Lottery blocks

Over the weekend, having finished Row F of Dear Jane, I decided to sash the rows together in groups of three.  I'll quilt each set of three when my Elna returns home and, eventually, put the sections together.  I suppose that will happen sometime in 2025!

Realizing that the local guild meeting is tomorrow,  I knuckled down yesterday and made the block of the month for March.  Some lucky person (hope it's not me!) will receive all the blocks that people bring in.  

I do like green and blue together so I made one for myself and one for the lottery.   I have all the Christmas blocks I won in the January lottery to put together, so I really don't want to win these.

This wasn't as easy to make as it looked at first, so this one with a few corners cut off is staying here.  The semi-perfect one will go to guild.

This morning I made the lottery block for the May state guild meeting.   It always makes me feel good to be ahead rather than catching up at the last minute.  I like this block, too, for its springy look.  Again, I made one for the lottery and one for me.  I'll have a nice batch of blocks for a sampler or a few table runners by June at this rate.

After finishing these blocks, I went back to sashing Dear Jane.  I'm cutting the charcoal gray sashing a little wider than Jane's 1" because I want the individual blocks to show up more.  I'm also using lighter gray cornerstones to make the sections line up more precisely.  This is a challenge of quilt-as-you-go.

That was all the sewing I did today.  Now I'm baking rolls and making vegetable soup for dinner.  It's perfect for the gloomy, rainy day we're having.

Show and tell

 I took a couple of quilts to guild show and tell the other night.  First is a little (36" x 36") quilt made with blocks of the month I won in the lottery.  I made the purple one (top right), and all the rest were made by guild members.  One was smaller than the 12" suggested, but I just added a little sashing to make it work.  That was a tough block to make (because the pattern given was difficult to read) so only six of us participated in the lottery.

This Ohio Star Variation (?) will go to "Bags of Love" for kids in foster care.  I had the border and binding fabric in my stash.  The backing was a sweet purple and green print that I had found on the guild free table several months ago.  I quilted it in about a 2" grid, using a smaller one for the plain sections around the outside.

I also showed my Unity Quilt (a Bonnie Hunter pattern) at the meeting.  Several other people have been working on them, too, and I'm curious to see how theirs end up.  It was quite an intense experience, and I hope not to do another BH pattern for quite a while (if ever)!

  

The yellow fabric was a constant, but the neutrals (and there are many) and the light and dark blues were all scraps.  I had a lot of trouble fitting the last border on, even though each round's measurement were exactly as Bonnie had stated they should be.  In the pattern, she noted that the last border needed to be "eased," and I can attest to that.  It took me quite a while to get it on.

Marie quilted it in a swirly pattern and said she had no trouble with the last border, which was a relief to me.  It's now on our guest bed and looks great.  This is the best shot I've gotten, though, since the room is small.

Yesterday we drove over to Plattsburgh, NY, for calling hours for Paul's cousin who had passed away suddenly.  I had never met Susie, but we had talked about visiting sometime.  It's a good reminder to catch up with relatives sooner rather than wait. 

Guild Block of the Month

 We had our first Heart of Vermont quilt guild meeting Tuesday night, and it was so good to see everyone again.  Some hadn't been for several years due to COVID.  We sat in "teams" for the month we'd been assigned to.  With such a large guild (80 members?), we like being broken down into teams so that we meet new people.  When the guild first started, some of the people were very clique-ish.  I always try to sit by someone I don't know, but others were adamant that they had to sit with their friends.  I found it very annoying.  

We'll have a choice of where to sit during future meetings, but at this one, we made plans for our monthly programs.   We have some outside speakers coming, which is always fun, and then some home-grown programs this year.  I'll be doing the January program on UFOs, something I am very familiar with.  I want to encourage a little swapping of UFOs during that session, and I hope some will take me up on it.

There is always a block of the month, and last night "Indian Star" was introduced in a red and white colorway.  Above is my block to swap next month as introduced the other night, and here's my variation to keep.   As you can see, I wasn't wild about the suggestion to use just one red fabric.  I'll be curious to see what others do.  If I'd had a lighter red in my stash, I might have used that instead of the red on white.  But I like the way the block turned out.

We also were issued a challenge.  A quilter passed away, and her husband gave Suzy a batch of Asian panels and fabrics.  Anyone who wanted to, took one to work with in any way desired.  We'll have show and tell toward the end of the year, probably in June.  

I chose a panel with a deep purple background and what appears to be Mt. Fuji.  I'm putting it away for now and will get it back out later in the year.  Working on it will be a good snowy day project.  And yes, fall is here today, and a cold front with night temperatures in the 30s is predicted.  But there will still be warmer days, which is good because I have a little yard work to do.  

Two weeks of heat

 I have been busy trying to stay cool for the last couple of weeks - sewing with the air conditioning on, reading in front of the fan, and running to the library to do various things to help the Friends book sale  this coming weekend.

On the sewing front, I took two quilts to Marie to long arm, and I'll pick them back up on Thursday morning.  Don't know when I'll get them bound as I have plenty of other things in the pipeline.  I made a couple of mug rugs and a table runner.  One of the rugs is for a raffle basket and the other will go with us to Wisconsin along with various table runners for my brother to use as gifts for people who have helped him this past year.  

I turned my attention to a bunch of blocks of the month from Aby Dolinger's "Favorites" along with some Heart of Vermont guild blocks of the month, all done with the same background fabric.  They went together nicely in a 48" x 48" quilt which I quilted on a grid with a smaller grid for the plain pieces.

Next, the multi-sized house blocks I've been making for the rainbow scrap challenge all year called to me, and I set them together with sashing made of scrappy 2" squares.  I'm calling this quilt "Scrappy Town," and I've been quilting it for a day or so.  It is about 45" x 45".  I don't know if I'll give these two little quilts to Bags of Love (for foster kids) or change out some of the quilts I've had on my etsy shop for a while.  I may also change out the quilts at the florist's downtown.

In between, I was busy gobbling up Lessons in Chemistry because the e-book came up on my library waiting list.  It was one of my favorite books so far this year.  Very witty and quirky.  I wanted to finish that before the next book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, comes up.  My niece Evelyn liked it very much, as did her mother, so I am assured of a good read.  In between, I'm into the next Ruth Galloway mystery, The Locked Room, by Ellie Griffiths.  All good reading for hot afternoons.

I have a pile of quilted things to take outside to photograph, but it's been too hot and humid to go outdoors much.  We keep waiting for the contractor to install our heat pump - guess it will come in the fall in time for heating season.  I had hoped it would come sooner.  Meanwhile, Paul is busy picking blueberries, so I will be in the kitchen later today making my annual pie.  Luckily, I have some salads waiting in the fridge for dinner, so I won't be in the kitchen long.  Hope you're having a great weekend!