Helen discovered a problem with the WordPress App for iPad.  When you try to add a post, you’ll see an error like this: If you can access our site from a browser, you’ll see it IS accessible. After a quick look around online, it looks like the issue is related to the secure connection being used by the app.  I will need to make a change (or purchase an upgrade) on the site to support the increased security in the WordPress app...

One of our January winners received a chevron block that is ALMOST AN INCH TOO SMALL in one direction and a HALF INCH TOO SMALL in the other.  It’s hard for me to imagine that the maker didn’t know she was sending an unusable block, but, I will suspend disbelief and remind everyone that the last step of making your blocks is MEASURING THEM to make sure they fit within the guidelines for the Block Lotto. Blocks for the lotto must be...

A couple people have let me know that the Stop Spammer Registration plug-in was blocking them from logging in.  If you have also been unable to login, I have disabled this self-described aggressive spam plugin that is supposed to prevent spam registrations, logins and comments.  It had been working beautifully, but in the last few days has become, perhaps, a little too aggressive for us. Anyone with an account should be able to login now. The...

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...

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...

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...

As I wait to hear back from one of the May winners to confirm her mailing address and let me know how many blocks she’d like to keep, it seems like a good time to remind everyone who wants to win blocks that you have to check the Block Lotto site or your Email and get back to me within 2 days … or a new name will be chosen and you won’t win after all. If you cannot be available or won’t have access, please let me know...

I mailed my Bird blocks at the end of the day yesterday to the lucky winners.  I am looking forward to see what you make from these fun blocks. As a reminder, when you post about mailing your blocks to the winners or receiving the blocks you’ve won, select the category sent and received.  The tag should be the same tag designated for the blocks. If you incorrectly check the category blocks–which should only be used for posting photos of...

Google Reader users everywhere are looking at the alternatives.  Three popular choices are: Feedly The Old Reader  (based on an old version of Google Reader) Bloglovin’ I’m personally playing with Feedly (on my computer and my iPad/iPhone) but I’m looking at these others, too, since there’s time to look around before Google Reader goes away. Here’s the link that Bloglovin’ requires in order to “claim...

I’ve changed the days that the Linky Tool on the Weekend Update posts will be active to keep it open through Monday (US Mountain Time). So, the Weekend Update will post on Friday, with the Linky Tool active Friday-through-Monday.

At the bottom of the Weekend Update post, you’ll see: You are next… Click here to enter  When you click the blue text, this Linky Tools form will appear. To complete the form: 1. Enter the URL of the specific blog post you want to share as your weekend update.  The URL for my blog is http://sophiejunction.blogspot.com But I need to refer to a single blog post, and so the full URL is...

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...