Monday, February 06, 2012

Cross-pollinating Heart Block Ideas

Hearts are taking over my design wall

Hearts Around the Block

On the left is an unfinished "around the block" style round robin. We started with a muslin or interfacing, marked with a 4" grid. Each participant made blocks with dimensions that are a multiple of four and basted it to the grid. As the round robin progressed, quilters had to fill the available spaces. I loved the heart blocks (and blocks made with heart fabric), but always thought the quilt needed something more.

My February Lotto BlocksOn the right side of the wall are my first three blocks for the February block lotto. This is a "quilter's choice" month, the guidelines are to make 9 inch (finished size) blocks, using at least two colors from the palette of pink, orange, cream and gray.

The other thing happening with the Block Lotto in February is that we have moved to our new home at blocklotto.com

I still have considerable amount of "behind the scenes" work to get everything the way I want it and we're ALL learning as we go, but blocks are getting made and entered into the drawing and that really is the point, isn't it?   To motivate everyone to make the jump from our old blog, Julie from The Intrepid Threads is sponsoring a giveaway of a FQ pack in this month's colorway. You don't have to make a block to enter ... though if you win, you might be tempted.

I've been thinking that my heart round robin quilt could use an injection of more orange and some gray or other neutral, what do you think?


I know that there are some good block ideas on that grid that could be translated into 9 inch lotto blocks. Here are a couple of close-ups of blocks that I think could make great lotto block candidates:


 
Detail From Hearts Around the BLock

There are also some interesting heart block patterns being made for the lotto that I will resize to use to fill in the blanks and finish my heart sampler.
You can check out all the blocks made so far here.

To take a peek at what's happening on more design walls, check out the links at the bottom of Judy's Design Wall Monday blog post. 

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Last week's adventure

Last week when driving home from an interview in an unfamiliar part of town, I passed by a Goodwill Outlet.  I had to stop and check it out. Here's a peek inside.



I had a little time and was up for an adventure, so I decided to poke around for a few minutes and look for woven plaid cotton that I could use in a quilt, inspired by Lynn Dykstra and  Bonnie Hunter.  And, the price was right.



My 6 pounds of "fabric"
I  quickly found and purchased 6 pounds of mostly cotton:
  • 5 cotton shirts
  • 2 pairs of cotton pajama pants (new, from the Gap, with pricetags)
  • some cotton shorts that I couldn't resist because I liked the plaid
  • a silk plaid top for my CQ stash
  • a linen plaid shirt
After a trip through the wash, I clipped off the buttons for the button jar and cut the cotton garments into flat pieces, ready to cut and use for quilting. Next time, I'll plan ahead, spend more time and be selective, but this was an adventure and a start on a stash of re-useable fabric:

Cotton plaids, ready to use
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