Raffle Blocks

Just when you thought it couldn't get any colder, -4 degrees today -whew!  OK, yes I know, we're having a heat wave compared to our northern neighbors up in Canada and other states such as New Hampshire and Vermont, but it's still kinda cold!  


I volunteered to take on my guild's next raffle quilt.  I was reading an old Australian quilting magazine looking for articles/patterns of interest I could tear out and save before pitching the rest of it into the trash and came across a quilt that was put together by a guild that was to be raffled off.  The quilt wasn't my style but I couldn't stop looking at it.because it had so much going on.  The guild was told to take some background fabric, use their gardens as inspiration and design a block.  And design they did!  The blocks were very creative and when all was put together had sew much interest it was hard to stop staring at it.


Sew, I thought that could work for our next raffle quilt.  Many of us love to putter around in our gardens in the warm months, why not combine the two?  I bought black on black background fabric, cut it into various sizes, placed the sizes on a spreadsheet so people could sign up for the size of their choice and told them to use their gardens as inspiration, using their favorite method of construction.

This is just a small sampling of the beautiful blocks I've received back so far.  I'm still waiting for a few and will have to send out a reminder today.  I know with our upcoming quilt show they have other things on their minds.  It can't always be about me!!


I started to lay them out to see how big this could actually be.  It's possible and also my hope that we'll have sew many that I'll be able to put together a 2nd top to be given to one of the members that contributed a block by putting their name into a hat.

Can't wait to receive the rest of the blocks so I can get started on this.  Because it will need custom quilting and we tend to have a problem finding someone to donate their expertise, I've decided I'll take the quilting on too.  I don't really consider myself as someone that quilts well so keep your fingers crossed!  I'll be sure to keep you updated!


Stay warm everyone!