It Pays to Stick Around ...

Congrats to the May Lotto Block winners: Colene and Lee Ann.

Both have won before. For Lee Ann, this is the third set of lotto blocks she's won, since we started this round of 10" blocks almost a year ago.

Is it luck or persistence? Either way, I think it's proof that it pays to stick around.

Vicki's Blocks are Here

I picked up Vicki's blocks at the post office yesterday--the pretty, minty green background of the one on the right was completely washed out by my flash:



My post office is closed on Saturday ... since Monday is a holiday, I'm expecting the last of May's floral Grandmother's Choice blocks on Tuesday or Wednesday, when I'll be sending the list of names for Tracy to pick a couple winners. The list so far:

Amy (3), Annette (2), Colene (5), France (1), Janet (2), Jeni (3), Kate (5), Lee Ann (3), Michelle (5), Tracy (4), Vanessa (4) and Vicki (2). Do some math and add my 4 blocks and you'll get 43 blocks this month so far.

Google Me

Yesterday, I added the code for StatCounter to this blog. Tonight, I was looking at the data collected so far and noticed that someone came to the site from google, after searching for Grandmother's Choice.

So I hopped over to google and tried it myself. I couldn't believe the results ... one of my posts on this blog turns up at the top of the list ;-)

Blocks From Annette, Michelle & Tracy

Yesterday I picked up these beautiful blocks.

From Annette,



from Michelle,



and from Tracy.

The More Things Change ...

The French are generally credited with the saying, the more things change the more they stay the same ... whomever said it first, it certainly seems to be an accurate commentary on my swapping habits ;-)

Today, I've been feeling all virtuous after sending out packages that made me up-to-date with my swap commitments. At the post office, I also picked up my swapped-out Penny Pincher blocks from Colene and a pair of stretched stars. I'm excited to start piecing tops from both those sets of blocks and the Path and Stiles blocks and creating a sweet little girls quilt for my guild's Heartwarmers effor from those 10" squares for a Pink and Purple Princess.

So when I was fiddling with the blog template to add the geeky Flickr photos, I decided to update the list of my swap commitments. Funny thing is ... I added as many as I removed. How did that happen?

;-)

Blocks from France, Lee Ann, Kate and Vanessa

I'm playing catch-up (and trying something new for the block photos). Click the block photos for a larger image.

From France:



From Lee Ann:



From Kate:



From Vanessa:

More May Flowers (from Jeni and Colene)

I can't believe how many blocks are here already (17).

Today, blocks arrived ... from Jeni:



And from Colene (whose blocks arrived in only 2 days from Idaho--yahoo!)

The Last April Blocks Are Here

From France:



Now ... onto labelling those that need it, sorting them into 4 sets and sending them on their way to the winners.

We Can't Stop Talking About Johnny

I think it started when Colene suggested combining March's Queen Charlotte block with April's Johnny 'Round the Corner. Amy, one of the winners of March blocks, created this quilt in EQ and dubbed it, Johnny Loves Charlotte.

A week or so ago, sooon after the May sneek peek email was out, Jennifer suggested that it was another block that looked great in combination with Johnny ... but she couldn't share until the official announcement was made yesterday. Here's Grandmother Choses Johnny ... it seems Johnny is not only a block that plays well with others, but has a name that inspires catchy quilt names, too ;-)

Talking about Johnny ... and playing with block ideas has caught fire. It seems we all love Johnny. Amy put together 4 more purple and cream combinations, with Algonquin Charm, Broken Dishes Variation, Dakota Gold and Mother's own. Click the small quilt images to go to Amy's full size versions in Flickr.

Grandmother's Choice

The lotto block for May is Grandmother's Choice, made in floral fabrics on pastel backgrounds.





Yesterday, on the first day of May, these 9 blocks were already at my house -- 4 of mine, 3 from Amy and 2 from Janet. They look a lot like this on the design wall in my sewing room ... I can't resist rearranging and playing with them, so they're already all mixed up. You can hover your mouse over a block (or look at the image properties) to see who made it