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.

Counting Blocks - April 2016

This is my continuing monthly count of blocks made for for Prairie Moon Quilts' 350 Block Challenge.  April was not a very productive month for me, quilting-wise (or in terms of blogging), but, as usual, preparing for the block lotto ensures I will spend at least a little of my time quilting each month. 

Here's the list of the 19 blocks made in March. Added to the 179 blocks made during the first quarter of 2016, my new running total for 198 blocks.

5 Butterfly blocks (2 of these were made in March and already counted)–one to test an idea of how to convert a paper-piecing pattern to traditional templates and 4 for my rainbow scraps sampler.  (I still need to make 5 more of these for the Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler quilt)
My compulsion interest in completing this very old UFO has waned, but I did manage to make 6 more of these Summer Vine blocks.
... and although I am dealing with some technical difficulties in putting together the block pattern for the May Block Lotto, I did make these 8  scrappy green leaf blocks.

The Many Blocks of March

This is my continuing monthly count of blocks made for for Prairie Moon Quilts' 350 Block Challenge.  Here's the list of the 130 blocks made in March. Added to the 49 blocks made in January and February, the new running total for 2016 is 179.

I made six Violet blocks for the Block Lotto. You can find the free pattern here.
Four more for my rainbow sampler
And eleven more for my Old MacDonalds Mystery Sampler (AKA OMMS)
I couldn't resist playing with all the bonus half-square triangle units that resulted from the violets, so I made 18 tiny pinwheels ...
Then used 17 of the pinwheels as one of the "fabrics" to make these eight improv pieced floating squares blocks–chunks really–which became Floating Pinwheels.
I used the rest of the tiny bonus triangle squares in these nine Clover Blossom blocks
I added these four scrappy blocks (and a whole bunch more HST units, made for the border) to complete the little quilt top
I made this block for the "Everything Old is New Again" challenge
Then played with the design a little and hand-pieced these four Wavy Gravy blocks
I pieced a bunch of letter blocks, including these nine (for a secret project)
And this complete subliminal alphabet (25 blocks), sewed it together and added borders–it's also ready to quilt.
While adding borders to some almost ready-to-quilt projects, a very old UFO caught my eye and I added 29 new Summer Vine blocks to the pile of 35 blocks made in 2002, for a total so far of 64 blocks.
And although I am a little behind on keeping ahead of the Block Lotto, I made two of these foundation pieced Butterfly blocks. The block pattern for this paper pieced block (with tips for creating paper-pieced blocks with on-grain edges (to avoid those stretchy biases) is here: Butterfly

Counting Blocks - February

Although February had it's hopeful moments, most of the events in my life last month fall in the category of bad things keep happening ... and so I didn't blog much.  I also didn't quilt much or make many quilt blocks, but as usual, my commitment to the Block Lotto meant my life was not completely devoid of quilting.

Here's my list for February for Prairie Moon Quilts' 350 Block Challenge:




5 Snail's Trail blocks for the Block Lotto,
4 more for my Rainbow Scraps graduated sampler
7 for Old Macdonald's Mystery Sampler
1 (below) block using the same pattern with a different fabric placement for an entirely different block.




That's 17 blocks for February and 49 blocks in 2016 so far.

Counting Blocks - January

I decided to join Prairie Moon Quilts' 350 Block Challenge this year ... not so much as a goal-setting exercise, but just because I became curious to find out just how many blocks I would make over the course of a year.

Here's my list for January, for a total of 32 blocks.

4 Birds-in-the-Air for the Block Lotto
4 more Birds-in-the-Air blocks for my Rainbow Scraps Graduated Sampler
6 more Birds-in-the-Air blocks for Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler
1 (failed) pineapple test block–I am still hating those bias edges that using the cool tool produces.
1 Rolling Star block (which became a pillow for the #intrepidthreadchallenge).
16 abstracted letter blocks... with which I plan to move forward next month.