Block lotto

Yesterday, I took a drive down to Waitsfield to Mad River Quilting to deliver the blue and white and lime and black quilts for longarming.  It is always a lovely drive, and now that scrub and grasses have grown up along the river, you can hardly see the damage wrought by Tropical Storm Irene last year.  Let's hope this Labor Day weekend doesn't include another "event."  People are still recovering in so many ways. 

I picked out some black on white fabric for the back of the lime quilt.  I love the selection of fabric in Lisa's shop and wish she were a little closer.  I don't expect the quilts back until early November when I'll see her at the state quilt guild meeting.  We talked about the room set up for the meeting, too, since I'll be handling that and she handles the vendors.

When I got home, I took stock of projects in "the hopper" and finished a block for an online "block lotto."  This month's block has a bright green accent to its mainly black and white colorway:

We can make up to four blocks, and the names of participants are put in a hat.  The winner takes all.  I had a hard time coming up with my bright green accent fabric after making that lime and black quilt.  There were mostly strings left.  But I did manage to find this.  Next month's block has yellow accents and I hope to make a few more blocks since the more one makes, the more chances to win the whole shebang. 

I also made six Sylvia's Bridal Sampler "Wedding Ring 2" blocks for a Christmas novelty swap.  The blocks aren't due until November 30, but I like to keep on top of things.  I also have "Orange Peel" blocks prepared for the swap, and will take them to Colorado when Mom has her shoulder replacement surgery.

Some whim caused me to open the pizza box with my black/white/red row robin strips, and I decided to use them to border something.  I started cutting out 4" "Drunkard's Path" blocks, and made a bunch in black and white fairly quickly using my "Curve Master Foot."  It's fun to arrange them on the wall, so that's what I'll be doing today!

Black and lime ready for quilting!

American Patchwork and Quilting magazine called this Marti Michell pattern"Summer Bliss," but with my lime and black colorway, I am at a loss for a name.  I have plenty of time to think of one, though, since I'll be taking it to a long arm quilter along with another quilt.  I don't expect to see it until November when I'll see Lisa at the Green Mountain Quilters Guild meeting.  I am pleased with the way it turned out although I hardly have any scraps of lime left.  The 12 blocks were 20" each, so it measures 79" x 99" or thereabouts. 

Simple Graces

Yesterday our humidity broke long enough for me to finish handsewing the binding down on a quilt I've been working on for a while.  It's from Kim Diehl's book Simple Graces, although the border is based on a Barn Raising quilt in the collection of the Vermont Historical Society.  I quilted the center and then added the border before finishing the quilting.  It was a lot of maneuver but I'm happy with the result.

The background is a variety of shirting which I love to use for applique.  I won't be making any log cabin blocks with 1/2" blocks for a while, though!

Lime and black queen-sized quilt

It's been a rather intense week since I've been working on a quilt.  I don't usually follow patterns but this quilt, "Summer Bliss," designed by Marti Michell and featured in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine last month, caught my eye.   The magazine called it "easy, breezy," and I was looking for something rather quick that would use lime and black fabrics I've been accumulating for a while.  So picture this in those striking colors. 

The blocks are big - 20" - and there are just 12.  The star blocks alternate with the square in a square ones.  I started it last Saturday and hope to finish it today.  I ran out of one crucial fabric, so I called the store where I bought it about six months ago, and they popped it into the mail.  It came the next day!  Stay tuned for real photos...

Cornucopia of Thanks - month 3

I've been working on a block of the month with an online group.  Our aim is to finish Cornucopia of Thanks from Jennifer Chiaverini's new quilt book Traditions from Elm Creek.  So far, the blocks have been mighty difficult, so I hope next month's is easy.  Yesterday, amid the heat and humidity, I slaved over "Prosperity."

The "Y" seams were tough and I almost wished I had done them by hand.  But it turned out pretty good.  The colors don't show well here - the "red" is really a lipstick hot pink.

I am planning to make this a queen-sized quilt, so I made a few more blocks over the last few weeks.  Two came from various issues of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.  It's going to be colorful!