We had sticking snow on Friday. I had a morning meeting some distance away. Afterwards I stopped at a church thrift shop. I'm glad I did because there were two bad accidents on I-94, one southbound and one northbound, on an icier-than-anticipated overpass. If I'd been 15 minutes earlier I might have been in the accident.Leaf fall is really late this year. This story from the Chicago Tribune tells why.
This is the second year I've been the Baseball Swap's BUP chucker.
BUP = Big Ungainly Package. As you can see in the photo, they ungainly indeed.
The BBS began in 1999 or so as an offshoot of the Rec.Crafts.Textiles.Quilting newsgroup. We swap 6.5" squares of quilt fabric according to the results of Major League Baseball games. Each participant can back a National or American League team, or one from each. For each game your team wins, the backer of the losing team owes you a square. Fortunately one swapper has a spreadsheet to keep track of who owes whom and sends the tallies at the end of the regular season. Once upon a time there were nearly 40 swappers. This year there were 18. 
I back the Cubs and the Red Sox. This year I owed 197 squares. I received more than that, mostly due to the Cubs' strong season. My BBS stash is in the box. The new squares are on the left. The hostess gifts (a benefit of being the chucker) are on the right.
The swap squares come in handy when I need a little of a particular color or genre
I turned to the BBS box for one of the new projects. I'm in a round robin with six guild members. We got the starter blocks at the November 1 meeting. Here's Linda's magnificent paper-pieced block. I'm working on the first border -- photo to come.
I went through back issues of Quilt a while back and clipped all the patterns that appealed to me. This nine-patch variation by Susan McDermott is one of them.
The center blocks are 3.5" (unf) 9-patches from the Block Swappers' quarterly swap. (I have about 400 in the box!) The other patches are cut 3.5" x 2.5" and 2.5" x 2.5". The striped sashes are just possibilities. I have no idea how many blocks I'll make. It's fun to pull 2.5" strips from the bin and put colors/patterns together.Monday linkups: Design Wall Monday
Oh Scrap!
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
What a super fun swap! To be doing it for so many years is amazing!! The round robin center is fabulous! Love the 9 patches in the 9 patches.
ReplyDeleteThose nine patch blocks are adorable! And the striped sashing would be a fun addition. Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!
ReplyDeleteI might have to make that same quilt to use some of my nine patches. Right now the only one I have in the works using those little nines is my Jack's Chain that uses dark cornered nines. I like that on point setting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun way to set up a swap. But that's a lot of bundles to deal with! Happy stitching this week.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a cool swap! And I adore that beautiful paper pieced block. WOW!
ReplyDeleteOOh! I love that 9 patch.
ReplyDeleteThe swap sounds interesting, and a fun way to accumulate a variety of fabrics. I love seeing how the quilts in a round robin evolve. Have fun working on yours!
ReplyDeleteLove those 9 patches with the tiny 9 patch centre. Your swaps sound good fun.
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