Follow-Up, and What's Up

I want to thank all of you for commenting on my last post! I counted 73 comments, and really appreciate what you have to say about bloggers, reading blogs, blog content, pictures, and Instagram. I'm taking your comments to heart and will try to keep my blog content interesting.

To choose giveaway winners, I used random number generator, and then simply counted comments. Unfortunately, commenter #13, and then commenter #67 did not have a way for me to reach them. So, I continued to use the generator to come up with three people I could reach. Winners are:

#49 Susan who lives in Australia. She wins a book from Fox Chapel Publishing. Susan chose Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living, by Sharon Holland.

#6 Sandy, who lives in the Missouri, will receive six one-yard cuts of Painter's Palette Solids from Pineapple Fabrics. That's at least a $42 value!

#39 Mary Ann, who lives in California, will receive 12 Painter's Palette fat quarters, and a color card also from Pineapple Fabrics.

Based on comments in my last post, lots of you are are "noreply-commenter." If you want to change that, go to:

1. your personal Google Account
2. People and Sharing
3. Choose What People See About Me
4. Personal Contact Info to make sure your profile includes an email address

At least I think this is the place to make changes. I'm not 100 percent certain as Google looks much different than it was when I set up my own profile, ten years ago!

If you don't want to add your email address to your settings, then whenever you enter a giveaway, be sure you type your email address along with the comment. I'm sorry to have been unable to reply to some of you. One person even asked me a question that I'd love to have replied to.

Back in the sewing room, I've continued to mess around with this quilt on the design wall. I keep changing it, hoping something will hit as "just right." Quite honestly, seeing it here like this, I know I'll be making changes. That orange meander, at the least, needs adjustment.

You might notice that since the last time I shared a picture of this, I've removed all the blocks that were two different colors, and made more blocks that are only one color and white.

This set-up on my Bernina 770QE is the best for accuracy! It's the quarter-inch foot (#97D) with the guide bar, and the single hole throat plate.

I'm also keeping up with my temperature quilt! Though the layout won't be like this, I needed to put them all together to see how the colors were working. I like it! These 4" X 4" Drunkard's Path blocks are made with a Classic Curves Ruler by Sharon McConnell. I'm changing the direction of each block based on the high temperature from the previous day. If the high temp is lower than the previous day, the convex curve aims downward; if the high temp is higher than the previous day, the convex curve aims upward... and I'm alternating the direction each time. (If that makes sense!)

The block at the bottom of the third column represents my coldest temperature color, Painter's Palette Solids Patriot. On January 21 our overnight low temp was 33F! That temp did not make me happy, but it's nice to add the color to the quilt!

On Tuesday I gave a presentation about temperature quilts to members of Big Cypress Quilters. I think I can safely say that of our 70 members, we'll have about a dozen quilters making one. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone progresses because we're doing different blocks, different cities, and different fabrics. Here are the questions I posed to everyone, to help make their project decisions.

• What size quilt will I make?
• What block will I make 365 times?
• What size/dimensions will my block be?
• What city or area’s daily temps will I follow?
• What temperature range/increments will I choose?
• What fabrics will represent temperature ranges?
• How much fabric will I need?

For anyone making a temperature quilt a tip is to write the date along a seam, on the back of the block. That way, when you layout the quilt, you'll know where to put each block. Great tip, but the suggestion was to use a Sharpie to write the date. No! Please don't!

A Sharpie is not a permanent ink pen. I have a quilt, made in the mid-1990s, that was put together with signature blocks from all over the US. When I washed the quilt, the water turned gray, and all the fabrics picked up that color. The quilt looks quite dingy now.

My suggestion is to use a Gelly Roll pen to make permanent marks. Gelly Roll pens are usually used for scrapbooking, and can be found and purchase inexpensively at Michael's.

It's nice to be using a Gelly Roll pen for the right reason. 😉 Linda