November Quilting--Yankee Puzzle

Last month our quilting group decided that we needed a little ‘jump start’. We all love getting together, laughing, and visiting, but some of us (I’m guilty) were getting downright lazy! There have been many times when I would just sit and visit, AND THAT IS OK, but not very productive. A few of us talked and decided that we would suggest to the group that we learn a new block, or do some kind of project every month to bring some interest and excitement back. We draw a name each month for a fat quarter exchange, with the winner getting two stacks of fq’s.  We decided that if you win the draw for the FQ stack, you also get to choose a block for us to sew.
This month, Christie won the draw (she chose 30's Reproductive prints), so she chose the block we would make. She chose the ‘Yankee Puzzle’ block. We talked about doing it a couple different ways. The person choosing the block could bring fabric for everyone and we could all sew a block and give it back to the person who brought it, or we could cut our own fabric and keep the block. We could also make two blocks, and at the end of the year, put all the blocks together and make a charity quilt. This time, Christie decided to bring fabric all cut and then take all the blocks back home. It is a quick way to have a quilt top finished quickly!

Click READ MORE to see the rest of this post->>>>
I know, I know, this is not the same block, but I wanted to show off the early Christmas gifts that Renea brought to us today. She gave us each a little design board that she made, and she also gave us cute little covered notebooks she made for keeping track of our quilting accomplishments. Aren’t they cute? I love them. She thought today would be a good time to use the design board while doing our quilt blocks. Christie showed us how to lay out the pieces and we stuck them to the board, then sewed them all together to complete our block. I really wish I would have taken a photo when I was doing Christie’s block, but as usual, I failed. Anyway……here is the design board with two of my double hourglass blocks on it, and the notebook. Thanks Renea! We love them!
Here’s just one of a few snapshots I took. Renea is in the back, then Christie with her block, and Margaret is working on a Double Hourglass block.

Here are all of the blocks we made for Christie. We were missing a couple girls, so she only got 8 made, but she will make another one on her own.

She was deciding here whether she would sash it in the dark brown, or the lighter color.

I think she decided on the dark brown as sashing, and the lighter ‘gold’ as a border. That COULD change, but she was pretty happy with this.

More snapshots. KT is in the back, Ronelle at the far ironing board, and Leslie in the front.

KT is our newest quilter. She is my newest friend, and so sweet.

Last month we decided that we would all start our own quilts together. I suggested the double hourglass, as I have always liked the looks of the blocks and the finished quilts using those blocks. I was just playing around with how it would look, so I cut up a brown and pink FQ, and a white FQ into 2 1/2” strips and made one block. I made the other three today. For my quilt, I will be using white as the background, and brown print fabrics for the hourglasses. I am planning on 22 different prints, making three blocks from each print/white set, and making the quilt center 8 blocks across and 8 blocks down.That should make it somewhere around 60" or so square before I add a border. All the blocks will be mixed up so no two alike are next to each other. I’m really not sure if I will add more to it than that or not. I’m thinking a scrappy piano key border would be neat . I’ll have to see when I get that far.

Here is a block from each of us. Top row across: My block, Ronelle’s block, and Margaret’s block. Row 2: Renea’s block, KT’s block, and Kate’s block. Row three: Leslie’s block, and Christie’s block.

It was such a fun day today. We missed you Patty and Polly!