Because Sometimes You Just Need a Break ...

I continue to make slow but sure progress making the 80 Lemoyne star blocks needed ... some of which are shown here  on my design wall with the strips intended for the borders.

But this weekend, I really need a break from working with Y-seams and inaccurately cut pieces ... and so I pulled out the golden oldie UFO and made the rest of the Summer Vine blocks from sets of strips–some more coordinated than others–swapped to make these blocks in 2002.

Working on one thing can make you really appreciate the other–it was a joy to put together blocks for which the block "kits" are known to be the correct measurements ... and there are no Y-seams! 

I now have 95 of the Summer Vine blocks. I will making at least one more–but likely more than that–before deciding upon a layout and sewing them together. 

If you're curious, you can read more about this very old UFO with links to the pattern and block directions in this blog post.

It's a Little Bit Ironic ...

A funny thing happened after I decided to align the Block Lotto blocks and their fabric guidelines with the Rainbow Scraps Challenge ... I stopped regularly checking in and linking with the Scraphapppy Saturday posts. It has nothing to do with one or the other ... just me and my life struggles.

I'm trying to get back in the habit, so I thought to share my progress with my scrappy rainbow sampler, which will be made from this year's Block Lotto block patterns with a setting of lots of scrappy rectangles.

This is June's Improv Bullseye block, surrounded by some of the green and aqua/turquoise/teal rectangles that will surround it in the quilt.

Each of the blank squares in the drawing is filled with 4 of the monthly block. I have made all the blocks so far this year ... but need to play catch-up on cutting the setting rectangles.


I am itching to pull out all the cut rectangles and blocks and throw them on my design wall to get a better idea of how this quilt will look ... but at the moment, the Lemoyne star blocks I blogged about earlier this week are parked there, in their very specific order and this dyslexic quilter is a little afraid to take them down until they are firmly sewn together ...

I know a few quilters are also quilting along and making this sampler. You can find the basics for this quilt and the Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler (#OMMS) here:

2016 QAL

Practice, Practice, Practice ...

If you saw this photo pop up on your feed and reacted by thinking that it doesn't look quite like a Sophie project ... you'd be right.

But this project–to finish a quilt that a mother started for her daughter, but couldn't finish–is what I'm working on these days.

All the pieces for the 100 Lemoyne star blocks  have been cut, as have the borders.

The placement of the fabrics within the blocks and the layout of the blocks in the quilt has been specified very carefully in a colored pencil drawing on graph paper.

Twenty-some of the blocks had been made and the top two rows assembled.  I have probably made one third of the additional blocks needed. Here's a look at the upper left quarter of the quilt-in-progress on the design wall.

I have come to think of this quilt as an opportunity for practice and problem-solving.

I never really thought about how the Lemoyne star consists of nothing but Y-seams–I expect to be pretty good at them by the time this is done. The problem solving comes from the challenge of working with pre-cut pieces that weren't so accurately cut, but since you can't make a too-small piece larger and there are no measurements, templates or extra fabrics ... I am making do and changing up my process a bit so that fabrics are aligned from the Y of those Y-seams, so the shortage/extra ends up around the outside of the block.

It isn't lost on me that each month I ask the Block Lotto community to make blocks of MY design using fabrics and colors of MY choice ... and in this project, I am forced to follow someone else's design choices–it feels a little like a sort of karmic payback.   Though, I have to admit that this brown + pastels color way is starting to grow on me ...

Counting Blocks - May's (Sad) Effort

This is my continuing monthly count of blocks made for for Prairie Moon Quilts' 350 Block Challenge. 

Here's the very short list of the 14 blocks made in May. Added to the 198 blocks made so far this year, my new running total is 212 blocks.

4 more scrappy green leaf blocks (arranged in pinwheel fashion) for my graduated sampler.

9 Improv Bullseye blocks–5 for the June Block Lotto, 4 for my rainbow scraps graduated sampler. You can find details about this month's Bock Lotto, a link to the pattern and a coupon good during the first 10 days of the month in this post on blocklotto.com:  Improv Blocks in June I also completed the second border on a Cotton Robin quilt which I will count as one more block ... we are all now working on quilting/finishing the quilts, so I will be able to share my part on this secret-until-they-are done round robin.  I really had fun adding rounds to two quilts and am looking forward to quilting and binding the third one ... and, of course, I can't wait to see what everyone added to mine.