A Hint for Diane

I'm playing catchup with Kate's Birthday Block swap. I finished Diane's block today (for a very belated December birthday).

It will go into the mail tomorrow, but I couldn't resist this little in progress shot. The color isn't great (those really are two purple fabrics and a buttery colored background.

That's a quarter on top of the dark square in the lower right corner, to give you an idea of the size of these tiny bits.

I really love this kind of swap. It's fun to make one special block for each birthday girl.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Whether you know it as a sawtooth star, variable star, square and points, unnamed star, or any of the names in the two pages of its variations in Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns . . . this star block is a classic. Terri made these 8 inch blocks for the October Lotto.




This block has infinite possibilities. It scales easily and that big center square can be replaced by 4-patch, pinwheel, square in a square or just changed to a coordinating fabric. For more variation think half-square triangles in the corners.

Marcia Hohn has a page of 12 inch blocks on the Quilter's Cache site which are all variations on the sawtooth star. Christine is using it as the basis for a Christmas Block Swap on the Quilting Forum on about.com. I am making three sets of blocks.



Even though I thought I was done swapping for the year, I couldn't resist.

Gaggle of Geese

Here are some of the geese I made this weekend for Micki's Flying Geese swap on the Scrappy Quilts Forum. More like these will be going to the 11 women in the swap--these are the left-overs for me, me, me.

I couldn't help but think of the real geese which disappeared with the first snow in October. Rumor has it that they didn't go far ... just down the road to another complex. I think the cats miss them, even if they were a little frightened when they came this close.

Before & After

Swapping fabrics is one of the most fun ways to build a stash. I started swapping fabrics online almost as soon as I started quilting. I swapped 4-inch strips, 10" squares, Fat Eighths and Fat Quarters.

These are the FQs I sent for Teresa's recent swap of Amish Solids FQs . . . and look at the rainbow of fabrics I received in return.

I joined this swap, once again, to begin to build a stash, this time of solid fabrics. It's a great start, isn't it?

I'm ready

When I sent off 40 scrappy Buckeye blocks to swap, I knew that to make the bedsize quilt I wanted, I'd need 24 more blocks. When someone else in the swap posted a message about how they wished they'd swapped more blocks, I suggested to her that she use the time until the swapped blocks come back to make extra blocks. Last weekend and (mostly) this one, I followed my own advice and made those 24 blocks.



It seems the sooner I work on swap blocks, the more likely I am to finish the quilt. I wanted to be ready ... and now, I am ;-)

... 19, 20 (I'm done!)

I finished the Sawtooth Squares I'm making for Kate's HST Sampler swap today ... and it feels so good to have those 260 HST units behind me.

The last two blocks are for Judith and me. I was surprised at how easy it was to match those intersections (and not lose any points!). I guess those 260 HST units has been good for me.



Now I can really enjoy each new block as it arrives. Here's a peek at my design wall so far.

Second Chances

This is Lori's quilt, made from swap blocks from a swap on the Quilting forum the last time the swap was held.

When a new swap of book blocks, based on Christine Thresh's pattern, was announced, I was one of the first with their hand up to join.

We're swapping book blocks only and will be able to add our own knick-knacks and "book case." I plan to fill my shelves with souvenirs from my life.

Elsewhere on the Quilting Forum, Ann has assembled a quilt-along, Trail Mix: the Second Journey. The quilt is a great scrappy quilt that was featured in a magazine 2 years ago. Lots of quilters on the forum made the quilt then and, even as a lurker, it was fun to see watch all the different color-ways develope--all the quilts were terrific. You can see a lot of them in this WebShots album: Trail Mix Quilts

It's interesting how some of the swaps and projects and quilts make such an impression that when someone suggests another round, another swap ... there's usually lots of interest. I'm happy to be in on the "second chance" for both of these great quilts ;-)

Purple Progress

For a while, it looked like I wouldn't find the time to make all the blocks I wanted to swap in Colene's Penny Pincher Swap #2 ... but I did ;-)

Here are 16 of the 40 blocks I'll be mailing on the deadline tomorrow.

