An Illustrated History of the Block Lotto

(Updated January 2010)

I pulled out some of the golden oldie block lotto photos recently and looking back was a lot of fun. For the curious, here's a brief, illustrated history of the Block Lotto.

2001 one was a year full of change and loss for me. In early February, I put everything I have into storage in California and drove across the country through snow and sleet and ice (and closed highways) to Michigan. My dad survived a round of heavy-duty chemo that no one expected him to be able to endure and, later in the year, died the same day that his doctor told him that everything was looking great. I was establishing myself in Michigan with a new job, a new home and making new friends. I don't remember my motivation for starting the block lotto, but, looking back, I suspect it was a way to reach out to old and new friends on the forum on quilting.about.com.

In 2002, the blocks for the lotto were all 12 inch (finished size) traditional blocks, made from Marcia Hohn's patterns on the Quilter's Cache site. There were no colorways specified, only indications of where to use the light, medium and dark fabrics.

You can see more of the snowballs, anvils, monkey wrenches, Annie's choice, stamp baskets, Ohio stars, bow ties, grandmother's fans, churn dashes, grandmother's favorites, sawtooth squares and Union Squares blocks and links to the block pattern pages in the 2002 Block Lotto Index. All the photos are also available in my 2002 Block Lotto collection on Flickr.

The two most popular months that first year were when we made star blocks: Annie's Choice blocks in April and Ohio Star blocks in June, so I concluded that a year of star blocks was a good idea.

In 2003, we made these star blocks from patterns on the Quilters Cache site.

I'm missing some photos from a few months and have no photos at all for the October blocks. I never really thought to hang onto my photos; I wish I had. Those first two years, I took photos of all the blocks, cropped and resized them and emailed them to Marcia, who created pages like this one, from January, each of which were linked to the corresponding pattern. Later, Marcia would quietly remove all those links. You can links to all the photos I have of these starflowers, laced stars, army stars, oddfellow's chain, Amish dahlia, hope of Hartford, Christmas quilt blocks, prizes, arrowheads, whirling star and heavenly star blocks, as well as links to the block patterns in the 2003 Lotto Block Index. All the photos can also be found in my 2003 Lotto block collection on Flickr.

The 2003 block lotto started strong, with a new high of 80 blocks entered in January, but participation waned as the months passed until November, when I found out what happens if you hold the block lotto and nobody plays. In hindsight, I think that many (most?) of the star blocks I chose that year were just too complex, but, back then, I figured that the lotto had run it's course and the time had come to end the monthly lotto.

I asked the other swap hostesses if anyone had any interest in picking it up and Vicki jumped at the chance. She picked up the lotto in January 2004 with a lot of enthusiasm and fresh ideas, but it seemed to have ran out of steam by August and dropped the lotto. I don't have photos of those blocks and only remember that they were almost all made exclusively from novelty fabrics.

A year later, in the summer of 2005, a lot of members of the quilting forum were discussing the need for more beginner-friendly swaps. That discussion prompted me to resurrect the lotto as the BEGINNER Block Lotto in August, 2005. For the rest of 2005 and all of 2006, we made beginner-friendly 10 inch (finished size) blocks in designated colorways or themes.

Names of the blocks and links to the photos of blocks made by everyone during 2005-2006, as well as links to the patterns can be found in the 2005 Lotto Block Index and 2006 Lotto Block Index. You can also find them all the block photos in the 2005-2006 Block Lotto collection on Flickr.

Initially, I set up web pages of the photos, as Marcia had done in the past. Early in the year, I discovered Flickr and switched to posting the photos to Flickr sets. When Delphiforums offered blogs, I set up the first Beginner Block Lotto Blog, then later jumped to another blog on blogger.

In 2006, there was a changing of the guard on quilting.about.com and Janet Wickell became the guide for Quilting. She was very open to working with me to create block patterns and publish the patterns that I created for the lotto which opened the door to new possibilities in 2007. She also promoted the block lotto in her newsletter and on the site. The emphasis continued to be on beginner-friendly blocks, with tutorials for possibly new techniques. We continued to grow and stretch and try new things and make lots (and lots) of beautiful blocks.

The block names and links to all the photos and block patterns for these blocks are here: 2007 Lotto Block Index. You can also find them all in the 2007 Block Lotto collection on Flickr.

In 2008, the logistics of the lotto changed, to make it a little easier to deal with the hundreds of blocks that were frequently being made and entered and, until 2008, being mailed to me. I also created this group blog, so that lotto regulars can become authors and create blog posts for photos of their blocks.

In 2008 we made 6 inch blocks--easier to mail around and versatile to use in totes, table runners and, of course, quilts.

You can find the illustrated list of the 2008 lotto blocks with block names and links to all the photos and the block patterns, here: 2008 Lotto Block Index.

In 2009, we embarked on a year of traditional blocks, sticking with the easy-to-mail 6 inch finished size.

The illustrated list of the 2009 lotto blocks with block names and links to all the photos and the block patterns is found here: 2009 Lotto Block Index.

Sadly, by March, the problems with Janet's lack of interest in quilting and responsiveness in posting the block patterns that I was creating for her and Quilting.about.com site on time for the monthly Block Lotto had grown to the point that I made the decision in March to move entirely to blogland.

By the end of the year, I realized that our list of past blocks in the sidebar had also grown to be too long and unmanageable . . . and so on New Year's Eve, I started to move those lists into Block Index blog posts, one for each year. At this point in time, our first year and the last five years are completed . . . and the last year (2003) is in progress. I'm almost done.

For 2010, we're leaving the traditional patterns behind and beginning an adventure in free-style or liberated quilting. So many people asked for bigger blocks, so we won't stick with one size for the year and will be playing with blocks, large and small.