLotto friends. And a special thank you to Sophie for inspiring us, coordinating us, prodding us, nagging us, and otherwise making this a great on-line community! Thanks for all you do, and especially when you are having tough times, which I know happened in 2012. Here’s a happy toast to great quilting and friendships in 2013!
Making Triangle Squares (Half-Square Triangles)
The last few times I’ve put together directions for making a quilt block that has half-square triangles (HST), aka Triangle Squares, as one of it’s components, I’ve left the specifics of how you cut and sew those units up to the quilter.
Today, it occurred to me that it could seem a little bit like a cop out, you know, like quilt as desired.
So while I was making some new blocks that had triangle squares as a component recently, I tried making them a few different ways and put together a list of ways to make them, with the math involved and the reasons you might want to use a specific technique … or not.
You can read a summary of my list on my blog, at
or download the print friendly 3-page version here:
Is your favorite method on my list?
What’s everyone working on through the holidays?
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! Whatcha working on (besides the turkey ;o) )
Sparkly 4″ mini quilt Christmas card/ornaments in the works
Scraps!
I’m looking for someone who enjoys using scraps in his or her quilting and would be willing to take a bag of them off my hands. I hate to waste these scraps but I’ll never use them, and we can’t keep stuff in the RV that won’t be used.
These are pieces from the latest round of Christmas quilts, so they include a goodly amount of Christmas fabrics and red, green and gold fabrics. The bag weighs a little over a pound. I don’t think there are any pieces smaller than one inch in there, though there are a number of little triangles from half-square triangle blocks. Also some units which didn’t make the cut, some mis-cut wedges, some strips, a handful of 2 inch squares, and so forth. I have cats, so there may be bonus cat hair included, but the scraps are smoke-free.
I’ll gleefully mail the bag (gratis) to someone who would be glad to get it. If you’re interested, please comment on this post. On Monday, Nov 19th, I’ll draw a comment at random and contact the winner to find out where to send the bag. Thanks in advance!
The Robin Returns!
Some of the Block Lotto participants joined in a round robin project earlier this year that was a lot of fun and resulted in wonderful finished quilts. I’m organizing the 2013 version and recruiting for a project to start in January.
You can check out the “reveal” of the previous quilts at the Cotton Robin blog, and leave a comment there if you’d like to join in the fun!
Thanks,
Julie AKA Floribunda
Mug setting
Here’s a setting idea for this month’s block. I can imagine using Tonya’s letters to go with the wonky mugs.
http://kate-life-in-pieces.blogspot.com/2012/11/design-wall-monday-november-12th.html
Walking Down (Block Lotto) Memory Lane
I have updated the show & tell posts so that the images are displayed on all the Gallery pages.
It was like taking a walk down Block Lotto memory lane. FYI, if there were in-progress posts for the same quilt, I only included the most recent in the Gallery.
If you decide to take a walk down memory lane and check out the eye candy in the 125 Gallery posts and notice that you never posted a photo of your finished quilt … it’s never too late to share. We’d love to see an update.
If you find a quilt made from blocks made before you discovered the lotto, you can track them down and identify them using the annual Block Index posts or the Block Patterns page.
If you posted a photo of your quilt or project made from lotto blocks (or inspired by them) and it’s not showing in the gallery, send me a note and I’ll try to track it down and move it into the show and tell category, so everyone will be able to enjoy your work.
Mini consolation quilt
Since I didn’t win any of the wonderful October Split Star blocks, I decided to console myself with making a little quilt (12.5″ x 12.5″) from the half square triangle scraps and strips of leftover fabric from the blocks I made.