Penny Pincher Progress Report

I should be working on purple PP2 blocks ... but what I really want to do is piece the scrappy red back I have in mind for this top and quilt it.

These scrappy blocks came from coast to coast, with a couple from England. Thanks to Pat R, Pat H, Colene, kate, Michelle, Susanna and Linda for making the blocks that found their way to me and to this little 40-inch by 60-inch quilt.

12 times 3 is (not) 48

Last weekend I finally started on my blocks for Kate's half-square-triangle sampler swap. I started with the black and red blocks, so that I could include Kate and Michelle's blocks with the sets of June lotto blocks they won.

Each of the sawtooth square blocks contains 12 HST units and one large one ... I started doing the math and realized I'd be making 260 HSTs by the time I'd finished my blocks for the swap. It was daunting ... so much so that when I started making HSTs for the three red blocks, I multiplied 12 times 3 and came up with 48 ;-)

After recovering from that mistake, I proceeded to sew right side to wrong side when making the pink block, decided I was too distracted and put the blocks away until today.

Things in the studio went smoother today ... and I'm happy to report my new status: 169 HSTs done, 91 HSTs (in blue and neutral) to go.





With each color I find myself saying, I wish I would have decided on this colorway ... these are going to be very pretty quilts, I think.

What Was I thinking?

After a couple great decentrlized 10" squares swaps, I decided to join the fun and host one for everyone who sometimes goes into their stash and comes out asking themselves ...



Sign-up by Monday June 26. Fabric squares must be mailed by July 15.

There's still room for a few more questioning quilters.

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?

;-)

Making Do

This afternoon I finished the rest of the Path & Stiles blocks for the swap.

I pulled this pretty pink print with flowers and butterflies and had enough, I thought, to make the last three blocks. I forgot to cut the centers, then realized I only had enough fabric left to cut two 3.5 inch squares. After wondering if I might have/buy some other fabric to use for the center, I decided to make do and made this 9-patch center instead. I don't know if this block has a name of it's own, but I like it.

I'll be keeping this one and will likely make a few more of this variation and sprinkle them across my quilt.

Everyone else will receive a perfectly correct version of the block in one of four floral fabrics.

I've already received about half the blocks for this swap ... it will feel good to get mine in the mail and on their way to everyone this week.

Stretched Stars

When I saw Janet Wickell's pattern for this Stretched Stars quilt, I thought it would make a great block swap and apparently, Liz thought so, too, because she's hosting a block swap on the Quilting Forum--see message #45767 for details.

Still, I thought I'd resist it, but when I easily found the specified background fabric last weekend in the first place I checked in Shipshewana, I had to sign up. We'll be swapping jewel-tone batik stars.

I don't know what happened to my once very under control urge to swap. Last weekend, I also signed up to swap 10" pink and purple squares ... I'm a hopeless.

Don't you hate when that happens ...

I worked on my Paths and Stiles blocks for the swap this evening and made good progress. Here are some, made from two of the floral fabrics I'm using: yellow roses and purple lupine (I think). I was was assembling the tenth yellow block, I noticed that I'd put together one of the strip sets with one of the strips of white-on-white fabric wrong side up. I don't know yet how many blocks I'll be disassembling and reassembling ... I decided to leave that task for another day.

Path and Stiles Block Swap

If you saw my Signs of Spring message, then you know just how much I've been anticipating spring.

Maybe that's why, when I saw this swap on the Scrap Quilting Forum, I couldn't resist: Path and Stiles blocks made in floral fabrics.

Along with the first real sign of Spring in my neighborhood, my first block from this swap arrived, from Judith. It's a harbinger of both real and the quilted version of beautiful flowers to come.

One more time ... with feeling

I created the Block Lotto Blog as an excuse to play with the blogs available on Delphiforums with a plan to post updates as lotto blocks arrived.

I wasn't impressed with their blog capability ... but the block lotto crowd seem to like the blog. So here we go again.

I'm also going to use this blog to keep track of other swaps, too.