Guild night!

A new month, another guild meeting! Tonight I'll be bringing along my latest block exchange contribution, a couple of blocks to enter into this month's block lotto, and a quilt for show and tell.

For this month's block lotto, we were given an 8"x10" piece of a cute snowman print flannel. I don't feel like I was especially creative this time around, but I think my blocks are pretty:


I made the one above using amandajean's instructions from Week 5 of her Star Quilt Along.


This block is a traditional one called "Corn & Beans." I found it in the book Quilts from The Quiltmaker's Gift by Joanne Larsen Line and Nancy Loving Tubesing. What I love about the book is that it takes traditional blocks and puts them together with very modern aesthetic—bright colors, exciting prints, batiks, and more. For every quilt in the book, multiple size options are offered, along with detailed, illustrated instructions (including suggested backing layouts—very handy). The more I look at this book, the more I want to make every quilt in it! And, if you haven't seen the picture book, The Quiltmaker's Gift, you should check it out too. The illustrations are just gorgeous.

I think I must somehow have some good quilting karma built up, because after winning in June's block lotto, I won again in September:


How lovely are these? Mmmm... they all just scream out "Fall!" to me. I'm thinking that I might make them into placemats and/or a tablerunner. I think they would be just perfect for Thanksgiving dinner. I love how even though they are all different, they have the unifying theme that really ties them together.

Last, but not least, here is the latest block for the block exchange:


This month I got to pick my own fabrics to use. The only only request was that we choose muted colors. I gave myself fits with the house fabric I chose... I just felt this need to make sure all the stripes matched. I'm a glutton for punishment sometimes. Also, as it was suggested that we could do some embellishment, it seemed only appropriate to decorate the house with a little Halloween spirit. It was October after all. I fussy cut and then appliqued the pumpkins and attempted a little stitchery in the form of the spider. Hopefully she'll like it!

Reading is good

One thing I've done in recent years is keep a reading log. As I complete books, I just write a little blurb about them. The blurb might include how I found the book, a little on plot and or characters, and my impressions—good, bad, or indifferent.

This has actually been a really helpful exercise for me. Back when I had time/energy to read, I would plow through books very quickly. This is fine, except that retention for any length of time after reading so fast is an issue for me. If I want to really retain a connection to a book, I need to:

• Read it more than once. Generally just not going to happen with me—way too many books and too little time.
• Talk about it. This is the most effective way. I soooo miss my book group in Austin. I really hope I find one here.
• Think on it and write about it. And so my reading log came to be.
  

It's kind of cool to look back and see what I've read. I've even received a couple of emails from random people who stumbled across it and found it helpful in some way.

My major downfall in all this is that I'm truly neglectful in updating it. I'm hoping that by adding a link to What I'm Reading in the sidebar here will help motivate me to update more than twice a year (which is what I managed last year). My goal is to update after reading a couple of books, so that I can actually remember more than just generalities.

Here's hoping!