Blocks Mailed

Trudie and Dianah:
I mailed your blocks to you this afternoon. Hope you enjoy them.

Blocks sent

Trudi, I sent your blocks off this morning. Congratulations!
Ginny

Mary Jane's November Blocks

Here are my nine for November.

October Mailing Info Has Been Sent

If you made October lotto blocks, you should have email from me with mailing information.

If you didn't receive the mail or there are any errors, be sure to contact me ASAP.

This month we have a new challenge for the lotto. Trudi tells me that the Royal Mail in the UK is on strike and that there are several 1-3 day strakes (stoppages?) planned over the next few weeks. So Trudi may see some additional delays on blocks coming to her and Dianah may experience some delays on blocks from the UK.

Let's all try to mail early so that any added delays don't really matter to our winners Trudi and Dianah.

Spool Blocks from Sneak Peekers

A few sneak peekers got busy early and made these Spool Blocks.

Ginny made these six blocks:




Kristin made these two:



Here are nine from Kate:




Seven from Terri:




And nine more from Trudi



(Click any of the images for larger pictures). We're off to a great start with 33 blocks to start the month.

Holiday Spool Blocks for November

According to Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Blocks, our November block was first published in 1906 in Clara Stone's Practical Needlework: Quilt Patterns as Fred's Spool. Ruby McKim referred to it as the Spool block in her 101 Patchwork Patterns which were published in 1920s-30s and reprinted by Dover in 1962 and, I think most quilters have long forgotten about Fred.

Kate made this pretty Spool block.

The traditional pattern was made from four trapezoid shapes with mitered corners, but an easier version uses squares and half square triangle units and a pattern can be found here: Grace's Spools

Pattern Notes

Note that the Grace's Spools pattern is for a very small quilt, made from 16 six-inch blocks. The cutting needed for a single block is:

Spool Fabric:

• Cut two 2-7/8" squares
• Cut three 2-1/2" squares

Background:

• Cut two 2-7/8" squares
• Cut two 2-1/2" squares

Trudi sent me these notes after making her blocks:

This was easy, I cut a 2 7/8 strip of each spool fabric from the short length of a FQ and that was all it took fabric wise, cut the 2 lg sqs and then trimmed for the 3 2 ½ sqs. I stacked the pieces and chain pieced them. Quick as anything! I used just shy of ¼ yd of red for all nine blocks.

Fabric Guidelines

Fabric choices this month will be HOLIDAY. Let's make Christmas-y blocks in November for a nice holiday gift for our winner(s). Please use any HOLIDAY fabric for the SPOOL fabric and RED fabrics (solids or tone-on-tone prints) for the BACKGROUND. You may use the same RED background for all your blocks, but all the SPOOL fabrics should be unique.

A little Inspiration

Thanks to the efforts of sneak peekers Ginny, Kate, Kristin, Terri and Trudi, here's an idea of how a selection of this month's blocks could play together.

Thanks, ladies, for providing the eye candy ;-)

October's Numbers

Recapping October's numbers:

• Debbie - 4
• Dianah - 3 *** WINNER #2 ***
• Ginny - 3 (donated chances)
• Julie - 6
• Kate - 9
• Kristin - 9
• Laura - 9
• Lisa - 9 + 2 extras
• Louise - 1
• Mary Jane - 7 (donated chances)
• Pat - 6
• Shelley - 9
• Sophie - 3 (donated chances)
• Terri - 1
• Trudi - 9 *** NEWBIE *** *** WINNER #1 ***

Total Blocks for the month = 90

Blocks in the mail

Hi all,

Finally got the Sept winner blocks in the mail today!  Please let me know that they make it to their destinations.

Sorry for the lateness,
Jill

Congratulations to October Winners!

Congratulations to October Winners! Trudie and Dianah - Make somethin' prettty!

OCTOBER WINNERS

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

TRUDIE WITH 48 BLOCKS

DIANAH WITH 42 BLOCKS

CONGRATULATIONS AND MAKE SOMETHING PRETTY!!

Here are my 6

Hi Sophie

I fixed my rogue star and could only get one more block made so 6 has to be my lucky number this month.

Pat K.

3 For ME!

It is 11:40pm on the west coast. I was trying for 4 blocks but I really want to go to bed. These 3 blocks will be it for me this month.

Tomorrow's Deadline and Drawing

Just a reminder . . . NOON (US east coast time) is the deadline for entering blocks for October.

I will be sending the list of names to Mary Jane, who will be using a random number picker to choose our TWO WINNERS this month. (Thanks, Mary Jane for being the woman of the hour).

This will definitely be happening ON TIME tomorrow as I have tickets for a 2:00 PM performance at the new AT&T Performing Arts Center–I'm really looking forward to checking it out . . . even if it does seem a little odd to attend a performance of A Midsummer's Night's Dream at the end of October.

I would love to continue again next year with what ever is decided upon I would love to see more Autumn coloures browns,tans rust ect used Sorry not been able to do any blocks for October but we have had workmen in doing building work so every where as been such a mess I will be going into hospital in November but will try and do some blocks Sylvia

More Blocks

Jana: Your lovely blocks arrived this morning. Thank you.