"Do Something" blocks 2012

Every year in early December at our bee's party, our most generous hostess, Sandy Z., gives willing participants a brown paper lunch bag containing one of her antique quilt blocks (she must have quite the collection, because she has done this for several years now).  The catch is that participants must make "something" from the block and return it to next year's party. If you aren't able to do something with the block, then the block must be returned to Sandy.

And here are the results shown at this year's party, from last year's block. It's amazing how similar some of the blocks look considering the making was all in secret.

Marie M. used antique fabrics and blocks to surround her basket.

Peggy S. did lots of piecing on hers (she gave her BlocLoc ruler a workout for the flying geese.)

Debbie S. did more with reddish-browns and some appliqué.

Meghan also had a plaid basket and used more reds and browns.

Carol T. is going to make  a needle case with her block  (this is the outside; inside not quite finished). 

Sorry for the blurriness...I couldn't get Linda G. to stand still for anything! The block she started with is on the lower left, and she made three more blocks to match.

And this one is mine. I was the only one with solid colors in the basket, so I went with more solids. I'm not sure what else I will be adding to the block -- maybe four different borders in the style of Gwen Marston?

"Do Something" game

My 2012 "Do Something" block

One of my monthly quilt groups work on our own projects most of the time. We don't have a formal name but loosely call ourselves "Girl Gang" because we've worked on Jan Patek projects in the past.  It's fun to see the variety of people's projects, and most seem to favor antique and primitive quilts.  I would say everyone is an advanced quilter (especially with appliqué) compared to me.

Our leader, Sandy Z, invites us to her home for a Christmas potluck in December (this year I will post some photos so you can see her wonderful collection of Santas and antique red and green quilts).

She has sets of antique blocks that she has collected over the years, and wants them to find a new home with us. Her "game" is that she gives each of us one of these blocks in a sealed brown paper lunch bag, and tells us we must "do something" with the block before next year's party. We have to bring our project back the next year to show. If we neglect to do anything with the block, we have to give it back.

I can't show you any more about my 2012 block plans (top photo) because we're supposed to keep it secret until the party. But below is last year's project. It started out as three blocks with four "pinwheels" per block.  I took the blocks apart, added Kona Snow strips around each block, squared them up, then added the blue sashing and coral cornerstones. (The person who hand sewed these blocks did a funky double backstitch that was nearly impossible to unsew -- no running stitch for her!).

What I did with the 2011 blocks