Maple Leaf Blocks

In April we made 108 maple leaf blocks for the lotto. The lucky winners were Colene, Dianna, Julie and Kristen. By Fall, these should become some very pretty Autumn Leaf quilts.

The pattern for the 9-inch maple leaf blocks that we used is on the Quilting site on about.com - Maple Leaf Quilt Block.

Snowballs

Yes, the nearly 400 snowball blocks (from both the lotto and the donations for kids charity quilts) OVERWHELMED me in March and I've been struggling to catch up ever since. They are, at long last, finally on their way to their new homes.

Here are the lotto blocks that were won by Desiree, Judy, Nell, Pat, Silvia, and Stacy.
















Stay tuned for an update on the Charity quilt blocks.

A Record Year So Far

We're half-way through ther 2007 Beginner Block Lotto and it's already been a record-breaking experience:

• More blocks in the first 6 months of 2006 than during the 16 month run of the lotto in 2005-6 (669 vs. 651)
• Most blocks in a month (384 in March, combining both lotto blocks and those made for charity quilts.)
  
• Longest delay in posting photos of blocks
• Longest delay in sending blocks to winners
• First time that someone has won TWICE and the first blocks are so late, I sent both sets of blocks together.
• Two international winners in a month.
  

Ok, so most of the records aren't the positive kind ... I'm hoping to do much better as hostess for the second half of 2007.

Snowballs in March

After a scary drive into work yesterday--in a snowstorm, on roads that were more like skating ponds than anything else, it seems a natural that we should be making snowball blocks in March for the Beginner Block lotto. Here are mine ... so far--they are so easy and addictive, I know I'll end up making more.





Some of the sneek-peekers also have already made blocks-I edited the photos that Lee Ann and Michelle sent me (and added a few of my blocks) to create a virtual kids quilt. You'll find it in the second message in the forum discussion this month.

And the winner is ...

PURPLE.

I received more purple blocks (16) in February than any other color ... which probably doesn't come as a surprise to some of you. This doesn't count anything that was really more red-violet, which I stacked with the red and pink blocks--there were 12 of those.

Did you think that I was talking about the winners of the drawing on Wednesday? Those winners were Jen and Sue. Congratulations ladies.

I know are going to love these blocks and make something wonderful from them. As I was sorting them into colors before dividing them up, I had to take a moment and try a few on the design wall with the Hoffman Challenge focus fabric. I think Sue and Jen may find a place for the Hoffman fabric in their quilts.

I wanted to give that state map thing another try. I hope I didn't miss anyone this time--be sure to let me know if I did. Colored states (both colors) are where the blocks were made; yellow states are where our winners live. In February, I received blocks from Alison, Ardyth, Bonnie, Colene, Debbie, Georgene, Jennifer, Julie, Kate, Laura, Lee Ann, Michelle, Pat, Sandy, Sherry, Silvia, Sue and Terri

A nice distribution, I think (and, of course, this doesn't include Kate in the UK).

More Pinwheel Blocks

Here are photos of the rest of the February Pinwheel blocks. Yummy, aren't they?

From Ardyth:



From Bonnie:



From Julie:



From Laura:



From Sherry:




From Sue:



From Sylvia: