TicTacToe Block Lotto Quilt Progress

Well this is it! 7 blocks by 9 blocks (re)arranged in rainbow colours (violet, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo) with sashing in white and cornerstones in two toned complementary colours (yellow, green, blue, purple, red, orange, yellow).

Design Wall Monday

Not much progress yet on the Block Lotto TicTacToe blocks January win.  I've cut out the bottom white sashing to size and also cut out some doubledyed/batik solids for the four missing blocks (which will have white cut into them, so opposite of the other blocks), and I'm playing with cornerstones.

Apologies for the appalling light quality, the table is in the way and I don't want to move it by myself as it's a bit wobbly.  Antiques huh, who'd have them!

Anyway, the blocks are laid out vertically as red, orange, yellow, greeny-yellow, green, greeny-blue, blue, bluey-purple and purple (9 down) and 7 across.

The cornerstones have been tried out in various permutations of solids/patterns in the same colours as the main blocks are ordered, ordered backtofront ie the other way round, but I've sort of settled on complementary to the main blocks.

So green, blue, purple, reddy-purple, red, reddy-orange, orange, orangey-yellow, and yellow.  BUT I've not got the right solids cut with the right tonal values/colours yet, so the cornerstones that are up there are indicative and not going to be used in the main.

I'm also thinking  I'll use my double-dyed/ self dyed batik type fabrics, but don't have the right colours/tonal values for some, so will need to dye some more.

I'm also really keen on doing this month's block lotto which is curved free-piecing like reeds - in lime green and black/white or white/white or black or white.  Except I don't have any lime green other than some with pink on it which is the leftover bottom bit of my living room curtains and I'm kindof thinking I might need it someday.... So being unemployed and a bit poor, I don't want to go out & buy any more fabric, cos I've got lots (albeit not in the required colours).  The only solution I can see is to dye some - as I have white fabric and procion dyes.  So that'll have to wait too.

Which means the whole crafting thing is shelved until after my exam on the 19th, as I really need to get learning those cases - I'm now on my fourth pack of index cards - there's about 40 used for topic notes, and erm 200 for court cases.  I am so hopeless at remembering case names!! No hope!

The foxcubs are out & about and more wary so no new pics.  Ivor cat got a bit excited last night as one was nosing around the back door/cat flap.  I got a bit excited this morning as I retrieved various items from around the garden that normally live at the back door that the cubs had been investigating.  Sigh.  How one forgets the inconvenience of baby animals in one's life!

Check out what everyone else is doing at Judy's Design Wall Monday here

Design Floor Monday - Block Lotto TicTacToe progress

Well, well, well, it's amazing how much time you can spend with so little to show for it!

I've made another 9 blocks to even up the colourways and reordered the blocks I won into an arrangement I like - although I need 4 more - and sewn white sashing on the right of each block.  I've also cut a pile of sashing for the bottom of half the blocks.

The pic is me standing on a chair with natural daylight with the blocks spread out on a duvet cover on the floor - not a great pic as a result, as the colours look a bit washed out.  Still, I managed to do it and get them back on the design wall in their correct placesyesterday  BEFORE the cat wandered in for a whinge about being bullied by the fox cubs (at least I assume that's what he was bitching about, it was a bit early to be bitching for his dinner).

Talking of foxcubs - I saw six last week, the guy in the flat upstairs next door nearly fell out of the window telling me he'd seen 4 at the weekend, and I saw two today - they've gone from charcoal black to a soft sandy red, they're bright eyed, bushy tailed and, finally, have stopped falling into the pond. Phew!  They have also developed awareness - so whilst last week I had to move otherwise they'd walk into me; this week, they're running away into their den if I come too close.  Quite right too, don't want them too habituated, although I'd like to get close enough for a pic....  to do that I'd have to do some gardening, and I don't quite have time. Sigh.  If only my garden was as tidy and organised as Judy's - check out her garden and the other design walls here.

This is what they looked like last week:

Block Lotto - January TicTacToe Blocks

They've all arrived safely (more or less) - the UK Post Office chewed one up and spat glue that's gone hardish on one or two of the blocks in an envelope that probably had the fewest miles to travel! Still I'm pretty sure I can clean it up (it's the pansy one in the very bottom left of the pic, you can just see the grey marks in reality but probably not in the pic....).  It's so exciting to have them, but rather scary too.  I won't be making it up for a while as I've done a To Do list today and I've got quite a lot of time-critical financial/freelance stuff etc to sort out first, but that just gives me more time to plan.

Please forgive the boxes at the bottom, mum & dad are moving so I took a load of stuff from theirs that I should have dealt with years ago.  Also I helped friends move house this month and it was a very traumatic experience for them as they'd not cleared out during the couple of years the house had been on the market, and left it very late to pack - so, I'm now in the process of checking everything I own, shelf by shelf, box by box, littered floor by littered floor (lol) and if it's not beautiful or useful (per William Morris) it's off to charity or Ebay with it....  I seem to be constantly in a state of getting stuff out, deciding then not quite getting it out of the house and I feel like I'm drowning in boxes at the moment.  I need to clear some space!

I won a set of TicTacToe January Block Lotto Blocks!

Which is very exciting, once I'd got over the initial shock.... I was relying on my total lack of luck in these things to practise making blocks and send them out of my house for quite a few months, rather than actually being a winner first time round!  Not surprisingly my friends found my naivety hilarious from the start and did warn me I was crazy to join in anything that had a risk of more unfinished projects arriving (bearing in mind my current mania for getting on with finishing them and not starting anything new or buying more equipment/stash etc until I have). Anyway, as I say, now I've got over the shock, I'm excited.  And slightly terrified. So -

I've done a plan of what I'm going to do with them.  Maybe.  Because I don't actually know how to do what I want to do - and usually when that happens it languishes for years & years in my unfinished projects pile, in fact everything in my unfinished projects pile is a result of big ideas and lack of HowTo knowledge....  But these blocks have been made by other people and it would be rude not to make an effort and learn how!  So, I'll be off to a couple of local libraries this week to see if I can find any books on patchwork/quilting, and I've asked the lovely Block Lotto ladies if they can recommend any as well.

I've also worked out the dimensions here and again asked the lovely ladies if I'm more or less in the right place with them. 

I've also bought sturdy card backed envelopes for sending my blocks off to the other winners, as having been the tardy one replying to the winners email from Sophie, I am determined not to be tardy on actually sending the blocks out...  otherwise I might be banned from the group and I'd be devastated!

The Block Lotto February blocks are words on the theme of endearments - pieced or applique.  And there's some gorgeous examples of what one might do with them here and here and here (not to mention the Block Lotto blog banner heading Sophie did), and I really really want them! After all I do need two quilts for my bed, one to use and one to wash....  So having initially thought I'd donate all chances after the first month (to negate the danger of incoming UFPs, perhaps I should have donated my chances from the beginning? chortle), my determination has crumbled after all... 

I've found a tutorial for letters here, I'm going to do a sample alphabet (for my burgeoning patchwork/quilting sample file), then some words by the end of the month, then hopefully win again - quite a few people are donating chances, so I might be in with a chance!  If not, I'll merely have to create my own UFP with word blocks instead of having one arrive all ready created for me (chortle).

The February blocks together with an Italian quilting sample that's finished but not mounted that I (re-)discovered during my clearout has rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the cushion I promised my dad years ago - it's word based and is his favourite Bible verse "For the Lord stood by my side and gave me strength" (II Timothy 4:17).  I've got the fabric ready dyed, I've got the verse, I've got the thread, the zip, the cushion pad, all I've got to do is to sort out a plan.... oh and actually do it!

So, those are my three aims for February, do a sample alphabet, do some February Block Lotto word blocks and work out a design for the cushion for dad.  That's in addition to the 365 Cards mammoth catch up (over 200 to go and under a month to do it - no way it's going to happen but will have a good go at doing as many as I can), jobhunting and studying for my Trust Law paper.  I wonder what will give first?

I've also been spending quite a lot of time at the Patchwork Times blog looking at the regular Design Wall Monday posters' blogs.  I never realised the sheer variety of patchwork & quilting patterns (nor how fast some people work!)  It's fascinating reading week on week seeing progress (or lack of it) and it's led me onto some very interesting websites on cloth/ quilting & crafts generally.   And generally enthused me to start sewing again which is a great thing.