Square Pants block

I made this block using scraps today from a pattern I found on a blog called Lily's Quilts, which you can find here. The blog's author, Lynne, made her block with a black background, and was more artful about how she arranged the pieces,  so that she ended up with a block where the two overlapping squares embedded in the pattern emerged more clearly. If I make this block again, I'll try to follow her example more closely, so that my block won't look like such a jumble of color.

She wasn't sure whether she'd invented the block, or what it's name was, so she decided to name it after herself.....and one of my favorite cartoon characters: LynneBob Square Pants. I've abbreviated mine to be called simple The Square Pants Block..

African Violet blocks for Block Lotto

I made 5 block for the September round of Block Lotto, and may may a few more if I get a chance. These blocks are easy to make, and they are fun besides---they look very 70s to me. I love participating in Block Lotto, because I always come away with new ideas for blocks, even when I don't win.

Small floral quilt...Done!

I posted earlier in the summer about my ideas for making a 20 x 20-inch quilt for my quilt guild's summer challenge project. In the end, I decided to used a quilt-as-you-go block that I'd made last year and had never used.  One of my favorite parts about his block is the back: I really love how it came out, even though I am new to this kind of machine appliqueing.  Here are a couple of photos showing details of how the back looks:

I'm sorry that the photo quality is not better, but you get the idea!

It was tricky to add borders to a quilt top that already had a backing and binding attached to it. Since I had made this as part of a class at City Quilter in Manhattan, I had a vague memory of the instructors teaching me how to do it, but that was about it.  After quite a bit of incorrect cutting (luckily I had extra fabric!) and ripping out of bad stitching I was able to create something that was more-or-less what I wanted. And I still have two more of these blocks, so maybe I'll make small quilts from them as well.

Log cabin contest

I just entered this log cabin quilt, which I made as a gift for my husband Mac a couple of years ago, into a weekly on-line contest. This is the first time I'm entering....if you're reading this post and you've had any experience with this kind of contest I hope you'll let me know!

Anyway, you can go to the website over the weekend and vote for my quilt. Visit early and often! Any votes will be much appreciated. Here's the address: 

http://quiltinggallery.com/2011/08/05/log-cabin-quilts-2/

Thank you and happy quilting!

Surprise!

My mail this morning contained this wonderful hand-made postcard, sent to me by Julie Post in Titonka, Iowa, who's the author of the Joe Tulips blog. She sent it after I'd left a question on her blog asking if she puts the gorgeous postcards she makes in the mailbox, or if she seals them up in envelops first. I guess I got my answer (no envelope).

I'm going to hang this up in my sewing room and smile every time I see it. It's made my day.

36-patch blocks

I've just begun another project using an idea I got from a blog called Crazy Mom Quilts written by a quilter named AmandaJean. I love her ideas and patterns---they're usually simple, but they are clean and beautiful too.

Anyway, the idea here is to make 12-inch blocks, each out of two fabrics that are of different values. She suggested going through your stash to find fabrics that had small prints on them, and then dividing them into piles of darks, mediums and lights before selecting pairs that you thought would work well together.

I jumped at the idea because I'd recently been going through my stash for another project, and had found a number of great fabrics in there that I hadn't looked at for months or years. As I'd come upon a piece I loved I'd wonder why I hadn't make anything from it yet, and feel sorta bad that it was just sitting in a cabinet for so long. Once you've collected a lot of fabric, it really IShad to figure out how to use it and it's easy to neglect pieces that you really love, or that you purchased at a terrific little shop you found on a vacation or were given as a gift.

So this project seems to me like the perfect one for getting some of those treasures to into the light of day. And it's a project without any deadline, which makes it pretty appealing too. AmadaJean encouraged the quilters who follow her blog to try to finish a specific number of blocks a week---lets say 2 or 3 or 4---since this type of project is so easy to pick up and put away. I'm on a roll, having made 6 blocks already, but even if I run out of steam I can pick this up anytime.

I am trying to use a little green in each block so they will tie together when I've finished, at least enough to make a quilt out of them that hangs together. I imagine I'll make a queen-sized quilt, so I can use it on my bed so I'll have a chance to admire the fabrics I've loved for so long now that they're "out!"

Wonky checkerboard blocks

I make these 8 checkerboard blocks for the July round of Block Lotto. Again, it's not the kind of block I'd ever have thought I'd want to make, but I had fun putting them together and I am pleased with how they came out. Wonky quilting is starting to grow on me.

It's an easy block to make, so I'm glad to have it in my arsenal of quick-and-happy blocks that could be used to make a baby quilt or get-well gift. This would be a very good month to win the lotto challenge, as the winners will receive enough blocks to make a lap-sized quilt. I've got my fingers crossed!