Here are four more random blocks... I'm still doing catch-up blocks for Friday Block Party.
Not that I have to, I just feel badly that I made a commitment and then flaked on it. How hard is it to make a block a week and post it to a blog that I don't even host? Donna has been really sweet to pull a number of a block for us all to do each week, and there isn't any pressure from anybody to do each and every one. I just think it would be really neat to have 52 blocks in a box at the end of the year! Some of the people who are doing the FBP blocks have different colors or specifc prints they use for the different sized blocks... so they can actually make reasonable looking quilts with the blocks they've made and some of us never even thought of anything that organized! The blocks are all free from Marcia Holm's Quilter's Cache. Some of the blocks really neat, some are not the most interestingto make, and some have wildly complicated directions - the "This isn't as hard as I'm making it look" variety - but making a block a week really does improve our piecing skills, especially those of us who are beginners! I know my points have gotten much more accurate and I'm not intimidated by HSTs or small blocks with lots of pieces.
Color choice is another matter - sometimes it is on, and other times not so much. I have a lot of scraps (Kerstin will vouch that I simply cannot throw anything out) and fabric that is pretty dated... but making "scrappy" quilts this year and teh weekly FBP blocks is using up a good deal of that stash. I'm not officially keeping track of yards in/yards used, but the last fabric I purchased was the back for Marjory's quilt (which I had sent directly to Kerstin and didn't even see until it was quilted onto the top!) and the fat quarters I bought at Sisters in July. Oh, no... I forgot...there was the FQ I bought at the Pacific NW Quilt Expo, but I sent that directly to my Friendship Bag Swap partner... so I'm not sure that counts either.)
Let's see, what blocks do we have in this post? "Footstool" is the first - not sure why it is called that... I'm not seeing it in the block, but whatever. I changed the direction of the hourglass blocks, so I may have inadvertently made another block entirely!
Next is "Rotunda", though my bright color choices and the elephant print make it a bit hard to seee the tradional block pattern.
The one that looks blue is actually black-and-white print, and red-and-white print ... appropriate for "Dewey Dream" (yeah, 'Black and white and red all over' - sorry, couldn't help myself!)
This very last block is not a catch up, it is the current FBP block for week 44 - can you believe it!?? the year is almost over - called "Gamecock". I can't leave well enough alone, though, so I did what my friend Hetty suggested, and swapped out the center square. It was supposed to be the BG color, but I used a blue one. It does make the birds' heads a little harder to see, but the block was way too white the way it was designed!
This is the block that Tamara chose for the November block for our NorCal BOM... my blocks are going to become a Christmas Quilt. With that in mind, I've taken the liberty of swapping out a few of the "less Christmas-y" block choices, and replacing them with ones I liked better.
Here are four more random blocks... I'm still doing catch-up blocks for Friday Block Party.
My wonderful Friendship Bag Swap partener, Martine from the Netherlands, sent her swap present to me before the "must-be-sent-by" date... but it took a very long time to arrive, and she was afraid it had been perhaps lost in the mail. And then I told her I was going to post the photo I took of the sweet little bag and the lovely things she had put inside. (Yes, I did thake the picture before I had eaten ALL the wonderful chocolate she sent - and I did share with Henry as well, but not with the kitties!) What else could go wrong? The picture is out of focus, making it hard to see the lace and the pretty fabrics Martine used! I did say I was going to post to the blog, tough, and I'm already two days past when I said... so I'll do another , clearer photo next time. 
s a kit to make a Garden Themed wall hanging along with the fabric and embriodery floss to complete it... and a small bag of wee tiny buttons (smaller even than doll-sized) for embellishment! How nice of her to fill the pretty lace trimed bag with such an assortment of goodies!
For some reason I called this FBP Block "Fool's Puzzle", but I think it is called "Fools Square" on Quilter's Cache. Since it is small, I went with the very bright colors and funny aminal prints that I had used in some of the other blocks. Donna (QuiltPixie) reminded us that the only folks who care what we actually do with the blocks we make are "us" - as in the individual quilters. I'm thinking I'll take all the bright kid-friendly blocks and add some of the kid prints that Erin had left over (and left with me) when I helped her make the quilt for Wendy's baby... I'll make a donation quilt for a small kid. I really like the bright blue and the bright green bubble print! This block was supposed to have HSTs in the corners, but I didn't like those, so I took them off and went with the solid blue print corners.
as way back at week #8 in the FBP blocks, and I don't know if I had even started by then! Probably had, but I didn't do this one. I made it out of some of the Kahala Shirt Fabrics for the kids' pillows. Hoped to hae them all finished and given as "Birthday Presents" yesterday - that didn't happen... I still need to practice more on my quilting. I'm getting better, though. I'm still reluctant to put the quilting on these, as I know they'll be around for a long time - and while I don't need perfect, good is really necessary.
I made a little bag to send off to a quilter in Florida as part of a swap. The bag was fun and I got some quilting practice in on it, too! My "water" pattern is getting better. I loved the Halloween fat-quarter and just had to put it in! It was the ONLY thing I bought (Oh, no... I got a book, too... forgot) at the Pacific Northwest Quilting Expo last week. I was pretty proud of myself for not spending a fortune! I did colect a bunch of cards and wrote on the back what I wanted from each of the vendors, so I can do all that shopping later, tee hee.
I made three FBP blocks ... well actually two new ones and ripped/fixed one ... today.
I was in Palm Desert with my Dad. It is called "Double Quartet" and is really tiny - well, for me it is tiny (8") because I don't usually do small blocks ... I tend to re-size them to 12" when I can do the math.
