Congrats to Winners
Just wanted to congratulate the winners and also say sorry that I did not get any butterfly’s entered. It is my Daughters Senior year and Prom dress shopping turned in to prom dress making. And our 28th wedding Anniversary was this past week end and My hubby planned a weekend away.. I know that it is not necessary to explain why I did not get any entered but I had to its just a me thing..
My 2016 block lotto challenge – from blocks to tops
My finished top for April:
My top for May will probably be from blocks from October 2014, woven bars.
Four for My OMMS
Here’s my butterflies for the OMMS minus one that will be made at a later date. Looks like I have a thing for orange polka dotted fabric.
More Tips and Options for Butterfly Blocks
During the sneak peek, I said that I had an idea for how to make this month’s block without paper piecing it. Yesterday, I finally got around to trying it.
The basics are that I printed the foundation pattern onto the non-shiny side of freezer paper (cut to size and flattened to fit through my printer). I cut the printed foundation apart and ironed the templates onto my fabrics, then used a ruler and rotary cutter to add 1/4 inch seam allowance all around and cut out the pieces. I sewed the block together in the same numbered order as the paper-pieced block. You can read more about my experience on my blog.
 |
 |
 |
If you thinking of making Susan’s butterfly block pattern for your sampler, the directions are available on her blog. You can find them here:
If you haven’t tried paper piecing and are working your way up to try it this month, Barb P shared a link to this very beginner friendly introduction – Paper Piecing Made Easy Tutorial.
A little butterfly quilt idea …
I fell asleep thinking about combining the Butterfly block with one from Block Lotto’s past (April 2009) and woke up (too early) still thinking about it. I gave up on falling back to sleep, first made coffee and then quickly drew this in EQ.
18 Butterfly blocks + 17 traditional Thrifty blocks + 4 inch borders = 38 by 50 inch baby quilt.
You can find directions for making the thrifty block on Sophie Junction in this post:
On my list of “someday” is the task of making printable versions of some of my favorite past Block Lotto patterns … like this one.
As soon as I uploaded the photo above … I thought maybe it would look better with sashing and cornerstones. What do you think?
With 1 inch (finished size) sashing added, the size of this little quilt becomes 44 by 58 inches. You could make the sashing 2 inches wide–with solid or Black and white 4-patch cornerstones … but I really have to stop playing now and get on with my day 😉
Both designs were constructed with only two orange fabrics, two blue fabrics and one each black and white … naturally, I believe that scrappier would be more interesting.
Follow the Block Lotto on Facebook
Since it seems I can’t stop thinking about things I need to post about here … I keep thinking that it has been a while since I mentioned the Facebook page I set up for the Block Lotto and some of you who are knew here might not know about it.
I link the important posts and share quilts from the Gallery and other blogs. If you’re “on Facebook” and didn’t know about it, you might want to check it out. If you’re NOT on Facebook, don’t worry … nothing is ever only posted over there.
Sampler Saturday – Notes and Options for Butterfly Blocks
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 choices. Here is some additional info for those making samplers and some options for those who aren’t fans of paper-piecing.
Someone emailed me this morning–I confess I was still wrapped up in bed with my morning coffee, reading my email–to ask for a clue about what color I meant by “mountain,” for the Old MacDonald’s Mystery Sampler (OMMS).
If you look at the layout for the blocks revealed so far, you might envision the beginnings of a landscape, with violets and some sort of ground cover (snail’s trails) in the foreground and the blue sky in the distance.
One of the butterflies is closer to the ground than the rest.
Now imagine that there are some mountains or hills in the distance.
The color of those mountains depends on your vision for your “landscape. ” I originally colored them with grays and dark purples, but for my quilt, I will likely use dark reds and brown’s as a nod to the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico that appear red as the sun sets and reflects upon them.
Since that fifth butterfly is closer to the ground, it has mountains behind it and so using a color that blends with the mountains as background will make it blend with adjacent blocks.
FYI, we’ll be adding those mountains or hills later this summer, so t’s OK if you want to wait until then to make your last butterfly.
