Block Lotto: March

I love these blocks! Whoever wins them will be able to make a smashing quilt!
As always, I hope it's me, but as I just won a heap of mug blocks it's a little selfish to be hankering after these as well. ;-)

Big bag completed!

This is my new "Mondo Bag." I bought the pattern for it at a quilt shop in Vermont last year, and had put it away for some time in the future.....but at my last guild meeting I couldn't resist buying a package of coordinated batik strips that I thought would be perfect for the project and presto! Here it is.
The pattern comes with printed interfacing that you fuse the squares onto, and then you sew it afterwards, so it's less work than it looks. But it took me a long time, because I kept making mistakes that I had to rip out. I actually sewed the entire bag together incorrectly, and when I saw that what I'd made was not a bag at all but more like a crooked sculpture I had to take out EVERY seam and start again. In retrospect I think all the mistakes were my fault---I just didn't really read the directions carefully enough, and the bag construction was not what I expected. I think I could make a second one in about 1/3 the time it took me to make this one.
Now I feel like a real quilter, with a big quilted bag of my own to take to guild meetings. I can't wait to show it off at the March meeting.

Sandy Quilt

I was excited to see this photo online posted by Nancy Rogers who put together a Sandy Quilt that I made some blocks for. Here it is:

I can see some of my blocks in there---they were fun and easy to make. Nancy did a great job!

Easy Street Back

I just finished piecing a back for my Easy Street quilt, and managed to use up almost all of the extra pieces I'd sewn for the front that had gone unused! I guess I ended up with so many extra geese and checkerboards because I changed the orientation of the blocks in the quilt: mine are straight set while Bonnie's are on point. All the rest of the pieces of fabric are from my stash, including a couple that a friend had given me when her mother (a quilter) had died. It feels great to finally use up some of my  stash that's been lurking around for years, and of course it makes room for the new fabric.

The front of the quilt looks pretty much the same as the last time I posted, but I've added a couple of slim borders. Sorry the photo is not better---I am still using my cell phone. Maybe today will be the day I finally take that camera in to see if the charger can be repaired! Then again, it's only 20 degrees, so maybe not.

Easy Street, so far

Here are the blocks I've made so far for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Easy Street, up on my design wall. Please accept my apologies for the poor quality of the photograph---I've somehow damaged the end of the cable that allows my camera to be connected to the charger, so now that the camera's battery has run down I am out of luck.  I snapped this photo, in not-great light, with my new iPad mini. Not great, but it's probably better than what I would have gotten with my cell phone. I'll see if I can get a new charger for the camera after work tomorrow.

I've set my blocks straight, rather than on-point the way Bonnie did in her design, and I've made fewer blocks. I really like the quilt set this way, so I may keep this layout, and just add one more row of blocks so that my quilt will will be rectangular rather than square when it's finished. I'll probably add a couple of borders to it as well, and I think I may even have some fabric in my stash that would work with these colors. I hope I'll have more progress to report soon---I've already sewn one more block since I took this photo, so there's hope.

Shopping...

I've been too busy to sew for awhile, so I think I'm taking out my quilting fever by shopping...for quilting supplies of course!

I just bought the cuttest pattern on-line called "Spin Cycle" from Cluck Cluck Sew.  It came as a pdf, so I just downloaded it and printed it out. I can't wait to start it!

I also just ordered a bunch of new quilting fabric on sale from Hancock's Of Paducca. I love their web sales! I tend to order groups of pre-cut fabric during these sales, like a dozen fat quarters, and then end up hanging on to them for awhile until I figure out how to use them. But I'm almost always glad to have them in my stash, as they usually end up in an interesting project at some point.

My mom gave me a check for Christmas, because she didn't have a chance to shop. I think she'll be pleased to hear that I managed to spend most of it today.

Tall Shoo Fly blocks for Block Lotto

 

 I plan to donate my chances this month since I won the mug blocks last month. These are very sweet, aren't they? These are the first rectangular blocks I've ever made. It's an interesting idea.