I haven’t yet made any of the butterfly blocks for my samplers … so instead of my design wall, I’m sharing this crazy photo of a chameleon with a monarch butterfly that I think I snagged from a Facebook post. The butterfly’s colorful friend is also a reminder that while you have to follow the guidelines for blocks you make enter for the Block Lotto drawing … when it comes to YOUR sampler, you can make other...

This is no April Fool’s joke.  Because it is sometimes easiest to realize the design in your head by creating a foundation pattern and paper-piecing it,  It is a good tool to have in your quilting repetoire. In April, we will be making a 6-inch (finished size) Butterfly block. Susan made this one. The block is made from four fabrics: 2 oranges for the wings, a black body and light blue or aqua for the sky (background). See complete fabric...

In April, we made a popular block from the Block Lotto’s past: Violet. Barb P made these four Violet blocks. In total, 46 quilters made 222 Violet blocks which were won by Karen N, Glenna (a first time winner!), Kristin, Erin and Karen L (a newbie!) Complete guidelines for April are in this post:   First Flowers of Spring – Violets Redux   The tag for ALL blog posts about this  block: violet   This post is the public...

We ended the month with 222 Violet blocks–enough for five winners. 20 of those were donated without chances, which left 202 names in the drawing. The first two winners will receive a set of 48 blocks; the other three will receive 42 beautiful violets. The result from the integer generator from Random.org:       Two of the numbers were assigned to the same person, so a replacement was selected:     All these lovely...

Linnea emailed me with this photo because she’s mobile and couldn’t post it.  She’s donating her...

It’s that time again … if you are one of the 35 quilters who have made 161 violet blocks (so far!) then you should have just received email from me with the sneak peek at the April blocks. This is also that time of the month when I ask you to click over to the At-a-Glance page to make sure you are on the list, if you made blocks, that the number of blocks for you is correct and you’re in the right category (in the drawing or...

Honestly, although I cannot throw them out, most of the bonus half-square triangle units I create end up in a completely unorganized bin with many others  for a “some day” project.  So, it is a little surprising that I have already used used this month’s crop in two small quilt projects. The pinwheels were treated as “squares” for the Floating Squares exercise from Sherri Lynn Wood’s book, Improv for Modern...

I feel like I have been moving at a snail’s pace this month … … but, I did get my butt to the post office today to mail my snail’s trail blocks to the three February winners. (The video is so ridiculous, but somehow seemed appropriate to...

During the sneak peek, Jude shared a link to this design idea. This is a commercial pattern called Flower Garden; if you’re interested, you can learn more about it here. The flower in this block is similar to our Violet  …  and it has some similarities to a block Kate designed, which was our lotto block for April 2011 shown here. I called it Modern Clover. Keep reading and I’ll show you why … Jude’s message and the...

For those who love/prefer paper piecing, Cath Hall of Wombat Quilts shared a paper foundation pattern for Birds in the Air earlier this week. Clicking the link or the image should take you to her blog post about it.  I think the addition of a third fabric is kind of interesting,...

If you have made some violet blocks, you likely have a pile of triangles that look something like this. These are the 88 bonus triangles you’ll have if you make 11 blocks for Old MacDonald’s Mystery Sampler. Do you sew them up into half-square triangles and use them or save them or … toss them because they are too small? When you make 6 -inch blocks, if you sew up the bonus triangles, you’ll have half-square triangles...

I’ve been making violets this weekend … and apparently also continuing to incorrectly say that violets aren’t spring flowers.  Mother Nature (and commenters on my blog) have gently shown me the error of my ways. These (and many many more like them) are growing and blooming in my front yard.  I know if I post a photo, someone will tell me if they aren’t actually violets, but some other flower. The challenge of moving...