A WIN

It's more than a year ago but I thought I still should record it. And it was a learning process.

Sometimes I find the time to participate in the Quilt Block Lottery. I wrote about it HERE. Yes, I submitted 2 blocks to the June 2021 lottery. 

I could hardly believe it. I won 34 blocks.

The next two photos are from August 2021. And yes, I learned a lot how to arrange blocks. Here are two different ways!

It was fun to participate, fun to win, and fun to make these charity quilts out of the winnings. I really should participate more often. It is fun even if you are not winning.

WE Quilters BOMs

Wow, it is already a year ago that I wrote about the WE Quilters "Block of the Month" HERE!

There is more to report since then!

In the above mentioned blog I had already posted the pattern for September last year. As it didn't have to be the specific leaf pattern I had to try out another pattern. I really liked it.

And here is the pieced top made from the blocks the members had brought to the meeting. 

Here is the pattern for the October meeting:

I think that was a fun project. I had not enough blocks for a whole quilt. But one member had gifted the autumn tree to the project. I made two more and also a fir type tree. And ... was rather happy with the result.

This was the BOM pattern for November. Not many blocks were brought in. There were not even enough for one quilt. Of course before Christmas everybody is so busy anyway. 

And then we didn't meet in December. And I think also not in January or February (? not sure whether it was the weather or covid). When we met again I didn't know whether members wanted to continue with this. But in March we decided that yes, continue. We used the same block again. I added the "scrappy feature". And here is the April BOM:

The turn-out this time was really great! And the results were two quilts with sashing.

The May pattern:

We had some interesting entries. Here is the result:

Something totally different for the June meeting:

The pattern was smaller and not many bird came flying. So we put them into the box with the left-over blocks from previous month and came up with this challenge: bring your orphan blocks!

That was a bigger success! Here is the first of the charity quilts were I started with all the birds we had in the middle. 

The second selection was laid out on my loft floor for quite a while. 

But it is finally finished now too. The two in the middle were a larger size. Somehow I had trouble with the math. Who would have known.

I should hurry because we have already blogs from the next month. What a great problem to have. But I must admit that making quilts out of random blocks is actually not so easy. It is a challenge I quite enjoy though.

Virginia Quilt Museum

Well, it started out as a favor to our daughter. Their three boys were spending a weekend 3 1/2 hours away at the other grandparents. It was spring break. 

On Tuesday April 5 they were to return but with both parents working that is a bit of a challenge. The transfer of the children is always done halfway and we have "retrieved" them once before. It is usually done around Waynesboro. I suggested to James that we should make an outing out of this for us.

The Virginia Quilt Museum just had 3 exhibitions showing which would be well worth seeing. It is located in Harrisonburg which is a bit far but combined with this reason a good idea. And combined with the prospect of lunch in a well-known German restaurant in the same town sounded even better. 

It was a rainy day but that didn't matter. The first stop was the quilt museum and of course it's all indoors. Oh, the eye-candy!

We were told when entering that we were allowed to take photos but not to post them on social media. The quilters might not like it. I contemplated this for a long time (5 weeks?) and decided to show just a few. 

A) I am not sure whether blogs are social media.

B) I really would like my quilting friends to know how well-worth a visit to this museum is.

C) One of the exhibitions is called "Inspired by Endangered Species" and I was quite sure that a German Quilter I sometimes exchange emails with would have something in the exhibition. It can be seen until July 15.

I think the first photo should definitely be allowed because it advertises this museum program. I searched through the website but could not find out more about it and just now wrote to them. Seems such a good idea (gifts shop fundraiser for the museum).

This was the first quilt we saw (not in an exhibition I think) and it is stunning. The next photo discribes it.

But the "Inspired by Endangered Species" really peaked my interest. I think there were a total of 180+ (?) little quilts. 

There was so much to see. We finally resorted to search in ring book which listed them all and we found Regina Grewe. I had seen a piece from her before (see here). That exhibiton was all about USA National Parks. And yes, I had purchased that book then.

Regina has a website well worth visiting. HERE! It is in German but you can change the language (on the left side). She has wonderful patterns and some are free. Right now she is posting a free challenge which looks like a lot of fun ... if you like paperpiecing (which I do but I still have to find the time). I always have to admire her designs.

Number 172.

The plan had been to have lunch at the German restaurant we had heard about supposedly very close by. Well, as luck had it Mondays and Tuesdays they are closed. But the museum lady knew of another German restaurant, a bit out of the way but doable. So we went to the "Edelweiss" in Staunton. 

We had fun but the cooking was not what my mother would put on the table. 

 Then off to the meeting place to receive/collect the three boys and back home until Mommy came to pick them up.

My little Round Robins

I have previously blogged about my 4 little wall quilts. See the side panel "Cotton Robin". 

They usually hang (mounted with magnets) in that corner next to my bed but this is how it looks at the moment:

My favorite quilt group The County School Quilters (meet monthly in Montpelier) had agreed to a quilt exhibition at the brand-new Hanover Museum of History & Culture. Of course members where asked to participate and lend something they had made I offered my 4 little 'Round Robins' and the curator really wanted them. 

Of course I wanted to see the exhibition and suggested to James the outing. It is about a thirty minute drive each way and as we both had cabin fever we were soon on our way. Besides he could try out his new car, ha-ha.

We did not know what a historic place this little town was. The new museum was just established last August in the historic courthouse because the County is celebrating the 300 year anniversary. We had never been in Hanover and had not realized how much history there is.

We were very impressed with the museum and the exhibition. Of course I have seen many of my quilting friends' works at the meetings but we were the only visitors and could take our time. Such incredible work. And here are only a few photos.

Of course I have more photos but here are those of my 'minis'.

Some more eye candy. The exhibition was so well done.

Another of the historic buildings across the green. There were signs were we could read about some of the history and we had a good time. Glad we went. 

 I felt so inspired but unfortunately right now I have other things I need to do. Sigh.