There must be something in the air, because as I was enjoying my coffee, reading email and cruising blogs, I kept seeing butterflies. I even noticed that Massdrop is offering a “drop” of a fat quarter bundle of Lizzie House Butterflies. Spring may not yet really be here … but butterflies are everywhere.
If you are making an OMMS and don’t want to make the paper pieced blocks … you might make check out one of these pieced blocks:
 |
As part of her column-along for the Rainbow Scraps Challenge, Angela shared this pattern for a 6-inch block last month – find it here: Large Butterfly |
|
Our own Susan shared this photo of a pieced butterfly block that she designed on her blog–clicking her name will take you there. She has plans to share a tutorial for making it. If you like this, you might want to follow her blog and watch for it. |
I also will be putting together a tutorial on how to convert a foundation pattern so you can traditionally piece it, using this month’s Block pattern as the example.
If you are making 4 blocks each month for the Graduated sampler and don’t want to make the paper-pieced block, you could make four of Angela’s or Susan’s block … or consider a larger butterfly.
Marcia Hohn has a 12 inch block called Easy Pieced Butterfly on the Quilter’s Cache site, that is made from squares, rectangles and half-square triangle units. (I couldn’t include a photo of the block because of the protections on her images, so you will have to click over to check it out).
This morning, I saw these butterflies on our Cathy’s blog. The blocks are 12 inches wide and 5 inches tall. You could make two of these, add a 1 1/2 inch strip of Sky/background at the top of each and sew them together for a 12 inch block.
The pattern is free. It’s called Ghost Moth, by Elizabeth Hartman and is available on the Robert Kaufman site here.
I love the crazy-pieced made fabric in Cathy’s butterflies … and I know one of the sneak seekers has done the same thing with this month’s block pattern for her Old MacDonald’s Mystery Sampler–wait until you see it.
I am so tickled…
I am so tickled to have been one of the winners this month! What a very warm welcome I’ve received! Thank you for your kind words Glenna, Mariella and Pat K!
Can’t wait for the blocks to arrive! I’ll be sure to post thank you so as they arrive!
Violets for Old MacDonald Mystery Quilt
Here are my 11 violet blocks from the Old MacDonald mystery quilt. These would have been posted earlier but when doing the layout for the photo I discovered there was only 10. Back to the cutting board and sewing machine.
Please note the size of the yellow centres sometimes (most of the time) differs from the specified 1.25 inches. This was because I had previously cut a lot of 1.5 inch yellow squares for larger violet blocks, and did not think it feasible to shave of a quarter of an inch off these. Margaret
Bonus Block Update and World-Wide Quilting Day
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 Quilters to make this little quilt.
This little quilt measures 15 inches wide by 22 1/2 inches tall.
Because in this process everything is cut with scissors and no measuring, I didn’t measure or square up the bonus blocks used to make the pinwheels in any way and some of them were chopped as part of the process of creating the floating squares. This little quilt was so much fun and came together very quickly … and I even quilted it (with a simply spiral) the same day.
I confess that I keep thinking about using this technique for a sampler quilt setting … and if I can find the set of lotto blocks I misplaced, it could happen soon.
I blogged about my process here – Floating Squares (and Pinwheels)
I shared the first, small Clover Blossom block I made from the batik bonus blocks (from the violets for my Old MacDonald’s Mystery Sampler) earlier this month.
I blogged about the slippery scrappy slope that I found myself upon with this project last week on my blog … and today, I bit the bullet and made 92 MORE scrappy HST units to finish the borders for this quilt.
For this quilt, the bonus triangles were carefully pressed and squared up to a uniform size (1 1/4 inches, to finish at 3/4 inch). When it came to making more for the border, I couldn’t force myself to make them that small, so I used a die cutter to cut triangles for 1 inch (finished size) HSTs.
This measures 24 inches square.
Quilting this is on the list of possible “quilting day” projects tomorrow. Since the local guild doesn’t recognize National Quilting Day, I’ll be spending the day in my sewing space at home … working on something to be determined tomorrow morning.
With the dissolution of the NQA, I’m not sure if it’s National Quilting Day, International Quilting Day, or Worldwide Quilting Day … whatever you call it, if you are celebrating, have fun !