What if (a quilt design idea)
What if you make (or win) a bunch of this month’s blocks, but …
- You want to make a large quilt
- You want something different than “balls”
In the block directions, I suggested you could think of this block as a blocky Drunkards Path block and consider layouts used for that traditional quilt unit. What about this one?
In this traditional quilt, an equal number of blocks are made with opposite fabric placement, so for a Drunkard’s Fireball quilt, you’d need to make some blocks with red /orange/pink fabrics in the center and the skinny logs.
To make a large quilt, of course, you’d need to make a bunch of blocks … What if you did that?
Here’s how a similar arrangement of Fireball and Reverse Fireball blocks would look.
This quilt will measure 90 inches square. It’s made from 144 Fireball blocks, with a 3-inch inner border and a 6-inch outer border. if you wanted a pieced border like the inspiration quilt, make 3 inch Half-Square Triangle units for the inner border.
There are other traditional layouts of drunkard’s path blocks to consider … here are a few.
If you win, what will you make from your blocks?
Using the New Editor
With the latest update update, there is a new editor. It was known as Gutenberg when it was under development and is now just called the WordPress Block Editor.
It looks a little different and that may be a bit daunting … to refresh your memory, here’s how a new post in the old (now called Classic) editor looks:
And here’s how the new Block Editor looks when you start:
The new Block editor includes many types of “blocks” you can add and customize in your posts. For us, we’ll mostly use Paragraph and Image blocks. The editor puts each paragraph of text and each image into a separate block.
Because each block is separate, you can add things like custom backgrounds and font colors for each block, like I have here.
You will see tabs for Document and Block on the right side of your screen. after you have added the Text and Image blocks for your post click over to the document tab, to set the Category and Tags. To change things like font size and color and background color click the Block tab when you are in the block you want to change.
If you wanted to schedule a post, you’d set the new date and time by looking in section, Status and Availability, at the top, and click the link labelled immediately for Publish–a calendar and options to enter date and time will be displayed.
If you are interested to learn more about the capabilities of the new editor, search for “Gutenberg editor” or “WordPress block editor” and you’ll find lots of articles, reviews and videos that go through all the things you can do with the new Block Editor. Here’s one … of someone sharing his first experience with the new editor that covers the basics.
Something New …
The next time you crate a post, you’ll notice that that there’s been some changes. Along with an update of the underlying WordPress for this site, came a new, more flexible editor.
I’ll put together a tutorial post this weekend, but in the meantime, please don’t get frustrated and be a little patient with me until then.
The Year That Was – a Block Lotto Review of 2018
Happy New Year!
As I was waiting for my Black-eyed Peas to cook this morning, I was thinking about the year that was, here at the Block Lotto.
Last year, when I realized that the work and health-stuff I was dealing with was overwhelming, a number of quilters stepped up and took over the Block Lotto–one month at a time. I probably haven’t said it enough, but I am very grateful to Robin, Cathy K, Angie, Beth, Deana, Nann (who hosted twice!), Julie W, Susan, Linda, and Karen for bringing their design and color ideas and organizational skills and hostessing the Block Lotto.
As a group, 52 quilters made just under 1000 Lotto Blocks this year. Here they are once, again:
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We didn’t just make blocks, we also made them into quilts. These 16 quilts were shared here in 2018–I’ve added links (click the image) to their stories:
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I am looking forward to meeting more creative quilters and seeing more interesting blocks and great quilt in 2019! Thank you all for bringing your creativity here.
A Quilt idea for Scrappy Star blocks
For those of you who celebrate it, I hope you had a peaceful Christmas. A reminder to everyone that the drawing will take place on this coming Monday, New Year’s Eve. As my time zone is about 7 hours ahead of most of you (UTC+02), I will try to do it as close to mid-day Eastern Standard Time (UTC-05) as possible.
And, after falling down the rabbit-hole of looking at pretty quilt pictures on the web, I found an idea for a quilt top with these blocks, and an idea to enlarge the block:
https://www.scrapish.com/star-quilt-pattern.html
Cheers, Karen in Cape Town.
2019 Theme for Blocks (and rules for monthly Block Lotto Leaders)
Based on the survey feedback, here’s my vision for 2019 and the rules for anyone who’d like to create a pattern and be the Block Mom for a month next year.
Blocks will:
- Be 6 inches finished size
As postal rates increase and rules become more restrictive about “squishie” envelopes, this feels like the right size - Have designs which become something more when they are joined into a 4-patch.
This could be something like the pairs of double four-patch lotto blocks in this quilt:
Or it could be something like the Big-O blocks we made a few years ago where 4 of the lotto blocks would combine to create the Big O:
Or or it could be a block which has a secondary design element in a straight set.
If you have an idea for a block that fits these guidelines and would like to lead a month of the Block Lotto in 2019, here’s what else you need to know …
The feedback was that things needs to be more regular and predictable and that the leader needs to be more engaged throughout the month. To that end, here are the rules for Block Lotto Leaders.
- On DAY 1 of the month, you must create 2 posts: One with the block choice, pattern and guidelines and one in which you will update the number of blocks made (at least weekly).
I understand that some of you don’t understand the reasons for maintaining a list post … but this year, when the list wasn’t created/updated, there have been more mistakes in the final count. - On the LAST day of the month, you will select the winner(s). If you aren’t going to be available on that day of the week or that particular date, DON’T agree to lead that month.
- On at least one other day during the second or third week of the month, create a post related to the lotto block–it could be about your inspiration (for block or color/fabric combination), it could be quilt design ideas for using the lotto blocks in a quilt or for using the block pattern for your own projects.
One more thing … although the majority of survey takers said they didn’t need/care for a quilt design or quilt-along, I got inspired anyway and designed a quilt for next year’s blocks. to make this quilt, we’ll need 4 of each month’s block. I have also created a page with more information: Sampler Quilt 2019
Happy birthday!
…you can’t hide from birthdays when you’re on Facebook…And that’s how I know that it’s Sophie’s birthday! Hope your day’s been great.
A correction
All four of my blocks are for donation. Sorry I forget to say that for my last two. Margaret Rolfe
Halloween witches, goblins and ghosts have been working while I’ve been away
I’m happy to see all the beautiful Halloween blocks — we’re up to 59! I’ve been away from the site (and my sewing machine) for most of the month, so happy to see all the good work going on! The running tally is in the October 9 post, so check to see if I have correctly listed your blocks, entries, and donations. Keep sewing, and start sampling that candy!
Linda
Plan for Block Lotto 2019
I left the survey open longer than planned, hoping for more responses and just closed it. We had 48 quilters respond–which is about half as many as last year. You can see the results of the four multiple-choice questions and some of my thoughts here:
2019 Block Lotto Survey Results
Based on your input and the suggestions you supplied, here are some of the highlights from my plan:
- There will be a theme and uniform size (6 inches) for all 2019 blocks. Smaller blocks are just less-expensive to mail around the world.
- We will continue to have volunteer Designer/Leader of the month, but I will also Design/Lead some months.
- There will be additional requirements for Designer/Leader of the month to keep things more interactive and more consistency in posting the new block, follow-ing up and drawing/posting the winners.
- There will be a sampler quilt design and quilt-along. I know this is a supported by the minority of which I am a member, but I saw a (non-sampler) quilt that inspired an idea that won’t let go …
Look for more details for Designer/Leaders, next years theme and the scrappy sampler quilt design in a post later this month.
Edited to add:
The blog post with the survey link was published on September 2nd and the link was shared on the Block Lotto Facebook page the same day.